Gamehelper send us a mail to throw out a reminder that they is hosting a developer chat tonight at 6pm PST / 9pm EST. Lead Programmer Andy Muir, Art Director Steve Macomber, and Programmer Dale Bloom will be attendiing the event. Read more for the details..

Racing throughout Mother Earth's most unpredictable terrains and into consumers' living rooms, Acclaim today announced that it has shipped Dakar 2: The World's Ultimate Rally for the Nintendo GameCube. A rough-and-tumble ride through 7,000 miles of the most turbulent environments in the world, Dakar 2: The World's Ultimate Rally offers high-speed arcade action that captures the thrill of the famous Paris-Dakar Rally.

Austrian based developer and publisher JoWooD Productions Software AG today announced that it has signed an exclusive publishing agreement with Encore, Inc. a majority-owned subsidiary of Navarre Corporation for the marketing and distribution of nine games throughout North America. Encore will be managing the sales, distribution and marketing for these titles while JoWooD will be delivering content.

DreamCatcher today announced a worldwide deal with Arkane Studios to publish Arx Fatalis for the Xbox. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Arx Fatalis is a first-person RPG, which plunges players into an amazingly complex fantasy-world of trolls, goblins and 'Snake-women'. Creating weapons, solving puzzles and completing amazing quests, gamers become heroes as they battle in an evil world. Players will also need to master a unique real-time magic system to cast more than 50 different spells based on 20 different runes.

The 1503 A.D. Web team let us know that the demo of 'ANNO 1503 - The New World' is now available in five different languages "French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and Polish". All demo files weight around 190MB and consist of four playable scenarios: the two introductory scenarios "Exploration and Colonization" and "Trade and Diplomacy" teach you the basics on how to erect and maintain a functional settlement and allow you to trade with the natives and a computer player. Download links here!

In development for nearly two years, VEXX has been specifically designed to push the limits of this generation of hardware to deliver an unparalleled gameplay experience, that has yet to be achieved in a platform game. With incredible graphics, non-stop action, immense levels and an engrossing storyline. VEXX is an original platform action title that allows players to assume the role of the title character as he embarks on a dark, heroic quest to seek vengeance on those that enslaved his people and murdered his family.

Nintendo is celebrating the anniversary of the European launch of the NINTENDO GAMECUBE with the release of a very special Limited Edition Pak on May 3rd 2003. The celebratory pak will feature an exclusive platinum NINTENDO GAMECUBE and controller coupled with one of the most anticipated video games in history, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, also launched on this date. The Limited Edition Pak also contains a bonus disc featuring the original NINTENDO 64 title, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and The Legend of Zelda: The Master Quest, updated exclusively for NINTENDO GAMECUBE.

Publisher Whiptail Interactive today confirmed that it will be unleashing POSTAL 2, the highly anticipated first person PC adventure game, on gamers across Europe and the UK from 14th April 2003.

Majorem Ltd. is pleased to announce the addition of new unit types to Ballerium. New screenshots showing the new air and cannon units can be seen on Ballerium's gallery. The new units are the first two in a line of units that will be added to the seven original races of Ballerium. These units can be purchased at cities across Ballerium, in the local Smitium of each such city. Like everything else in Ballerium, the prices of the new units will be determined according to the players' demand of those units, imposing a perfect balance in the game.

WorthPlaying is giving away goodies sponsored by Strategy First. Enter the sweepstakes and have a chance to win one of 5 New World Order CD's... NWO is a tactical team-based first person shooter game.. "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"

JediKnightII.net let us know that according to the popular german game magazine 'GameStar' there WILL be a Jedi Knight 3! April joke or not? Here is a clip from Lucas forum:

The game will once again use a heavily-modifed Quake 3 Team Arena engine, as well as all of Raven’s own enhancements to it! Despite its Age, the screenies sure look spectacular! The multi-player part will also be enhanced, and rumours speak of vehicular combat!

According to Raven, JK III is 60% done, including story, scripts and levels. So, if everything goes well, you will be able to play it this fall!

Check out some screens here!

