Electronic Arts said it reserves the right to raise its stake in Ubisoft, depending on market conditions, over the next year. It has no plans to seek to nominate board members, but could do so if the are any major changes in Ubisoft's situation.

• Rise of the Argonauts
  RPG Vault's Rise of the Argonauts Q&A - Part 2 talks with Charley Price, lead designer on Liquid's upcoming action/RPG, discussing the game's combat system, the role the Argonauts play, enemies, mythological influences, and more.
• 2Moons
  The 2Moons Q&A on MMORPG.COM talks with Rusel DeMaria about this free-to-play MMORPG. Topics include comparisons with paid games, what sort of advantage paying for premium content provides, the game's adult-only restriction, and more.

• Beowulf on PC Gamer Magazine.
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare on GameSpy and IGN.
• Galactic Assault: Prisoner of Power on GameZone.com.
• Mercenaries 2: World in Flames on Hooked Gamers.
• Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance on Games Radar.
• Undercover: Operation Wintersun on GameZone.com.

• TimeShift on FileFront.
• War Front: Turning Point on Hooked Gamers.
• Zu Online on RPG Vault.

• Xbox 360 Premium confirmed shipping with HDMI.
• Former EA exec joins Microsoft as VP of Live.
• Interview with Star Trek Conquest Lead Designer on the Bethesda Blog.
• Band of Bugs Expansion Pack Announced For Xbox Live Arcade.
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Previews on GameSpy, IGN, and TeamXbox. Thanks Zach.
• NPD: People Still Don't Know Their Consoles.
• Under the Scales of Blazing Lizard on Next Generation.
• Halo 3 for 3 Sweespstakes (U.S.).

• Everything You Need to Know About The Centrino Platform on Hardware Secrets.
• Widening Credit Crunch Slowly Hitting Tech Vendors.
• Study: More Time Spent With Paid Media.
• Is flash memory facing a physics crisis?
• Novell CEO calls for unifying Linux.
• TiVo rolls out Vista-compatible, DivX-supporting Desktop 2.5.
• William Gibson: 'Cyber' is going away.

• 'Facility issues' knock Cisco.com offline.
• Google News rolling out expert user comments.
• Wikipedia To Experiment With Color-Coded Warnings On Quality.

• PC World iPhone owner survey results. Thanks Ant.
• Coming to your laptop: 1.2TB hard drives.
• Pop-up ads: Coming to a mobile phone near you?

• Judge Tells Qualcomm It Waived Right To Enforce Patents.

• Software Apple Software-Updates iMac Already.
• Mozilla pushes security in Firefox 3.0.
• SpyProxy takes Web apps security fight to 'virtual sandbox'.
• Google mistakes own blog for spam, deletes it.
• Shocker School Boards Notice That The Internet Isn't Dangerous.
• Huge pump-and-dump spam spike in progress.
• Chinese Authorities Start To Understand That 'Internet Addiction' Is A Sign Of Deeper Issues. Thanks Mike Martinez.

• Study: Gamers Swayed by In-Game Ads…
• Convert Or Die Game Sent To Troops In Iraq w/Pentagon Blessing. Thanks Mike Martinez and Digg…
• A new version 1.1 of The Apocalyptic Game About Penguins is now available updating this self-explanatory freeware action game. The download is on Gamer's Hell…
• WoW-Europe.com Forums - I did something nice. Thanks Ant…
• Screen Play: The Future of Machinima…
• Saga Splits From Wahoo Studios and Proves Micropayment-Driven MMO Can Succeed…

Los Angeles (August 8, 2007) – Sierra Entertainment, a division of Vivendi Games, announced today that TimeShift™ will be available on Microsoft's Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system and PC this October 30th. TimeShift™ will make its debut on the PLAYSTATION® 3 computer entertainment system in December.

The pre-order campaign kicks-off at select retailers nationwide this week and features an exclusive playable character for the multiplayer game.

