Developer S2 Games and iGames Publishing announced today that the one-of-a-kind real-time strategy shooter Savage: The Battle for Newerth has been named one of the top ten finalists in the Open Category of the 2004 Independent Games Festival (IGF) competition. The IGF competition will take place at the 2004 Game Developer’s Conference in San Jose, CA from March 24-26, 2004.

Vivendi Universal Games announced that it has hired Chance Thomas as the Tolkien Music Director in charge of the creation and production of the musical themes for all of its videogames based on The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

You are Paul de Raque, Knight of the Temple, as you set out on a holy crusade across a forbidding, mediaeval Europe to join your order in the Holy Land. Armed with your sword, axe, bow and shield, you must fight with all your strength to complete your journey, for saving the future of the world is your ultimate goal! The core of the game is medieval style fighting with the classical weapons of European knights, coupled with stunning graphics of the historical milieus of the 12th century crusades. Check these 60 new screens.

On its 1 year anniversary, the DesertCombat team has released the next major public alpha of DesertCombat. Happy Birthday! Public Beta 0.6F is a patch to be used to upgrade from 0.5L and features a slew of bug fixes, new vehicles, 3 new maps and additions aimed at creating on of the best war game experiences on the PC. In this stage of development each is roughly balanced with some minor advantages to each, making gameplay much more fun and exciting. Read more for download links ...

UPDATE:We now also have the win32/Linux dedicated server patches available for download.

PlanetSide has got the holiday spirit and to celebrate, were adding a few special presents for the community this season. Today, players will find that characters with agile and reinforced armor have holiday hats; Backpacks have been replaced with empire-specific wrapped presents; and trees on Esamir and Ceryshen, the snow covered continents of Auraxis, are decorated with holiday lights. Read more to check out the festive screens ...

Wartime Command: Battle For Europe 1939-1945 is the stunning World War II tactical real time strategy game from Russian developers 1C Company in Russia. The game development project has been retitled from Battlefield Command to give it prominence in a cluttered market of similar product brands. Wartime Command will launch for PC in the spring of 2004. Read more for some new tank screens ...

Techland gives us an early Christmas gift with their release of a Xmas demo for their sci-fi FPS Chrome. This MP demo features 10 of the 16 MP maps from the retail game, unfortunately it is only temporarely until January 10th 2004. This version is entirely compatible with the full version of the game, and allows you to connect to any full-version server, and host your own one. You will need Winrar to unpack this version, read more for download links ...

Only a few days after the first patch, EA has now released another patch for EA Pacific's Command & Conquer Generals: Zero Hour. This upgrade brings your retail game to v1.02 and adds particle effects, as well as the usual gameplay tweaks and fixes. Read more for detailed fix list and download links ...

Blizzard has released an updated patch for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. This upgrade brings your retail game to v1.13b and addresses a copy protection issue, a bunch of games/World Editor fixes/tweaks/improvements, as well as adding Acts II and III to The Frozen Throne's bonus Orc campaign (thanks 3DGamers). Read more for download links ...

The SilentHeroes team has released their first beta of the bf1942 total conversion. SilentHeroes is developed by a group of Swedish people and the story revolves around a conflict between Sweden and Norway in 2007, which started after the US attack on Iraq earlier this year. More Scandinavian countries are planned to get involved as the mod (thanks Fragzone). Read more to check out some screens & download links ...

Microsoft today announced that four new Xbox Music Mixer karaoke song bundles are now available for download via Xbox Live, and more are soon to follow. Xbox Music Mixer allows aspiring singers, VJs and party hosts to bring down the house with a Karaoke engine that lets players sing to nearly any song. Read more for details ...

For the first time, players control The Sims over an entire lifetime for the very 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...

Ubi Soft has released another patch for Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield. This upgrade brings your retail game to v1.51 and mainly addresses the "virtual drive" issue that caused an outcry in the community. Due to an added protection scheme Ravenshield refused to work if you had virtual drives mounted, Ubisoft got the heat and now fixed that problem. Read more for download links ...

Strategy First and Made by Kiddies are pleased to announce that their PC arcade shooter hit, Alien Blast – The Encounter has gone gold and is on target to hit North American retail shelves in January 2004.

Set in Europe at the time of the migration of nations (about 200-450 AD), Against Rome takes the player to that part of the continent that has not yet succumbed to the Roman Empire. This vast territory, which the Romans disparagingly called barbaricum, is the home of numerous primitive nations. The player takes control over one of these barbarian tribes, who as a whole stood out for a pronounced lack of cultural achievements, combined with a ferocious belligerence (thanks GenGamers). Check out some new screens below!

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 :

• Soldner - Trailer
• Ground Control 2 - Trailer
• 
  
  We will update this throughout the day when new trailers become available. Read more for download links ...

The action of one of this holiday's highly-anticipated movies comes to life in an action adventure game, Atari, Inc. announced today. Shipping to retail stores nationwide this week, Peter Pan: The Motion Picture Event for Game Boy Advance, captures all of the action and excitement of the upcoming Universal Pictures, Columbia Pictures and Revolution Studios film of the same name, taking players on a magical journey with Peter Pan from his first meeting with Wendy until the final confrontation with Captain Hook. Peter Pan opens nationwide on December 25, 2003.

Activision, Inc. announced today that the company will work directly with DreamWorks to develop and publish video games based on DreamWorks' upcoming animated theatrical "Shrek 2" feature film.

Pterodon has released the announced new multiplayer map for their tactical shooter Vietcong. This '3 Canyons' map features a new 'Turn Table' mode, as well as all other modes and allows up to 32 players. Read more for details & download links ...

Midway Games Inc. today announced the launch of the official website for The Suffering. Players can now step into the seedy underbelly of a maximum security penitentiary that is The Suffering by visiting the official The Suffering website. The Suffering will be available on March 8, 2004 for the PlayStation2 and the Xbox.

Akella and Step Creative Group announce that a new 3D tactical strategy/action game DEactivation was released. Players will control one of the antiterrorist units of droids to neutralize acts of terrorism. Destroy the hostile robots-kamikazes and set the hostages free! For every mission there's a set number of droids. Terminate the shot firing system, destroy the hostile robots and set the hostages free! The missions are held in distinct types of building that differ one from another in the number of floors and rooms. Read more for details ...

Anarchy Enterprises has released a demo for Unique Entertainment's budget 3D shooter Desert Fury. This demo features a time limit of 60 minutes but it has the full game included which you can activate after purchasing a license key online (thanks 3DGamers). Read more for download links ...

UK based publisher Digital Jesters continues its unrelenting acquisition of new games, with the news that it has signed the UK co-publishing rights to Monte Cristo's PC CD-ROM real-time tactical game Desert Rats vs. Afrika Korps. The game will be available in the UK in March 2004, priced £29.99. Read more for some new screens ...

Altar Int/Cenega have released the a new patch for their recently released 3D squad-based action game UFO: Aftermath. Thisd update brings your retail game to v1.3 and address a few system issues, several in-game bugs, control issues, and makes various game tweaks/improvements. Read more for details and download links ...

Deep Silver is pleased to announce that X²: The Threat, by German development team EGOSOFT has gone GOLD in anticipation for its 6th February 2004 UK release date. Sequel to the classic space trading / combat PC game X Beyond The Frontier, X² has been in development for over two years. X²: The Threat from EGOSOFT is launched on Windows PC at £34.99 SRP (UK) on 6th February 2004.