In Pirates! you take the leading role of a Pirate Captain in the 17th century Caribbean trying to become the most revered and feared pirate in history - exploring high seas and exotic ports, overtaking enemies in fierce naval battles, engaging in duels and attempting to seize valuable booty. In this developer diary Firaxis QA manager Tim McCacken about the extensive focus testing that helped shape the Xbox version of Sid Meier’s Pirates

Dragonshard will incorporate classic role-playing themes, a powerful and dynamic real-time strategy engine all woven together with a rich storyline involving a global conflict for an immensely powerful artifact with the power to change the fate of Eberron itself. Atari has announced the Dragonshard demo will be released this week, look for it on our fileserver network as soon as its available.

Blizzard today unveiled the BlizzCon website, presenting many new details about its upcoming gaming convention. Set to take place on Oct. 28 and 29 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, Calif., BlizzCon will celebrate Blizzard's games and the players who have made them so popular around the world. Live music band, Q&A session, tournaments etc..

Already revealed a few weeks ago, Trackmania Sunrise is getting a free downlodable expansion pack dubbed Trackmania Sunrise eXtreme, featuring new and more insane tracks than ever before. Read more for the first screens or check ingame footage trailer...

Japanese magazine Nikkei Electronics quotes an interview with SCE head honcho Ken Kutaragi that its next-gen PS3 console will no longer feature the previously announced three Gigabit Ethernet ports, allowing it to act as a home network router. The reason cited was that it would have made the console too expensive. Instead, people will have to resort to their own in-house routers to accommodate networking.

Armageddon, under development at Boanerges Studios, is a physics-centric first-person shooter. Using the Reality engine, now acquired by Epic to be incorporated in the Unreal Engine 3, Armageddon is a sci-fi shooter supporting all the latest DirectX 9 features, driveable vehicles and plenty of fire-power. Read more to check out some new screens ...

Vivendi and Empire Interactive today announced an exclusive agreement by which VU Games will market and distribute in North America, Empire's multi-platform destructive racing game FlatOut 2.

SCAR: Squadra Corse Alfa Romeo, is a stunning racing simulation which combines both realistic car physics, and vibrant graphics together with classic Role Playing Game elements to become the first 'CARPG' ever developed. Black Bean has released a small patch intended to fix the "Protection Error" crash, repeatedly reported on WinXP/2K. Read more for download links ...

Putt Nutz, the only miniature golf game for current generation consoles, is a fast paced, over-the-top title that brings all the fun of miniature golf into your living room. This original game takes full advantage of the graphical power of modern consoles with hand painted backgrounds and fully animated 3D environments.

Gothic 3 developer Piranha Bytes accept all troubles by creating fascinating background music. Top-class stars and a impressively huge orchestra revive Kai Rosenkranz's composition. Gothic 3 is the third part of the RPG legend presenting an intense, living world and a non-linear, varied gaming experience.