Latest Articles (Page 3340)

id Software has released what's said to be the final downloadable trailer of Doom III, as the game prepares to launch in the US this week - as early as today according to a number of reports over the weekend. You can download the trailer from Eurofiles.

Gearbox Software's ambitious World War II first-person shooter Brothers In Arms will not be released this year, publisher Ubisoft reportedly told sections of the media at a Paris press even this week, despite sending out a release schedule last Monday indicating that it would.

Italy will be the first country outside Japan to witness Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children in any way, shape or form, judging by reports over the weekend that a special preview version will be screened at the Venice International Film Festival this September.

Former Rare man Martin Hollis is to speak for the first time in public about the development of cherished N64 FPS GoldenEye 007 at the forthcoming European Developers' Forum this September.

The spectre of Internet piracy loomed over id Software this morning, as the first hacked verisons of Doom III began to appear across the web - days ahead of the long-awaited game's US release, and 12 days head of its European release.

During the 1980s and most of the 1990s, Jon Hare's Sensible Software produced some of the finest 8 and 16-bit gaming moments on the Commodore 64 and Amiga, including the likes of Parallax, Wizball, Megalomania and latterly Cannon Fodder and of course the legendary Sensible Soccer. After the controversial, ambitious and expensive adventure project Sex And Drugs And Rock And Roll helped bring the company down in 1997, the Sensible dream seemed over. But this week, Tower Studios announced themselves to the world, headed up by Jon Hare and former 16-bit rivals Mike Montgomery and John Phillips formerly of the equally legendary Bitmap Brothers. Their first projects include mobile phone versions of Sensible Soccer and Cannon Fodder, to be published by Kuju Entertainment, but Hare is also considering other old classics as well as entirely new IP. In this exclusive interview, Hare talks of the problems of mainstream development, and why working within the creative confines of a small, focused team is better...

Given the current political climate, you'd think that a game about a relatively inept bunch of soldiers being visibly shot to pieces in your back garden would be rather a hot topic. And yet, strolling down to the newsagent this morning to buy some crumpets, we discovered that games like The Suffering, and not Army Men: Sarge's War, were gracing the front page of a certain reactionary newspaper under a banner of Ban These Evil Games (and, curiously, a picture of a Swedish football manager).

With Midway now in charge of the Unreal franchise for the foreseeable future, Atari is planning one last swing of the Skaarj to make the most out of Unreal Tournament 2004's success in the autumn. Dubbed Unreal Tournament 2004: Editor's Choice Edition, the new version will be an expanded package presumably aimed at newcomers, featuring new Onslaught maps, three new vehicles (a two-seater aircraft, a new tank with player-oriented directional shield, and a long-range artillery vehicle with a hovering 'spotter' camera), six new characters and some of the best mods on the net. We look forward to seeing how many CDs that fills up. There's no word on a European release yet, but we'll let you know as soon as we hear anything.

Atari CEO Bruno Bonnell has hinted that a new Matrix game could be announced within the next few weeks. Speaking on the back of a rather downbeat financial report, Bonnell pointed out to investors that Atari still has "the rights to two more Enter the Matrix SKUs," adding that he hopes "to provide the public with more details [...] in the coming weeks."

Having announced several new projects already this month, including some new IP and a Conquest RTS sequel, it turns out Britsoft developer Warthog is also working on an RPG called Fallen Kingdoms for PC and Xbox.

The Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault demo we told you about yesterday has been delayed, Electronic Arts has announced, despite promising that it would be with us all very soon and even specifying a file size - around 400MB.

Although Wario Ware's GameCube outing is an enticing prospect for some, there was understandably some disappointment when Nintendo opted to stick mainly to the mini-games (sorry, microgames) that comprised the original Game Boy Advance offering. Really, we just wanted something else like that, only more so.

Assuming that the weekend is shaped like a right-angle turn and that you covet Doom III's American launch date, id Software's latest hellbound FPS is in fact just around the corner, and with that in mind it's a good time to invest some eye-time in the latest pre-release bauble to bear the name - the Official Doom III Hardware Guide.

Stalker won't be casting any shadows of Chernobyl this year, publisher THQ announced in its latest conference call to investors this week, claiming that the game had been positioned strategically to avoid a head to head fight with the various winter first-person shooters.