Developer: Techland
Publisher: TBD
Platform(s): Xbox 360, PC (Vista and XP)
Release date: TBD 2008

A couple flying to the vacation of their dreams is torn apart by a violent plane crash. Take on a harrowing quest to find your lost wife. Enter into the dark world of a devastated tropical paradise now plunged into chaos. It’s a place where the word "dead" has an entirely new meaning. Face the nightmare and fight for survival. Explore the secrets hidden in the darkest regions of the island and fight your way through. Survival is your main goal!

Dead Island is a non-linear FPP (First Person Perspective) survival horror title. The ultra-realistic combat system will ensure that every confrontation is a thrilling experience. Use anything you find in your surroundings as a weapon. Make decisions that influence the entire world around you. Take advantage of opponent behavior and game physics. Dead Island is a mix of intense action and chilling horror environments in an engaging, strikingly realistic story.

KEY FEATURES:

    • Ultra-realistic combat
      ◦ Intense and amazingly realistic hand-to-hand combat based on dynamic character moves and camera angles
      ◦ Realistic physical reactions of opponents to hits
      ◦ Exceptionally faithful and detailed damage model, showing damaged skin, muscles and even bones
      ◦ Innovative system of targeting and hitting the opponents gives you precise control and a realistic combat feel
    • Advanced Artificial Life System
      ◦ AL system allows you to take advantage of instinctive behaviors of groups and individual opponents
      ◦ Living, breathing and dynamically changing ecosystem faced with the destructive influence of a spreading epidemic
      ◦ Realistic and spontaneous NPC behavior
      ◦ Through your actions, actively influence NPC reactions
    • Non-linear gameplay
      ◦ Explore a vast, open world of a tropical island, on foot or in a variety of vehicles
      ◦ Freedom of choosing your allies and completing tasks that bring you closer to the finale
      ◦ Player decisions influence the way in which the game progresses, making it a multi-threaded story
    • Fully Interactive Environments
      ◦ The ability to use all elements of the environment as weapons
      ◦ A liquid, gas and electricity physics simulation system, which allows you to create your own unique ways of eliminating enemies

Buka Entertainment announces The Hunt

New ground-breaking FPS from Orion Games

MOSCOW, August 8, 2007 - Buka Entertainment and Orion Games are pleased to reveal The Hunt, new First Person Shooter to be presented at GC 2007.

In 2025, the criminality among the society reached levels not known before. The government approved an extreme, though sure measure to ensure peace, security and prosperity for the society. Being a common citizen, there is a probability of one in a million of receiving the back mark... a device implanted in your body that emits a signal which can be followed. But sometimes happens... If you are marked, you have become the main star of The Hunt... the degeneration into a TV show of the governmental cleaning action. "The Beaters" are the gangs that participate officially as hunters. The Hunt is a brand new FPS which breaks the established rules of the genre. Now shooting won't be enough to survive.

Key Game Features:

    • Brand new engine with state-of-the art features. Real time lightning and shading. The enemies will react to your noise and shadow.
    • The AGEIA PhysX technology allows not just to break almost every element of the scenario, but also to use it as weapon… a stone, a brick, a pipe…
    • The main character is not a soldier or a well-trained hero… is a normal person who receives the Black Mark and has to escape and learn to survive.
    • Stealth will be an important part of the gameplay. Special killing moves.
    • Multiplayer. Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Survival mode…

Windows XP SP2 / VISTA (Games for Windows compliant)
Dual Core Processor
2 Gigs of Ram
Nvidia 7800 or higher / ATI x1300 or higher
Disk space: 15 gigs

• Unreal Tournament III
  Creating Unreality on Eurogamer hears from Epic artist Chris Wells, who talks about working with all those darned polygons in creating Unreal Tournament III.
• NCsoft
  Joystiq interviews NCSoft's Brian Clayton and Richard Garriott talking with the pair about MMOGs, though the main focus is on console development.

