Latest Articles (Page 3335)

Following the success of the £2.99 Paris Booster Pack a couple of months ago, Bizarre Creations is currently preparing to unleash a second series of downloadable circuits and vehicles for Project Gotham Racing 2 in the form of the Long Beach Booster Pack. It should be available on Xbox Live very soon.

While Nintendo of America prepares to flog a few cartoons on cartridges using Majesco's GBA Video technology, the Japanese are already a few steps ahead, judging by an intriguing report on the ever-illuminating Game Watch this week.

Ubisoft has delayed Far Cry Instincts until Q1 2005, a move that "will ensure that both the Xbox and PS2 versions have the same impressive graphics and unique immersive gameplay elements as the highly-regarded Far Cry PC version," according to the publisher's statement this week. It had previously been due out by the end of 2004.

It's a regular source of befuddlement for us that games companies ignore the rich pickings of the Wild West when building first-person shooters. From memory, only LucasArts' flawed gem Outlaws ran with the idea - and that was seven years ago, back when 'LucasArts' still meant something. Since then, we've been bombarded with World War II, Vietnam and of course outer space, but the boundaries aren't much wider than that. So, faced with the prospect of something different, we couldn't resist granting it a stay of execution in the face of an anorexic release schedule. Sure, Dead Man's Hand came out a few months back, but we figured that we'd take the rare opportunity to catch up on some of the titles that slipped past us during the E3 mayhem, at a time when your local stores are doubtlessly offering such titles at knockdown prices to keep their businesses ticking over.

Atari's Driv3r has stayed at the top of the UK sales charts for a second week, despite a decline in sales of some 17 per cent, while only two new titles entered the All Formats Top 40 as the flood of new titles at the end of June abated.

Regular followers of the news roundup may recall that we commented on a mysteriously updated patch file for Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising the other day, which seemed bigger, but for no apparent reason. Well, now the reason is well and truly apparent - this is not version 1.1.1.5 or whatever it was, but instead is version 1.2.0.6, boasting all manner of new improvements. Say goodbye to "several" map bugs, say hello to "optimisations to player models" and so on. You can find details of the rest in the readme file, available alongside the file, right here.

Oxygen has announced (What an odd phrase... "Wait, this just in from Methane!") more details of Vietnam: The Tet Offensive, the PS2 and PC based first-person shooter it's planning to release in the UK on September 24th for a penny shy of twenty quid.

Datel is relaunching its Game Boy Player alternative, the Advance Game Port, adding Action Replay functionality to improve its capabilities. The new Advance Game Port is available to buy from the Codejunkies.com website for £29.99.

Konami has reportedly reached an agreement to include Dutch footballing sides in Winning Eleven 8, the Japanese sister series to Pro Evolution Soccer, from which we can infer that the recently-announced PES4 will most likely also include them.

Nokia's N-Gage summer tour bus will be making its first stop over in the United Kingdom tomorrow, as part of a 25-city European tour that takes in the Netherlands, the UK, Germany, Belgium and France.

Summer blockbusters are something that moviegoers are more than used to by now, but it's not often that the games industry throws up a bona fide summer blockbuster. With Headhunter: Redemption though, Sega and Amuze is fostering a cinematic blend of action and adventure the likes of which so many big-screen prospects are fumbling at the moment. The original, starring motorcycle-riding 'headhunter' Jack Wade, was an interesting mixture of stealth and action that we rather liked. With the sequel due out next month, we flagged down creative director John Kroknes as he sped past on Jack's bike and found out what makes Redemption tick. And, to begin with, who's redeeming what...

Final Fantasy XI for Windows will launch in Europe this September, Square Enix has confirmed. Its release will be timed to include and coincide with a worldwide launch of the game's second major expansion pack, Chains of Promathia.

There was further bad news for troubled publisher Acclaim in its latest round of regulatory disclosure documents, as the company admitted that it has lost the rights to the Turok franchise and Major League Baseball.

Sports Interactive's NHL Eastside Hockey Manager, released last Friday on PC, is now available to download and buy thanks to Softwrap's digital distribution system, which keeps the whole game under digital 'wraps' until you've paid your fee. All you have to do is head to either Sega's or Sports Interactive's website and you can download the file, pay for and play the game without ever having to set foot outside your front door. Which is good news for anybody still waiting for a regional release (hello America!) and indeed for those of you who played the freeware original and fancy sticking with the downloading tradition.

Publisher Acclaim has announced its full-year results for the twelve months ended March 31st, revealing a net loss of $56.4 million and a major decline in revenues - along with a warning that the firm may face bankruptcy in the near future.

