Jowood has announced a new Spellforce patch is expected to go online by the end of this week, containing –apart from the usual bugfixes- substantial additions and changes that are mainly following requests by the community. There will be an additional difficulty level for experienced gamers, item sort functionality and improved hero equipment management. On top of this, we have added over 30 new bindstones to the game, making travel that much quicker and easier. With these changes SpellForce will remain a challenge even for experienced gamers. Read more for some new screens ...

Majorem Ltd. and Sanctum Entertainment, a producer/publisher of innovative entertainment software, today officially announced the anticipated Beta launch of the upcoming massively multiplayer real-time strategy game 'Ballerium'. The Beta will be closed for up to 5,000 players to subscribe to the fully 3D Massively Multiplayer game. Sanctum Entertainment is said to launch the game's closed Beta while displaying it on TGS, February 6-9 2004

LucasArts has released a new patch for BioWare's sci-fi 3D RPG Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. This update brings your retail game to v1.02 (contains the English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish editions all in one) and adds control options, GUI features, 1280x1024 res support, and the usual gameplay tweaks, bug fixes, etc (thanks Blues). Read more for detailed fix list and download links ...

iEntertainment Network announced today that WarBirds online subscription price has also been reduced by 44% to encourage access to players all over the world. “By reducing the subscription price of WarBirds so aggressively, we hope to gain more players from all over the world with our new servers, new features, and new pricing. We are now both the best online flight sim and the most aggressively priced, “ says Wild Bill Stealey, IENT’s CEO.

Enlight Software has released a demo for their upcoming 3D action/strategy title 'Wars and Warriors: Joan of Arc'. This "final" demo is the same as the previously distributed demo ( features 'The Arrival at Orleans' tutorial as well as one full mission of the game), except with optimized 'gold' code, gfx and voiceovers. Read more for download links ...

Painkiller is a nickname of a pretty unusual mercenary, who is dealing with supernatural. There are places on Earth where demons and other evil creatures have their nests: abandoned prisons, private castles, deep caves in the mountains. "Cleaning" those places is good money, and our hero needs a lot of it, since he loves living the life to its fullest. One day he gets what seems to be a pretty simple job: to retrieve a religious artifact from one of the nests. When after a furious battle he realizes he might have been tricked into the war between two competing clans of the undead, he tries to play his own cards. Check these 49 new screens ...

Cenega Publishing is proud to announce a new title for their PC line-up, releasing in the fall of 2004. Creature Conflict: The Clan Wars (previously known as Animal Planets), by the Hungarian developer Mithis Interactive, is a turn-based combat strategy game, heavy on the humor! The game takes place in a galaxy populated by four different animal clans, each faction battling for control over all the planets.

Get ready, Ghost Recon fans! Showcase your skills and challenge other enthused Ghost players around the nation. In celebration of the release of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm for the PlayStation2, a three-on-three tournament will be held online to determine who has the goods to master the Ghost team. Sign-ups begin February 2 and continue until March 11 (or until all 128 slots are full - so act fast!). This momentous event will take place on April 3.

Microsoft Corp. today announced the launch of Game With Fame, a new program that allows fans to play against some of today's hottest stars on the Xbox Live service. The launch event, taking place Feb. 4, will give Xbox Live fans a chance to play "ESPN NFL Football" against today's hottest hip-hop duo and six-time Grammy nominees, OutKast. Read more for details ...

Numerous German-language sites have reported that Far Cry development studio Crytek have been raided by police and authorities after an ex-employee informed them of widespread software piracy at the studio. Reports indicate that the software has been used to create the game and that the value of the software, if purchased legally, would be over 1 million Euros. The home of Faruk Yerli, one of the three brothers who set up Crytek, has also been searched for illegal software.

UPDATE: Read more for Ubisoft's official statement...

During a press conference held today, Blizzard Entertainment announced plans to build a local World of Warcraft team in Europe. The team will be responsible for community relations, customer service, and technical support for the game. Additionally, they will manage the distribution and hosting of World of Warcraft on local European servers. With a regional team in place, Blizzard intends to affirm its commitment to the European game community by delivering a massively-multiplayer experience of unparalleled quality.

