Over The Hedge is Sega's first Sonic adventure and it's pretty obvious why. The game places the player in the role of Sonic, a cute hedgehog who simply happens to be best friends with him. The plot kicks off when he gets caught up in the Blue Blur's "falling evil emeralds," a mystical artifact that seems to have unleashed a bunch of evil bad guys into the world. The plot takes an interesting twist when it gets too silly, with Sonic named after The Great Deku Tree and a bunch of friendly hedgehog friends fighting against Eggman's forces in an attempt to bring his "gotta go fast!" pace to a more serious (and decidedly tame) environment. The demo we played allowed us to explore a little more of the level, and we got to try out one of the many different boss battles you'll encounter.

Overlord 2 has just been announced and is now set for release this fall. We've already had good news: "On May 28th, 2000, Overlord 2: Massive Interactive will give the world a more thorough tactical experience. In Overlord 2, players will lead a group of unruly, large-scale groups of evil minions to defeat the Global Defence Initiative and their evil minions. The goal is to bring order back to the Overlord, after all. The Overlord will be at the epicenter of a large number of tactical missions, with more than 100 new units and maps. Overlord 2 is also set to release a wireless voice-enabled game for the PC and Macintosh. Overlord II will be available on the PlayStation and PC and is currently scheduled for a fall 2000 release. For more information, check out our Overlord 2 game preview of the game.

Overlord Raising Hell, the latest expansion for Funcom's empire-building strategy game, has arrived.The expansion features a new feature, "The Journey to the World," and it's available for download now from the official site. The expansion also adds a new playable race, the battle-hardened orcs.

Overspeed High Performance Street Racing takes the arcade racing into the ATV racing world by giving you a number of unique races to test your skills with. You'll be racing all the cars at the Speedlight Monolith Racer--a hi-tech, superfast car filled with horsepower that's rapidly exceeding that of the top-rated racing cars on the market.

Pac Man World 3 (Namco) is a third-person action game where Pac-Man's body can be controlled by up to four players. There is no way to control the Pac-Man himself, but his various moves can be used in a number of ways. For example, the blue pill can be used to roll into enemies and send them flying. Another technique allows Pac-Man to summon chains to shoot at foes in the air and to pull himself and his foes toward him, like those in the Metroid series.

Pacific Fighters was an unexpected game when it was announced in early January. The shooter from Mega Games was born out of the MegaGames VGA arcade team. So much hype for the title has died down and the buzz has faded. The last project known as Pacific Fighters ceased production in April, and we recently had a look at the game at the Game Developers Conference. You can expect to see the game at the Space Anvil show later this month.

Pacific Storm Allies was the latest game in the developer-publisher partnership to find itself in the clutches of the Sega, Acclaim, Dreamcast, and PC publisher. Inspired by real-time strategy games from Firaxis, the game incorporates the same kind of real-time strategy gameplay that set the strategy genre on its head, and it incorporates a number of interesting elements.

PacMan World 2 is the latest instalment in Namco's best-selling video game, and it's been received quite well. The game features Pac-Man on a mission to rescue Pac-Man from the nefarious Pukon Corp., who wants to steal the pellet-muncher's power-ups, the Pukon's long-awaited Puk, and his brother's ability to swing from one location to another. This year, Namco has also given the series a new soundtrack. The game features music from popular Japanese composer Nobuo Uematsu, and the new levels in the new levels feature multiple themes from the game.

Painkiller Overdose is coming out in Japan next spring and, according to Computer Entertainment Supplier's Day, will arrive this spring. The game was announced last year at the Gamestock convention. The company is already working on its first-person shooter for the PC, and a special announcement at GDC titled A Blood Hunt will be made during the show.

Painkiller: Black Edition is the most faithful edition of Painkiller, which includes the campaign, multiplayer mode, and the Hell & Damnation single-player game. Two new levels have been added to the game, one set in the devastated city of Inoch, and another set in the nightmarish, "raven" town of Bloodhelm. A visual overhaul has been implemented, but the development team also has "modifiers" available for modders to modify the level design.