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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.

A pretty good day for downloads, this. Not content with Ninja Gaiden content and a RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 demo, we've also got a batch of new downloadables for Rallisport Challenge 2, which should be available on Xbox Live by the time you read this.

With the Tokyo Game Show closed and the Master Ninja Tournament presumably over (who won?), Tecmo has released the second Hurricane Pack of downloadable content for Ninja Gaiden via Xbox Live.

Ubisoft has laid bare its plans for the multiplayer component of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, revealing that while Ubisoft Montreal is busy tinkering with the single-player and co-operative game modes, the Annecy studio responsible for Pandora Tomorrow's multiplayer is once again at work on the third Splinter Cell.

Florida-based Infinium Labs has announced that the launch of its Phantom Game Service and console has been postponed to next year, following consultation with retail and marketing partners for the device.

An ongoing legal struggle between developer Valve and publisher Vivendi Universal Games, could lead to a further delay to Half-Life 2 as both companies sue one another in the US District Court.

Although we're struggling to get our heads round what it actually is, it's nice to hear that the first game from Rez creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi's Q Entertainment studio was playable on the show floor at TGS this weekend. PSP title Lumines, which will be published by Bandai, is reportedly some sort of puzzle effort, where you attempt to line up groups of four orange and grey blocks so they get blasted away when a spaceship passes. Unsurprisingly for a puzzler, you can form chains out of your blocks if you're careful, and typically of a Mizuguchi title it sounds like there's much more to it. The English reports we've read point out that the music appears to react to your performance, but we fancy it's yet to be sussed out completely. We'll let you know once it is. In the meantime, here's a screenshot.

With Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas just over a month away, Midway has announced plans to release its own criminal third-person title set in Los Angeles, and has tapped film director John Singleton - the man behind Boys N the Hood, to which San Andreas seems to owe quite a bit - to collaborate on the project.

Wanda and the Colossus - the latest game from the team behind ICO - made an appearance at the Tokyo Game Show this weekend, although disappointingly it was only available in video form. And while it was nice to see the game often referred to as NICO in action for the first time, the presentation didn't really tell us anything we hadn't already heard in the run-up to the show.

Rockstar Games has released another official trailer for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which is due out on PS2 in just over a month on October 29th. The new trailer, mirrored on Eurofiles here (82MB), is just over a minute long and takes us on a tour of some of the game's locations.

SCi Entertainment has announced a collaboration with Davis Panzer Productions to "develop the game rights to the classic Highlander franchise," adding to the UK publisher's growing canon of film projects including Constantine and Reservoir Dogs.

Metal Gear Solid 3 will be the "Final Episode of the Metal Gear Solid Trilogy," according to the trailer Konami showed at the Tokyo Game Show over the weekend - a statement that's open to interpretation at this point, although our money's on the next "Metal Gear" game featuring a different word in place of "Solid".

HD Interactive has released a one-level demo of forthcoming space combat title Nexus - The Jupiter Incident. The demo, which previously appeared on magazine cover disks, is mirrored on Eurofiles here and weighs in at 114MB.

SNK is working on a 3D version of Metal Slug for release on PlayStation 2, the publisher announced at the Tokyo Game Show today, and plans to release it simultaneously worldwide at the end of 2005.

Order yours now from Simply Games.

There are three people reading this review. (Actually, there are slightly more than three people overall, or it probably wouldn't be worth my while.) That is to say, there are three types of people reading this review. The first has been with the Tiger Woods PGA Tour series for a while now, most likely having fallen in love with it after sampling one of the post-2002 vintages. The second is either curious about the game, having heard so many people raving about it, or blissfully unaware of its charms, having stumbled in here on the off chance of surprising themselves. The third, finally, is my mother, who pops in occasionally to see what her son's wasting his life on. (Hi Mum!) So then, in the interests of making this as straightforward as possible for all concerned, people in the second group will find that the initial excitement and glowing praise heaped upon the game is highly relevant to them. However, when you start to notice a shift towards a sneaking sense of dissatisfaction, that's when the first group ought to start paying close attention, because it applies more to them. And Mum: you can read the whole thing.

Although Square Enix hasn't announced any firm details or even a release target, reports are scampering around the web that the develo-publisher has announced that it's developing a new Front Mission game to the assembled hordes at the Tokyo Game Show, which, as you must know by now, kicks off in Japan today. We'll let you know if we hear anything else.

Polyphony Digital's long-awaited PS2 racing title Gran Turismo 4 is on track to meet worldwide release dates in early December - but at the cost of online play, which has been removed from the game.

Konami has updated the official Metal Gear Acid website ahead of the game's playable debut at the Tokyo Game Show this week, filling some of the (many) gaps in our understanding of the card-based PlayStation Portable title.

As promised yesterday, Capcom has revealed a few details of the secret project it's announcing at the Tokyo Game Show this week. Called Demento, it's a new horror adventure for the PlayStation 2 reportedly reminiscent of the Clock Tower series.

SNK's dogged pursuit of old school gameplay values and 16-bit technology is something revered by the hardcore gamer, but only one company has stuck it out as long as SNK, which continues to carve its own niche in Japan and the US with 2D fighting games and run-and-gun platformers that most developers said goodbye to a decade or more ago. In 2001, the company was even forced to close its doors and say goodbye to its fans for good after filing for bankruptcy. Yet somehow SNK's name lived on, its assets changed hands and not only is it thriving once more, but has finally tied up European distribution of all the games we've missed out on over the past few years as well as the new ones coming down the pipe.

Reflective types pining after another bout of Shining Force will be pleased to hear that SEGA of America has decided to publish - and thereby obviously translate - SEGA Japan's Shining Tears action-RPG for PS2.