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Research and development spending at Nintendo will top 22 billion Yen (163 million Euro) this year, according to a report in the Japanese business press, with the company also planning to boost capital and marketing spend.

Promising Nintendo DS adventure title Another Code: Futatsu no Kioku has been given a Japanese release date of 24th February according to reports from the region. There's currently no word on an American or European release.

The Myst series is to come to an end this autumn, by the sound of it, when Ubisoft publishes Myst V: End of Ages, described as the final episode. Cyan Worlds is once again hard at work on the PC/Mac title, and Myst co-creator Rand Miller is leading the team on End of Ages, "bringing closure to the Myst storyline via its most dramatic and immersive experience to date".

Previously on DS Games To Watch in 2005...

The Commodore 64 is to become the latest retro gaming machine to be repackaged as a plug and play joystick, with the "Direct to TV" system being issued with 30 all-time classics later this year.

America's Army executive producer Phil DeLuca has issued a hilariously thuggish warning to players of the US Army's action game / recruitment tool on the game's official forum this week. In a post seemingly removed after the attention it drew, DeLuca threatened that cheaters and those tampering with the game were "misusing Army property" and guilty of "cyber crime", before appearing to liken players guilty of such crimes to those in Japan who decided to bomb Pearl Harbour in the 1940s. The missive went on to threaten that the Department of Justice, the Secret Service and even the FBI could be involved in tracking people down, and concluded in cringeworthy fashion by declaring, "The Army is angry, and we're coming for you."

After failing somewhat in its attempts to push the series in a new direction with Forts Under Siege last year, Worms developer Team 17 has dropped its RTS experiment completely and decided to return to the traditional turn-based cosiness of a typical Worms outing for this year's effort. Hence Worms 4: Mayhem, which ought to be out on the PS2, Xbox and PC in Q2 2005, with Codemasters handling publication this time rather than SEGA. It's all a bit New Coke/Classic Coke to our eyes.

The original Tekken will be included as a bonus item in the console version of Namco's Tekken 5, according to numerous reports citing sources at Japanese retailers.

Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii intends to retain the 3D approach utilised by Level 5 for the series' recent eighth instalment, the veteran developer revealed at a recent seminar in Japan dealing with the game's production.

Leading publisher Electronic Arts has announced an exclusive deal to develop games based on the Arena Football League, which sees the company sewing up the rights to the popular and fast-growing American sport.

NCsoft Europe has revealed that one of the best MMORPGs we're aware of at the moment, City of Heroes, will get its official European release on 4th February with an SRP of £29.99 / €39.99.

Super Nintendo boxing classic Super Punch-Out!! will be an unlockable bonus item in the GameCube version of Electronic Arts' Fight Night Round 2, sources close to Nintendo told Eurogamer today.

Electronic Arts' Need for Speed Underground 2 made it seven weeks at number one last week, with the street racing title retaining its crown despite a 60 per cent drop in week to week sales.

Square-Enix has yet to decide whether or not to bring Dragon Quest VIII to Europe, a UK representative confirmed this afternoon, as the American arm of the RPG giant confirmed that it intends to release the game across the pond - probably within 2005.

Nintendo has announced that the DS handheld will launch across Australia on 24th February and will cost just AUS$199.95 - equivalent to around £81 or €115.

Nintendo of America has officially dated a bunch of its 2005 titles on Cube, GBA and DS, giving us a firmer idea of when we'll have to start nagging importers about the likes of Star Fox: Assault and WarioWare: Twisted!

Fact: there has never been a short ugly fat bird in a beat-'em-up. Fact: a United Nations mandate was secretly passed in 1993 to ensure that any women appearing in videogames would have to be 34DD, preferably blonde, sport a slightly sour glacial stare and never appear without figure-hugging attire. The less the better. With high heels. It's a little known fact that women fight better in four-inch stillies. All that rubbish like "my feet are killing me" and pretending to not be able to walk; it's all a giant ruse to lull us into a false sense of security just moments before delivering an almighty roundhouse boot to the nads. Nina Williams is quite probably mankind's greatest achievement, and now she's got a game all of her own to show off all her kinky outfits.

