For the first time gamers will play as friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger as well as Harry Potter, switching between characters and utilizing their key attributes and skills to resolve challenges and overcome enemies. The three friends will need to combine their strengths and master a variety of new spells as they face Harry's most terrifying opponents yet: the escaped convict Sirius Black and the Dementors, the sinister guards of Azkaban prison. Read more for some new screens...

Featuring everything from Fantasy Bowling on a Pirate Ship to authentically detailed tournaments, Crave Entertainment announced today Strike Force Bowling for the PlayStation2. Blurring the line between fiction and reality, this multi-player arcade game offers something for everyone. Read more for some new screens ...

ValuSoft has released a demo for Sproing Interactive's WWII FPS of Beyond Normandy - Assignment: Berlin. This demo features 30 minutes of gameplay and this download features the full game, so you can unlock additional material by purchasing a license key (thanks 3DGamers). Read more for download links ...

Massively Multiplayer Online Games are all the rage these days, and given how frequently they change with expansions, free updates and patches, we felt they were worthy of their own column. This article is our latest in a regularly scheduled (bi-weekly) series devoted solely to MMOG development. To kick things off, we take a look at Mythic's Dark Age of Camelot: Trials of Atlantis and the recent changes/developments...

A real-time tactical game boasting single and multiplayer modes, Desert Rats vs. Afrika Korps immerses you into the explosive campaigns that took place in North Africa during World War II. Set across two campaigns and twenty missions, you take the role of either friend or foe as you follow the fascinating destinies of an English and a German hero who were once friends and who are now constrained to fight each other in this “war without hate”.

Fight Night 2004 is an all-new boxing game that features revolutionary new gameplay mechanics and a dramatic new-school attitude to immerse players like never before. Innovative new analog Total Punch Control allows gamers to throw punches, block, bob, and weave with unprecedented fluidity and precision. The game also includes a deep create-a-player option, career mode, and online play for the PS2 via EA SPORTS Nation. Read more for some screens & trailer...

The year is 1582 and Takeshi Kaneshiro as Samanosuke is the man who has just returned. The stage is set at the burning Honnoji Temple, as the famous Onimusha warrior Samanosuke Akechi fights. As he faces the demons in front of him, Samanosuke is compelled to move forward by hatred for his true enemy, the undying Nobunaga Oda, ever pursuing his crazed ambition. Samanosuke prepares for the long-awaited final battle against Nobunaga. Read more for a few new screens ...

'Chain of Command' is a 3D real time strategy game that takes place in Europe during World War II. As a player you take control of American forces during a campaign that stretches from North Africa over Normandy to the Ardennes. The game has an intuitive learning curve which starts the player in control of only a small squad of soldiers, and progressively introduces more troops until the player is in command of a full attack force in the last concluding mission. Read more for details & screens ...

The official LifeLine website brings you into the world of Lifeline - literally. Lifeline is the world's first voice-controlled action-adventure game. Even though the game doesn't ship for the PS2 until March 2, gamers with a PC microphone can now get cozy with the game's heroine, Rio, by playing the downloadable PC demo of game available on the web site! Additionally, site visitors can access the space station hotel's brochure, security manual, artwork and much more for in-depth information on the game. Add in some weekly game tips and they'll be set to unravel the mysteries of Lifeline!

The Sims changed the face of gaming in the new millennium and quickly became the #1 PC game of all time. In the next generation of The Sims, The Sims 2, players control their Sims over an entire lifetime for the first time. Every choice that is made has a relevant and dramatic effect on the life of a Sim. More life-like Sims, all-new gameplay, and the ground-breaking addition of genetics, with the DNA of Sims passed down through generations gives players a more vivid, realistic, and in-depth Sims experience. All of this takes place in a new, amazingly life-like 3-D world. Experience the crazy, unpredictable ride of a Sim's lifetime in The Sims 2.

With the demise of 3DO a while ago the future of the Geroes Of Might & Magic was uncertain until Ubisoft outbid other publishers a few months later. With the additional closing of long time developer New World Computing, it has been very quiet on the who and when we can expect the next installment (which would mean the fith episode). Heroes fan site Heroic Corner claims to have received confirmation from 2 independent sources that Silent Storm & Etherlords developer Nival Interactive might be the chosen one. Since most of Nival Interactive's titles have been strategy based it might very well be possible that they have been tagged by Ubisoft to work on 'Heroes of Might & Magic 5' (thanks Gamers.nl).

