Empire announced today it has signed an exclusive licensing agreement with Sony Pictures Consumer Products to develop a sequel to the Starsky & Hutch video game. The new game will include new city locations, enhanced graphics and classic music tracks from the 70's and a key new game play feature, which will allow villains to be chased on foot together with new spectacular car chases. It will be published for all current video game consoles and PCs.

In 1953, on the Korean peninsula, a cease fire was agreed upon by the major combatants of the Korean War: the United States, the United Nations, and both North and South Korea. This cease fire created the unique piece of geography known as the DMZ, or demilitarized zone. Running along the 38th Parallel the DMZ is over 156 miles long and nearly two and a half miles wide. The DMZ is home to countless landmines, anti-tank ditches, razor wire, and killing zones. Tunnels pre-stocked with equipment, from thousands of automatic rifles to tanks, await beneath the earth for use. Read more for details ...

The battle for Middle-earth is about to begin...Electronic Arts officially announced today the development of The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth for the PC under the EA GAMES brand. Developed at EA Los Angeles by the same team that created the award-winning real-time strategy (RTS) PC hits Commander & Conquer Red Alert 2 and Command & Conquer Generals, The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth game will capture the epic battles from The Lord of the Rings films and deliver them to PC gamers in summer 2004.

P.M. STUDIOS announces the on-line publishing of the first images from ETROM Comic. Here is a clip from the announcement:

"The development of ETROM project goes on with great enthusiasm and effort. As people know since last July announcement, ETROM is a multi-faceted project, which consists in a Videogame, a classic RPG and a Comic. We decided to publish on-line the first images from the Comic to give everyone that has enjoyed our work since its genesis a further step into the amazing Universe of the Knight of the Absolute, "Etrom Zediostruin". We're sure that the visual and the "feel" of the published images will make your curiosity and interest for our project grow "in fieri". Enjoy them!"- Fabio Belsanti Managing Director & Lead Designer-P.M. Studios.

Oxygen Interactive, the UK based computer game publisher can today announce the release date for the retail version of the multi-award winning Massively Multiplayer Online Real Time Strategy Game – Time Of Defiance. Oxygen have planned a comprehensive marketing campaign which will see this highly anticipated title launched into the High Street on 7th November 03.

Cenega UK today let us know that the eagerly awaited global strategy and tactical warfare PC game, UFO: Aftermath got a European release date of 3rd October settled ...

Combining global strategy with small squad tactical combat, the challenge offered is to fight against an alien invasion. Featuring run time generated tactical missions with innovative simultaneous combat action; the genre is also enhanced with strong RPG elements, offering a quite unique mix of strategic ideas.

GMX Media today announced that it has secured the worldwide rights to publish Euro Club Manager 03/04. Will you be able to place yourself in competitive world of professional football? Face up the challenges : buy and sell players to build your dream team, plan your tactics, coach your team and manage your club's finance and resource to became the number one. Read more for details ...

Whiptail Interactive, a global publisher of PC games, today announced its Q4 2003 lineup. The slate will include arcade-style racing with R.C. Cars, action-adventure with Blade & Sword and the much anticipated POSTAL 2 Gold Edition, which will include the long-awaited multiplayer feature. These three exciting titles will ship to retail stores nationwide in October and November 2003.

Konami of America, Inc. today announced that its hit psychological horror videogame series, Silent Hill, will be released worldwide as a major motion picture. Production company Davis Films will produce the feature film adaptation of Konami's popular franchise. Produced by Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo, Inc. (KCET), the Silent Hill games thrust players into a nightmarish world where they must unravel twisted storylines and battle grotesque creatures and terrifying monsters.

Ubisoft announced today the Shadowbane: The Rise of Chaos expansion pack will be available at a manufacturer's retail price of $19.99 at launch. The expansion for Shadowbane, the critically acclaimed massively multiplayer online (MMO) game for the PC, will begin beta testing soon and will provide fans with an intense, hardcore experience continuing deeper into the realms of darkness. Pending the results of that beta test, Ubisoft expects to release the Shadowbane: The Rise of Chaos this holiday season. Read more for details & the first screens ...

Atari, Inc. and Firaxis Games have announced the upcoming release of Sid Meier's Civilization III: Gold Edition, the latest offering in the Civilization III franchise. The Gold Edition will include the blockbuster hit Civilization III and the Civilization III: Play the World multiplayer expansion pack.

NCsoft today announced the latest chapter to its massively multiplayer game, Lineage. The new epic, called Lineage: Dark Conquest (www.lineage.com), is a series of six new episodes to be released over the next three years. The first new episode, Light and Shadow, goes live on North American servers today. Lineage first launched in 1998 and has grown to more than three-million active subscribers worldwide.

