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PS2 exclusive sneak-'em-up Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater will receive its first public showing at this year's Games Convention event in Germany. According to reports, series creator Hideo Kojima will be attending GC 2004 in Leipzig between August 19th and 22nd, conducting interviews and presiding over a press conference, and of course demonstrating MGS3.

Konami has announced that a total of 56 licensed club sides from three different leagues will appear in the European release of Pro Evolution Soccer 4 this year, including big name sides like Real Madrid, Barcelona, AC Milan and Juventus - an improvement on PES3, which boasted only a handful of licensed teams.

id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead has let slip that a sequel to Return To Castle Wolfenstein is in development. Speaking in an interview with G4/Tech TV, seemingly recorded prior to Doom III going gold last Wednesday, Hollenshead mentioned a sequel to RTCW whilst commenting on what id Software plans to do next.

Mobile handset giant Nokia has reported a fall of almost six per cent in its global sales during the second quarter, and dropped its full-year forecasts; while the company plans to showcase its N-Gage range at the Edinburgh Festival next month.

Climax' Xbox-exclusive role-playing title Sudeki has gone gold, and will be shipping to retail in the USA on July 20th, with a European version of the Microsoft-published title due in August.

Yesterday, in the first half of our interview with Tribes: Vengeance producer Chris Mahnken, we heard what the team picked up from previous games, and what it's been like adapting the game to new technology and a new audience amongst other things. Today, in the concluding part, we address the issue of community involvement, how seriously developer Irrational Games takes the single-player aspect, and how the team has tried to make the game more accessible in multiplayer without sacrificing the feel of the originals. We also talk about the ongoing beta test, system specs, Irrational's demo plans, and whether or not it matters that nobody on the team directly contributed to the core development of either previous title.

The arrival of one of Japan's biggest publishers on European shores is a fairly major event for the games market in the PAL territories. Although some Japanese firms - Konami and Capcom are good examples - have major presences in Europe and have been publishing their own titles here for years, they remain the exception rather than the rule. In general, Japanese firms - even those with US subsidiaries - have been happy to sit back and allow other publishers to handle their products in Europe.

Hey summer where ya bin? This week has been an odd one. Lots of things have been announced without really being announced; PS3 and Xbox 2 found proper headlines for themselves, Doom 3 went gold, Ben Folds opened up pre-orders for his new EP [What does that have to do with anything? -Ed] and the sky alternately growled and shone around here like an erratic traffic light. Fortunately for you, there's much to fill the void whatever the weather does this weekend, although probably not all that much new.

EA has announced the latest Ultima Online expansion, Samurai Empire, following its unveiling at the EA Hot Summer Nights event in San Francisco this week. According to literature accompanying the announcement, Samurai Empire "marks a new era" in Ultima Online, transplanting the action to a new Japan-inspired Asian environment and introducing a pair of new professions that ought to set swords a-quivering: Samurai and Ninja.

Electronic Arts has released around a minute and a half of Need For Speed Underground 2 footage, made up of a mixture of cinematic and in-game content, giving us a taste of the follow-up to last year's surprise commercial smash hit.

Irrational Games plans to ship two demo versions of Tribes: Vengeance next month, in the form of an open beta multiplayer test and a separate single-player demo, producer Chris Mahnken has revealed in an interview on Eurogamer today.

The family is at war. Princess Victoria is betroth to a snake-like, cloak-wearing noble with little respect for her interests, and her father and sister Olivia can only see their side of the debate; that refusal to wed could bring down the whole family and mean the deaths of thousands of innocents. It doesn't help that dinner is served with an unwanted side of invading Tribals, who blast their way onboard the Imperial Yacht, separating Victoria from her family and unwanted fiancé, forcing her to try and pick her way through the disintegrating superstructure armed with weapons she's never used and fought at every step by laser-toting space-goons with jetpacks...

"Tribes is a hard game to master." Tribes: Vengeance producer Chris Mahnken is actually discussing some of the lessons the team learnt from the previous two titles, but he might just as easily be referring to developer Irrational Games' brief to resurrect the series in a new guise. The idea was to create a game with a strong single-player aspect, and refine the multiplayer game in such a way that the whole package was more accessible for newcomers, and yet suitably familiar that the series' fanatical following would happily make the transition. The results are, at this stage, extremely promising - the single-player component, covered in some detail elsewhere on the site, is enjoyable and manages to impart some of the things that become important online without resorting to bullet point lists and tedious tutorials. The multiplayer, meanwhile, seems to have refined things in such a way that it's genuinely simpler to understand, but still handles in familiar fashion.

Order yours now from Simply Games.

A Doom 3 demo will probably be made available shortly after US retailers take stock on August 3-5th, id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead has revealed in his latest .plan update. "I don't have any information to share regarding any specific content, but I don't believe that we have ever disappointed in that regard in the past," he said.

