Latest Articles (Page 3174)

Turbine had a tough task ahead of them with Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach. After all, D&D may be the daddy of all role-playing games, and an MMO may be the obvious next step for the franchise, but we've already got the likes of World of Warcraft to be getting on with - and judging by the size of its subscriber base, we're quite happy with that, thank you.

Atari's Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game, Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach, has slipped from its planned November release date, to early 2006.

More than four years since ace FPS Perfect Dark appeared on the N64, a few details of the latest instalment in the series have emerged.

That's the trouble with behind-closed-doors presentations. Someone's bound to talk about what they've seen, and if you're really unlucky they'll even go blathering about it all over the Internet.

Of all the locations to host the premiere of a forthcoming game, perhaps the foruth floor of a Yacht moored in Docklands isn't one that would immediately spring to mind. But then SCi likes to do things differently, carrying on its long-held tradition of orbiting trade events in some style. Let's hope the first-person shooter it's just signed from Argonaut can provide the same kind of giddy excitement of donning shades and sipping freshly squeeezed orange juice in blazing September sunshine out on deck to talk about its latest signing.

Nintendo has yet to announce a European release date for Fire Emblem on the GameCube, but there's a new trailer over on its Japanese website - take a look at it here.

Ubisoft has confirmed to Eurogamer that the console version of PC shooter Far Cry Instincts is currently only planned for Xbox.

Io Interactive's second foray into the roll-your-own hitman concept is a lot better than its first, the most significant difference probably being our antihero's motives this time around. Instead of killing by trade, 47 is living out his days at a church in Sicily, helping with repairs and tending to the garden, whilst repenting his sins with the local priest, but nobody with as much history and skill as 47 ever truly retires, and our beloved hitman receives a quick jolt to his senses when his pal the priest is abducted and ransomed.

Ground Control developer Massive Entertainment is working on a new real-time strategy game for PCs featuring a scenario that presupposes the Cold War ended violently.

Nintendo of Europe updated its spring 2006 release schedule for Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance and GameCube.

We've been busy getting in the mood for Guitar Hero all week, talking to the developer and giving you the chance to win a drum head signed by Metallica's Lars Ulrich and an actual, proper Gibson SG Special guitar.

While some people find it exciting to lick the back of the Queen's head or let their tongue glide between the reverse contours of a beautiful mountain, it has to be said that we've never got off on postage stamps particularly.

Elder Scrolls developer Bethesda's unveiled e-commerce site obliviondownloads.com, where owners of the PC version of new title Oblivion can purchase downloadable content made available to their Xbox cousins.

Developer Telltale Studios, currently working on a Sam & Max game, has cut the price of its flagship Bone adventure series to $12.99 per instalment.

Eidos has released a playable demo of Tomb Raider: Legend over Xbox 360 Marketplace to go with the PC one released earlier this week.

Not so long ago, seeing "Tetris DS" on the release calendar would have provoked a pretty uniform response. "There they go again." "Another pointless cash-in." Etc. (And, I suppose, "What the hell is a DS?")

So there I am, standing next to one of my little female friends, and my mother turns to her neighbour and remarks, "Aw, don't they make a sweet little couple?" At the time, I was dressed as a rough boy from the mountains and her as a sheep.

You can imagine the conversation that took place in a hundred game studios across the world:

I love plasticine. It's a wonderfully versatile substance. You can make juvenile structures and appendages from it, explosives of various kinds, and can even create large-scale animated recreations of what it's like to live Up North with it. Indeed, it's the hand-modelled plasticine that gives the Wallace and Gromit animations so much of their visual charm; it's a great pity then that some of this charm gets lost in the [gaming journalism cliché alert] Inevitable Game Adaptation of what is a very enjoyable animated romp.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe, or TCONTLTWATW as we'll call if for short [perhaps 'Narnia' might be snappier -Ed], is hotly tipped to top the gaming charts this Christmas. That isn't surprising, since it's a movie tie-in for a blockbuster film that promises to offer fun for all the family.

Sonic Riders begins as if upside down. Instead of cleverly introducing all its ideas one by one on the race track and relegating its paper-thin storyline to the manual (which is obviously made of paper and therefore ideally suitable), it stupidly spends ages introducing its paper-thin plot and relegates to the manual all the important details, like what the hell all the things on the screen mean, and how to turn corners without smacking repeatedly into the wall. (Incidentally, neither game or manual explains why Tails is still alive.)

It's hard to be brave when you're already winning. All you can do is lose (seriously - ask AC Milan). And PES, particularly in light of its commercial ascendancy, is most definitely winning. It's almost unimpeachable in its ball simulation, player personality and individuality, and tactical awareness. With PES5 now on the shelves, some have recorded that it's in decline. Don't listen to them. PES5 is harder and more technical. It's a genuine triumph of the series over the hype. My biggest fear about this version was that it would stray too far, buoyed by the commercial inroads it made against FIFA last year. Nope. This is Gianfranco Zola moving to Caligari.

There are many things which go towards making a game really really bad. Dodgy graphics and invisible walls, long loading times and unskippable cutscenes, repetitive missions and dull level layouts... We've suffered through them all.

Order yours now from Simply Games.

Bob Ross may not be familiar to readers in the UK, unless you're a particular fan of the Discovery channel, but over in the States the man's something of a legend.

It's coming up to three years since the EyeToy first appeared in our living rooms, introducing a whole new audience of people too young, too old or just too plain drunk to operate a Dual Shock to gaming. Since then, there have been all manner of variations: two more instalments in the Play series, a Chat title, SpyToy, Kinetic - some sort of fitness trainer thing involving Nike - and a rather rubbish hoverboarding game.

Ensemble Studios, the developer behind real-time strategy series Age of Empires, is currently working on ideas for a brand new MMOG.

Those of you playing The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion on Xbox 360 can log onto Xbox Marketplace today and get your grubby gauntlets on some armour for your horse - providing you're happy to pay 200 points, or £1.70, for the privilege.

Ignition Entertainment's set to publish SEGA's Puyo Pop Fever on PSP and DS this month.

Take 2's hugely acclaimed RPG The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has gone in at number one in the UK sales chart, beating off competition from EA's new release The Godfather, which takes second place.