Purge is an online-only computer game. It is a First-Person-Shooter / hybrid Role-Playing-Game set in the near future accounting a war between the diametrically opposed forces of science-fiction (the Order) and fantasy (the Chosen). Technology versus magic. Science versus religion. Purge is being developed by Freeform Interactive LLC and utilizes the LithTech Talon system. Over the course of next 5 Mondays, an avid fan Roy Smart will discusss one type of character. We were introduced to Android last week, and today's guide discusses the Commando.

The greatest cycling races entirely rendered in 3D: 180 stages, over 27,000kms. CM2 lets you take control of one of the 60 professional teams and allows you to participate in the most important international races. As a manger you must get the best from your team and CM2 is feature packed with management options; manage your roster, negotiate all contracts, set up racing strategies and. Of course, manage in real time the group and individual strategies of your riders during the races. Cyanide Studios has just released another patch for Cycling Manager 2 upgrading your retail game to v2.2. The update adresses a few bugs and database changes. Read more for detailed fix list and download links ...

Set in the future where Earth is little more than a burnt cinder, players must battle their way through a series of arenas in fights to the death with CPU or human opponents. Viewed in the third person, players have access to a wealth of armaments and must use cunning, stealth and high velocity weapons to defeat the increasingly tough opponents. Projectile, handheld weaponry and spell-casting are used to progress, resulting in incredible melees as Apocalyptica draws the player further in.

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. We also have an upgrade patch for the retail version, which should be in stores today, as well as a mod tool so the die hard fans can create their own maps ...

ARUSH Entertainment let us know that they hope to finish the promised update patch for their recently released FPS Devastation by Monday. Below is a list of things that will be included in the upcoming patch for Devastation. You will be autonotified when you go online that the patch is available, and it will be an easy install process that the system will do for you. A lot of this is MP related, but weapon sound changes and other things are SP too. The filters for the MP browsers is something that is desperately needed. Read more for details on what to expect in the patch.

Yesterday we had an updated Mistmare demo/patch and once again Arxel Tribe & Sinister Systems have released an update to bring the alternate-history adventure/RPG demo to v1.302 (thanks Bluesnews). The update adds an invert y-mouse setting, a cross-hair cursor, a toggle camera-control / free cursor (for selecting objects) via middle mouse button, and auto camera switching from FP view in combat mode. Read more for download links ..

Massively Multiplayer Gaming takes on a new face in PlanetSide, where thousands of players wage war in a battle of planetary proportions. A newly designed 3D engine drives PlanetSide's first-person player-to-player combat and vehicular warfare across ten continents. The stage has been set, the battle lines have been drawn, and orbital drop pods are ready to deploy you PlanetSide. Some new screens taken from our beta build!

Codemasters has updated the official site for their upcoming MMORPG title, Dragon Empires, with a new dev diary "Rob Adams first dev diary", new screenshots and beta sign up information update..

In 1968 the U.S. Army assigned a young sniper to the 5th Special Forces compound in Nha Tong, Vietnam. His mission: disrupt the enemy’s command structure, scout Viet Cong positions, and ambush the enemy in the dead of night. For him, success depended on a rifle, a target, and a clear Line of Sight. In LINE OF SIGHT: VIETNAM your job is to locate elusive enemy soldiers and pick them off one-by-one. Whether patiently waiting for the enemy to show himself or delivering a pre-emptive strike, the method is the same – be quick, be quiet, and be careful. That’s what will get you home alive.

TribalWar.com just received following information from Adam Kahn @ Sierra:

We will be announcing the next Tribes game on April 24th at a press event (for all of Vivendi Universal Games) in Los Angeles.

Another day, another batch of game trailers were released. Instead of giving them all their own post, we grouped them and so far there are trailers for :

• Enter The Matrix (Infogrames)
• Wolverine's Revenge 1 (Activision)
• Wolverine's Revenge 2 (Activision)
• Ryzom (Wanadoo)
• 
  
  Read more for download links ...

"Horizons" takes place within the world of Istaria -- filled with cities and towns, castles and strongholds, villages and mystical structures, in environments ranging from tropical jungle and arctic tundra to windswept plains and mountainous wilderness. Whether adventuring by themselves or questing with a group of friends, players are free to choose their own path and encouraged to create their own stories. Fierce warriors, arcane spell casters and challenging combat will rule the frontier lands, but skilled craftspeople will play an absolutely critical role in overall character and world development. Yesterday we announced Atari picked up the game, today we got a fresh batch of screens.. Njoy!