With the current crop of consoles reaching (or having reached?) their high water mark, the time is ripe for PC gaming to start dominating the agenda again. Post Half-Life 2 (and to a lesser extent Doom III), you'd imagine publishers would be queuing up to take advantage of all those system upgrades that simultaneously took place in the latter months of 2004. But it's not quite as simple or logical as that. Just like the PC itself, there is always a long list of quirks to endure and take into account before you can enjoy what may seem initially straightforward.

The popularity of the PlayStation 2 never ceases to amaze. Here we are almost five years after Japanese launch of Darth Vadar's Toaster and it's still selling faster than a speeding Anatov aircraft. What's the trick? Just how did Sony manage to hoodwink the world that the Dreamcast was worth ignoring? Was it really down to SEGA's "let's spend all our marketing money on football teams and online gaming" incompetence, Nintendo's dogged pursuit of the kid demographic and woeful tardiness, or was it Microsoft's ability to design joypads for hairy Bigfoots with spades for hands that had the world rushing to buy PS2s? Maybe it was Sony's obscure marketing campaigns that made the whole thing cool while the rest still reeked of geek? Nah. More likely it was down to some incredibly canny exclusivity deals and publishing partnerships that ensured that nearly all of the must-have brands came out at just the right time, meaning the likes of Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid, Gran Turismo, Tekken and of course the Grand Theft Auto titles not only came out just when the console was in dire need of a boost, but more importantly were firmly nailed to the format for as long as possible. The fact that the least capable console not only won, but won by a huge margin was a spectacular achievement for Sony, and five years on PS2 owners are still reaping the benefits, with a line up that arguably collectively dwarfs the competition for both quality and range. Sure, the ongoing 'scattershot' approach mean the PS2 also has more bad games than any other format. But don't be distracted - there's much to look forward to this year, as this list will hopefully demonstrate.

Superheroes are back in. After buying up most of the world's Y-fronts in the last few years and storming box offices with the likes of Sam Raimi at the reins, and making some quite defensible incursions into the world of console gaming too, now they've set their sights on the beige box under the desk - and thanks to the likes of City of Heroes and Freedom Force Vs The Third Reich, 2005 should be a bumper year for European gamers with superheroic ambitions.

Sony's Ape Escape flavoured EyeToy party game is due out in Europe this spring. Known as Saru EyeToy in Japan, it's going to be called EyeToy: Monkey Mania over here and should be out on 18th March according to Sony's most recent release schedule.

Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto series has produced the best selling game of the year in the UK once again, with San Andreas comfortably topping the full-year chart for 2004 as the market showed significant growth overall.

A new Grand Theft Auto title set in Liberty City is on its way to the PlayStation Portable, Rockstar announced today, along with what sounds like a fairly straight port of Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition, the company's customisation-heavy street racing title. Both titles are expected to be available "near" the launch date of the PSP in the US and Europe, which Sony reckons will be some time in March on both continents.

24 is set to get the videogame treatment late this year, with Sony reportedly bagging the license to Fox's all-action counter-terrorist-busting TV hit starring Keifer Sutherland.

Ubisoft will publish Brian Fargo and inXile's quirky action role-playing game The Bard's Tale across Europe, the publisher announced today, and expects to ship PS2, Xbox and PC versions in March.

Despite forming the backbone of platform games like Prince of Persia and Blinx, the ability to manipulate time is still an area of gaming that, going into 2005, we'd like to see more fully explored - so it was with no small amount of interest that we greeted news this morning that Atari is to publish a PC/Xbox first-person shooter almost entirely built around the idea. "TimeShift" is due out this autumn.

Judging by the volume of announcements emanating from last week's Consumer Electronics Show, visitors to the Las Vegas event were showered in Gizmondo related excitement - including this, the news that Tiger Telematics has signed a letter of intent with Digital Media Cartridge Ltd (DMC) to produce a compilation of classic SEGA games for the handheld.

Tiger Telematics' Gizmondo handheld may not have Halo to look forward to, despite rumours circulating the Las Vegas CES event last week, but a number of licensed and original products developed by internal group Gizmondo Studios are well on the way according to the company.

Development studio Bungie has denied reports that its Halo franchise could be on the way to Tiger Telematics' Gizmondo handheld console, scotching widespread rumours which resurfaced at CES last week.

Sold Out has announced its first run of £4.99-priced budget releases for 2005, which should be out sometime next month. Stand up Command & Conquer Renegade, Championship Manager Season 00/01, Zeus, Ski Park Manager, Space Tripper and Haegemonia.