Latest Articles (Page 3178)

I am occasionally forced to think that someone is having a laugh at my expense. "Please review the last ten years of the Command & Conquer franchise (enclosed)." Ten years? So that's five games and about as many expansion packs? And I still get paid the same rate, right? Right.

The American bit of Ubisoft has reportedly denied the contents of a release schedule that lists a bunch of PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Revolution games, quite a few of which haven't been announced yet.

The "Friends" feature of Steam, which has been offline for ages, is apparently set to make an appearance in the near future.

A big, steaming pile of dog poo. No, not the game silly, but one of the trophies you can collect during your Metal Slug 5 adventure. Oh, the mischief!

The president of startup studio Ready At Dawn has told GamesIndustry.biz that developers must stop making excuses for producing handheld games that aren't up to the same standard as their console counterparts.

Under normal circumstances it's pretty difficult to get too worked up about another EA boxing game. Sure, they're the best boxing games by a country mile (by virtue of, um, being the only boxing games released in recent years, come to think of it), but the art of pugilism has rarely translated to being a gripping videogame. Whether that's been a technology or a design issue is a tough one to argue. With the notable exception of Rage's excellent Rocky, on a design level the genre's often laboured through unsatisfying and inflexible control systems that never quite give you the feeling of being fully in control, and from the technology perspective the animation's never really been fluid enough to give you the feeling of true, convincing impact - despite the huge strides in character model realism.

Classical music critics regularly have to review well-known compositions from long dead composers reinterpreted by a contemporary conductor. Be it Fritz Busch orchestrating Mozart's Operas, Serge Koussevitzky recreating Tchaikovsky's symphonies or Sir John Barbirolli's defining interpretations of Mahler, a classical critic essentially weighs one person's interpretation of another's idea.

Let's not fanny around with a smart-arse introduction to Jacked; let's just deal with the pain like grown-ups. From the makers of Moorhuhn Invasion, Schnappi and Catch the Sperm 2, Jacked would like to be a cross between Burnout and crusty old Megadrive favourite Road Rash. Players scream around tracks on nitro-guzzling motorbikes swinging a collection of bludgeoning instruments at rival racers. It's a simple enough concept but it's rendered pointless by awful design decisions, ropey controls, mediocre presentation and a complete lack of... well, just a complete lack, if you get our meaning.

You can't blame the general sense of incredulity that accompanies any discussion about the relative merits of the Xbox 360 Live Arcade. As several people are quick to point out, not unreasonably, it's a bit odd to shell out all that money for a brand new next generation console and then spend tens of hours hooked on cheap retro titles - most of which have been available on the PC for yonks.

After countless delays due to patch issues, Electronic Arts has announced that new expansion pack Battlefield 2: Euro Forces will be released on March 15th via the EA downloader.

Incidental background writing isn't something that games are traditionally very good at. These days, though, the standard is rising - developers don't rely on Dull Tony in the programming and fiddliness department to write all the dialogue, and instead they knuckle down in drama class and start to make things a little bit more convincing. It's a testament to the excellence of breach ‘n' flashbang sim SWAT4's writing that you barely notice how believable and well scripted it is. Dialogue, briefings, situations - they're all naturalistic and integrated into the muscular corpus of the game. Even the 911 calls, which are of no real concern to the budding Swatistician, are competently acted and lifelike in delivery. True gaming brilliance is in the details, and SWAT 4 was full of them.

Information from a number of independent sources is suggesting that Sony may announce further details of its plans for PlayStation 3 next week in Tokyo, with the revised launch schedule for the console being at the top of the agenda.

A new demo has been released for the expansion pack to PC RTS Act of War: Direct Action - and it's now available via Eurofiles.

Thinking Man Studios has revealed that it's currently developing a new survival horror MMORPG that will let you play as either a human or a flesh-eating zombie.

Ubisoft's announced plans to publish Taito's Xbox 360 jet fighter game Over G Fighters in Europe. Known to those of you in touch with the console's Japanese line-up as World Air Force, OGF pits trusty old you against the mean old terrorists, who seem to have got hold of yet more planes, only this time they're going to shoot at other planes in them (weirdoes).

Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade game catalogue continues to grow with the addition of iWin's Jewel Quest - already very popular on mobile phones.

Oh-ho. I see what they've done here. Creating a game about working for the only group of workers in my line of sight (I'm sitting opposite a mirror) who actually enjoy waking up in the morning. Very clever! And they would have gotten away with it too, but I just punched myself in the face and remembered I think Open For Business is good anyway and if there's any wool in front of my eyes it's only because I was in the north of England yesterday and feel asleep and was probably attacked by a sheep. I hate sheep. Stupid feet.

Codemasters has officially announced that a new Micro Machines game is currently in development for PS2, PSP, PC and Nintendo DS.

Sony has been forced to remove a poster which advised consumers to "Take a running jump" from tram and train stations across the country after transport staff expressed safety concerns.

NCsoft and ArenaNet have announced Guild Wars: Factions will be out in Europe on April 28th, and talked a bit about the contents of the inevitable 'Collector's Edition' fans will be able to buy.

The mystery surrounding former Gizmondo executive Stefan Eriksson and his crashed Ferrari has deepened following revelations that two men claiming to be "homeland security" appeared at the scene of the accident.

Unsurprisingly given the brilliance of the first three Project Gotham Racing games (and MSR on the Dreamcast, forgetto-men), developer Bizarre Creations says it'd be "daft not to do another one".

Are you a lady who's long dreamed of looking like a Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball lovely? Or perhaps, more likely, you're a man who's long dreamed of his girlfriend looking like a Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball lovely?

Top videogame creators Shigeru Miyamoto, Michel Ancel and Frederick Raynal are to be awarded with knighthoods in the Order of Arts and Letters in Paris next Monday, becoming the first game creators ever to receive this honour in France.

If you're eagerly awaiting the arrival of Metroid Prime: Hunters on Nintendo DS this May, you might like to take a look at a bit of gameplay footage over on Eurogamer TV.

NCsoft has signed a deal with Texan developer Spacetime Studios to produce a new MMORPG.

Is ICO a videogame? "Yes, you idiot" would be most people's response - but the man who created it would disagree.

Konami has confirmed the release date for Pro Evolution Soccer Management - and the good news is it'll be here in just a few weeks.

The original Empire Earth's expansion pack presented an unusual experience. Now, at the time of its release, looked like the State of the Art in the Real-time Strategy game, with its 3D battlefields and assorted gubbins. So there was a yelp of surprise upon, less than a year later, booting up the expansion pack to discover that it suddenly looked really, really old.

It's a little known fact, but I actually live on the same street as Jack Bauer. It's true I do. Sometimes I bump into him in the bakery, and he grabs me by the lapels and shouts "TELL ME WHERE THE BREAD IS" and I point over the counter. Then he'll walk out munching a donut and shouting "TELL ME WHICH SIDE THE JAM IS ON". We get on quite well. I mean, there was that occasion I said I didn't know what time it was and he forced me to part-swallow a tea towel and then ripped out my stomach lining, but I understand why he did it. Jack is a man of ACTION.