Just Play today announced that it had finalised an agreement with Slitherine Strategies to publish their latest strategy game Spartan in the UK, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, BeNeLux and Scandinavia plus several other European territories. Spartan is the third in a series of Empire-building strategy games that includes the best-selling Legion and Chariots of War, Spartan is expected March 2004. Read more for details & screens ...

Jowood have now released a new patch for Phenomic Game Development's 3D RTS/RPG game SpellForce: the Order of Dawn. This update patch brings your retail game to v1.03 and addresses some game play issues, save game fixe, multiplayer game version check, quest fixes and more .. Read more for detailed fix list and download links ...

JoWooD and Phenomic send us a notice to inform the public that they are aware of the problems if you forcing the Anti Aliasing option through the control panel for your ATI videocard. Jowwod approached ATI regarding this problem to which they responded: "ATI has already addressed the driver problems seen when forcing AA through the control panel. A solution will be provided in one of the next driver releases, most likely in December but possibly in the very early new year."

GolemLabs has posted its first developer diary of six on its official website today, detailing the development of its upcoming real-world strategy game SuperPower 2. DreamCatcher Games will publish the title in late 2004. The sequel to SuperPower is, like its predecessor, a global geopolitical simulation game that gives gamers the power to control four aspects of a chosen country: politics, economy, military and demography. Compared to the original game, however, SuperPower 2 has been improved with new gameplay, 3D graphics and an incredibly smart A.I.

UbiSoft has now also released the dedicated Win32 server for 1C Maddox's WW II flight sim IL-2 Sturmovik: the Forgotten Battles to synchronize it with yesterdays v1.21 client patch. Read more for download links ...

Gearbox has revealed that they are working on yet another patch for their PC port of Halo: Combat Evolved. The v1.03 update patch is expected to be released early next week and will add several new features (anti team killing, increased network performance, etc.) as well as various game fixes and dedicated server updates. Read more for a detailed fix list.

Right after the Unreal II SE announcement, Atari now also revealed that a demo version of Unreal 2 Expanded Multiplayer a.k.a. XMP, will be released tomorrow. The demo will not require a copy of Unreal 2 to try out and will feature one map entitled XMP-Garden. The full version of XMP, which is included with Unreal 2: Special Edition, will be a free download for existing owners of Unreal 2, and is absolutely brilliant (thanks Andy). Stay tuned for we WILL have it on our fileservers of course ..

TDK has released a new patch for Synetic's racing game World Racing. This upgrade brings your retail game to v1.4.4 and adresses some control issues, fixes bugs and some sound improvements. This patch also allows you to download new cars and the first one "slipstream" is already included (thanks 4Players.de). Read more for details and download links ...

Atari is expanding the gameplay of Unreal II: The Awakening this December with Unreal II: The Awakening ­ Special Edition for the personal computer. The Special Edition package will include the original single-player campaign, first released in February 2003, as well as an all-new multiplayer experience called XMP, or “Expanded Multiplayer.” Developed by Legend Entertainment (an Atari studio) in conjunction with Epic Games, Unreal II: The Awakening is the follow-up to Epic Games’ 1998 smash hit Unreal and incorporates the same story-driven gameplay, cunningly ferocious enemies and nail-biting tension that made the original title a best seller.