In Sid Meier's Pirates! you take the leading role of a Pirate Captain in the 17th century Caribbean amassing fortune and fame in an attempt to seize your rightful place as one of the most revered (and feared!) pirates in history. Test your skills as a sea captain exploring the high seas and exotic ports in a richly detailed 3D world. Overtake the enemy and seize valuable booty. Exchange plank-shattering broadsides in fierce naval battles, and engage in duels with worthy opposing captains. Read more for some new screens ...

NCsoft today announces the latest chapter to its massively multiplayer game, Lineage. Lineage 1, Episode 2: Heaven and Earth, launches today on North American servers and gives players even more areas to explore and creatures to battle. It also introduces the Lastabad Dark Elf army, which is wreaking havoc on the towns and castles of Lineage’s fictional world of Aden.

Crave Entertainment today announced that they would co-publish Bad Boys: Miami Takedown with Empire Interactive. The agreement calls for Crave to release Bad Boys: Miami Takedown for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube in Q3 of 2004 in North America. Read more for further details ...

Jowood has released a demo for Wildlife Park: Wild Creatures, featuring one map and two missions. The AddOn to Wildlife Park leads you into an extremely exotic world of wild animals from the present and past. Numerous new species are settled in Wildlife Park AddOn to attract visitors in missions or in the free game. Read more for download links ...

DreamCatcher UK has just announced they are bringing GolemLabs' "SuperPower 2" to the UK this coming Winter. Helping to realise player's dreams of world domination, SuperPower 2 is the only global geopolitical simulation game that allows players to control entire countries in the three major areas of politics, economics and the military. Read more for details and new screens...

For the first two weeks of sales, NCAA Football 2005 from Electronic Arts is the number one selling football videogame in America. First week sales for the game were more than 50 percent above the same period last year.

Groove Games and ARUSH Entertainment today announced that their upcoming, highly anticipated title Playboy: The Mansion, published under license from Playboy Enterprises, will feature celebrity guests Carmen Electra and Tom Arnold on its interactive game play roster.

Vivendi Universal Games announced today that Thunderbirds for the Game Boy Advance video game system is shipping to retail stores nationwide August 4th. Kids ages six and older take command of the Thunderbirds fleet on a heroic mission to save members of International Rescue ... and the world!

Nokia announced the latest addition to the N-Gage platform, the N-Gage QD game deck, is now available for the US market. Bundled with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, and with a street price as low as $99.99, the N-Gage QD game deck offers consumers unparalleled mobile gaming featuring a compact package, new ergonomic design and enhanced gaming features.

PRIMEDIA and Destineer's Bold Games today announced a new 3-D fishing simulation, In-Fisherman Freshwater Trophies. Available now for the PC, In-Fisherman Freshwater Trophies combines the editorial expertise of PRIMEDIA's In-Fisherman magazine with remarkably realistic graphics and innovative gameplay features.

Ultimate Baseball Online is the first ever Massively Multiplayer Online Sports Game (MMOSG), allowing two teams to compete in a 3D virtual stadium. Each participant controls a player for a specific position on a team and gamers can build their athlete’s skills by practicing pitching, fielding or batting. The UBO universe will allow league play, pick up games and a farm system, just like the real life big leagues.

Battle for Troy puts the player in command of vast legions of armies in ancient Greece during the Trojan War. Valusoft has released a demo for Zono's RTS containing the full game's content, can be played for a full hour, after which you need to purchase a license key to unlock the full game (thanks 3DGamers). Read more for download links ...

NCSoft has released new information about the second content update for their super hero MMORPG "City Of Heroes." "A Shadow Of The Past" update will feature two new zones (The Shadow Shard & The Hollows), two new villian groups (Rularuu & Igneous), plus plenty of new features and mission enhancements. Head on over to the official City Of Heroes website or read more for details...

Another day, another batch of game trailers were released. Instead of giving them all their own posts, we grouped them, and so far there are trailers for :

• Leisure Suit Larry - Trailer
• Lord Of The Rings: The Third Age - Trailer
• Rome: Total War - Trailer Packs (3)

Utilizing the next generation of the Invictus engine which incorporates its new real-time physics module, Cross Racing Championship (CRC) will allow the player to experience the thrills of high-speed on and off road racing across vast open terrains. Check these 20 new screens...

Sony Online Entertainment announced today that EverQuest: Platinum, an affordable, all-inclusive collection that offers the original game as well as the first seven expansion packs, The Ruins of Kunark, The Scars of Velious, The Shadows of Luclin, The Planes of Power, The Legacy of Ykesha, Lost Dungeons of Norrath, and Gates of Discord will be available in stores tomorrow for the suggested retail price of $29.99.

Attention all Drivers! Get ready to jump into some unbelievable racing action with Atari's Test Drive: Eve of Destruction releasing on August 24 for Xbox and PS2.

Warthog today announced that they are working on a follow-up to the critically acclaimed Conquest: Frontier Wars and will be using the original team. Read more for initial game detailsthe first screens, or download the in-game trailer ...

The PC version of Pitfall: The Lost Expedition has hit beta status and is expected to ship in early September. Deep inside the perilous Peruvian Jungle, take on the role of the athletic and adventurous Pitfall Harry. Crossing treacherous jungle terrain and dark areas filled with puzzles, tricks and traps, you¹ll be swinging on vines, avoiding crocodiles and dodging rolling logs as you unearth artifacts and use your cunning to defeat dangerous foes. The game's preliminary system requirements are: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP, 800 MHz Pentium III or better, 256MB RAM, 1.15 GB free disk space, ATI Radeon 7500/nVidia GeForce 2 or better, 32MB of VRAM, 8X CD-ROM, and DirectX 8.1 and above.

"The Moment of Silence" is an espionage thriller under development at German "House of Tales." Set in the near future, The Moment of Silence mixes real and fictitious locations, Orwell’s 1984, Kubrick’s 2001, technological visions and typical mystery themes. These ingredients are fused to form a true-to-life, highly immersive conspiracy theory with a variety of surprising twists in the plot. Check out the freshly launched website, or read more for new screens ..

Creative Technology Ltd. today announced its agreement with id Software relating to Creative's patented shadowing technique and id's cutting-edge 3D graphics DOOM 3 engine, allowing Creative to develop EAX ADVANCED HD 3D audio options for future licensees.

Cold War follows the story of Matt Carter a freelance journalist who finds himself in the midst of an international conspiracy that aims to control the U.S.S.R. Using only recovered weapons and improvised gadgets, he must now evade or overcome elite Soviet forces and defeat the conspiracy before he is sent to a Siberian prison camp or killed.

As we reported last week, Electronic Arts has signed a worldwide publishing agreement with Far Cry developers Crytek, which made us wonder what would happen with the 'Far Cry Instincts' console edition. Recently, Ubisoft announced that Far Cry Instincts was pushed back for both Xbox and PlayStation2 to Q1 2005, which makes sense in light of the new developments. Today it came to our attention that Crytek is no longer in charge of the 'Far Cry Instincts' project, but it is instead under the internal wings of Ubisoft Montreal.

In Advent Rising, a common legend pervades the galaxy - that of a powerful, ancient race that will one day unite the universe. Millions of cultures from vastly distant worlds revere and hallow these mythological beings known as humans. One race, the Seekers, know humans actually exist and are threatened by their potential power. Under the guise of benevolent explorers, the Seekers travel throughout the galaxy in a desperate attempt to eradicate any human society they unearth.