Already revealed in yesterday's financial results, Ubisoft is excited to announce that the Xbox, PC and GBA versions of Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, the new adventure from the world of Tom Clancy, is on track to ship for the end of March. Due to development issues, and the groups' commitment to making these versions the same high quality as the Xbox version, the PS2 and GameCube will launch at a later date. This date is still to be confirmed. There's a single player mode and an "incredibly addictive" online version.

Gathering announced today that Mafia for the PlayStation 2 is in retail stores in North America and the English language PAL version of the title is available in Europe.

Trauma Studios developed the popular mod* to Battlefield 1942, DesertCombat. The new collaboration is for one of Digital Illusions' previously announced projects. The Company estimates the costs for the collaboration to approximately 550 000 USD during a period of 12 months. "We understood the impact DesertCombat had quite early. This mod kept Battlefield's popularity in place during the last year, as well as helped us sell a considerable amount of games", says Patrick Söderlund, CEO, Digital Illusions.

Eidos announces it has optioned the film and television rights to its sexy and action-packed video game franchise Fear Effect to producer and director Uwe Boll and his production company, BollKG. Continuing Eidos' success in transitioning game content to film, the Fear Effect deal follows in the footsteps of bringing the hugely popular Tomb Raider video game to the big screen via Paramount Pictures. Additionally, Eidos optioned the multi-award-winning game Deus Ex to Columbia Pictures and producer Laura Zisken in 2002.

Built from the ground up to deliver the bone-crushing action of championship boxing, EA SPORTS 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 PlayStation 2 console via EA SPORTS Nation.

Electronic Arts today announced plans to publish BREAKDOWN from Namco Limited for the Xbox. Breakdown is the hotly anticipated first-person action adventure title that combines Namco's legendary fighting game experience with the best elements of traditional shooters. A thrilling science fiction storyline is revealed through its high-end, real-time rendered graphics, bringing an unprecedented level of realism to the gameplay experience. The game features intense hand-to-hand and weapons-based combat, challenging puzzles, surreal dream sequences, advanced A.I and massive, detailed environments for exploration.

There are strange happenings in Springfield. People are missing, very mysterious crop circles are appearing, and hidden cameras are being exposed. When Homer notices a black van with a satellite dish parked outside the Simpsons house, he decides to investigate further into these odd events. What he reveals could be the biggest mystery to rock Springfield since Who Shot Mr. Burns?

Drake is the ultimate Anti-hero. Drake is Feel-good, action-packed gaming with instant gratification. Grim but colorful. Cool and violent without being controversial. Real-time 3D action shooter of furious and brutal revenge, supernatural Hong Kong action style. Read more for the full review ...

Anito is a Single-Player Isometric Adventure RPG game set in 16th century Asia, in the land of Maroka. Filipino developer Anino has released the first patch for the English version of 'Anito: Defend A Land Enraged'. This patch brings your retail game to v1.02 and adresses a few crashes, bugs and tweaks. Read more for details and download links ...

Zuxxez has released a new patch for their 2000/2002 strategy games 'Earth 2150: Moon Project' & 'Earth 2150: Lost Souls' (at the time developed under the name TopWare). This v2.0 update (available for the German & English editions) was developed in cooperation with Playerliga.de and is completely rebalanced. This update adds tons of game tweaks/fixes and makes Moon Project & Lost Souls multiplayer compatible which will allow you to play both games on the Earthnet Server irrespective of which title you have. Read more for detailed fix list and download links ...

'Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow' will bring back more of the single-player intrigue that made the original game a bestseller. With exciting new action scenes and a strong cinematic feel, the player will experience new and even more realistic surroundings. Building on Ubi Soft's strong commitment to online gaming, Pandora Tomorrow will the be the first stealth game ever to feature multiplayer online missions allowing several players to simultaneously share Sam Fisher's shadowy world of espionage. Read more for some new 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 :

• Wrath Unleashed - Trailer
• Firefighter FD 18 - Trailer
• Seven Samurai 20XX - Trailer
• Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm - Trailer
• 
  
  We will update this throughout the day when new trailers become available. Read more for download links ...

NovaLogic has released the Delta Force: Black Hawk Down editing tools, giving you everything you need to create exciting new content, yourt own custom sp/mp maps. Includes: Text Tool, Object Editor, Terrain Generator, .def files, Pack.exe, Samples and Tutorials! Read more for details and download links ...