To be honest, if someone tells me "Tom Clancy", my mind goes "...ooooh, that FPS franchise!", but Tom Clancy, also known as Thomas Leo Clancy Jr., is a US author of political thrillers, full of technical details, most of them having the action placed during and in the aftermath of the Cold War. Obviously, Tom Clancy was in a close relashionship with Ubisoft already, but its name was also used as a brand for similar books written by ghost writers, and now this may come to an end...

...because Ubisoft announced it has purchased all the rights to the writer's name for games and related products (pheew, so I guess those ghost writers won't lose their jobs, after all). Apart from getting an undisclosed umount for selling the rights, Tom Clancy will also get payments in each of Ubisoft's next 2 fiscal years.Since 2000, Ubisoft has published no less than 18 Clancy-themed games, and Rainbow Six Vegas, the latest great hit, has sold more than 1.6 million copies only in the United States, while its sequel is expected to go even higher! The entire series have been sold in no less than 50 million copies, so... I guess Ubisoft got a pretty good asset added to its portofolio today, don't you think?

Halo 3 is one of the things that Microsoft managed to pull out as a great success, just like the previous games in the series. Now, Microsoft and Bungie keep releasing map packs on a regular basis, to enrich the Halo 3 gaming experience, and they have just announced that the Legendary Map pack will arrive pretty soon...

The official announcement says the Legendary Map Pack will become available on the 15th of April, on Xbox Live Marketplace, for 800 Microsoft poits. Just like the Heroic Map Pack, which arrived back in December, this new pack will feature 3 brand new maps.The Legendary Map Pack will include Ghost Town, a mid-size map for team and objective games, Avalanche, a huge map well suited for vehicle combat, and a surprise map, so that's one reason for us to keep our eyes on Microsoft and Budgie, and for you, to keep an eye on us, or simply subscribe to our news by email, if you haven't done that already!

Do you remember The Sims? Come on, you have to! It doesn't matter if you didn't play it(I must admit I didn't either), but you gotta have a friend who's crazy about this game(I do), or a friend who has a friend...you know the story. For many people, The Sims is more than just a game, and to those that like to know a lot of things, they should also remember that this franchise has shipped more than 52 million copies so far...and today, Electronic Arts just revealed the official website for Sims 3!

Revealing a website doesn't mean the game is ready, since for now, the big message on the front page of the official site says "Coming in 2009", but there are already screenshots available, and you can also peak at the new sim and home customization features(ehem, "upcoming features").

The new feature list should include living neighbourhoods, a new realistic personality system and "unlimited customization". Call The Sims a strategic life-simulation game, call it "a virtual doll house", but one thing is certain - the best selling PC franchise of all time will be back in full force in 2009, and let's hope this time Electronic Arts succeeds in releasing a worthy follow-up to a great game!

When I say "Epic Games", probably most of you think about Gears of War or the Unreal series, but there's much more to this company than these two. Epic Games, formerly Epic MegaGames, and also known simply as "Epic", has a history of 17 years behind, and its great games include Jazz Jackrabbit, Jill of the Jungle, or the excellent Epic Pinball. Today, they just signed an agreement with Valve Corporation...

..to bring Epic's titles on Steam, and for now we got the whole Unreal series, apart from Unreal Tournament 2003. Currently, these titles are offered together in the Unreal Deal Pack, for only $59.95, and all Epic's games on Steam are also available for 10% off their normal price.

"Steam is a revolutionary technology that opens up an entirely new way to put our games into the hands of millions of PC gamers around the world. Valve has changed the face of digital distribution for game developers, publishers and consumers, and we are thrilled to be a part of the Steam community," said Jay Wilbur, Epic's vice president.

Team Fortress 2 doesn't sound like news, since the game has been around for some time as a part of The Orange Box, and next week it should begin being sold seperately, but when we talk about new content for this excellent class-based, multiplayer warfare game, that's interesting news...especially when we're talking about free content!

While PC gamers are already enjoying free new content in Team Fortress 2, those playing it on consoles don't know exactly if the content will be free or not, but Valve's Doug Lombardi gives them high hopes - "Oh, for free, definitely, as much as we can. You know, we don't have full say over that, but we have some say over how that works. So, for us, for free is the way to go. The gamers play the game, they want to keep playing the game, so we've collected their fifty bucks at the start, and once they're in the park, they can ride any ride they want in the park. So, for us that's been the philosophy."

These being said, the outcome of this problem remains open, but let's hope for the best!