I never thought this site would have four days without any news right in the middle of the Heroes of Might and Magic V beta test. Following the report about the special abilities, here is a summary of what's happening in the community these days:

• Run to the Hills, a large allied map for cooperative play, has been posted for testing. It requires the Winds of War expansion. Maps in need of testing are starting to pile up, so your help would be appreciated.
  
• Nival Interactive got a disappoiting review of Hammer & Sickle from GameSpy. "It had loads of potential, but this game's as dead as the Soviet Union itself." Our former parent site was more impressed by the video game based on Peter Jackson's King Kong.
  
• Game Revolution has one of those uninspired preview of Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. It's no more than a copy and paste of six months old information, along with the usual screenshots. I understand that the game won't be out until the Summer, but it really deserves better than that.

I'll soon start working on my Year in Review feature, which has good chances of being more interesting than the two previous years. You always wondered how many times Fabrice Cambounet typed the word "late" so far this year? Yes folks, I will tell you!