Known for his role as the loyal hobbit Sam Gamgee in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, actor lends his voice to upcoming epic Vietnam videogame saga Men of Valor.

NCsoft and Cryptic Studios announced the addition of two new members to the City of Villains development team, a sequel to City of Heroes. Dave "Zeb" Cook has been named senior designer and Shane Hensley will serve as senior writer on the City of Villains team.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Chaos Theory will offer a high adrenaline experience thanks to never seen before close range attacks, a totally open level design, a completely immersive and interactive environment, and challenging advanced AI. In addition, it will offer the best graphics in this generation of games and a unique, collaborative multiplayer mode available for online and offline.

"Blitzkrieg II" builds upon the success of our best selling RTS "Blitzkrieg" with a new focus on fast-paced gameplay, a strategic layer and new tactical opportunities. A completely new engine takes WWII into full 3D where players can command famous aces and units, strategically plan battles in multiple theatres, choose their reinforcements and use a wide range of new unit types such as aircraft and ships.

As promised, Activision has released the demo for demo for Creative Assembly's 3D RTS Rome: Total War, featuring a tutorial playable as the Roman Julii Family, and the Battle of Trebia map playable as the Carthaginians (thanks Fileplanet). Read more for download links...

Eidos announces it has secured the distribution rights to LEGO Star Wars with Giant Interactive Entertainment Ltd for all countries except Japan. The game will be released in April 2005 for the PS2, Xbox, PC and GBA.

EA today announced that award-winning composer Mark Mothersbaugh is the composer of the theme music for the highly-anticipated simulation game, The Sims 2.

The Future Network plc today announces that its UK subsidiary Future Publishing has acquired the title and goodwill of two UK games magazines - PC Zone and CVG - from the Dennis Publishing group for a consideration of £2.5m in cash. The acquisition also includes the related website computerandvideogames.com.

From the makers of FIFA Football, Total Club Manager 2005 will pit your football wits against the best managers in the world. Whether you are scrapping for points in a relegation battle, or on the verge of European victory, TCM 2005 will guarantee you feel the pressures of the modern day football manager.

Use destructive weapons and innate mental powers to take on the most feared enemy in the galaxy - Mankind! Play as Crypto, an alien warrior sent to Earth to clear the way for the Furon invasion force. Your mission is to infiltrate humanity, control them, harvest their brain stems and ultimately destroy them. You choose the method - infiltration or disintigration!