Latest Articles (Page 3196)

Just a week after another South Korean man collapsed and died following a mammoth gaming session, a new report on the phenomenon has been published by the National Institute of Scientific Investigation.

Sony Computer Entertainment America has confirmed that a new PSP instalment in the Syphon Filter series is currently in the works.

When I go to the shops and I want a loaf of bread, I don't go into the butcher's. When I go to the pub, I don't try and buy sausage (not least because I usually go to the pub in Vauxhall, where the notion of buying sausage has all sorts of other connotations).

As president of Sony Computer Entertainment's Worldwide Studios, Phil Harrison is one of the key architects of the future of the PlayStation brand - overseeing the company's software development efforts for all of the consoles in the PlayStation family. Few people are better-placed to talk not only about the success of PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable, but about the firm's plans, hopes and ambitions for next year's PlayStation 3.

The first in Ritual's series of SiN Episodes - nuggets of first-person shooting delivered through Valve's Steam download-on-demand service - will be released in early 2006 rather than the rapidly disappearing autumn 2005 window the developer had previously stipulated.

It's hard to get into. That's been a problem with online PC games for a while now, because there's really nothing casual about them. You have to get inside their communities to really enjoy the game, and these hardened fraternities of gamers can be obscure nuts to crack. All too often the newbie sidles into a game and looks around, is embarrassed by having to ask so many questions, and gives up to go back to something a little less forbidding. Quite a few of my games journalist colleagues cite this problem as one of the major reasons why online PC games are flawed: they're just too awkward to be mainstream. It's geek terrain. Developers, meanwhile, work to make them ever more accessible to the general gamer - see Battlefield 2. See World of Warcraft.

The DS offers some excellent opportunities for innovative reinventions of successful licences. It lends itself towards inventive slants on well-known names. With that in mind, I'd like to present a few pitches for game ideas, in the hope that fat publishers will hand me wads from their vast pockets filled with money.

How often have you sat in the fuzzy white cathode warmth of your television, PS2 whirring lazily beneath, poring over your item inventory list for 45 minutes straight?

Sega is hard at work on two new games for handheld consoles - one for the PSP, and one for the Game Boy Advance.

Following the success of his Steam-distributed PC fighter Rag Doll Kung Fu, Lionhead designer Mark Healey has chosen to leave the studio and commit more time to his own projects.

Good news for Quake-loving Apple fans - publisher Aspyr Media has announced plans to release a version of Quake 4 for Macs.

Internet porn hawkers Naughty America have announced plans to launch a massively multiplayer online game that will feature all manner of general filth.

Game reviewers aren't the first breed of critics to grumble about difficulty. Back in the mid 1920's book reviewers laid into Agatha Christie for creating a detective novel (The Murder of Roger Ackroyd) in which, unforeseeably, the killer turned out to be the narrator. This trick broke one of the most revered conventions of the genre and was regarded as a twist too far by many readers and commentators. Christie was unrepentant and went on to create murder-mysteries that bent the rules in even more dramatic and devious ways.

Atari has picked up the rights to produce a videogame based on Arthur and the Minimoys, a new animated feature film from renowned director Luc Besson.

Nintendo executive Reggie Fils-Aime says he hopes to see massively multiplayer games on Revolution.

Sodatete! Konchuu Ousha Mushi King is a new portable LCD game due out on February 23rd in Japan, and obviously it's to do with SEGA's popular Mushi King franchise.

Namco's delayed the Japanese release of Xbox 360 exclusive Frame City Killer citing "quality assurance issues", according to reports.

Ten-hundred hours. Having fallen 100 feet in a pink bunny suit, and ridden the back of a giant hot dog, I'm now collecting kitty heads.

If you're seeking that elusive Christmas present for the Mario Kart fan who has everything, here's the answer - you can now buy your very own MK arcade machine via discountarcade.com.

World of Warcraft developer Blizzard has teamed up with Xfire to launch what's being billed as "the world's largest ever machinima contest."

Japanese Metal Gear Solid fans are in for an extra special treat next week, with the premiere of a three and a half hour-long movie based on the next instalment in the series.

Midway has announced that a sequel to PS2 basketball game NBA Ballers is on the way.

Just four months after Midway Games acquired Adelaide-based developer Ratbag, renaming it Midway Australia, the publisher has shut the studio down in a move that leaves more than 70 people jobless.

We've always known that our favourite tubby plumber was a bit of a groover: why else would his adventures always be accompanied by such a fabulous array of toe-tapping gems? That many of these show-stoppers have been rounded-up and grafted onto a Dancing Stage title sounds like an idea of stultifying genius that even our pretend pet cat, Eric, seemed pleased with the prospect of pirouetting around the living room in a shiny suit.

Do you love Katamari? Then you might be interested in a new range of t-shirts that have been designed by none other than the series' creator, Keita Takahashi, together with his chum Ryo Kimura.

NCsoft has settled its lawsuit with Marvel Entertainment in a deal which will not force the publisher to make any changes to its popular PC MMORPG, City of Heroes, after all.

Microsoft says that it currently has no plans to release an Xbox 360 equipped with a next-generation DVD player.

Activision has advised gamers of a small bug in the Xbox 360 version of Call of Duty 2 which can corrupt saved data. The company's working on a fix, but in the meantime has issued some guidance on how to get round it.

Square-Enix has confirmed reports that PS2 RPG Grandia III will be released in the USA. Fans of the series that also once called the Dreamcast its home can expect to track it down through importers next February.

The first independent figures regarding the launch performance of the Xbox 360 in North America have been released by the NPD Group, revealing that 325,902 consoles were sold by the end of November.