About this time last year, a relatively new development studio named Riot Games that hardly anyone had heard of managed to snaffle about US $7 million in funding. The gaming world looked on with interest, mainly to see if the CEO's would do a midnight flit, and then promptly forgot all about it (as is our wont) until the announcement of the upcoming League of Legends. Since about a hundred games are announced each week, we didn't pay much attention then, either - but the news that a couple of ex-Blizzard employees have joined the flock is pricking my interest.

The latest premium Neverwinter Nights 2 update, the so-called "adventure pack" Mysteries of Westgate has just been released, and to mark this celebration of all things Forgotten Realms, and the murky underworld of the city of Westgate itself, we have a brand new collection of screenshots from the expansion to tempt you back to Faerûn one more time.

Neverwinter Nights fans take note! The latest expansion, Mysteries of Westgate, which is being called the game's first "adventure pack" is just over a week away, with its digital distribution release date confirmed for the 29th of April. Mysteries of Westgate contains over 15 hours of additional content, including three new companions, all new monsters, and an open-ended plot complete with those distracting side quests.

The main story involves a cursed item that draws the player's party into the chaos of a city-wide feud between several city factions, all the while keeping out of the reach of a mysterious group known as the Night Masks and break free of the entangling curse.

Bethesda are certainly busy lately; not only are they off upsetting people all over the place, they're also apparently ready to dish out the sort of tasty news gamers are hungry for as well as dashing their hopes and dreams. The latest excitement to hit the press arrived in a glorious double-decker whammy, with the surprising news that Bethesda seems to be planning both movies and a TV series based on the Fallout universe acting as an appetiser to the astonishingly-timed if not unexpected main course: a second Bethesda RPG in the Fallout universe is already on its way.

Sega Entertainment have released the first gameplay trailer from Obsidian Entertainment's modern-day RPG, Alpha Protocol. To accompany the new trailer, a series of four new screenshots have also been revealed, along with some details pertaining to the plot.

Dubbed the "modern day spy-rpg", Apha Protocol sees worldwide tensions at "at breaking point" when a U.S missile strikes a commercial jet in the skies of Europe, killing everyone on board. In the ensuing political and public relations nightmare, the U.S government sends agent Michael Thorton in to investigate - and he's given the authority to bring those responsible for the act to justice.

Obsidian Entertainment have released a new trailer for the upcoming expansion pack to Neverwinter Nights 2. The expansion, entitled Storm of Zehir, will bring back "old school" RPG elements which were featured in Baldur's Gate, including an overland map, and complete character customisation of all party members.

Whilst the new trailer reveals little in the way of plot or information regarding the new classes, we've dug up some information regarding the new classes and playable races, which will enhance the already impressive level of customisation present in the game.

Obsidian Entertainment are pretty popular around here, and on the strength of (for example) the much-loved Neverwinter Nights 2, the news that they're putting together a new RPG title has caused quite a few ears to prick up. Alpha Protocol is a fair step away from what you might be expecting, with swords-and-sorcery replaced with modern day espionage action! It may not be a common RPG theme, but if plot is what you like in your games, spy thrillers certainly provide excellent fodder, as this stylish new trailer demonstrates.

It has been a while since we've had an update regarding the upcoming Neverwinter Nights 2 expansion pack, Storm of Zehir. Today, we've managed to acquire a shiny new trailer which offers some more gameplay footage from the title.

While I know that *everyone* wants to know the new classes and spells Obsidian Entertainment are to introduce with the new expansion, they've remained incredibly tight lipped regarding the new classes.

While it was announced earlier this year, along with a fact sheet, the upcoming Neverwinter Nights 2 expansion, 'Storm of Zehir' had no screenshots available at that time.

As always, the E3 Media & Business Summit sees more information come about for new titles, with a little bit of information regarding the Storm of Zehir expansion emerging, including the confirmation of new classes, spells, and playable races.

As many you would be aware, Neverwinter Nights 2 was released not too long ago. After what seemed to be a short while, the expansion pack Mask of the Betrayer was released. For fans of the series, I've got some exciting news, as Atari have just announced that yet another expansion pack will be coming along for Neverwinter Nights 2.