• Left 4 Dead on AtomicGamer.
• Tabula Rasa on Gaming Nexus.

• ETQW Public Beta 2 - Valley Map Guide.
• Ship Simulator 2008 video tutorial available. Thanks Gamer's Hell.

• Stranglehold demo now available on Xbox Live. "Not available in Germany."
• Rumor: Microsoft Clearing 360 Stock To Introduce HDMI, 65nm Models?
• Warhammer Mark of Chaos for 360?
• Konami to demo Metal Gear Solid 4 at Leipzig Games Convention.
• Rock Band jam Q&A with Rob Kay on Play.TM.
• Mercury Meltdown Revolution To Ship On September 25th For Nintendo Wii.
• Boogie To Ship On August 31st In Europe For Nintendo Wii.
• Killzone 2 Preview on ActionTrip.
• Ghost Squad Nintendo Wii Screenshots.
• It's Bourne again ... but this time as a video game.
• Mercury Computer Systems Releases Software Development Kit for Playstation 3 for High-Performance Computing.
• Speed Racer game, movie to come out on same day.
• Halo 3 Mountain Dew In Stores.

• Official Vista performance and compatibility packs released.
• Intel's Wolfdale processor gets benchmarked.
• Beautiful New iMac Still Sucks For Gaming. Thanks Mike Martinez.
• Putting electronics in a spin. Thanks Aaron.
• Photo tool could fix bad images. Thanks Mike Martinez.
• Atomic I/O letters column #72 on Dan's Data.

• World of Warcraft to the World of Mobile Phones? Thanks Ant.
• iPhone NES Fast, usable, totally rewritten. Thanks Ant and Digg.

• Broadband Speeds Averaging About 1/3 Of The Speed On The Box.
• The Onion brings its irreverent satire to MySpace. Thanks Mike Martinez.

• LucasArts Prez Talks Video Game Legislation.
• Guy Suing Spammers Under CAN-SPAM Told To Pay Legal Fees Of The Company He Sued.
• 'Violent' PlayStation 3 internet ad banned in UK.
• Gamer Calls Out Romney in YouTube Debate Video.

• Hacking tool preys on vulnerable wireless networks.
• Researchers: Take anti-spam fight to the Web.
• When cyberbullying hits teens.
• The ghosts in the voting machines.

• Armageddon Empires on Out of Eight.
• Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword on 2404.

• Abit AN-M2HD High Definition Motherboard on Overclockers Club.
• Actiontec GT704-WGR Wireless Modem on Mikhailtech.
• Bigfoot Networks' Killer NIC on The Tech Report.
• Biostar TF7050-M2 Motherboard on bit-tech.net.
• GIGABYTE Triton 180 Case on HotHardware.
• HP w2207 22" LCD Monitor on TrustedReviews.
• iRiver e10 6GB MP3 Player on ThinkComputers.org.
• LapWorks Futura Laptop Desk & Desktop Stand on Virtual-Hideout.
• Lenovo 3000 V200 (2.2GHz) Laptop on Digital Trends.
• Logisys T-Coupe Mouse on Techgage.
• Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ on BIOS.
• OCZ ModXStream 780W Modular PSU on Benchmark Reviews.
• OCZ PC2 9200 Reaper DDR2 RAM on Guru3D.
• Revoltec Rhodium Case on XSReviews.co.uk.
• SanDisk Sansa Express (2GB) Flash Drive on TrustedReviews.
• Sunbeamtech 3D Storm ATX Case on MADSHRIMPS.
• Super Talent T1000UX2G4 2GB DDR2 Dual Channel RAM Kit on Futurelooks.
• Thecus N5200 Pro NAS on HEXUS.net.

• Hellgate: London Collector's Edition Contents Revealed…
• South Park The 10th Season DVD comes with free WoW Trail (thanks Ant). A 14-day trial, 40% cooler than the normal 10-Day Free Trial…
• State of Play: Why I play games. By Margaret Robertson, former editor of Edge magazine…