Gaming News Round-Up: December 7th, 2004

Today's round-up includes confirmation of a new Command & Conquer game, as well as news of winners in the Make Something Unreal modding contest. - According to an email sent out by Electronic Arts executive producer Mark Skaggs, the company, which acquired original creators Westwood Studios in 1998, is now starting work on a new game in the much-loved Command & Conquer PC real-time strategy game series. The missive explains: "We are very proud to announce that the team that brought you Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, Command & Conquer: Yuri's Revenge, and Command & Conquer Generals has officially started work on our next project set in the Red Alert universe!" The now Los Angeles-based team has just completed work on the Lord Of The Rings-themed PC RTS, The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth, which is released to stores this week. - Epic Games has announced the latest winners of its Make Something Unreal modding competition, including both main category and student winners. Noted Unreal Tournament mods including Red Orchestra and Alien Swarm triumphed in the main featured categories, and there was additional attention paid to the special educational category, designed to reward game design in the classroom, and set to pay out prizes of PC equipment to five universities as a result of its students' efforts. The Art Institute of Burnaby in Vancouver, Canada took top honors with six individual mod projects placing among the finalists in all four rounds of the contest. Other university winners include the University of Oulu in Finland, The Animation Arts Centre of Seneca College in Ontario, Canada, The Guildhall at Southern Methodist University in Texas, and Pennsylvania’s University of Pittsburgh.