South American mythology doesn't usually show up as a basis for a game but the development team at the newly revealed Poland-based Gingerbread Studios is adding that kind of background to their just announced debut title. The Protector is a first/third person action game that uses two different playable characters, each of which is used in very different situations.

Those characters are British mercenary Jonathan Kane (the player guides him through the action-shooting series) and American archaeologist Jennifer Guile (she is the basis of the game's stealth action scenes). Together the duo are trying to combat a terrorist organization who wants to use an ancient artifact for, natch, nefarious purposes. The press release claims The Protector will have a fully interactive world, advanced AI and a variety of bad guys, including "mythical Aztec creatures." Start researching your ancient lost civilizations now. There's no word yet on a release date for the game.

It's always a good time to play games with your buddies, whether they are right next to you or if they are online thousands of miles away. Developers Turtle Rock Studios and Valve know this well. They also know that shooting through an army of zombies is fun, too. Thus was born the co-op oriented Left 4 Dead which Turtle Rock and Valve plan to spring on players sometime this fall.

Some new screenshots from the game just got released and they show a lot of folks who look like they need to take some baths going up against the flesh eating undead with a truckload of ordinance. Since this is Valve we are talking about here we are betting that even after the game is released there will be some extra content for the game that will find its way via its Steam client. In any case, we can't wait to get some hands-on time with Left 4 Dead very soon

It's really hard to make a fantasy RTS game and not compare it to Blizzard's hugely influential Warcraft series. Certainly the first screenshots released for the upcoming Battleforge have that kind of similar art style and look to their units.

However Battleforge, from developer Phenomic, is aiming to be something a bit different. Instead of mining resources to build units and structures, players will buy, sell and trade virtual collectible trading cards that will help them build their armies. Support for online tournaments and clans are also planned. We hope to get more info on the game before its publisher Electronic Arts sends it to stores this fall.

Electronic Arts couldn't get a in-house MMO to successfully launch so a couple of years ago it bought Mythic Entertainment and brought in their fantasy title Warhammer Online. The game is now scheduled for release this fall (after several delays) and now EA has announced that folks in Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia will be able not just have the game ship to their shores at the same time as the North American and European launches but they will also be able to log onto a local Australian server

It's rare that an MMO title will begin its life in so many territories at once and having a server close to home will likely make it easier for those Aussies to enjoy the game without a ton of latency issues. Oh, and we have a boatload of new screenshots from the game to show off. There's a lot of visual goodness in this batch (depending on whether or not you like big huge monsters who show their guts . . .literally).

Electronic Arts isn't a stranger to putting in-game ads in their games but for their latest PC expansion pack for The Sims 2 they went and made a deal to put the ads in the game's title as well. The Sims 2 IKEA Home Stuff, due out on June 23, lets the best selling Sims characters shop and use products from the home furnishings of the Swedish-based retailer.

Yes, now you can put in the trademark sofas, beds, tables and more furnishings from the iconic store into your Sims enviroment. You can bet this latest expansion will show up quickly in the top 10 best selling PC games list as most Sims expansion packs tend to do. The Sims 2 IKEA Home Stuff will be priced at $19.99.

When Telltale Games first revealed their plans to release a game based on the Strong Bad animated series at Homerunner.com we wondered how the game will actually look while running. Well, wonder no more as Telltale recently released the first gameplay video from Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People. As promised it looks like a true extension of the animated series so anyone who was worried about things being lost in translation won't have much to worry about.

We have some new screenshots of the game you can check out and if you want to see the game in motion all you have to do is download the video right here at Big Download

Download the Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People gameplay video from Big Download right now

While Criterion Games may finally be bringing their Burnout series of arcade racing games to the PC with the upcoming release of the PC port of Burnout Paradise, developer Bugbear have already released their first two FlatOut racing games to the PC. Now they are preparing to release their latest game in the series, FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage, to the PC (it was first released in 2007 for the Xbox 360) and its publisher Empire Interactive has just released the first screenshots of the PC port.

The FlatOut games combine the high speed and highly destructible features of the Burnout series with great looking graphics and some weird mini-games involving throwing the rag doll driver out the windshield and into various situations including throwing the driver into large targets, into bowling pins and more. The developers are stating that the graphics will be improved for the PC port and that it will be released this June.

Coming this fall from developer Replay Studios and publisher Gamecock Media Group is the stealth-action World War II title, Velvet Assassin. Inspired by real-life British secret agent Violette Szabo, players take on the role of Violette Summer who must infiltrate enemy territory to defeat the growing German war machine.

While Sam Fisher takes a break from action and Solid Snake only sneaks onto consoles, could Violette fill the stealth-action gap gamers have been craving? Promising "lush-visuals" and a unique combat system, we'll have to wait and see.

Racing fans looking for their next fuel-injected fix need look no further. The demo for Race Driver: GRID, the latest installment in the long running Toca Race Car franchise, is now available from Codemasters. Included in the demo are three races from the GRID World campaign mode as well as time trials and a multiplayer mode to test against other racings fans online.

