Take to the air in the first game that allows players to fully experience the magical speed, power, and competition of Quidditch, the favorite sport of witches and wizards, in the Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup game. For the first time, gamers will experience the full complexity and exciting challenge of Quidditch, which involves two teams of seven players who fly on broomsticks, playing four balls simultaneously. Players will control every position on their team, including three Chasers who try to score with the Quaffle, two Beaters who control the dangerous Bludgers, the Keeper who protects the goal, and the Seeker who chases the elusive Golden Snitch that must be caught to end the match... With these nine new PS2 shots you'll be quids in.

Sierra has released a small patch for Papyrus' racing simulation NASCAR Racing 2003 Season. This upgrade brings your retail game to v1.2.0.1 and adresses a startup problem due to the securom protection. If your game starts fine, you do not need to download this fix (thanks 3DGamers). Read more for download links ...

EA has released a new patch for their latest edition in the footbal sim franchise Madden NFL 2004. Last patch was merely a roster update, this (bigger) patch adresses some gfx card issues, controller problems and various crash fixes. Read more for details and download links ...

Zuxxez has released a voicemod for Reality Pump Studios' recently released RTS/RPG KnightShift (aka Once Upon A Knight). This MOD installs the complete English voiceovers and dialogs (Campaigns and RPG) and also update the retail v1.00 to v1.01, supporting a new audio compression. Read more for download links ...

Article removed by request of Activision, patch was released ahead of completion. Patch is still in QA and will be coming up later...

Buena Vista has released a new patch for Monolith's 3D cyberspace action game TRON 2.0. This upgrade brings your retail game to v1.030 and adresses a skipping issue with the light cycle single player maps, a multiplayer exploit, fixes Intel 865G integrated graphics chipsets, and a Disc Arena 2 problem. On top of that they also released a level editor allowing you to create your own single/multiplayer maps (thanks 3DGamers). Read more for download links.

Activision has released an update patch for their recently released Star Trek based FPS, Elite Force 2. This upgrade brings your retail game to v1.1 and adresses a ton of single & multiplayer issues, as well as adding 4 new fan base created maps. Read more for details and download links ...

Ensemble has released a new patch for their 3D RTS Age of Mythology. This upgrade brings your retail game to v1.07 and fixes "many exploits and crashes", offers some unit balancing changes, ESO improvements, and allows people to communicate with those who have the Titans expansion pack installed. Read more for download links ...

EA has released information about what we can expect in the upcoming C&C Generals v1.7 patch (and the corresponding Zero Hour v1.01 patch). No specific release date has been set, but it should be "coming in the next few weeks." (thanks Bluesnews) Read more for a detailed fix list ...

Microsoft has issued a new patch for their recently released shooter Halo: Combat Evolved. This upgrade brings your retail copy to v1.02 and adds support for multiple instances to the Bungie dedicated server, enabling Bungie & the community to roll out many more servers for gamers. Also introduced are client support for RCon (Remote Console), allowing dedicated server operators to have control over their servers running in data centers. This patch works for all previous versions. Read more for download links ...

Shortly after the demo, Cinemaware/Capcom sends word that they have released the first patch for their recently released 3D action strategy Robin Hood: Defender of the Crown. This upgrade brings your retail game to v1.01 and addresses 3 minor bugs. Read more for details and download links ...

Atari and Game Network are proud to announce that the award winning Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game 'Horizons Empire of Istaria' has now entered the European Beta phase of its development. Horizons aims to redefine the genre, taking it to new levels, offering superior graphics and a new way to 'experience' interactive gaming.

The sign-up of the Beta has started, go to www.betatests.net and register now! Don't miss the opportunity of being one of the selected players to gain access to the European Beta test.

Fresh out in stores and Altar/Cenega have already released the first patch for the UK version of their 3D squad-based tactical combat game UFO: Aftermath. This upgrade brings your retail game to v1.1a and addresses problems with game slowdowns, the director's cut feature and a few other minor things. Read more for details and download links ...

