The promised playable demo for TimeShift is now online, offering the first opportunity to try out the imminent time-manipulating futuristic first-person shooter by Saber Interactive. The demo contains one full level "where you must use your timeshifting powers to infiltrate the perimeter of a heavily guarded building to meet an important rebel contact on the top floor." As with another recent Atari demo the InstallShield installer is rather finicky and may throw an error that makes the demo appear to be broken, but if you encounter this problem it can be resolved with the instructions .

Enemy Territory was one of our favorite games ever, so you bet your sweet momma's butt we were all over a chance to take a look at the game at Activision's Santa Monica office. Jakub has a huge four-page preview with 10 spicy screenshots ready for your perusal.

It has come to our attention that Halo 3, Microsoft's 'killer app' for the Xbox 360 is, in fact, ready to roll and a major European mastering plant is just poised ready to go.

HEXUS

What's coming up this year? bit-tech contributor Ryan Garside takes a look at the 10 most anticipated games on the PC, Xbox 360 and PS2. It's a controversial, yet drool-worthy list.

Bit-Tech

Gamemag.ru conducted an investigation to clear up what's going on with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. -Shadow of Chernobyl:

GG Mania

The problem with videogame journalism is that we rarely get an opportunity to experience the game the same way a gamer will. In this article, Alan talks about the challenges that videogame journalism face.

The former members of Blizzard who founded ArenaNet a few years ago now have their own success in Guild Wars, their own fantasy multiplayer action-RPG that does away with all those pesky monthly fees that most conventional MMOs have.
Gamecloud

Back in September 2005, at the PDC Microsoft Conference, CryTek, developers of Far Cry, released a movie that showcased some of the capabilities of the Cry Engine 2 under DirectX 10 API: dynamic day/night cycle, fully interactive enviroments, sunrays and diffuse transmission, real time soft shadows, soft particles, interactive/destructrible enviroments, volumetric clouds, and advanced shader technology. "GameHell"

Wargaming.net announces the release of new BETA version which has following extra features:

LucasArts has now released a playable demo for Star Wars Empire at War, allowing the chance to feel the force in this futuristic 3D real-time strategy game under construction at Petroglyph Games. This demo includes the first five tutorials and a Galactic Conquest map playable as the Rebel Forces commander where "you'll battle for control of the Outer Rim in the Vergesso Asteroids and attempt to liberate Tatooine from the grip of the Empire.

Ubi Soft has released the playable demo for Rainbow Six: Lockdown, offering the first opportunity to try out the squad-based tactical shooter sequel that is nearing completion at Red Storm. This demo contains a single-player mission situated in South Africa that's also playable in co-op, along with the Prison multiplayer map with the 'Team Adversarial' game mode.

When you watch the Enemy Territory: Quake Wars trailer, it's easy to leap to conclusions about what the game's going to be. It's Battlefield in the Quake universe! It's getting railgunned in the face by twitch-killers as you stand next to a spawnpoint for a vehicle.

This year, DICE will release not one but two new booster packs for Battlefield 2, titled Euro Force and Armoured Fury. They feature three new levels each, new weapons and new vehicles. We have all the details, and new screenshots too!

Bit-Tech

Blizzard has released a new patch for the US, UK and German editions of World of Warcraft bringing their popular MMORPG to v1.9.2. Word is "Characters should no longer appear to "pop" around terrain. Movement should be smoother once again".

Gamer's Hell

id Software has quietly issued a new beta retail patch for Quake 4, bringing the Win32 edition of Raven's sci-fi first-person shooter sequel to version 1.0.5 beta2. This update fixes a problem with screenshots turning black and an issue with running multiple instances of the dedicated server.

Anyone who still has the hots for the long-awaited S.T.A.L.K.E.R., congratulations first of all because you've managed to stay turned on to the game for around three zillion months without loss of ardour. But also, you might be tempted to roll around in Vaseline with glee at reports that GSC Game World's title has finally moved into beta.

PC Zone

Sign up for closed beta: Atari and Saber Interactive are pleased to announce a closed public beta test for the upcoming first person shooter TimeShift. The beta test will comprise the multiplayer game mode only, the purpose of which is to get your feedback on game tuning and balance, help with hardware compatibility testing, and also general functionality testing.

We've finished our first article for 2006 and it's available on our website. In this article, we explore what can we do to avoid lag, stuttering, and performance - memory wise. It looks like 2 GB is a must if you want to run games at the highest details, but we think the major improvement of having 2 GB (or even 4 GB) of memory is not performance or lack of stuttering. It's game loading time - far shorter for newer games.

First Ever SiN Episodes Gameplay Movie! CES 06 Movie, 11 minutes long.

1 UP

ShackNews have thrown up their Preview of Epic Games FPS Unreal Tournament 2007.

Many of the nine UT2004 vehicles have been revamped to be grouped into the Axon Team. Facing off against Axon is the brand new Necris team, which will have their own set of nine vehicles. Someone at Epic must be a "Back to the Future II" fan, because one of these new rides happens to be none other than a hoverboard. (Though hopefully sans the pink color scheme and "Mattel" label.)