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.

Sony Ericsson today announced innovative, fun products to go with their mobile phones. The Gameboard EGB-10 is an attachable game controller, which gives a true console-style feeling to playing mobile games. The Bluetooth CAR-100 is a small racecar that can be controlled with a Sony Ericsson mobile phone, a great example of the variety of ways in which Bluetooth wireless technology can be used.

Celtic Kings: The Punic Wars appeals to both RTS and RPG players searching for a new experience in already known genres. The multiplayer provides new strategic gameplay tuned towards the traditional RTS players. It is easy to start playing the game but there are a lot of new options to explore. Celtic Kings: The Punic Wars continues the traditions of the award winning Celtic Kings: Rage of War and will be exploring the three Punic wars between Rome and Carthage in the period 264BC – 146BC which includes the famous campaigns of Hannibal and Scipio Africanus.

A new world is coming to Shadowbane! The Shadowbane Team is proud to announce its plans to unveil a completely new and unique world to the players of Aerynth in the weeks to come. The Shadowbane world building team has been hard at work on a brand new map that will enhance both the strategic elements of guild warfare and more closely reflect the lore of the game. While several details of the new world have not yet been finalized, there are many design elements to this new world, read more to find out ...

Action sports game fanatics everywhere will soon be able to experience Activision Inc.'s Wakeboarding Unleashed featuring Shaun Murray for Game Boy Advance. Aspyr Media Inc. announced today that they plan to publish the game for release later this year with the conversion completed by Small Rockets.

CDV Software today announced the release of a Cossacks Anthology scheduled for October 10th 2003 in Germany, October 17th in France, October 24th in the UK and October 31st in the USA. The Anthology will be a collector’s bundle, containing all parts of the million-selling Cossacks series: Cossacks: European Wars as well as the add-ons Cossacks: Back to War and Cossacks: The Art of War. The Cossacks products have proven to be the perfect introduction for newbies to the world of strategy, and a real enrichment for collectors. It has sold over one million copies worldwide.

Konami of Europe has announced that Pro Evolution Soccer 3, the latest in its incredibly successful football series, is to be released for PC in November 2003. With the Pro Evolution Soccer series rightly regarded as the pinnacle of console football titles, Konami's is bringing its skills to PC, to ensure that Pro Evolution Soccer 3 becomes the definitive football experience for the format. The PC game will boast all the gameplay advances seen in the accompanying PlayStation 2 release, but will enjoy a greater level of aesthetic detail.

Calling all mascaritas! Dig out your favorite wrestling mask and get ready to enter the virtual ring as Ubi Soft announces plans to publish “¡Mucha Lucha!: Mascaritas of the Lost Code” for the GBA. Based on the hugely popular Warner Bros. Animation series which airs on Kids’ WB!, “¡Mucha Lucha!” will place gamers into the wild, colorful world of The Foremost World-Renowned International School of Lucha. “!Mucha Lucha!: Mascaritas of the Lost Code” is slated to release in the U.S. Nov18, 2003.

ValuSoft, a division of THQ today announced the release of Care Bears: Care-a-lot Jamboree for PC and Mac. The game was created under a licensing agreement with American Greetings to develop computer games based on the ever-popular Care Bears. The deal was brokered on behalf of American Greetings by The Joester Loria Group, the exclusive worldwide licensing agency for Care Bears. Care Bears: Care-a-lot Jamboree is rated "E" for Everyone and will be available at retailers nationwide for $19.99 SRP.

Namco Hometek Inc. promises intense, nonstop action in its newest thriller, Plague of Darkness (tentative title), announced today. Scheduled for release on the PlayStation2 and the Xbox, Plague of Darkness will ship in the summer of 2004. Developed by Widescreen Games in Lyon, France, Plague of Darkness will feature Xbox Live functionality, complete with downloadable content, as well as PlayStation2 online support with exclusive extras. Read more for details and the first screens ...