Latest Articles (Page 3333)

British publisher Codemasters has announced that it has discontinued development on Dragon Empires, with the massively multiplayer RPG title being dropped due to "technical issues."

Nintendo has announced a new "dusty pink" limited edition Game Boy Advance SP unit, due out this October 29th, in its attempts to capture the attention of "gadget girls". It should go for the same price as existing SP models.

Rockstar Games is expected to announce details of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' vast soundtrack at some point today, having allied with Interscope Records, a division of the Universal Music Group.

Half-Life 2's preload to Steam account holders continued apace this week as Valve allowed users to download "the majority of the audio of Half-Life 2 in encrypted form," according to an update on the developer's website.

Publisher Acclaim has finally reached the end of the line - with a Chapter 7 liquidation request filed in New York State - but highly anticipated racing title Juiced will be unaffected by the closure, GamesIndustry.biz has learned.

Having discovered an Xbox Live button in the Game Stars Live build of Pro Evolution Soccer 4 earlier this week, Eurogamer has been told by various insiders that the Xbox version of the famous football title will "definitely" be playable online - although we're still waiting to find out whether more than two players will be able to compete at a time.

Nintendo of America has cut the price of the Game Boy Advance SP by $20 to $79.99 from today, the company has announced following retail reports to that effect earlier this week.

Sony Computer Entertainment Japan could be on the verge of unveiling the long awaited and hugely anticipated sequel to PS2 cult classic ICO, according to the furore surrounding a new Japanese teaser website.

Nintendo may not have officially cut the price of the GameCube to compete with Sony and Microsoft's recent exertions, but during the EGN trade show thimgum this week the platform holder did announce a very reasonably priced bundle featuring forthcoming drum-banging Cube game Donkey Konga.

ELSPA director general Roger Bennett toasted the debut success of EGN and Game Stars Live yesterday, but admitted that running two trade shows concurrently across London must never happen again.

Sly 2: Band of Thieves - due out on PS2 in Europe this October - may be the company's focus right now, but in an interview to be published on Eurogamer later today Sucker Punch's co-founder and producer Brian Fleming admitted, "We'd like to see Sly on the PSP."

Xbox-owning football nuts may be about to get their wildest dreams realised... Well, okay, some of their tamer dreams. But they'll probably be happy, regardless, to hear that Konami has deigned to bless the Xbox version of the forthcoming Pro Evolution Soccer 4 with Xbox Live support.

Area 51 has become the latest Midway Games title to catch the attention of Hollywood, joining the likes of Psi-Ops and Spy-Hunter on the tinseltown radar, with Paramount Pictures announcing this week that it has optioned the rights to the extra-terrestrial tale.

Ubisoft has confirmed suspicions that it will publish Snowblind Studios' Champions of Norrath PS2 sequel Champions: Return to Arms in PAL territories, as part of its ongoing relationship with series owner Sony Online Entertainment.

The huge collaboration of cavernous Docklands venues and demo pods that is Game Stars Live is upon us at last, giving you - the public - the chance to sample for yourselves some of the finest forthcoming games from the biggest names in the business.

No official statement or filing has yet been made regarding the future of embattled publisher Acclaim, but sources at the company and media reports alike have indicated that the firm intends to plan for Chapter 7 liquidation.

Ubisoft has revealed that the PC version of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2 will now launch in "early 2005", having refused to comment on its target date for the Red Storm-developed tactical action game during a recent press event in London.

Athens 2004 finally took over the number one position in the UK charts this week, giving Sony its first chart topper of the year, and its first since EyeToy: Play hit the top spot a year ago.

Rules of Attraction director Roger Avary, who won an Oscar for co-writing Pulp Fiction with Quentin Tarantino, is working on the Silent Hill movie, judging by a recent update to his journal and a writing credit on the Internet Movie Database.

For some, Creative Assembly's celebrated Total War series represents the ultimate in Real Time Strategy titles; deep, complex, involving, life-sapping experiences that bring out the megalomaniac in the gentlest souls. PC Gamer, for one, ranks Medieval as its best ever PC title, and both Medieval and Shogun have sold in respectable quantities too. But as good as they undoubtedly are, both seemed destined to be the preserve of the hardcore elite, when they surely deserved a much wider audience for the legions of historical warmongers out there.

No matter how predictable they are, no matter how much things move on there's always been a special place in our hearts for light gun games. Ever since Taito set the standard with Operation Wolf back in the days when we were still loading games in from cassette we've been strangely drawn to their magnetic charms. Crisis Zone may be one of the dumbest, most ludicrous, over the top games Namco has ever produced, but you can't stop coming back for more. It's gaming's equivalent of the three-minute pop song. Sugary, light, disposable, but oh so addictive.

Order yours now from Simply Games.

Okay, so we've long since realised it's all make-believe. And, to be honest, we don't watch it on the telly any more. Yet we still tune in for Yuke's annual SmackDown! updates. Force of habit? Nah. They're just damn good games. With its latest offering, SmackDown! vs. Raw, Yuke's and THQ are taking the series online for the first time, and making another clutch of changes that should help the series retain its lead over the rest of the genre - including publisher's stable of other-platform wrestling titles. During a recent press event in London, we caught up with THQ creative director Nick Wlodyka to try and find out what keeps the series slamming.

We've seen quite a lot of SEGA SuperStars over the past few months, and, to be honest, we're sold on it already - on the strength of the Samba de Amigo, Virtua Fighter, Sonic and House of the Dead mini-games alone. Rain or shine though SEGA keeps inviting us back for another look, and as much as we'd like to say 'enough is enough and give us a call when the review code's ready', it just keeps getting better and better, and the games list keeps growing - and we can't resist blabbering about it.

Eidos Interactive announced Championship Manager Online to the City early this morning, promising to launch the subscription-only "massively multiplayer online football management simulation" at www.cm-online.com in January 2005.

The price point of the Game Boy Advance SP is to drop to $79.99 in the United States later this week, according to sources at US retailers, with a cut in Europe expected to follow in the coming months.

Wideload Games, the Chicago-based studio formed by Bungie founder Alex Seropian earlier this year, has signed its first game deal - with ascendant publisher Aspyr Media set picking up the rights to the company's as-yet unnamed first title.

Midway has announced that it's returning to its Rush racing roots with its internally developed forthcoming LA Rush title, due out on PS2 and Xbox next spring - with Rides Magazine tagging along, Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition-style, for the ride. LA Rush will, unsurprisingly, feature a realistically modelled version of Los Angeles (everyone needs one these days, it seems), street racing, cop chases, all sorts of jumps and shortcuts, and around 50 licensed and concept cards. We're told to expect more details on the game in early 2005.

While the publishing big guns battle for control of the thousands of game-hungry consumers clogging up the halls of the neighbouring Game Stars Live, a number of smaller firms are planning to quietly showcase their wares to trade and press at the European Games Network this week, according to various recent announcements.

Jason Kingsley, CEO of Britsoft developer Rebellion, reckons that the firm's recently released FPS World War Zero has serious franchise potential, and has been talking up the possibility of comic, game and big screen sequels and spin-offs ahead of its trade showing at EGN this week.