Following months of delays and a publisher switch, Sega and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment launch the sci-fi film trilogy-inspired MMORPG.

More software and games are being sold overseas than are imported, a good sign for the economy, said the report. It shows the interactive entertainment industry is doing financially better than film and television industries. The rising cost of making games has meant many studios have closed however, sending talent overseas.

A bill introduced into the Illinois State House last December would supersede current ESRB ratings when it comes to video games with "violent and sexually explicit" content. The focus would be on isolating games deemed to have content not suitable for those under the age of 18 and would also attach a fine to retailers who violate the restriction on sales of those games.

In a ruling handed down Wednesday, the federal judge presiding over the lawsuit Marvel Enterprises brought against game publisher NCsoft has severely limited the overall scope of the suit.

Half-Life 2 tops GDC Choice Awards

Best Game:
Half-Life 2 (Valve Software/Vivendi Universal Games)

New Studio:
Crytek (Far Cry)

Writing:
Half-Life 2 (Valve Software/Vivendi Universal Games)

Epic Games, one of the world's leading developers of cutting-edge computer and video games and the pioneer of the award-winning Unreal® Engine, today announced that its Unreal Engine 3 technology and tools will be used in games developed by and published by Microsoft Game Studios.

Mercenaries holds chart top spot

Final Fantasy legends hits Xbox

Defender creator honoured at GDC

Game award nominations announced

Link.

"Actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson revealed more information on the upcoming Doom film, based on id Software's hit franchise. Johnson, who was on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart promoting the film Be Cool, was prodded by Stewart about another upcoming project."

"The Texas Gaming festival is a successful LAN event that has been taking place in Dallas, Texas for the past few years. Over the years, it has become one of the top most visited and sponsored LAN events in the nation with attendance easily surpassing the 500-attendee attendance. This year was no different. In fact, this was perhaps the most successful attempt at a LAN event especially when ATI decided to launch its X850 XT PE 512MB graphics card officially."

"Washington state bill would hold game companies responsible for "inspiring" real-life violence; Arkansas proposal literally keeps M-rated games out of kids' reach. Lawmakers across the country continue to propose legislation that would safeguard youths from the supposedly harmful effects of games that depict violence or that are rated "M" (for Mature content) by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board."

"VIOLENCE in video games is under the spotlight again today as action is taken on both sides of the pond to limit the exposure of children to violent games."

"PC first person shooter Half-Life 2 has won six Bafta Awards, including best game and best online game."

"The title, developed by Valve, was released last year to universal acclaim - receiving special praise for its immersive plot and physics engine."

GameSpy is running an introduction to the Doom3 expansion pack, Resurrection of Evil, due out April 5, 2005. That's right, in just over a month, not a year and a month.

"One of the most popular sections of DOOM 3 was the ancient civilization area introduced towards the end of the game, and that's basically where the expansion begins.

Gamespot is running a story reporting that proposed legislation would make it illegal for retailers in the state to sell or rent violent games to children under 17. Initially that sounds like it might be a good idea, but I can't help but to cringe each time another area of life becomes over-regulated.

In case you missed it, as I did, it was announced on linuX-gamers.net that icculus has released a linux version of patch 3354. You can read the story here or get the patch here.

Atari is planning to release another video game based on The Matrix Trilogy just in time for Christmas. Their 2003 title Enter the Matrix sold approximately 6 million copies. I found Enter the Matrix to disjointed and far removed from it's namesake. The storyline, if you can call it that, was hard to follow, the goal was unclear, and the "action scenes" were boring and repetitive. I hope for more with The Matrix: Path of Neo".

Here's a story on a board game based on and entitled Doom: The Board Game. This is apparently not breaking news, but I just heard about and got a chuckle over it a few days ago. But hey, I think it might make a neato gift for those diehard doom series lovers, or those who wished they could have played doom3 but couldn't swing the hardware upgrade! Get yours here!