Another movie from Close Combat: First to Fight are now available for download, showcasing the team-based FPS developed by Destineer and Atomic Games (thanks: 3DGamers). The game will feature a co-op mode allowing you to play the entire single player campaign via online and LAN on PC, and via split screen or Xbox Live on Xbox. It will also offer a team deathmatch mode for up to eight players (2 on 2, or 4 on 4) named Fire Team Arena, where you can use specific weapon assignments, or choose to force random weapons on everyone. Close Combat: First to Fight will be published by Global Star Software for Xbox and by Destineer for PC.

Two small movies from Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition have been added in our download area, showcasing the third installment of the racing series in the works at Rockstar San Diego. Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition will offer a full range of street vehicle culture including over 50 fully customizable licensed vehicles in both style and performance, three cities (Detroit, Atlanta and San Diego), tons of side roads, shortcuts, jumps, and more.

Our gallery has been updated with new screenshots from the The Settlers: Heritage of Kings addon named Nebula Realm which will offer new maps for both single and multiplayer modes, new heroes, new units, new buildings and landscapes types, and a map editor. For details about the original game, grab our video interview with Benedikt Grindel from BlueByte or you can always try both German and English single-player demos and this English multiplayer demo. The English version of The Settlers: Heritage of Kings will hit the UK store shelves this month.

Vivendi Universal Games has released two gameplay movies for Cold Winter, showcasing this upcoming FPS set in a "dark world of global espionage, full of international intrigue, action and suspense". The game features an original storyline, written in collaboration with noted author Warren Ellis (Transmetropolitan, Global Frequency), set in 2002, where you play the role of Andrew Sterling, a disavowed British MI6 agent and expert in the kind of covert operations the public doesn’t believe proper governments engage in. Against intelligent adversaries, you will use an arsenal of over 30 weapons which inflict extremely realistic zone-specific body damage and rag-doll death animations. Cold Winter promises realistic interaction throughout six highly-detailed and life-like environments, featuring real-world physics, searching fallen enemies and manipulating objects to use as cover. There are also six multiplayer modes with team versions which can be played by up to eight-player online or up to four-player split-screen off-line. Cold Winter will be released by VU Games in spring 2005, for PS2.

LucasArts has released a patch for Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, bringing this sequel to v1.0a - details about the changes introduced by this update are not available. Thanks: 3DGamers.

After they lifted the NDA for The Matrix Online beta testers, Warner Bros. announced that this MMORPG developed by Monolith Productions in conjunction with the Wachowski Brothers, creators of The Matrix trilogy, will be released in the US on March 22 and in Europe on April 8th (thanks: MMORPGDot). The Matrix Online will be sold through all major game retailers for a suggested retail price (SRP) of $49.99. Gamers can either subscribe online for a monthly subscription fee of $14.99 or purchase pre-paid game cards with 60 days worth of play time for $29.99.

Sending us two movies and these screenshots, Mastiff informed us will publish the dancing game Pump It Up through Latin America, the UK, France, and Korea, for the PS2 and Xbox. While other dance games arbitrarily assign positions to a dancer's feet, Pump It Up features choreographed steps for each song and a five button mat that lets the step designers reward players for not just where they put their feet, but how the feet got there. The game features over 80 songs, including new music for the console version from Crystal Method and Steriogram, as well as Elvis vs. Junkie XL, Earth, Wind and Fire, and Sugarhill Gang. Check full article for details.

Take-Two sent us two screenshots and a movie from Stronghold 2 revealing details about “Gong Farmer”, a term used in England in the Middle Ages to describe the guy whose job it was to empty latrine pits that sprung up in and around a crowded village. In Stronghold 2, piles of refuse will start to spring up and if left alone, they will grow until eventually, they start to produce deadly disease (which has a negative effect on your castle’s popularity). So to deal with this problem, you must make sure your castle has sufficient Gong Farmers to clear up the mess. What works well with this system, is that it links very nicely with other systems, such as rats, falconry and apothecaries, to create its own mini ecosystem. In the works at Firefly Studios, Stronghold 2 will be released by 2K Games in April 2005.

Deep Silver today announced that Singles 2: Triple Trouble will be heading to the retails stores this May. The game involves three young singles who share an apartment in the city. Having had a rough year, the player moves into their new apartment, little knowing that an ex of theirs is currently living there. Check the press release for more hot details and be sure you don't miss these first
screenshots.

First Class Simulations today announced Military Helicopters - Chopper Havoc, an add-on for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002 / 2004 which will be released on February 25th in the UK, priced at Ł19.99. Military Helicopters – Chopper Havoc puts you in the flying seat of the following aircraft each including custom panels: AH-1 Cobra, AH-64 Apache, OH-58 Kiowa, SA-342 Giselle, UH-1 Huey, UH-60 Blackhawk, VH-3D Sea King Marine 1. Check the fact sheet for more info and these first screenshots.