Reports this week have suggested that Confounding Factor, the development studio founded by Lara Croft creators Toby Gard and Paul Douglas, will cease operations after it finishes up work on Xbox title Galleon.

Nintendo is reportedly planning to release a new Pokemon GBA title in Japan on September 16th. Called Pokemon Emerald, it's the third game in the Ruby/Sapphire grouping, meaning that it features much of the gameplay from the previous titles along with two new main characters, a new feature Pokemon (Rayquaza) and various new story events and, in this case, Battle Theme Parks. The battle system has also been altered slightly, according to the reports, which originated in Japanese magazine Koro Koro Comics, and some speculation suggests trainers can now attack at the same time, or something of the sort. We're not big Pokemon fans. We won't pretend we are. Anyway - it's out in Japan this September, will be bundled with the wireless adapter, and you can see some scanned stuff on it over at The Magic Box here if you're so inclined. Which is a polite way of saying Get Orf Moi Laaaaand.

Microsoft UK has confirmed that Fable is still on track for European release in October, after its American counterpart announced the game's US release date of September 14th, and added that early adopters in both territories will receive a bonus 'making of' DVD featuring a documentary and demos for other Xbox titles.

Following his confirmation that "It's done" yesterday evening, various quotes from id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead have surfaced shedding some light on the question of Doom 3's DVD distribution, the multiplayer server architecture, and the state of the Xbox version in development at Vicarious Visions, and excited gamers with access to subscriber copies of the US PC Gamer have flooded forums with news of that magazine's exclusive review and score.

Codemasters has this week released a minute-long video demonstrating some of the physics tricks the player can take advantage of in Free Radical Design's forthcoming project-your-mind-'em-up Second Sight, which is due out on PS2, Xbox and GameCube in the second half of 2004.

"You always have to take things one step too far." We've probably all heard that at one point or another, right? And some of us have probably learnt from it. Those of us who didn't, however, now most likely write fantasy novels and comic books. Indeed, judging by the latest of his creations to make the transition to videogame form, Astro Boy creator and sadly departed manga artist Osamu Tezuka quite possibly adopted it as something of a mantra. It is after all one thing to play around with the idea of cybernetic limbs, prosthetics and implants, but in the case of Hyakkimaru, star of Blood Will Tell, Tezuka has swapped out just about every organ and extremity that might have blood coursing through it, sticking swords and guns where arms should be and plenty more besides. The goal? Well, Hyakkimaru wants his real bits back, and he's not going to get far as skin wrapped around a few IOU notes. It's a lot like Pinocchio in that regard, except with a lot more demon slaughter and brain-mushing violence. Tsk. There we go taking things too far again.

Id Software's Todd Hollenshead has confirmed that Doom 3 has gone gold and been whisked off for duplication. "Yes, this is the official word that DOOM 3 has been code released and has been approved for manufacturing!" Hollenshead wrote in a.plan update this evening.

Here's some news that won't have much bearing on 90 per cent of our demographic: Microsoft is all set to publish OutRun2 in North America this October. Sega is (obviously) due to do the honours over here on Sumo Digital's magnificent Xbox arcade port, but, rather like Shenmue 2, MS will be handling things abroad. You can ignore this paragraph and go and read relevant things about OutRun2 in our E3 first impressions. Here's a short version: screech, slide, buy.

Acclaim has released a one-level playable demo of its forthcoming PS2/Xbox/PC racer Juiced, featuring a single track (San Ricardo) and three cars. You can download it (134MB) direct from Eurofiles right now. Here.

Activision's Spider-Man 2 has swung into the number one position in the UK sales charts a week ahead of the opening of the movie, knocking Atari's Driv3r off the top just a fortnight after its launch.

A trio of games industry veterans, including two former Rare developers, have announced the formation of a new developer called Third Wave Games and their plans to release an online mech combat title for the PC this autumn. The twist is that the game will be downloadable, and cheap; War World, as it's called, will retail for just $19.99.

Electronic Arts has announced that the console debut for its Battlefield franchise, Battlefield: Modern Combat, has slipped a full year to autumn 2005 due to the decision to add single-player to the previously multiplayer-only title.

Nintendo has confirmed European release dates for two of the titles we're most looking forward to playing this year: Pikmin 2 for GameCube, and Mario Golf: Advance Tour on the Game Boy Advance. Both titles will touch the ground at around the end of September.

Splinter Cell 3 will launch on Xbox and PC in time for Christmas, Ubisoft confirmed this week, and on other formats in the first quarter of 2005 in PAL territories. This means the PlayStation 2, GameCube and probably GBA, as if it needed spelling out.

Onimusha 3 is probably the best hackandslash game mere mortals will play all year. Having been out in Japan and the US for a while now, PAL gamers can finally pick it up today, July 9th, and can expect another thoroughly entertaining action-adventure. The hardcore Ninja Gaiden brigade might find it a little easy, but for anybody without time for the exacting uber hardcore Ninja action, Onimusha 3 may well fit the bill perfectly.