Fire Department 2 (known in the US as Fire Captain: Bay Area Inferno) will feature a lot of improvements and new features such as multiplayer capabilities, better AI, control over a larger amount of units, improved graphics, five campaigns, and, of course, more realism. Monte Cristo has released an English demo featuring the 'Shopping Mall' mission from the first campaign (thanks 3DGamers). Read more for download links ...

Naked Sky Entertainment began demonstrating RoboHordes today at the Game Developer Conference (GDC). Commissioned by Intel to showcase the power of Intel's dual-core processor, the RoboHordes demo not only utilizes advanced robot simulation technology and control theory from modern robot design, but is also the first game to use Unreal Engine 3 at a playable frame rate.

Spring 1945: World War 2 is drawing to a close and the Russians and Germans are caught in a furious battle for a devastated Berlin. The cold war starts... As a sniper, recruited by the OSS (former CIA), it is the beginning of a lonely stealth mission in the Russian territory. In development since 2003, Sniper Elite is a sniping/stealth game due to be released on PS2, PC and Xbox May 2005.

Play the most memorable and exhilarating scenes from The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones and the forthcoming Episode III Revenge of the Sith including pod racing on Mos Espa, the repelling of the droid onslaught in the Genosian arena and Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon's fatal fight with Darth Maul. Eidos has released a demo for its upcoming action game LEGO Star Wars, allowing you to play the first level (thanks Demonews) Read more for download links ...

Already revealed earlier this month, Jowood Productions today officially announced its intention to bring out the big guns for 2005 with the release of Panzer Elite Action for Xbox, PS2 and PC developed by Zootfly. Read more for details and screens ...

At New York's Central Park Zoo, a lion, a zebra, a giraffe, and a hippo are best friends and stars of the show. But when one of the animals goes missing from their cage, the other three break free to look for him, only to find themselves reunited ... on a ship en route to the island of Madagascar. When their vessel capsizes off the coast, however, the friends, who have all been raised in captivity, learn first-hand what life can be like in the wild.

NDL today announced from the 2005 Game Developers Conference (GDC) that its Gamebryo 3D graphics engine and toolkit is being used by Firaxis Games in the creation of Sid Meier's Civilization IV. Firaxis is expanding its relationship with NDL based on the company's recent success using Gamebryo in the development of the critically acclaimed Sid Meier's Pirates!

BioWare and Irrational Games are pleased to announce a co-marketing agreement for Irrational Games’ new release, Freedom Force vs. The 3rd Reich. As part of BioWare’s continuing efforts to expand its online store, BioWare will be promoting Irrational's Freedom Force sequel to the nearly 2.4 million members of the BioWare Community. Freedom Force vs. The 3rd Reich offers gamers a unique role-playing experience, and BioWare and Irrational hope that fans of BioWare’s games will also be fans of Irrational’s new release.

Founded in 1996, Galiléa started with the adventure/edutainment title Genesys before finding a much wider audience with Cameron Files series (Loch Ness and Pharaoh's Curse/Amenophis). The company's final adventure was Jack the Ripper in early 2004. Having already cancelled production on the third Cameron Files game and shutting down its main studio in Grenoble, France, Galiléa has existed since mid-2004 as a skeleton company based in Montreal, Canada. However, unable to secure any new development deals, co-founder Philippe Gaudé has now confirmed that budget considerations have forced them to close down and seek opportunities elsewhere (thanks Adventure Gamers).

Xfire announced today it has filed an answer and countersuit in United States District Court in response to a lawsuit filed by Yahoo Inc. In today's filing Xfire refutes all allegations that it is infringing Yahoo's patent. In addition, Xfire has filed a countersuit stating that the Yahoo lawsuit is an attempt to drive Xfire out of business (and therefore avoid direct competition in the marketplace) or to force Xfire to sell or license its proprietary technology to Yahoo for far less than fair market value to settle the expensive litigation.