Here are the choice releases for the month of February: Mare Nostrum, a mod for Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45, has begun its open beta phase and is available to download now! Mare Nostrum aims "to bring the most realistic and exciting experience of the battles of the deserts of North Africa up to the invasions of Sicily and Italy and the Allied 'Road to Rome'."

In Half Life 2 news, Pirates, Vikings and Knights II has reached beta 2 status. Union, a promising map pack with a story set within the Half Life universe, has made its first installment available. Smod and its variant, Smod: Zenith both released this month as well.

Those looking for some space-faring tactical action aren't left out either. Battlestar Galactica Fleet Commander for Homeworld 2 gets an update, bringing it to version 0.3.7. This month's blast from the past features a popular Doom II mod plainly labeled Zombies. Thanks to 3pidemiC for resurrecting this mod.

In terms of tools, Valve updated its SDK to include new features introduced in the wildly popular Orange Box. Crytek sends along their initial release of the Crysis SDK with apologies for the delay and promised additions in the future.

Some new additions in features: The Modcast, an audio podcast devoted to the news and happenings in the modding scene with guest interviews every show, has made its debut. Subsribe to the rss feed or check it out in iTunes. The Mod DB Blog has also launched. This will serve to let the community know what goes on behind the scenes of Mod DB and provide a platform for the staff to voice themselves. What's that, you guys want a place to rant as well? Well then head on over to the Soap Box, voice your opinions and we'll post them (provided they are well-formatted and legitimate).

February was also the month for the Games Developer's Conference. While all the other sites were out there with enough bodies to cover the event in its entirety, we were insanely busy but managed to give our thoughts on the overall event. You can expect more content in the future inspired by the lectures and panels from GDC. Mod DB member Varsity has also posted about the notes from all the Valve GDC sessions, thanks Varsity! Check out all of this month's releases on ModDB.com - the place for all your mod news! Thanks for reading.