Latest Articles (Page 3308)

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.

If you spend more of your weekend parked in front of Grandstand than Match of the Day, you might be interested to learn that EA Sports is prepping the latest instalment in its Rugby series for release on PS2, Xbox and PC this spring.

Konami has officially confirmed details of its Castlevania game for Nintendo DS, including a European release estimate, a couple of days after the same information first surfaced in a US games magazine.

Almost 250 titles are planned for the Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance systems this year in the USA, according to information from Nintendo of America, which is currently celebrating strong handheld sales in 2004.

Having confirmed yesterday that it plans to release Xbox-exclusive slasher Otogi 2 in Europe next month, SEGA Europe followed up today by confirming that PS2-exclusive Blood Will Tell (known as Dororo in Japan) will be following suit, and should also be on store shelves during February.

Indie developer the Behemoth has signed its gorgeous hand-drawn 2D shooter Alien Hominid to an as-yet unknown publisher for distribution in Europe, and should be in a position to announce its identity in the near future.

Namco Museum is set to give the PlayStation Portable its first extended taste of retro gaming when the 70s/80s arcade compilation launches in Japan towards the end of next month, Japanese retailers indicated this week.

EA's previously announced PlayStation Portable games - Need for Speed Underground Rivals, Tiger Woods PGA Tour, NBA Street: Showdown, NFL Street 2: Unleashed - will be available alongside the handheld for its US launch this March, and will be joined by FIFA Football and MVP Baseball.

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.