Etrom is an epic adventure among realms and cities, democracies and “nazi” dictatorships, a journey through space-time portals, among the Thrones of the Abyss, beyond the gates of the City of Light and many more locations, situations, rituals, secret-services plots, dark spells.

Amid surging Xbox sales and global business expansion, Robbie Bach, senior vice president of Microsoft and head of Microsoft’s Home and Entertainment Division, today announced a number of new executive appointments. Shane Kim, currently acting general manager of Microsoft Game Studios, has been named permanently to that position and will report to Peter Moore, corporate vice president. To create additional synergies between game content and marketing, Moore, in turn has been named head of worldwide content and marketing for Microsoft games and game products. Bach also announced that Mitchell (Mitch) Koch, corporate vice president, will lead Microsoft’s global retail sales efforts.

Midway Games Inc. today announced the launch of the official website for Psi-Ops. Players can now access all of the latest news and updates for Psi-Ops by visiting the official Psi-Ops webiste. The site will continue to be updated over the upcoming months, so be sure to stay tuned for the latest on Psi-Ops.

Publisher Strategy First Inc. and developer Stardock announced today that a new expansion pack for the award-winning turn-based strategy game Galactic Civilizations will be released in Q2 2004. Galactic Civilizations: Altarian Prophecy will add a host of new features, content and other enhancements to the original game to add depth and greater replayability.

Hitman: Contracts delivers more action-packed and suspenseful missions, with a greater variety of ways to make the perfect hit and an increased arsenal of firearms and close-combat weapons. A new graphics engine showcases Hitman's 'work' in brutal detail and brings new locations to life. An improved control system and more gradual learning curve will ensure that the game is accessible to all aspiring hitmen. Hitman: Contracts is being developed by Io Interactive and will be available for PS2, Xbox, and PC in spring 2004.

LTStudios today announced their new toolchain and development system Myriad – which has been specifically designed to deliver highly populated environments for Playstation 2, Xbox and PC. Myriad's sophisticated engine can manage environments teeming with characters, high volumes of vehicle traffic or any other active game content – from cars and animals to soldiers and military craft. With the addition of vehicle dynamics and physics, Myriad had recently been used to create a racing game prototype.

EARTH 2160 is an RTS game based on the popular and successful EARTH series. Including single and multiplayer modes. The game uses the latest Earth III engine. Storing objects in a format based on the mathematical model of Bezier-curves instead of polygons. Giving an as yet unseen level of detail, only limited by the hardware used. A native T&L rendering module supports per pixel shaders and bone calculation directly on advanced graphic cards. Read more to check the first screens ...

Publisher Graphsim Entertainment and developer Slitherine announce a publishing agreement for the North American release of Spartan, a new turn-based strategy game from an award-winning developer of strategy classics. Read more for details or check the new cinematic trailer...

“The I of the Dragon” is an RPG in which the player sees the world through the eyes of the Dragon. As a shimmering, flying colossus, armed with poison, ice, acid and fire, he soars and glides through the beautiful game world Nimoa with the task of liberating the lands of evil. Zuxxez & Strategy First have released a new demo for “The I of the Dragon” featuring a tutorial, 3 missions of the full game, and one dragon. Read more for download links ...

Players will be able to take the reins of their preferred team through European and World Championships. Over 15,000 real players are included within the game. Managers can buy and sell players, train their squads and develop match tactics - with matches portrayed in real-time through a detailed 3D engine.