Latest Articles (Page 3289)

Aruze's PS2 J-RPG Shadow Hearts: Covenant is due out tomorrow here in Europe, but back home in Japan attention's already turning toward a third game in the series, which was exposed in this week's Famitsu for the first time.

Pac-Pix, the Nintendo DS game that involves drawing your own Pac-Man to gobble up ghosts, has been given an April release estimate for the USA by publisher Namco.

Eidos released its six-month results today for the period ending December 31, 2004, showing an operating loss of £29.2 million. Shares dropped of more than 30 per cent yesterday ahead of the news.

If there's one thing that Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu certainly does, it's divide opinion. The work of the prolific musician, whose accomplishments range from some of the best-known melodic chirps of the NES era through to dramatic choral arrangements on PlayStation titles and even the penning of a massively successful pop single for Hong Kong idol Faye Wong, inspires the kind of reverence from fans that invites Internet forum flame wars like flowerbeds attract honeybees. One need only view the comments thread on Eurogamer's interview with the man last month to see that there's little truth in the old adage about music calming the savage beast.

Warren Spector has announced his return to game development with the formation of Junction Point Studios, the former studio head of Ion Storm Austin and creative genius behind Deus Ex revealed at the Game Developers Conference this week.

Swedish company Meqon, the firm behind the physics for 3D Realms' Duke Nukem Forever, have rekindled interest in the long-delayed game with a stunning demonstration of its latest physics technology.

Mario and Link, and their creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, have both been honoured in the inaugural Walk of Game ceremony in San Francisco this week along with Sonic the Hedgehog and Pong creator Nolan Bushnell.

At its heart, what Polyphony Digital wants Gran Turismo 4 to do is make you feel like you're driving a lot of increasingly expensive cars. Surprisingly. But we mean it wants to make you feel like you're really driving them. This it does with aplomb. As you move further away from its heart (into the ventricles, perhaps), you find that it also wants you to learn how to drive these increasingly expensive cars properly. And it wants you to understand what's better or worse about each of them compared to the other 700. It knows only too well what the difference is, see, and over four iterations on both PlayStations it's developed an enormous number of ways to underscore these differences and get you to understand them.

The release of Konami's PS2 exclusive Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater has loosened LucasArts' stranglehold on the peak of the UK charts, knocking Mercenaries (PS2, Xbox) into second place at the top of the All Formats Top 40.

"Not another bloody driving game" you're probably thinking. Not the most "adrenaline fuelled" and "intense" way to kick off our build up coverage to Konami's arrival onto the starting grid, but let's be honest right from the start here: it's going to take a lot to get consumers to down tools with heavyweights like Gran Turismo around, not to mention the already well-established supporting cast of TOCA, Project Gotham, the forthcoming Forza and vast numbers of arcade racers, rally games, F1 titles and gawd knows what else busily selling millions across the globe. Enthusia had better be bloody good from the very beginning or what chance does it have in this cutthroat and saturated market? Colour us unenthused.

It's easy to revel in the extraordinary depth and variety of experiences in Gran Turismo 4, but as much as you'll like what it does offer, you may still wish that you could take a break from the isolated pursuit of driving perfection and pit your driving wits against others over PS2 Online. In most cases, when a game comes in for review, it seems harsh to complain about the lack of multiplayer options to complement an already satisfying whole. But the fact that we've all had the carrot dangled in front of our helmeted faces over successive years can't be smoothed over - even by the opportunity to print photos of our cars or play as mechanic to an AI driver when we tire of judging our own braking distances.

Oddly enough, one of the things in Gran Turismo 4 that we've most enjoyed tinkering with recently is the game's Photo mode. It might seem like something easily dismissed on the surface, but the amount of effort Polyphony Digital's put into making sure it's just right is consistent with the effort elsewhere. In other words, it's not too far removed from directing vanity snaps of hugely expensive cars for real, although it does remove the need for expensive travel and transportation costs, film set-ups and, of course, the costs of the cars involved.

Multi-entertainment handheld Gizmondo will launch on 19th March in the UK, the company has confirmed today.

Sonic the Hedgehog is set to return to consoles later this year - in a sense.

Namco has signed an exclusive licensing deal with tabletop wargame maker Games Workshop to create games based on its Warhammer fantasy setting. The deal is described as "long-term" for "multiple games" on PC, and also allows for future console and handheld gaming versions.

SCEE has confirmed this morning that 3.2 million copies of Gran Turismo 4 have shipped to retailers ahead of the game's launch today in Europe, making it the most sizeable debut for any PS2 game in the territory.

Lionhead has launched a new official site and some fresh shots of Black & White 2, the PC strategy sequel that obviously didn't quite make its Q4 2004 slot.

American Anime specialist Geneon Entertainment has reportedly acquired all North American merchandising, TV and home entertainment rights to TV Tokyo Medianet's Japanese Viewtiful Joe series.

Details of downloadable content for PlayStation Portable racer Wipeout Pure released by Sony this week suggest that it could well swallow up the entirety of the default 32MB Memory Stick peripheral used to store saved data.

Nintendo has announced midnight openings at five Virgin Megastores across the United Kingdom this week to mark the launch of the Nintendo DS on Friday 11th March priced £99.

Support for Sony's proprietary Universal Media Disc (UMD) film format received another boost this week as Lions Gate Entertainment president Steve Beeks said his company would release 12 UMD films.

A new independent game developer has emerged in California this week after a management buyout of Sammy Studios, Inc., subsidiary to Japanese firm Sammy Corporation, saved the company from closure.

No strangers to subverting saturated and tired genres with their own brand of quirky humour and fondness for farting, burbling simpleton mutants as lead characters, Oddworld Inhabitants' well overdue return to the scene after three years in the wilderness is every bit as warped and unique as you could hope. Or is it?

Electronic Arts has revealed that it will co-publish Dead to Rights II in much the same way it delivered the original US-developed Namco title to European store shelves. The PS2, Xbox and PC title is due out in summer 2005 - so you could argue that it's not "much the same way", since there was a Cube version of DTR1 and Hip Interactive handled the PC version rather than EA, but you know. DTRII will carry on with the same sort of gritty noir third-person action antics in the fictional Grant City's underground, as edgy cop Jack Slate and his dog Shadow are once again entangled in a web of crime, corruption and betrayal.

An update to Sony America's PlayStation Portable webpage has identified 25 titles due to be released at launch, although the site is unclear on whether the games will all be available from day one or released within a "launch window" as it was in Japan.

Microsoft has announced the first European Halo 2 Championship on Xbox Live. To take part, all you have to do is sign up between now and 20th March on your regional Xbox.com website and then make it into the top tiers of the Rumble Pit leaderboard.

There's probably some kind of unwritten journalist's code that states that you can't do corny DJ-style links between the title of a game and the weather [there is? -What's New], but given that god is busy shaking off his dandruff outside my window as I write, I feel I've got a decent excuse this time. Even Crystal Dynamics can't resist the opportunity to throw in a few puntastic opportunities, with the central character of Snowblind going by the name of Nathan Frost for gawd's sake. Someone lock us up before it all goes pear.

In news that ranks as "bleeding obvious" - rather appropriately given the subject matter - Capcom producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi has confirmed that the company will make Resident Evil 5.

Creative Assembly, the UK based developer of the enormously successful Total War real-time strategy game series on PC, will attempt to extend the brand's reach later this year with a spin-off multiplatform console title published by SEGA Europe.

Epic Games would like to see Unreal Tournament on PlayStation Portable, vice president Mark Rein has told our sister site GamesIndustry.biz in an exclusive interview this week.