A demo UFO: Alien Invasion has been released, allowing you to try out this community project inspired by the X-Com series, using a heavily modified Quake 2 engine. UFO: Alien Invasion is a strategy game featuring tactical combat against hostile alien forces which are about to infiltrate earth at this very moment. Read more for details & download links ...

City of Heroes is the first superhero themed online RPG and will offer a host of exciting and compelling gameplay features. Players create their own heroes, choosing from hundreds of different powers, skills, abilities, and items and design their own unique costumes. Then they can band together with other players to fight evil, build their own secret headquarters and strive to become the premiere hero group in the city. Check out some new powers and new screens ...

Blizzard has released yet another new Warcraft III map, this time called "Heart to Heart"... Map info: "An Orc warrior died here while protecting the woman he loved. Both their names have been forgotten, but the powerful magic of his sacrifice reshaped the land into a lasting tribute to her. This is a small map and the suggested no. of players is 1v1 or 2v2. It is based on the "Lordaeron Summer" tileset. Go download it here!

Take 2 has released a German demo for Ascaron's upcoming RPG Sacred. The demo lets try out 13 quests in the World Of Ancaria, playable with either Seraphim character or the Gladiator (thanks Blues). An English demo is expected in the next week or so, but for the Diablo hungry, this will do in the meantime. Read more for download links...

Developed by Reflections Interactive, DRIV3R is an action-packed driving adventure game that stays true to its roots, incorporating the cinematic gameplay and gritty street crime of its predecessors with ground-breaking graphics and three mammoth, wide-open city environments: Miami, Florida; Nice, France; and Istanbul, Turkey. Check out some new screens ...

Eidos lets us know that they have launched the official website for Io Interactive's action sequel Hitman Contracts. The site gives you an overview of the game, information about the locations, characters and weapons featured in the game as well as some low res screenshots. In April of 2004 across North America, the contract is out, whether it's PS2, Xbox or PC, you'll have to sign on the dotted line...

Purge Jihad 2.0.2 fixes a security flaw and map-related vision modes problems. It also modifies many weapons, skills, and prayers based on player requests.Technology versus magic. Science versus religion. Using ESD (Electronic Software Distribution), Purge Jihad is offered in both a free (unregistered) and paid (registered) mode. The free, unregistered trial includes the full game without any time limits but is simply limited to 4 classes. Registered players will have access to all 8 classes.

Enter the covert world of the Star Wars infantry for the first time and become a member of an elite Republic Special Operations unit in LucasArts new squad based first-person shooter, Star Wars Republic Commando. Set during the Clone Wars, between Attack of the Clones and the upcoming Star Wars: Episode III, Star Wars Republic Commando will be released fall 2004 for the PC and Xbox. Read more for details & screens ...

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 :

• Silent Hill 4 - Trailer
• Far Cry - Trailer
• Take Command 1861: The Civil War - Trailer
• Crusader Kings - Trailer
• 
  
  We will update this throughout the day when new trailers become available. Read more for download links ...

Eventhough Burut's FPS Kreed is not available in most English speaking countries yet, they are already hard at work on a add-on titled Kreed: Battle for Savitar. Not much info is available, so these new screens will have to do for now ...

The work on Homeplanet add-on (titled "Playing With Fire" is in full swing ! Game-designers are finishing missions and the project is coming up to its release swiftly. At the moment the work on visual effects are almost completed. Concurrently we correct the previous testing bugs. Professional actors are recording the speech roles. And the musical part is created by one of the original Homeplanet track authors. The insonification is quite close to finish for now. Read more to check out some new screens ...

Featuring exciting espionage action, "Spy Fiction" follows the exploits of two special agents in an underground spy agency. As members of the elite S.E.A. Phantom strike squad, Bishop and Sheila are dispatched to disable a diabolical plot that begins with an ominous message sent to world governments. To spare millions of lives from a new horrific biotech weapon, they must embark on missions spanning the globe to seek and destroy a shadowy terrorist organization. Read more to check out some new screens ...

GarageGames announced today the availability of an exporter tool that allows Blender, the Open Source 3D content creation suite, to be used with GarageGames' flagship Torque Game Engine technology. The Blender exporter runs on the Mac OS X, Linux and Windows platforms.

Microsoft Game Studios today announced that 19 gamers representing nine nations will be duking it out on February 17 at the Halo for Windows Worldwide Championship in Los Angeles, California. The Halo for Windows Worldwide Championship is a truly global event; spanning more than 275 iGames centers and worldwide partners gaming centers across five continents, including locations in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Japan, Taiwan, Australia and the United Kingdom. Read more for additional details ...