Article pulled by Request of MicroSoft/AEG...

Summitsoft announced today that its eagerly awaited Empire of Magic is on schedule for a May 1st release. Promising a masterfully crafted blend of strategy, role playing and story driven adventure, Empire of Magic takes a different approach to strategy games. "We have received a tremendous amount of interest on Empire of Magic by the gaming community," said Bruce Lowry, President and CEO of Summitsoft Corporation. "By throwing away traditional resource management found in most strategy games and replacing it with intense story rich scenarios and interactive role playing dynamics, Empire of Magic offers an exciting and fresh twist to the strategy genre."

Publisher Strategy First and developer Stardock announced today that their highly anticipated space strategy game, Galactic Civilizations, has shipped to retail stores nationwide! "With Galactic Civilizations we've really tried to create a strategy game that provides players with a unique experience every time they play,” said Brad Wardell, Project Lead on Galactic Civilizations at Stardock. At the same time the announced Bonus Pack is now also available.

Atari has shipped the latest installment of the hugely successful "V-Rally" racing series -- "V-Rally 3" -- to the Xbox. With more than 4 million units in the series sold to date, "V-Rally 3" -- already a hit on Sony PlayStation2 -- promises to be the most authentic rally racer on Xbox.

The United Cyber Games Association (UCGA) today announced a series of over 400 qualifying events around the United States to kick off the American portion of the Samsung World Cyber Games (WCG), the world's largest e-sports competition. Teaming with sponsors Samsung, CompUSA's game fixx, and NVIDIA, the World Cyber Games USA will bring thrilling competitions closer to all of America's 140 million gamers by holding its qualifying and semifinal competitions at 20 CompUSA locations across the country from April through July 2003. The U.S. competition will culminate in a national final in August; winners there will advance to the WCG 2003 Grand Final in Seoul, Korea October 12-18.

Tri Synergy announced today that Bandits: Phoenix Rising, shipped to retail outlets nationwide. Bandits: Phoenix Rising immerses players into a vast, desert wasteland, where they must control a cannon-mounted combat car in order to defeat heavily armed enemies and ultimately defend their gang. Bandits: Phoenix Rising is rated T (Teen) with an SRP of $29.99.

Take the command of "Axis-of-Good" forces and defeat the secret alliance of "Shadow Clique" on one of 6 distant planets. The rebels decided to seize the power on Earth by first conquering the space colonies, which provide vital energy resources to A.O.G. The war for global domination will unroll on continents, at sea and in the air. Lead your divisions, fleets and air squadrons against those, who dared threaten our freedom and democracy! Check out the new screens ...

There is a new patch for Black & White, bringing the first 3D god-playing game by Lionhead Studios to v1.30. The primary purpose of this release is to add support for the P5 Glove peripheral by Essential Reality as a new way to control the game. It's not multiplayer compatible with v1.20 but incorporates the changes from all previous patches. Read more for details and download links ...

Co-Publishers Strategy First & Project Three Interactive with developer Termite Games announced today that their tactical, team-based first-person shooter, New World Order, has shipped to retail outlets across North America. In New World Order, players meet Agent John Dobbs, one of the best military operatives in the world and GAT’s (Global Assault Team) newest recruit. Formed by some of the world’s most powerful nations, the GAT is a top-secret organization that has been brought together to stop The Syndicate, a group of militant separatists and terrorists who have set out to fill the world with fear, chaos and destruction…unless Agent Dobbs and his team get to them first.

Tri Synergy announced today that the company’s new PC racing, action-adventure title, Knight Rider, has shipped to North American retail outlets nationwide. Based on the classic 80’s TV series, Knight Rider features advanced play modes and boasts 10 action-packed missions that will propel players through 15 different rich environments. Knight Rider is rated E for Everyone, and has a street price of $29.99.

From the creators of Future versus Fantasy (FvF), Freeform Interactive LLC comes the Purge Demo. Purge is an online-only, hybrid FPS/RPG using highly modified Lithtech Talon Engine technology. In a market of shooter clones, Purge is one of the most original and unique games released in the last few years. Purge allows players to build custom characters: choosing from 7 player attributes, 8 science-fiction and fantasy classes, 32 weapons, and 24 skills. Also, Purge has fully realized non-combat roles where players can succeed without ever directly fighting. The updated Purge Demo includes the map Riley's Gap and weights in at 77MB, or there is a small update patch to apply to the previous version.

