Latest Articles (Page 3327)

Order yours now from Simply Games.

Having confirmed at the Tokyo Game Show that it plans to release Gran Turismo 4 in Europe this year (albeit without online options), Sony this week released vast tracts of information relating to the game, detailing its Director Mode, expanded Gran Turismo World offering, Photo Mode locations, track listing and Mission Race and high score systems.

Some day, a day will come when we write a review of a Japanese RPG without feeling the need for an introductory paragraph bemoaning the actions of the European publishers who have so often denied or delayed our pursuit of the guilty pleasures of the orient. That day is not today, sadly; but at least this time, we're opening on our traditional "Xenosaga! Why, Namco, why!" rant in order to point out one of the best things about Star Ocean 3 - namely that it's here. In Europe. And only a few weeks after it launched in the USA at that. Square Enix promised us not so long ago that they were taking Europe more seriously, and if anything was proof of that, this is.

The Japanese Supreme Court has upheld a ruling by the Tokyo district court that software company West Side's 'naked Kasumi hack' for the PS2 version of Dead or Alive 2 violates Tecmo's copyrights, according to Japanese news reports. West Side has been ordered to pay two million yen (around €14,500 or £10,000) in damages.

Electronic Arts has revealed more details about its forthcoming Xbox-only FIFA Interactive World Cup this week, announcing that a Qualifying Tournament will take place on Live between October 15th and November 5th, and that the top players will be automatically entered into their nearest regional tournament and given VIP treatment all the way there and back.

Teenage kids. Who needs 'em? Always whingeing about being misunderstood, hormonally unbalanced, and incapable of deciding on a vaguely flattering hairstyle. No wonder Slipknot are doing such a roaring trade, and no wonder movie makers delight in finding new and interesting ways to cull them in an endless succession of teen horror movies; they make such willing fodder. Even though the genre became a parody of itself and then eventually went all ironic on us, it still has the capacity to be a winning horror formula. Witnessing a bunch of curious, pesky kids full of bravado gradually losing their cool as they get picked off by some unseen evil is always strangely satisfying. Mwahahahaha. Quite why no one thought to apply the exact same formula to a horror videogame before now is a curious thing.

Blizzard Entertainment has kicked off the European closed beta of the World of Warcraft MMORPG this week. Those among the many thousands of applicants for positions who were successful in their attempts to get on this most hallowed of beta tests should have received an email invitation by now, so check your inbox. Don't worry though - Blizzard will be phasing in more and more testers over time, so if you're not there yet you might be soon.

Rod Cousens, formerly CEO of now-bankrupt publisher Acclaim, is believed to be at the helm of a plan to acquire the company's UK studios and build a new publisher utilising some of Acclaim's major brands and franchises.

There's probably some deeper hidden meaning here, but we love scaring ourselves witless at Eurogamer. Must have been something to do with seeing The Hills Have Eyes, The Omen and Amercian Werewolf In London and the like at the age of nine, or just a predisposition to terror. Whatever, any new entrant to the world of gaming horror seems to get the (blood) red carpet treatment around these parts, and Obscure is no exception. Setting itself apart from the herd as part of a new generation of teen horror games, we were curious to find out what developer Hydravision had to say and what it was trying to achieve with this surprisingly accomplished adventure. Sweet dreams...

Japanese console giant Nintendo is considering a foray into the movie industry, it emerged today, with former president Hiroshi Yamauchi telling a press conference that he plans to propose an animated film project to the firm.

Oddworld's EA-published Stranger could be an Xbox-exclusive after all, according to whispers from net behemoth IGN, whose 'source close to EA' claims the PS2 conversion has been canned.

The developer behind the No.1 Conflict series dropped the first hints on the direction of its next title in the series, following the chart topping success of the recently released Conflict: Vietnam.

The ongoing Half-Life 2 pre-load saga hit its fifth phase last night, with Steam account holders able to continue downloading the Counter-Strike: Source maps in encrypted form.

Valve Software head honcho Gabe Newell has revealed the developer's extensive plans for distributing Half-Life 2. There's still no word on a release date, but anybody buying the game via content delivery service Steam should be given advance access to the full Counter-Strike: Source package from next week onward to tide them over.

