• The Suffering: Ties That Bind
  The Suffering: Ties That Bind Unbound on Computer and Video Games is a Q&A with Richard Rouse about Midway's upcoming horror sequel: "Sequels are great for games because they give development teams a chance to really refine the gameplay mechanics, and provide a much tighter and more compelling game. As well as tightening up weapon selection, inventories and controls, we've improved the variety of enemies and the tactics they use to attack you. Our creatures are still the distinct, horrific fiends players liked in the first game, but they're quite a bit more clever and deadly this time around."
• King Kong
  Peter Jackson Speaks on GameSpot is a Q&A with the director about his upcoming King Kong remake, and the related game tie-in: "From day one we believed that close collaboration was essential to ensure that the game was a true extension of the film universe. We spent a lot of time during the preproduction phase of the game discussing key story points and gameplay elements. There has been ongoing communication throughout the entire process, and the team in New Zealand has had the ability to play game builds throughout."

• Auto Assault on Gamebiz.
• Dungeon Siege II on GameSpy.
• Earth 2160 on games xtreme.
• UFO Aftershock on RPG Vault.

• Serious Sam II on 3D Gamers.

• Xbox 360 shown off at Siggraph.
• Sony PS 3 key to new cross-platform development alliance.
• Lockdown Demo Set To Feature Persistent Data.
• Play Zelda next week in Edinburgh.
• Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks.
• Making sweet music with an NES controller.

• Where For Art Thou Gizmondo?
• Gizmondo delays US launch - but angrily denies reports of problems.
• Copy-protected CDs iPod-incompatible but sell well.
• Mobile phone porn craze sparks call for action in Cambodia.
• Alien Hominid Crash Landing On GBA.
• Storm clouds gather over podcasting.
• Rebelstar Tactical Command Gone Gold.
• DS downloadable demos debut in Japan.
• Nintendogs Training Video.
• Infected shots and screams.

• Patches on the way for Windows flaws.
• Killing off gaming on your network. Killjoys.
• Nvidia to offer Vista drivers with Beta 2 arrival.
• AOL buys online locker provider.
• Court Ruling Lets Colleges Block Spam.
• British Software Pirates Jailed.
• It's a bull market for stock spam.

• Midway and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Announce Multi-Platform Publishing Agreement for the Ant Bully...
• Asia's online gaming now a billion-dollar industry: IDC. Thanks Mike Martinez...

UBISOFT ANNOUNCES DARK MESSIAH™ OF MIGHT & MAGIC®

New Might & Magic® game to be powered by Source™ Engine from Valve

SAN FRANCISCO – AUGUST 4, 2005 – Today Ubisoft, one of the world’s largest video game publishers, announces the development of Dark Messiah™ of Might & Magic®, a new first-person action game for the PC, powered by an enhanced version of the Source™ Engine, the award-winning game technology Valve created to power Half-Life®2.

Developed by Arkane Studios, the team behind the critically acclaimed Arx Fatalis game, Dark Messiah of Might & Magic puts players in a first-person perspective, allowing them to immerse themselves in the legendary Might and Magic universe as never before. It is also the world’s first fantasy action game to feature a complete first-person combat system. It takes full advantage of the Source™ Engine’s exceptional technological enhancements in areas such as character animation, advanced AI, real-world physics and shader-based rendering.

Ubisoft acquired the Might and Magic brand in 2003, and Dark Messiah of Might & Magic is the second title Ubisoft will be launching as it restores this famed franchise to glory. Dark Messiah of Might & Magic is scheduled for a summer 2006 release and will be shown for the first time at the Games Convention in Germany on August 17, 2005.

• Serious Sam II
  Gamecloud's Serious Sam II Q&A talks with Dinko Pavicic and Petar Ivancek of Croteam about their upcoming shooter sequel: "Our primary goal was to take the well-known, frantic, fast paced gameplay of Serious Sam to the next level. This time there will be more enemies, more guns, more shooting and more everything...all that wrapped around a brand new Serious Engine to provide the best action experience ever. Other than that, we wanted to expand the gameplay in some other areas, so now you will find yourself driving vehicles through hordes of enemies, fighting side by side with NPCs, blowing apart whole villages, cities and similar stuff just to maintain peace in the universe. I would like to say more, but that would ruin the surprise."
• Indigo Prophecy
  Adventure Gamers' Quantic Dream Q&A talks with David Cage and Guillaume de Fondaumiere of Quantic about their upcoming adventure game known as both Fahrenheit and Indigo Prophecy: "It is relatively difficult to sell this type of game. You must know that Indigo Prophecy probably is one of the only adventure games that will be published in the United States for the PS2. Generally, for various reasons, Sony does not publish adventure games. They believe that adventure games are not suitable for the target audience. So, we really had to show them that Quantic's work was totally different from any other game that was out there. We also made them understand that we could totally change the controls and still have an experience that was worth playing and could still appeal to adventure gamers."
• Movies
  Gamecloud's House Of The Dead 2 Movie Q&A chats with scriptwriter Mark Altman about the upcoming game adaptation sequel: "When we developed the property, there hadn't been a major zombie film since Day of the Dead. Ironically, by the time the film got made and released, we came at the tail end of a wave of big-budget zombie films which was ironic. I will say this, that one of the reasons the story of the game was changed from a genetic mutation by Dr. Curien was because at the time the film was being planned, everyone was concerned about not being too close to Resident Evil and we were trying to stay away from what they were doing at the time."