Crowd Control Productions (CCP), developer of the highly anticipated massive multiplayer online game (MMOG) "EVE Online: The Second Genesis" announced today phase seven of beta testing has begun. Also announced today a new server cluster has gone online on a 'backbone' of the Internet. These new servers will allow CCP to host 100,000 players in the same world as opposed to "shards." Finally, CCP also announced the Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) for EVE beta testers will be dropped within a week. Read more for details and some new screens ...

The official site for Spellforce: Order of the Dawn is updated with new screens and wallpapers. On their screenshot section you can watch the player avatar fight a horde of trouble seeking Goblins and on their new wallpaper you can watch a Demon in action, casting a massive fire spell. Additionally they offer you a new making-of shot. On it you can see a meshed Orc fighter and the same model finally texturized. Spellforce: Order of the Dawn is a upcoming fantasy strategy game from JowooD.

CDV Software today announces its new website is live. The new portal is designed to integrate the newest information on CDV's games and the company site. The new website features a very user-friendly navigational structure, as everything is a three page click away from the main site. Currently the site contains five categories: games, shop, company, investors and support.

Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. today announced that its Gathering division has shipped Vietcong for the PC. Published by Gathering and developed by Illusion Softworks in association with development team Pterodon, Vietcong is an intense first-person shooter which is now available in North America and will be available in Europe on April 11th.

Agetec, Inc. announced the next title in the Armored Core series, Silent Line - Armored Core for the PS2 will be published in June, 2003.

Eidos Interactive is releasing official Tomb Raider ring tones and images for a range of Nokia, Motorola and Ericsson phones. Priced at £3.00 per item incl. VAT, the screensavers, backgrounds and ring tones will be available in the UK only from 26th March.

Xicat Interactive, the publisher of the award-winning video games brings RPG action to the Xbox video game system from Microsoft, with the release of BlackStone: Magic and Steel on Friday 28th March 2003, so steel yourself with this fact sheet.

Starting with nothing except some cash and a passion for food, build your restaurant from the ground up. Hire waiters, decorate your restaurant and even cook the meals! Buy, build, outsell and out-price the competition. The developers behind Restaurant Empire (Enlight) are one of the world's leading developers of entertainment software.. Five pictures of restaurants that look good enough to eat. At.

"Operation Iraqi Freedom" brings on surge of interest in military titles.. CNN reports that PC and video games may generally serve as nice breaks from reality, but the U.S. war on Iraq has sparked gamer interest in current events. Military-themed games, which were already experiencing a sales surge well before the war, are becoming even more popular. Titles such as "Medal of Honor: Allied Assault" (letting gamers recreate the storming of Normandy) and "Battlefield 1942" (a fictional version of World War II, letting players choose any of five nationalities) have been fixtures in the Top 10 selling games list for months now, but with last week's military action by the U.S., retailers say consumer demand has increased. Full article here!

With most of its crew missing and its weapons systems ruined the space research station Aegis is all but lost. As the last remaining pilot you must help rebuild the station’s defences, acquire alien technology and create your own uniquely configured set of fighters. By mining the asteroids within the grid dimension, valuable resources can be harvested to fuel the Aegis’s molecular furnace to build devastating weaponry. Within the nodes of the grid you will encounter allies to aid in the struggle to escape, uncover the terrible purpose of the evil Archnid race and learn why you and the rest of the crew were brought here. Read more for download links ...

Uplink brings players into the depths of one of the world’s most intriguing settings: cyberspace. Players take on the role of an Uplink agent, working for large corporations and hacking into rival computer systems, stealing research data, sabotaging other companies, laundering money, erasing evidence, and framing innocent people. Stock markets can be influenced, personal records can be altered, and money can be transferred... sometimes into the wrong hands. There is small update patch available for Strategy First's recently released Uplink : Hacker Elite, bringing the retail game to v1.31 (Win/Linux). Read more for download links ...

Rayman, the only gaming hero with no arms, no legs, helicopter hair, and brand new powers, hits the PC with the latest installment of the 11-million-plus-best-selling franchise! Ubi Soft Entertainment today announced that Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc for the PC has shipped for retail.

It is 1588 A.D., a critical year of an alternate history hauntingly familiar yet fantastically alien to our own. Because of one fateful event during the Third Crusade, the history of this world diverged. This event, the Disjunction, ripped open a long-sealed breach to other worlds. Magic energy and powerful spirits flowed into the world, changing the lands and the people forever. Cast into this world, you are a character of your own devices, strengths, and abilities. Set upon by human factions and powerful spirits, you must decide how to best develop your skills in order to triumph over obstacles that lie between you and your true fate. A fresh batch of Lionheart screens has arrived!