Electronic Arts has ordered the recall of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 for PlayStation 2, according to a report on MCV this afternoon, after the publisher uncovered an unspecified technical problem, later characterised by director of European corporate communications Tiffany Steckler as an "unprecedented disc production issue".

SEGA has officially confirmed that OutRun2, due out this Friday n Europe and reviewed here, will feature a number of classic OutRun tunes remixed by composer Richard Jacques. And if you can't be bothered to buy the game to hear them, or fancy having them in your car or something, you can also get hold of them on a limited edition CD bagged with issue 38 of XBM magazine, which is out on October 14th.

Order yours now from Simply Games.

The Official US PlayStation Magazine reports this month that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas lead character Carl Johnson has been voiced by Young Maylay, a relatively unknown US rapper. Maylay follows in the footsteps of Goodfellas star Ray Liotta, who voiced Tommy Vercetti in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

The PC version of The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay will be a special "Developer's Cut" version, publisher Vivendi-Universal Games confirmed this week, although there's no word yet on what sort of changes Swedish developer Starbreeze has decided to make to the critically acclaimed first-person action game. The PC Riddick is due out in the US this December.

Electronic Arts is preparing to steal a march on Konami by releasing FIFA Football 2005 on October 8th on PS2, Xbox, Cube, PC, GBA and N-Gage, the publisher has confirmed, a week before rival Pro Evolution Soccer 4 launches on PS2.

While the world waits to find out whether Half-Life 2 will actually come out this year, or whether lawyers will manage to bind it in so much red tape that no crowbar in the world could cut it free, developer Valve Software has quietly begun the fourth phase of the game's pre-load via content delivery service Steam.

Broken games rejoice, for today appears to be the day of patching. Doom III has hit version 1.1 officially (download link, list of changes), following successful testing of the beta version of the same patch over recent weeks. Star Wars: Battlefront has been upgraded to version 1.00a just days after release (download, changes) in order to improve its networking, and likewise Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War hasn't got too far out of the blocks ahead of this 1.01 patch (download, changes), which "merely prevents the English edition from playing the non-English editions". We're not sure how that's beneficial. Finally, Codemasters has patched Colin McRae Rally 2005 to version 1.1 (download, changes), ironing out a few creases in McRae's otherwise immaculate (albeit slightly dated) threads. There we go - all fixed.

Electronic Arts' The Sims 2 remains at number one in the UK software charts this week, beating off a challenge for the top spot from Lucasarts' Star Wars Battlefront, which comes in at number two.

Just when you thought it was safe to wind up the EyeToy cable and bury it under a mountain of tacky control pads, eh? Your lounge, and the neighbours living downstairs, may never forgive you for the havoc SEGA SuperStars is going to rain down upon them, but having now seen and played with the complete suite of mini-games that make up SEGA's first EyeToy title (and hopefully not its last), we reckon it's worth the Doritos crunched into the couch cushions by a cycle of friends' arses.

X2: The Threat publisher Deep Silver has signed third-person action-adventure Scrapland and plans to publish it on Xbox and PC across Europe in January 2005.

Expansion packs are the gaming equivalent of an extra helping of pudding. You've doubtlessly already gorged yourself on the single-player main dish, picked out the stringy bits between your teeth and cleansed your palate with a fruity multiplayer dessert. At that point you should be quite content, unless the chef was having an off day. Maybe the portions were a little on the meagre side, or maybe you're feeling a bit gluttonous. Sometimes, when offered, you just can't resist the thought of more, even if it will probably result in loosening a few notches on the belt to make way.

The Tokyo Game Show is in town again. In Makuhari Town, Chiba, Japan. We spent the weekend there playing games, watching games, listening to games, and now we're going to talk to you about games.

Order yours now from Simply Games.

Order yours now from Simply Games.

Our friends at Atari have released a demo of RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 this week, giving you the chance to see how Frontier Developments has fared dragging Chris Sawyer's theme park-'em-up into three dimensions.