With the subtitle "Storm of Zehir", the new expansion will add a bunch of new gameplay features, implementing many ideas that originated in Baldur's Gate and were sorely missed in Neverwinter Nights.

It seems as though Bioware have been awfully busy as of late, with the announcement yesterday of Mass Effect to be released on PC. Barely giving time for gamers to get their heads around that, it seems that a tiny bit of information we had received not too long ago has developed further. This, information; directly relating to activities in a galaxy far, far away has now had some confirmation through an EA Analyst Report, and a list of planned titles.

We previously brought you information on the announcement of an old partnership between Bioware and LucasArts, but a new Knights of the Old Republic game was not officially announced at that time. It appears that something is happening now.

The first of Atari's Adventure Packs for Neverwinter Nights 2 has been announced - and it'll be here very soon!

Neverwinter Nights 2: Mysteries of Westgate is developed by Ossian Studios, the pack contains 15 hours of gameplay set in Westgate, a city in the Forgotten Realms. A powerful but cursed treasure threatens to destroy gamers, as they are drawn into an on-going battle between warring factions that spans multiple cities. Choose your allegiance in order to break the curse - and uncover a plot that threatens life as we know it within Westgate.

You awaken, alone and stranded, following the climactic battle with the King of Shadows. A dark hunger gnaws at you - will you fight against it or embrace the power, joyfully tasting your newfound strength?

Near the powerful nation of Thay lies the harsh, spirit-rich Rashemen - and that is where NeverWinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer is set. This exciting new 20-30+ hour campaign is full of detailed characters, moral choices and surprising outcomes. Try out hundreds of new gameplay options - epic levels, new feats, spells, races and classes, powerful crafting, armour and weapon options - and of course - hordes of diverse creatures. Create a new epic hero or continue the adventure of your NWN2 character - no previous NWN experience required!

Atari made it official today that development is underway on the first official Neverwinter Nights 2 expansion, Mask of the Betrayer. The expansion is due for release during spring this year and will introduce a new campaign, new levels, new weapons, new spells, and much, much more (sounds like an infomercial ... but where are my free set of steak knives???). Of course, the the game is set in the Dungeons and Dragons Forgotten Realms universe which has been made legendary by Wizards of the Coast.

Atari have just released a patch for Neverwinter Nights 2, bringing the sequel to the hugely popular Neverwinter Nights up to version 1.04.

The 1.04 patch brings a whole swag of changes and balances to the table as well as some new functions and debugging tools for the NWN 2 modders out there. It also has a nice fix for the previously released v1.04 Beta which caused Windows 2000 machines to crash to desktop when trying to launch.

The patch also fixed the dialogue with Qaggoth in Tavorick's estate looping, fixed it looping, fixed it looping, fixed it looping, fixed it looping... (see what I did there?)

Looking back, what will 2006 be most remembered for, gameswise? Obviously, there's the Wii, and everything that came with it - Zelda, Rayman, cracked TVs, which is probably a highlight for most people. There's also Battlefield 2142, which let a lot of people down and didn't do much to restore faith in EA/Dice. Then there was a little game about thermonuclear war, which took the world by storm (ha!), surprising even the developers. 2006 also saw E3 change significantly, and countless similar events pop up around the globe to pick up the slack, meaning gamers have no shortage of events.

Speaking of shortages, the PS3 was delayed in Australia, while Wii was launched, and the Xbox 360 plodded along happily, among brightly coloured pinatas and killer locusts.

On a more local level - the Internode Games Network has doubled in size. We now boast an impressive news portal, a comprehensive File Library and get more than 100,000 unique visitors a month (and more than 20,000 downloads a week). Server-side, there are now eight more quad-core machines hosting game servers (with three more on order), in four cities around Australia - giving more than 2,000 peak players a night somewhere to play.

We've written up a few questions and handed them around to various Internode Games Network types, to find out about their highlights, lowlights and memorable events of 2006.