The long-awaited playable demo for X² - The Threat is now available, offering a chance to don your space boots in this space combat exploration sequel by EgoSoft. This demo offers five tutorials (Basics, Trade, Fight, Build, Think) as well as a test universe to explore at will. Gamer's Hell - 3D Gamers

Nvnews have thrown up their review of X² - The Threat! Here's a snip.

I recently had the opportunity of playing X2 The Threat by EgoSoft. It's a large scale empire building game set in the far reaches of the universe. I believe that's a good thing. I think this game should be shipped there. As far as open-ended space trading games are concerned, this game is certainly part of the genre. However, as a space opera, it's long on game time, but comes up short on the story. I have a few words that I would use to describe this game: stunning, infinite, monotonous, tiresome, and laughable.

Digital Jesters has released Savage: the Battle for Newerth 2.00d Demo, the 3D online action strategy game by S2 Games. As before, this Win32 demo contains the maps Eden2 and Crossroads, playable as the human race, but it has been enhanced with all the improvements, fixes and other changes from the recent version 2.00 patches, at the expense of a 91 MB increase in download size.

Activision has released a new multiplayer beta patch for Call of Duty, bringing the tactical first-person shooter by Infinity Ward to version 1.3. This release addresses several server list problems, a couple of exploits, a sniper rifle animation bug, and some balancing issues. Note however that this is an unsupported beta patch for the English editions only, and it's not compatible with v1.2 servers.

Fido over at The Inquirer recently reported a Rumour that Nvidia had done a deal with id Software to supply a Doom 3 vouchers for the full game with their upcoming range of NV40 and NV45 video cards!

New bots for Soldier of Fortune2 - Double Helix. Try them for yourself and see the difference. grab it from X-Team Website - in the downloads section under mods. These bots are a bit smarter and are more like Unreal Tournament Bots

Raven Software have released a new multiplayer map for Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, expanding their sci-fi 3D action game. This is a Siege map titled Destroyer, and it's accompanied by a set of tutorials explaining how to create your own Siege maps and vehicles.

The Demo's three scenarios ("Ambush", "River Crossing" and "The Stand") have been rebalanced for various difficulty levels. Now "Easy" level is really simple, allowing the most relaxing playing process, suitable even for kids. "Medium" is typical for what a normal strategy gamer would expect - no more extreme A.I. advantage. And "Hard" will be a real pleasure for hardcore grognards.

Codemasters has now released a playable demo of Colin McRae Rally 04, allowing you to sample their upcoming racing simulation sequel. This is a single-player demo sporting the Citroen Xsara that you can throw around with reckless abandon on three single stages set in the USA (North Catamount), Japan (Yuzawa) and Finland (Anttola).

GG Mania reports that Shiny Entertainment has released a new patch for Enter the Matrix, bringing this futuristic third-person action game to version 1.2 (oddly enough lower version than the previous v1.52 patch). According to Atari support page, this patch is only for users who have the Intel 845 chipset. It will work for both the CD and DVD version of the game.

Here's a list of some of latest games patches , Screenshots , trailers and Demos that the doing the rounds on the web.

Advent Rising Movie Realms of Torment Movies #2 Dead Mans Hand Intro Movie

Mertsch in our Forum lets me know that Winfuture.de are reporting there may be a new Doom 3 Beta Leak! Its said to be 620 MB big and contains 14 Maps plus Muliplayer enabled.

we wont be posting any links , so please don't ask or post links! I will leave the comments section open for now! unless we get muppets posting links.

Update: Thanks to Mr A we have a bit more Info:

Here's a list of some of latest games patches , trailers and Demos that the doing the rounds on the web.

Battlefield Vietnam Movie Driver 3 Movie Syberia 2 Trailer

DreamCatcher Interactive has now released the single-player demo of Painkiller, offering an opportunity to try out this upcoming frantic first-person shooter by People Can Fly. This demo contains three levels: the medieval Town level, the Oriental Castle level, and the Thor level against the mighty Saphathoraél.

The most crucial part of this patch is Scoring System in singleplayer which shows player's rank increasing as he passes through world war missions, scenarios and campaigns. Moreover, the scoring system encourages players to develop their skills thus giving more scores to those who completed the mission faster and with less casualties. In addition, significant enchantments have been done to both graphic engine and gameplay.

An Orc warrior died here while protecting the woman he loved. Both their names have been forgotten, but the powerful magic of his sacrifice reshaped the land into a lasting tribute to her.

A.I.M. is Skyriver's (published by 1C) action role-playing game unfolding in sci-fi universe inhabited by robots. Robots have just vague memories of people as creators of their world (that is in fact a huge military test zone). You will have to assume role of an AI robot traveling on a glider - special floating vehicle with antigravity engines. This 350mb demo lets you try out one "zone" from the full game.

Just spotted this bit of Info over at BeyondUnreal

Speech Recognition is a feature that allows you to communicate with your bots, and give them orders using your voice (and a mic, of course). However, this feature is not functional by default in the demo version of UT2004. Here's a run-down of what you'll need to do to get it working in the UT2004 demo.

At long last, from the darkness of shadows emerges the THIEF: Deadly Shadows website.

You play Garrett, the master thief, who steals for a living, and kills when he has to. In The City where Garrett resides, crime and corruption are commonplace, wealthy nobles prey on the poor, and magic and machinery coexist uneasily. Attempting to stop the fabric of The City from unraveling are the Keepers, the secret society that trained Garrett in his youth. According to the Keepers, a dark age is approaching, and Garrett's name appears in their prophecies...prominently. The Keepers turn to Garrett in their hour of need, and reluctantly he agrees to enter their secret libraries and work with them once again.

GameSpot reports that while Dreamcatcher recently announced that Painkiller won't be out until April, the public will get its first taste of the otherworldly first-person shooter next week. A playable demo will premiere on GameSpot DLX on February 16 with three single-player maps.