Graphics card manufacturer ATI has responded to recent Doom III benchmarks, which painted a slightly brighter picture of products from its largest competitor NVIDIA, telling followers at Team Radeon that it's "a non issue".

Midway has delayed Area 51 until the first half of 2005 in order that the game doesn't get lost in the inevitable deluge of Christmas releases this year. The game had previously been due out in Q4 of 2004, but according to the publisher's latest financial report, it isn't any more. Midway's David Zucker said, "we believe it is a prudent strategic move from a competitive positioning standpoint," going on to say, "Area 51 is a superb game, and we believe it will receive much more attention in a launch period with comparatively less crowding, such as the first half of 2005." A cover-up?

Electronic Arts plans to release a demo of Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault in the very near future, according to reports. Although there's no specific information on the demo content available yet, we do know that it should weigh in at around 400MB.

LucasArts has released more details of the Star Wars: Episode III tie-in game it plans to release to coincide with the film next year. Although it's still known as Star Wars: Episode III (presumably a working title), it's due out on May 5th next year, two weeks prior to the film's premiere on May 19th, and we understand it's due on PS2 and Xbox.

Valve Software's Director of Marketing Doug Lombardi has indicated that Half-Life 2 will hit store shelves in mid-to-late September, according to reports originating on a Half-Life fan site.

Midway (soon to be known as Midway Of All People should it continue to sign deals like this one) has announced a multi-year, multi-product agreement with Epic Games to publish the next three Unreal titles everywhere on the planet except Korea. Financial terms were not disclosed.

After Burnout 2 melted our faces a couple of years ago, there was no going back for driving games. Never again would we accept choppy, syrupy sub 30 frames per second so-called driving 'experiences' that may have looked a bit like driving, but felt like work. Never again would we accept half-hearted damage modelling. Burnout 2 was an instant thrill that never stopped being thrilling, and did it all by ignoring po-faced realism, focusing on the simple premise of games equalling fun and pushing the technical boundaries further than anyone had ever managed. Until now. Cranking up the PS2 to melting point, Burnout 3 delivers an even bigger knockout blow to arcade racing nuts, with more of everything you could possibly think of. We'd caught a glimpse of its ludicrous beauty at E3 and knew roughly what to expect, but cornered Criterion's irrepressibly enthusiastic Alex Ward to tell us the inside story of one of this year's most exciting driving games...

Following today's surprise acquisition of Criterion by Electronic Arts, our sister site GamesIndustry.biz spoke with Criterion CEO David Lau-Kee and EA worldwide studios VP Bruce McMillan about the future of the industry's most popular middleware platform.

Electronic Arts has announced the purchase of British game development studio and leading middleware provider Criterion, giving the top publisher control of the hugely popular RenderWare platform.

The Japanese developer of games including Resident Evil: Dead Aim and Drakengard is looking for staff to work on a new Xbox title according to a Japanese recruitment website. Cavia, which is a subsidiary of Amuse Capital Group (the same firm that owns Blinx developer Artoon, and Scarab), is seeking programmers with 3D games and C/C++ experience, directors, game designers, CG designers and PS2 programmers. We reckon they are working on a game involving time travelling dragon zombies. Actually, we don't.

Activision has confirmed that Doom III (that old chestnut) will only run on Windows 2000 and Windows XP, validating rumours that anybody still using Windows 98 would be unable to play the game.

LucasArts is gearing up to release Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords this year in the USA, judging by a new trailer posted on the publisher's website this week and a new street date carried by a number of US retailers.

Microsoft Game Studios and Digital Illusions CE have patched - sorry, auto-updated - RalliSport Challenge 2 via Xbox Live. The mandatory download will auto-install whenever you next log on to Microsoft's online gaming service.

Reports indicate that Capcom has registered the domain Viewtifuljoe3.com, sparking rumours that the Japanese games co. is considering a third game in the 2D fighting series.

Download the full video of EA's Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault presentation thanks to our BitTorrent-based files service, Eurofiles, here, and listen to Matt Powers' presentation and see the game in action for yourself...

Activision's movie license Spider-Man 2 has stayed on top of the UK software sales chart for a third week, as a period largely bereft of major new full-price releases saw no movement in the top four titles.