Storyline: Sometime in the near future, the United States of America and the People's Republic of China are on the verge of war--a new cold war that shows every sign of turning hot. Over-stretched by the Chinese crisis, the CIA requests assistance from MI6, the British Secret Service. Enter John Cord, a special agent sent on an assignment that goes horribly wrong. What starts as a minor investigation leads to the discovery of a conspiracy that threatens to destabilize the global balance of power. Cord knows he was betrayed, but does not know by whom. And as he dreams, he tries to make sense of his predicament to determine what really happened. As agent Cord, the player shoots their way through a series of Cordıs flashbacks grasping at clues and investigating all the evidence knowing that only one thing is certain ­ there is no one they can trust.

In Cold Blood will be available in North America in Spring 2001. To play In Cold Blood, players will need a Windows 95/98, Pentium II 233mhz PC, an 8Mb Graphics Card capable of 640x480 resolution and 32-bit Color (Voodoo 2 cards not supported), a 100% DirectX 7 Compatible Sound Card, 32Mb RAM, 400Mb of Hard Disk Space, and a 4x CD ROM Drive. Keyboard and Gamepad compatible.
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The CPL and SPEAKEASY.net jointly announced an addition of cash prizes to the Counter-Strike Tournament to take place April 12-15, 2001, in Dallas, Texas. In an effort to benefit the winners on the lower brackets SPEAKEASY.net has added another $5,000 in cash prizes to the previously announced $25,000, for a total of $30,000 in cash prizes. SPEAKEASY.net believes that a more balanced distribution of prizes will help reward the best gamers and promote Counter-Strike to a higher level, both in terms of competition and corporate recognition. The new cash prize distribution was released today by Michael Wardwell, Commissioner of the CPL. You can register for this tournament here. The prize listing for 1st to 16th p[lace is as follows: First Place - $10,0000, Second Place - $5,0000, Third Place - $3,0000, Fourth Place - $2,0000, Fifth Place - $1,6000, Sixth Place - $1,4000, Seventh Place - $1,2000, Eighth Place - $1,0000, Nine through Twelfth Place - $7000, Thirteen through Sixteen Place - $5000. $30,000 Total Cash Pursee.
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EVE HQ has launched a searchable EVE Ship Database. The database includes all known ships and will continually be updated as more info is released about the vessels in CCP's massively multiplayer space strategy/RPG/sim title. The database can be searched according to ship class or race.
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Sandbox Studios Canada is quickly establishing itself as one of the premier game development companies on all platforms. The company has grown to 50 people in 2000 and plans to almost double its staff in 2001. With four titles on track to release this year, Sandbox is seeking more qualified and experienced programmers and artists. Ubi Soft, Konami, Havas, Sierra On-line, Mattel and TDK Mediactive have game development deals with Sandbox. More game development deals will be announced soon. Sandbox will develop titles for Playstation 2, Microsoft's Xbox, Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Color, Playstation and the PC. TDK Mediactive and DreamWorks recently announced that Sandbox is developing a game based on the upcoming movie Shrek for the Xbox.
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The mod for BOTH Team Arena and Quake III Arena has been released with some nifty new features including; Spectator muting (rcon/referee/callvote muting), random respawn times for any item on the map, Limit teams to a certain number of each kind of persistent powerup ("rune")!, No more all-guard-teams, and several SCTA bug fixes, and some bug fixes against the default id Software code. Download it here.
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Microsoft has announced that the Links 2001 Expansion Pack will be available at retail locations throughout North America in late May 2001. The Links Expansion Pack is the most complete add-on pack ever created for the Links series, and will be available for only US$19.95. Virtual golfers are invited to join PGA Tour pros Mike Weir and Keith Clearwater on four new courses designed for play with Links 2001. New to the Links franchise, Weir and Clearwater join the Links 2001 pro line-up that already includes Sergio Garcia, Arnold Palmer, and Annika Sorenstam.

PC golfers will now be able to play as Sergio Garcia on The Canyons Course at Bighorn (Palm Desert, CA), home of the Battle at Bighorn where Garcia defeated Tiger Woods last summer. Or duffers can tee-off on Thanksgiving Point (Lehi, Utah), featuring a challenging championship layout measuring over 7,700 yards from the back tees. Bighorn's Canyons Course and Thanksgiving Point are joined by newly upgraded versions of Pelican Hill (Newport Coast, CA) and Banff Springs (Alberta, Canada) in the Links 2001 Expansion Pack.

The Expansion Pack also includes two new Course Design Kits to help players create their own courses with the Arnold Palmer Course Designer (APCD). The Course Design Kits come with new planting sets, desert and highland themes, and hundreds of golf course objects, trees, shrubs, vegetation, and more. Additionally, the Links 2001 Expansion Pack will contain the Links 2001 Course Converter that allows players to convert up to 36 Links LS courses for play with Links 2001 (courses must be previously owned).
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Microsoft officially announced that a sequel to its highly successful massively multiplayer role-playing game (MMRPG), Asheron's Call, is currently under development. Microsoft signed a development contract with Turbine Entertainment Software, who has been working on the sequel since the original Asheron's Call shipped over a year ago. A cool new concept art desktop image from the sequel can be downloaded here.
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Chopper2k will be a fast action arcade shooter in the same style as games such as Raptor and other top down plane/heli games. There will be three very different helicopters to choose from to lay out the destruction. Each chopper will have its own special weapons systems and strengths/weaknesses, so choosing which chopper to wreak havoc with will be a hard decision. The action takes place in a quasi modern Earth, in locales consisting of a jungle, a desert, an arctic wasteland and an ocean. The game is being written in OpenGL with DirectX DirectInput and DirectSound support. The game will have cutscenes, thumping tunes and sound effects as well as a very funky weapons arsenal. [Download: DemoNews]