Week of December 18, 2005

Ubisoft's Heroes of Might and Magic V Product Section has an updated release date heralding a minor delay for Nival Interactive's upcoming installment in the strategy series. Where the release date formerly read 2/21/2006, it now reads March 2006.

Digital Illusions’ expansion pack Battlefield 2 Special Forces was launched in the end of November 2005. This was the first product Electronic Arts sold directly to consumers over the internet.

The test was so successful that the PC game – another expansion pack to Battlefield 2 – planned for launch during spring 2006 now will be changed to booster packs to be sold online.

We see online sales as a very interesting channel in the future. Digital Illusions work together with EA to find the best solutions that favours both the consumers and retailers, said Patrick Söderlund, CEO of Digital Illusions.

The Battlefield 2 expansion pack planned to be launched during spring 2006 is now replaced by two booster packs. The change means slightly lower project revenues during the fourth quarter 2005 than during the third, due to a lower development budget. The anticipation though is that this will be compensated by higher royalty revenues during the first six month 2006.

The expansion packs in the Battlefield series have new maps, vehicles and weapons. Each Battlefield booster pack will have new but fewer maps, vehicles and weapons. Instead they are sold to a lower price: 9.99 USD. An expansion pack is usually sold at between 19.90 USD and 29.90 USD. Today at least two Battlefield 2 booster packs are planned for spring 2006.

For all of us broadband users, we hope that other companies take note of this and release more content/expansion packs via online download to lower over all prices for us hungry gamers.

GPM presents 17 new images of Moto GP 2006, the upcoming bike racing game for the Xbox 360.

Three new images of Officers, WWII real-time strategy from GFI.

Agetek sends word that Armored Core: Last Raven will be released on the PlayStation 2 in Spring of 2006. We have their announcement and 5 new images for you as well.

We normally post our game reviews on Sunday but we've been running behind this weekend. So we present to you our reviews today: