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Electronic Arts' Need for Speed Underground 2 made it five weeks at number one in the UK over Christmas, with a sales boost of 13 per cent in the week leading up to Christmas Day giving the title a comfortable lead.

There's no change at the top of the UK software chart in the last week of 2004, with Electronic Arts holding on to pole position for a sixth week running with street racing title Need for Speed Underground 2.

Sony's first party PSP software line-up for Europe has been confirmed today, with nine games scheduled for a spring release.

SEGA Europe says it's planning to release Xbox-exclusive slasher Otogi 2 - Immortal Warriors in Europe some time in February, although it hasn't said specifically when just yet.

Sony is still hoping to launch the PlayStation Portable in Europe during March, president Ken Kutaragi told a gathering of executives in Tokyo yesterday, while SCE America CEO Kaz Hirai told journalists in Las Vegas that the PSP had shipped 510,000 units in Japan by the end of December.

Publisher Vivendi Universal Games has flatly denied rumours that it is in negotiations with Ubisoft regarding a possible merger or takeover, quashing speculation which stemmed from a French newspaper report.

Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower is being billed as a launch title for the PlayStation Portable in the USA - which means that by Sony's latest estimate it should be out alongside the unit in March.

Konami has shown off its PlayStation Portable first-person shooter Coded Arms at CES 2005 in Las Vegas this week, as the publisher revealed it plans to release the game in the US this summer 2005.

Gamers in and around London this weekend are being encouraged to support the tsunami disaster aid appeal by visiting the Vue Cinema West End in Leicester Square and playing games on a cinema-sized screen.

The GameCube version of NBA Street V3 will feature Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach as part of a "Nintendo All-Stars" team, EA and Nintendo revealed this week. NBA Street V3 is due out on PS2, Xbox and Cube on 18th February.

The head of Europe's largest publisher Infogrames, Bruno Bonnell, has said that his firm could be ready to help French rival Ubisoft to fight any takeover bid by industry leader Electronic Arts.

My God. Where did 2004 go exactly? Lost in a blur of Half-Life 2 shenanigans, Xbox 2 gossip and San Andreas rage it was a bit like John Lennon's infamous Lost Weekend, only less inebriated. 2005 will be sober, slower and once again full of false expectation punctuated by the odd complete surprise. But as much as we like surprises, it's a warm and fuzzy feeling knowing what's coming, and with the activation of our rusty early warning system we kick off today with a series of format-specific preview articles that will hopefully give you a few things to look forward to as the year gets underway.

As we reported just before Christmas, certain combinations of Nintendo DS units and Wario Ware Touched!, Nintendo's latest mixture of quick-fire "microgames", are troubled by a couple of frustrating bugs that make it more or less impossible to complete several key tasks successfully. We still don't know why, either because Nintendo hasn't actually clarified the situation in Japan or because the various websites that diligently translate reports from the company's homeland haven't gotten round to conveying an explanation, but we can at least say we have proof the problems exist. Because we're suffering from them ourselves.

So what's it to be? Are you joining the gym? Cutting out spirits? Red wine? Red meat? Giving up smoking? Spending more time with the family? Getting your finances in order? With 2005 now a partially-mutilated-handful of days old, you must have some idea by now of your New Year's Resolutions. We've done ours. Pillars of clean living that we are, inevitably our resolutions mostly concern the hording of various different forms of media, and indulging ourselves excessively. "Spend more time playing non-work games," is one, "Buy more CDs," is another, and "Read more books," is one we're forcing on ironically named editor-o-matic Kristan Reed. And we're all trying to cut down on our four-letter tirades and the victimisation of breakable inanimate objects when things go awry on the review trail, too...

A special collector's edition of Doom III Xbox will launch this March alongside the regular version, and features ports of PC classics Ultimate Doom and Doom II with split-screen multiplayer options, according to retailers.

Sony Online Entertainment is working on one of the few original titles in development for the PlayStation Portable in North America, a hackandslashy action-RPG called Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade, Sony announced this week.

A Sony event later today in Las Vegas may include the announcement of the North American launch date and price point for the PlayStation Portable, which is currently expected to arrive by the end of March.

Japanese firm Level-5, developer of prominent role-playing games including the Dark Cloud series, could be resuming production on canned Xbox role-player True Fantasy Live Online, according to comments attributed to company president Hakihiro Hino.

French publisher Ubisoft has criticised EA's purchase of almost 20 per cent of the company's stock before Christmas, describing the move as "hostile", while reports indicate that the French government may move to block a buyout.

Legendary strategy game developer Ensemble Studios has revealed the first details of the next title in the Age of Empires series - with the much-loved franchise set to return to its historical roots after the fantasy diversion of Age of Mythology.

Reader Reviews are dedicated to finding lasting solutions to ill-advised Christmas game purchases and the suffering they cause.

A Top 50 list. An explanation is almost redundant. We all sit down and work out which games we've played this year and how much we liked them, we then swap lists and argue them into the shape of a Top 50. We then post comments to argue for and against each of them, and you then post comments explaining how very right we are or, far more likely, how very, very wrong and mad we've clearly become. In the hope of avoiding actual death threats this time around, however, we'd like to preface this year's countdown by pointing out that this is entirely a matter of opinion, and that nobody on the staff has in fact played every single game on the list. It's just not possible. This is not a definitive Top 50 Games of 2004. There's no such thing. What this is is a list of our favourite games based on titles released in Europe over the past 12 months. We hope you'll find it interesting, and we hope you'll feel compelled to respond in the New Year by submitting your favourites in time for us to compile the Reader's Top 50. Expect details of that in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, here's the first instalment in Eurogamer's Top 50 Games of 2004, dealing with numbers 50 to 41. Tune in every day this week for more.

Games numbering 40 down to 31 in our continuing round-up of Eurogamer's Top 50 Games of 2004. If you missed out on 50-41, or you want to know precisely what this list represents, head here for yesterday's first instalment.

Games numbering 30 to 21 in our continuing round-up of Eurogamer's Top 50 Games of 2004. If you missed out on either of the previous two instalments, head here for 50-41, and here for 40-31. And if you want to know precisely what this list represents, check the first instalment again for details.

Games numbering 20 to 11 in our continuing round-up of Eurogamer's Top 50 Games of 2004. Missed out so far? Just use the following links to head back in time: 50-41, 40-31, 30-21.

So here we are. Eurogamer's Top 10 Games of 2004. Our top ten favourite games, mind you. Not the definitive top ten games of the year. Anybody who whacks a list in front of you and tells you that's what you're reading is either mad or omnipotent. Still not sure what this list represents? Head back in time and examine the criteria for inclusion, and while you're at it you might like to check up on numbers 50 down to 11, all of which are preserved at the following URLs: 50-41, 40-31, 30-21, 20-11.

Castlevania for the Nintendo DS is a reality and will be a direct sequel to Game Boy Advance title Aria of Sorrow, Konami has revealed in the February 2005 issue of American magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly, according to reports.

Leading publisher Electronic Arts has denied that it sought an exclusive licensing deal with the NBA, following reports last month which indicated that the basketball association had turned down an approach from the firm.

The Star Wars-themed real-time strategy game being developed for release on the PC this year by RTS veterans Petroglyph will be called Star Wars: Empire At War, according to a preview in the February issue of PC Zone UK.

World of Warcraft has been so well received in the USA since its November release there that it's already topping a few end-of-year polls. We'll have to wait a little while before getting our hands on it in Europe, but one of the benefits of waiting is the constant refinement and new content that developer Blizzard has poured into it in the meantime.