The next chapter in the award-winning Disciples series will be a stand-alone expansion pack titled Disciples II: The Rise of the Elves and it will be released this fall. Disciples II: Rise of the Elves will give both new and old fans of the popular series just what they have been asking for; The Elven race. Read more for details and screens ...

Microsoft Game Studios today announced the upcoming release of Phantom Dust, an Xbox exclusive third-person action game in which players battle opponents in real-time combat with an ever-growing arsenal of over 300 skills. The title is being developed internally by Microsoft Game Studios Japan and is currently scheduled for a Japanese release in 2004.

For the first time ever, EA Games console titles including The Lord of the Rings; The Return of the King will feature online gameplay for the PS2, Electronic Arts announced today. Along with The Lord of the Rings, The Sims Bustin' Out, Need for Speed Underground, and Medal of Honor Rising Sun will allow gamers to connect and play online this holiday season. Read more for details ...

The official Postal 2 site is updated (thanks VE3D) with following Multiplayer Beta information:

We've been working on multiplayer, and we are going beta on Friday, Sept 12th at about 6pm PST. It won't be an open beta but we will be accepting a lot of people! For more information join irc.gamesnet.net and join #postal2beta or email mikej@gopostal.com.

Empire Interactive plc ("Empire") has signed an exclusive deal with the Ford Motor Company to develop and publish its much anticipated Ford Racing 2.. It will be released in Q4 2003 on the PlayStation 2, Microsoft Xbox and PC. The game is being distributed exclusively by Take 2 Games in the US and by Empire in the UK and Europe.

Microsoft today announced that acclaimed RPG developer BioWare is currently developing Jade Empire exclusively for Xbox. BioWare, whose publishing relationship with Microsoft was announced one year ago at the Microsoft press event X02 in New York, has most recently been recognized for the smash hit Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. More information about Jade Empire will be revealed in Japan at the Tokyo Game Show on September 26.

Pineapple Interactive today announces their upcoming title Bloody Waters: Terror from the Deep..Bloody Waters: Terror from the Deep is a new third person action adventure game (PC, PS2, Xbox) where you take control of a genetically altered Great White shark. You manage to break free of your captors and in a chain of islands you build up in strength to take your revenge on the scientist who was in charge of doing the experimentation on you. Along the way you discover the 'Cult of the Shark', a people who sypmathise with your cause and who will help you in a non-violent fashion.

'Phase: Exodus' (developed by Horns & Hoofs) is an RPG title with a strong strategy element. The action there will take place at the territory of Western Syberia, near Baikal lake - at the near future. The post-apocalyptic setting has to take us in the middle of the conflict between groups of people, which were separated when the great catastrophe took place. Read more for details ...

One of the greatest fighting game franchises of all time will finally come to next generation gaming platforms in the US, as SNK NeoGeo USA Consumer Corp., the recently launched US publishing arm of the SNK Neogeo Corp., announced today that they will publish The King Of Fighters 2000 and The King Of Fighters 2001 in a special combination pack exclusively for the PS2. The King Of Fighters combo pack will be available at the end of November for a special suggested retail price of $39.99.

Purge returns to its roots. Based on FvF Jihad, Freeform Interactive announces the Purge Jihad Expansion Pack. One of the most player requested features since the beginning, Purge Jihad reintroduces to gameplay the concepts of an alignment Deity, Altar, and Mass Blesses. Purge Jihad also makes large improvements over its predecessor by adding another original new concept: a Prayer System. With the release of Purge Jihad, Purge support will be discontinued. Purge Jihad is a free upgrade for current retail Purge owners. The full Purge Jihad game will also be available.

Monte Cristo/digital Reality today announced Desert Rats vs. Afrika Korps for PC. 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”. Read more for more details, screens or download a trailer ...

Sammy Studios, Inc., today announced Drift Racer: Kaido Battle, a new videogame simulator based on the exciting sport of drift racing coming exclusively to Sony PlayStation2 in February 2004. Read more for details and screens...

Continuing its strategy of developing cornerstone franchise properties with widespread commercial appeal, Majesco, one of the fastest-growing publishers of interactive entertainment software, today announced a deal that will take their popular action/horror video game, BloodRayne to the silver screen. Vierte Boll Kino Beteiligungs-GmbH & Co. KG (Boll KG), the production company responsible for several film adaptations of video games including Alone in the Dark and House of the Dead, has purchased the theatrical film and merchandise rights for the game.