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 4, 2005-- Midway Games Inc. (NYSE:MWY - News), a leading interactive entertainment publisher and developer, announced today that it has acquired Ratbag Holdings Pty Ltd., a game development studio based in Adelaide, South Australia. Midway acquired the privately-held developer in a primarily stock transaction for 418,570 Midway shares. The studio is currently working on several unannounced Midway products for both current- and next-generation systems. The studio will be renamed Midway Studios - Australia.

• Tycoon City: New York on Worthplaying.

• Black & White 2 on the Official Website. Including a new official logo. Thanks Frans.
• Dawn of Fantasy on 3D Gamers.
• Pirates of the Burning Sea on MMORPG.

• PlayStation 3 Blu-ray drive may run faster than expected.
• Sega Comments on Revolution.
• Nintendo to Speak at German Games Conference.
• From DOS to 360 History of an Operating System.
• KOEI's Dynasty Warriors® 5 Video Game Surges with New Expansion.
• SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy BLOG.
• A few Metroid Prime 3 details slip.
• PlayStation 2 hold on 'Dragon Quest,' 'Final Fantasy' may end.
• New Playstation 2 Screenshots: Shin Megami Tensei Digital Devil Saga 2.
• The Incredibles Joins PlayStation 2 'Greatest Hits' and Nintendo GameCube 'Players Choice' Collections at the Reduced Price of $19.99.
• Ultimate Destruction preorders to receive Hulk comic.
• EA Signs Natasha Bedingfield for Cameo Role in From Russia With Love Video Game.

• Sony prepares for US and EU PSP firmware v2.0 release.
• New Creative Zen Vision to pummel oncoming portable video players?
• Study: Ring tones heavily shoplifted.
• X-OOM Movies on PSP Now Available in North America.
• New Super Robot flying to GBA.

• Worm hole found in Windows 2000.
• Key bugs in core Linux code squashed.
• Cisco.com passwords reset after exposure.
• Microsoft SyncToy v1 Beta for Windows XP.
• Google's bad manners.
• Cheap Intel chipsets on the way out.
• Time Warner Reserves $3 Billion for AOL Claims.
• Yahoo Tests New Audio Search Feature.
• Silent, Deadly Forms Of Phishing Double.
• Yahoo, Microsoft Challenge Google on Ads.
• Report: Search Engine Choice Affects Results.
• Napster and Tower Records join forces in Japan.
• Apple starts iTunes online music service in Japan.
• Dissecting Mighty Mouse.
• Woz's Mini Me.

• The World Cyber Games announce Monza, Italy as the host city for their 2006 finals.
• EverQuest 2 Vault's Fan Fiction Trivia Contest.
• NZXT Nemesis Elite Case Giveaway on CaseModGod.

• System of a (Break) Down on Designtechnica.

• Area 51 on 1Up.
• Boiling Point: Road to Hell on Fragland.net.
• Earth 2160 on EuroGamer.
• ECHO: Secrets of the Lost Cavern on Cosmos Gaming.
• Hellforces (in German) on YiYas.
• TrackMania Sunrise on 1Up.

• Aerocool Chameleon Fan on ASE Labs.
• AOpen Aeolus 7800 GTX-DVD256 Video Card on TrustedReviews.
• AOpen Nouveau Tower Case on TrustedReviews.
• Asetek WaterChill 12V Pump-Res on PimpRig.
• ATI Radeon X850XT PCI-e Video Card on Hi-Techreviews.
• Canary Wireless Digital Hotspotter on TechTastic.
• Corsair ValueSelect 1GB DDR333 SODIMM Memory on Legion Hardware.
• Crucial Ballistix PC2-5300 Memory on ViperLair.
• DFI Infinity nForce 4 Motherboard on Futurelooks.
• ECS PF88 Extreme Hybrid Intel-AMD Motherboard on PCStats.
• GeCube X800XL 512MB Video Card on TweakTown. Thanks ASLayerAODsk.
• MSI Theatre 550 Pro TV Tuner Video Card on PCStats.com.
• NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX Video Card Shootout on HEXUS.net.
• OCZ PC3500 Gold GX Memory on Neoseeker.
• OCZ DDR2 PC2-4200 Value Pro Memory on techPowerUp.
• OCZ DDR2 PC2-Memory on Guru3D.
• Saitek Eclipse Keyboard on Jaded-Gamer.
• Samsung YP-T6 Media Player on CoolTechZone.
• Spire DiamondCool Cooler on InsaneTek.
• Spire SP792S12-U AMD Cooler/Heatsink on A1 Electronics.
• Steel Sound 5H Professional Computer Gaming Headset on Tweaknews.net.
• XFX 6600GT Video Card on CoolTechZone.
• Zalman VF700-Cu GPU Heatsink on HardwareXL.

• Rockstar's latest, Bully, threatened by moral bullies...
• Christians Code Heavenly Games...
• Atari Walks Delisting Tightrope. For board non-compliance, not share price...
• Video game co. THQ's loss smaller than seen...
• Maniac Mansion Creator Supports Indie Ports...
• Interview with Pac-Man Creator...
• Sega Admits Fault in Ride Death...