Weighing in at 893Mb, the GRID demo allows gamers to experience three regions and multiple rides from homegrown U.S Muscle cars in San Francisco, Europe Touring Cars at the Jarama Circuit in Spain and Japanese Drift Racing at the Yokohama Docks in Japan.

Download the demo for Race Driver: GRID today!

Developer Gearbox Software and publisher Ubisoft recently revealed that their long awaited WW II tactical shooter Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway has been pushed back to August. Today the publisher released some new screenshots to keep us occupied for a little while longer.

Reportedly the game was pushed back to put in some more multiplayer features and support. Of course it could be that Gearbox has one of the busiest game line-ups around. In addition to Hell's Highway they are working on Aliens: Colonial Marines and the Wii game Samba de Amigo for Sega and Borderlands for 2K Games. In the meantime these terrific looking (and Unreal Engine 3 powered) screenshots from Hell's Highway make waiting for the game just a little harder to take.

Criterion Games have never ported one of their Burnout games to the PC before but it looks like they are going all out with their first attempt at the platform. The just announced Burnout Paradise for the PC will support a lot of different resolutions in addition to other features.

Criterion have released the first screenshots from the PC port and they decided to take an unusual stance; they are extremely tall. Very few PC monitors can support such a screen size but again this is Criterion's first PC Burnout game and they clearly wanted to make them stand out from the standard PC screenshot gallery. We also have the first brief gameplay movie that shows the game in motion. Again Criterion decided to go with a an odd ultra-wide screen ratio for the movie so what you are seeing below is intentional (you can download an even bigger version at Criterion's web site) So far there's been no word on pricing or a release date but hopefully we will learn more about their plans for Burnout Paradise for our platform soon.

Capcom's 2007 sci-fi action game Lost Planet is about to get a revamp later this month with the release of Lost Planet Colonies. We's reported about this game before; new single and multiplayer modes, new maps, new weapons and cross platform multiplayer support between the PC and Xbox 360 versions via Games for Windows Live (it will be only the third game to offer such support, Shadowrun and Universe at War: Earth Assault are the other two).

Today Capcom released a boatload of new screenshots from Lost Planet Colonies that show off scenes from one of the new multiplayer modes, Egg Bandit. This mode has you stealing your enemies Akrid egg and the longer you hold onto it the more points you accumulate. You can also see some of the new maps in the revamp and some of the new mech weapons that you can access. It's looking more and more that Lost Planet Colonies will be a terrific game with a great value price of $29.99.

Sega keeps releasing new screenshots for the upcoming Lego Batman title from developer Traveller's Tales. Today the shots showcase one of the Caped Crusader's most enduring enemies, Two-Face. The somewhat misunderstood villain was formerly Harvey Dent, a hard hitting Gotham City district attorney who got hit in the face with acid thrown by one of the criminals he tried to put behind bars. The move apparently was more than skin deep as Harvey turned to crime and became obsessed with the number two and making choices based on the flip of a coin.

Harvey Dent was played by Billy Dee Williams in the first Batman movie but did not go to the Two-Face persona. Two-Face was portrayed by Tommy Lee Jones in the third Batman film Batman Forever (where he was oddly called Harvey Two-Face throughout the film). The upcoming Batman: The Dark Knight will see Aaron Eckhart play Harvey and we will actually see him turn into Two-Face in the film. In the meantime his appearance in Lego Batman will be made when the game is released this fall.

Earlier this year publisher CDV shipped out the North American version of Sudden Strike 3, the World War II RTS title from developer Fireglow Games. Now the developer has announced plans to release a free downloadable expansion for the game sometime near the end of May. According to a press release from the developer you can expect to get three new single player missions in the expansion (two of them will form a mini-campaign) as well as two multiplayer maps. One of them will support up to four players while the other will feature six player support.

That's not all fans of Sudden Strike 3 can expect from Fireglow this month. The developer also announced they will release the map and mission editor for the game later in May allowing folks to make new single and multiplayer maps of their own. Fireglow also plans to release a number of video tutorials to make the process of learning the map editor easier. Specific release dates for the expansion and editor were not announced.

The next Price of Persia game will be using Anvil, the same graphics engine that powered Assassin's Creed. Don't jump for joy quiet yet, because it's not going to look anything like AC. Instead, this particular Prince from Persia will be cell-shaded.

Personally, many of us here at the Big D like the cell-shaded look. It was used to incredible effect in Ubisoft's 2003 FPS, XIII. The upcoming superhero MMO from Cryptic Studios, Champions Online, will be using it -- and it looks fantastic. Seed, the MMO that was DOA, used it too, but the majority of people never got to see how incredibly cool cell-shaded graphics can be.

We weren't sure whether this very unique look is what the Prince needed until we saw screen shots on the French game site, Progamers (which were taken from the gaming magazine, Joypad). We're convinced.

[Via Team XBox]