Atari today announced they are developing and publishing The Matrix: Path Of Neo, a game based on the motion picture trilogy The Matrix from Warner Bros. Pictures where you get to play Neo and relive all the important moments from the movies. The game will be released in Q4 2005 and will be available on the PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC. Check the press release for more details.

If you want to be one of the beta testers for The Matrix Online, then you'd better register with SEGA City. BETA Test registration begins this week. They will send an email to all SEGA City members with instructions when it begins. Have fun!

Ubisoft today released a new batch of screenshots from Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown PS2 version, showcasing Team Rainbow, the elite counter-terrorism unit and two split-screen shots from the Xbox version. In Rainbow Six Lockdown, Team Rainbow is personally attacked and their close-quarter battles reach unprecedented levels of tension and intensity. They will do whatever it takes to protect their people and bring them home - press 'read more' to find some details about the members of Team Rainbow. Rainbow Six: Lockdown is being developed by two of Ubisoft's award-winning studios: Red Storm Entertainment, the maker of the original Rainbow Six, and Ubisoft's Montreal Studio. The game will be released in March 2005, for PC, Xbox and PS2. A new movie was added in our download area.

ArenaNet and and NCsoft today announced that Guild Wars, their mission-based competitive online RPG, will be available at retail on April 28, 2005. Players who preorder Guild Wars will be able to use their preorder access codes to start playing the full game on April 27, 2005. They will also have access to the following monthly Beta Weekend Events: February 18–20, March 18–20 and April 15–17. Only the February Beta Weekend Event will be available for all players who grabbed a cd-key through contests or promotions. Press 'read more' for details.

Turbine Entertainment Software Corp. has updated the official Asheron's Call 2: Legions website with new screenshots (available also in our gallery), showcasing this expansion pack scheduled to debut this spring. Thanks: Blues). Asheron's Call 2: Legions will offer a new playable race (the mystical Empyreans), a new continent named Knorr and an innovative hero system that rewards glory in battle with new abilities, skills and combat tactics. The expansion pack will also provide new monsters, several new quests and dozens of new dungeons, along with content from more than 20 episodic updates that Turbine has provided to existing players since Asheron's Call 2 launch.

Divogames today released a new sequel to Airstrike II entitled AirStrike II: Gulf Thunder. AirStrike II: Gulf Thunder has 24 new levels and there is a whole lot of desert flying to do because this add-on is Iraq-based. You will have to choose one out of the three helicopters and try to take down a terrorist base. There's a demo waiting for you, but first check out these screens.

Here are the latest screens from the latest installment of the Trackmania series developed by Nadeo. The game features new vehicules that can reach an incredible 400kph, new environments, two new solo modes: Platform and Crazy, an integrated peer-to-peer network for exchanging player creations, fully customisable car skins and player avatars and extensive content support from an existing online community. Download the latest trailer, if you haven't done it already. TrackMania Sunrise will be released in North America by Enlight in June 2005.

Our Bet On Soldier gallery has been updated with 11 new screenshots, illustrating this thrilling PC-based first-person shooter which will be released by Digital Jesters in April 2005, throughout Benelux and the United Kingdom. Thanks: Blues. The most interesting part of this game is the fact that before entering battle, players can wager on which particular enemy soldiers they are going to kill. When they encounter this enemy in the game, a duel will take place. Depending on the outcome, the player will either lose his stake or win a prize calculated according to his opponent's rank, his initial stake, and the length of time it took to win. Accrued credits can be used to upgrade the player's character, in order to challenge progressively tougher opponents. Don't forget to check out the E3 2004 trailer.

Four more screenshots from Aurora Watching can now be found in our gallery, showcasing this stealth game in the works at Metropolis Software. The action of the game takes place in the Arctic - all the locations are situated on an iceberg, in the laboratory underneath the iceberg and in a dangerously flooded Russian submarine. During the mission, player must faces many opponents, not all of whom are human and each of which can be defeated in many ways, Mini-games, puzzles, and hi-tech gadgets keep player excited from the very beginning to the end.

New screenshots from Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars have been inserted in our gallery), illustrating the upcoming historical 3D RTS in the works at GSC Game World. With an all-new enhanced 3D graphics engine and featuring more than 150 unit types and a realistic troop morale system, Cossacks II will put gamers in control of 19th-century European nations as they wage war, secure alliances and work to economically and militarily overpower their opponents. Gamers will take on the roles of diplomat, warrior and economist as the leader of one of six European nations as they expand their empires through treaties, truncheons and treasuries. Utilizing an attractive 3D engine, the game will allow for 64,000 units to be onscreen simultaneously, as armies battle in sweeping landscapes featuring more than 1,000 types of realistic flora and fauna (press 'read more' for details). Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars will be released by CDV Software Entertainment in April 2005.