Who said all the good names were gone? [One-time contributor Yolanda Kefka, probably. -Ed] Well, if animal-bashing first-person shooter Vivisector is anything to go by, it wasn't developer Action Forms, nor publisher Brigades. Due out in October on the PC and sounding curiously (and spookily, given Marlon Brando's death last week) like The Island of Dr Moreau, Vivisector is a straight shooter that harnesses a seemingly unhealthy obsession with offending animal lovers, including promises that our enemies - cybernetically modified animals, apparently - will "gorily fly to pieces under the onslaught" from our 16 different types of weapon.

Mario RPG series fans can see one of their biggest glimpses yet of Intelligent Systems' forthcoming Paper Mario 2 this week courtesy of a new Japanese website that includes a 'pulp-sating' trailer movie. Oof.

Square Enix is planning another title in the Seiken Densetsu series, and has started advertising to fill a wide number of positions on the development team via its Japanese website. Although few details of the new title are made available, the recruitment page does include a couple of snaps of colourful concept art.

We'd have far more parties than we do, but not everyone can tolerate our taste for depressing music played by skinny shoe gazing types that jingle jangle along with voices that convey the emotion of someone who has just lost their job, their drug addled girlfriend, all their money and possessions 6,000 miles away from home and denied promotion to the Premiership on a penalty shootout all on the same, day. It all sounds woefully improbable, but you couldn't make this stuff up.

Following on from Square Enix' oft-repeated commitments to focus more strongly on Europe, the firm has formally announced a number of changes to its subsidiary here - most notably the appointment of a new European CEO.

It's been a while since we wrote about TrackMania, but we certainly haven't forgotten about it. Imagine our delight, then, when we got our hands on the first details, screenshots and indeed video footage of the full-blown sequel, TrackMania Sunrise, which is due out from Britsoft publisher Digital Jesters in Q1 2005.

Ever since Unreal burst onto the scene over six years ago, Epic's technology has been at the forefront of gaming, providing the raw power for an increasing catalogue of games from its own Unreal series, then onto titles as diverse as Splinter Cell, XIII and even Harry Potter titles. Now onto the third generation (screenshots), Epic has been touring the globe over the last three months with its latest creation to offer a glimpse of what's to come in future generations of PC and next generation console titles. As part of a three-day stopover in London, Epic's main men Mark Rein (Vice President, the self-confessed business head of company), Tim Sweeney (programmer and founder), and Alan Willard (level designer) spoke to Eurogamer about how the technology is shaping up, their plans for an all-new non-Unreal-related title and the kind of horsepower gamers will require for their next-gen gaming.

Digital Jesters is planning to make the process of updating games easier for PC owners, having signed a deal with a company that cuts out the legwork and downloads updates suitable for DJs games automatically.

Midway has announced that the latest instalment in the Mortal Kombat series will be renamed before it appears in France, citing "translation issues". Not being too hot on our French, we're forced to defer to Games Press for this - and the scholars there point out that throwing in an accent gives you Mortal Kombat: Déception, or, amusingly, Mortal Kombat: Disappointment in English. Mortal Kombat: Deception is due out in Europe on November 5th on PS2 and Xbox - and Frenchies should look out for Mortal Kombat: Mystification, which is roughly the same thing - with less disappointment attached.

Give Atari credit - the bods there can spot a slow news day coming. Hence an item discussing the addition of - yes - fireworks displays to RollerCoaster Tycoon 3. To be fair, RCT3 - in development at Frontier here in the U of K in conjunction with creator Chris Sawyer - is a game we are certainly looking forward to. In fact, we can't wait to vomit all over it. But we probably could be writing about more interesting things.

Publisher Vivendi Universal Games has finally confirmed the existence of a PC version of its critically acclaimed Xbox first person shooter, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay.

With Euro 2004 a fading memory down our way (and down yours too, we fancy - unless we have more Greek and Portuguese readers than we realise), and Henman and co. out of Wimbledon, our sports calendar would be rather empty were it not for the Olympics in Athens. Frankly, we don't get that excited about that sort of thing very often, but we were more than happy to get acquainted with the Athens 2004 spin-off game when it turned up recently; waggling and mashing our way through it like some sort of crazed back-half-of-dog/potato-pummelling hybrid creature sprawled on the couch making rapid, easily misconstrued arm gestures as our little virtual men and women gradually conquered each and every event. Not a bad way to spend a day. Particularly if you have friends. Friends with thumbs.

With the latest game riding high at the top of the charts in various countries (despite a critical mauling in some quarters), it seems that the production firms behind the Driver spin-off movie have taken steps to expedite its development.

Epic's talk of an all-new title may have pushed Unreal 3 off the radar for now, but the Raleigh-based company still has long-term plans for a sequel, the company's boss Mark Rein admitted yesterday.

Epic Games has revealed that its first Unreal Engine 3-based title will not be based on its long-running Unreal franchise, and could be released as soon as early 2006.