Ubisoft revealed plans today to expand its line of flight Sims through a partnership with 1C: Maddox Games. The publishing deal includes the announcement of The Battle of Britain, a brand new World War II flight simulation game, which is expected to build on the enormous success of the IL-2 Sturmovik franchise. Ubisoft also plans to publish an expansion pack for IL2 Sturmovik Forgotten Battles that will let owners of Forgotten Battles take to the skies again, to engage in more World War II dogfights alone or with players around the world via the internet.

Shacknews got some more details on the recent Half-Life 2 source leak from Gabe Newell (thanks Blues). Here is a clip:

1) We've taken our network connection down to pretty much a minimum. We're still finding machines internally that have been compromised.

2) The suite of tools that the attacker was using included the modified version of RemotelyAnywhere (basically a Remote Desktop-style remote admin tool), Haxker Defender (a process, registry key and file hiding tool), the key logger, and various networking utilities that allowed them to transfer files (compressors, NetCat, and FTP). We also are pretty sure they were sniffing our network to gather passwords and other information. Haxker Defender includes a file system driver that allows an attacker to have stuff on your machine that is invisible, unless you do something like mount the drive under another OS that has NTFS support.

We have determined one way of detecting some infected machines, which is using a connection viewer to detect connections to anomalous hosts external to our network.

We still don't know their entry method.

Forgotten Hope Beta 0.5 is about 50% complete and features a huge number of planes, tanks and battleships - not only beautifully modelled, but also simulated in a very realistic way. To top it all off there is a choice of new maps as well. The FH Mod team has released a pair of new patches bringing their BF1942 mod to v0.5d (they initially released 0.5c, but a few bugs crept in so they immediately issued a 0.5d fix). This patch fixes numerous issues, highlights are two all-new amazing maps; Adak Island and Hailar. Read more for download links ...

It’s time for a little ‘Fall’ cleaning… We received some updated information on DreamCatcher and The Adventure Company’s upcoming lineups... Read more and you will find release dates, game descriptions and more!

iGames and S2 Games today announced that a demo for Savage: The Battle for Newerth is in the final stages of development and testing. Its public release is imminent, expected October 6th. The long awaited Real Time Strategy FPS hit the shelves September 9th and earned accolades from the media, driving the gaming community to clamor for a demo. iGames and S2 have answered the fan requests and will release a demo featuring two levels of gameplay thrusting players into the role of commander or warrior in the Human forces. Of course we will have it on our fileservers as soon as it becomes available!

Atari today announced plans to develop a patch for its recently released PC game, The Temple of Elemental Evil, set in the Dungeons & Dragons World of Greyhawk created by Wizards of the Coast. The patch, which is initially slated to release later this month, will address a number of issues associated with the retail release of the product, including: technical fixes and general fine tuning; a variety of quest clarifications; corrections for some race and class inconsistencies, such as miscalculated attack modifiers and incorrect weapon and spell use; as well as a number of interface updates. Of course we'll have it on our fileserver network as soon as its available!

It's a new trend, after update patches for full games, we're now onto updating demo's. THQ has released another updated demo for their sci-fi flying action game Yager. This v5.20 demo once again features the same missions as before but has been updated with fixes that were implemented in the recent German retail update patch, such as controller improvement, bug fixes and graphics enchancements (thanks Bluesnews). Read more for download links.

Jowood has released a new patch for Cauldron's recently released FPS Chaser. This upgrade is for all English/French versions and brings your retail game to v1.49 while adding ASE support and anti cheat code as well as adressing some server/multiplayer issues. Read more for detailed fix list and download links ...

GarageGames announced today the line-up of games for the Indie Games Con ’03 (IGC). IGC allows independent game developers to bring there games to “ShowOFF.” Developers can get unbiased reviews from their peers, have the opportunity to play these games at the LAN party and of course, compete for the coveted IGC Player’s Choice Awards. Read more for details ...

Arxel Tribe/Sinister Systems have released a new patch for their RPG/adventure game Mistmare. This upgrade brings your retail game to v1.7, updates the LithTech engine update, adresses some mission fixes, sound tweaks, adds Pause key and various other tidbits (thanks RPGDot). Read more for details and download links ...

TDK has released a new patch for their recently released racing game Mercedes-Benz World Racing. This upgrade brings your retail game to v1.23, works for all language versions and features an improved SL-Cockpit as well as the fixes from last weeks demo patch (thanks Tiscali). Read more for download links ...