Microsoft Games and Turbine have created a thoroughly worthy sequel to their original MMORPG. Asheron\'s Call 2: Fallen Kings is beautiful and amazing to play. It is a sign of what is to come in the realm of massively multiplayer online role playing. Click here for more.

If you\'re a fan of the button mashing multiplayer beat-em-up, then you definitely need to check out Godzilla: Destroy All Monster Melee. Sporting some of the prettiest graphics on the Gamecube, this is a must-play title, if only to spend an evening destroying cities and wreaking havoc. Click here to rampage on.

Dreamcatcher Interactive brings us a first person shooter that doesn\'t do a lot of new things, but should liven up your next LAN bash a bit. GORE provides the basic FPS experience we\'ve come to know and love -- lots of mindless violence and some nice graphics. All of this at a bargain price, too. Not bad. Click here.

In a horribly misguided stab at limiting gambling in public places, the Greek Government has created a ban on all videogames. That\'s right: Playing games on your PC, Xbox, PS2, Gamecube, Game Boy Advance (especially in public) is illegal in Greece. The first couple of internet cafe owners have been arrested already for allowing gaming in their public establishments, and things have gotten more rotten than 4:00 AM at a LAN bash over there. Click here for our coverage.

Infogrames and Atari bring us a title that gives Wave Race: Blue Storm a real run for its money. Splashdown features stunning visuals, lots of well-designed courses, and plenty of gameplay to keep you running those waves well into the next year. Fans of racers and watersports, click!

Crave Entertainment brings us the latest installment in the UFC series, and fans of the franchise should be pleased with UFC Throwdown. Featuring the same in-depth, strategic fighting system, this is not one of those flashy fighters that zip along at a million miles per hour. This is the thinking feller\'s fighter. Ironic? Click.

Altec Lansing is making a big push this year in the console gaming slash home theater arena. Their XA3021 speaker setup enhances your TV sound, adding some booming bass and nice mids and highs. At $100, this setup dominates its price range. Plus, that subwoofer looks like a bomb. How cool is that? Click here.

Ubi Soft and SSG bring us some old-fashioned isometric perspective, but the gameplay in Warlords Battlecry II is completely modern. Incorporating some RPG elements not only increases your investment in units and characters, but adds a twist that makes this already really fun title into an addictive must-play RTS. Check it out here.

3DO does it again. Shifters is a bad game, plagued with bad graphics, bad controls, glitchy play, and no real inspiration. The concept of a shapeshifting, \"cast & slash\" fantasy action game could have been pretty cool. But this isn\'t the game. Click here for more.

He kills silently and bounces off walls like loonies in the nuthouse. Nope, it\'s not Tiny Twisted Metal Bumper Cars or Tenchu Stealth Maniacs -- this is even better. Shinobi returns for another slash at the videogame market, and thank goodness. Anyone who has touched the beauty of the classic arcade game knows that a new Shinobi adventure is a very, very good thing. Click here.

Koei, makers of the Dynasty Warriors series, will release Mystic Heroes this fall, a new take on the old DW style. Set in a legendary China divided by two fantasy civilizations, you and up to three friends can hack, slash, and spell your way to victory. Click here.

While there were many points of interest at E3 this year, the most consistently really crowded booth was Nintendo's, where gamers flocked, nay swarmed, to see the GameCube. For those skeptics out there who think the general mediocrity of the N64 experience has soured gamers, witness the intense interest shown for the new system. Let's face it, the N64 has suffered from a general lack of titles, and some companies have released really terrible games for it, further causing pain to gamers who have been forced to pursue the "any port in a storm" strategy (Big Mountain 2000 comes to mind, er, flashes painfully across my memory). However, there have been some very good titles, and it's no mistake that the best titles on the system have been made by Nintendo and it's 2nd party developer, Rare. Nintendo is, in many ways, the Disney of the gaming world “ they have created and continue to create incredibly popular and lasting characters, who appear in all sorts of games and have firmly lodged themselves in the hearts of mainstream USA (as well as mainstream everywhere else).

Peter Moore, President and Chief Operating Officer for Sega of America, held a press teleconference this morning to detail Sega of America's plans for 2001 and to comment on Sega's worldwide strategy. In addition to announcing a new $99 price tag for Dreamcast beginning February 4 (the Sega Smash Pack will now be priced at $119), the company has decided on some strategies to move Sega from a lagging hardware manufacturer, to a "top of the heap" software developer and publisher. Moore outlined a three-pronged approach that will go into effect April 1 this year and continue through at least March of 2002. The basic approach involves the following:

Sega is now a "platform agnostic" third-party game developer/publisher.
Sega will license the DC chipset.
Sega will focus on network strengths.

A couple of weeks ago, I suggested that you might want to wait before you jump on the Sony bandwagon. Now, it looks like you're not going to have much of a choice. Sony announced this week that they would be shipping only 500 000 units of their Playstation 2 for release on October 26th”half of their intended. Sony claims that it is due to a component shortage, but one can't help but wonder if they are trying to build a Tickle-Me-Elmo Christmas frenzy.

An essential part of any D&D session is the monsters. The updated Third Edition Monster Manual is the source for all your enhanced monster mashing needs. Rob has the review.