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It's a quiet week for new releases in Europe - largely on account of the fact that everybody in the games industry is busy preparing for the Electronic Entertainment Expo, which kicks off in Los Angeles on May 12th. Before that though we have press conferences, private events and all sorts of other excitement to navigate, so the list is, for once, understandably sparse. Indeed, most of the journalists you'd expect to be writing about the games are on their way out to LA today or over the weekend, or busy "gearing up" for the show - a process which roughly translates to running around like headless chickens trying to secure all sorts of... you know... dealies.

Until now, German 'art' videos have been the only entertainment package designed to make participating men with voices like cement mixers actually feel good. Contrary to popular belief, grisly 'bear' types need reassurance as much as anyone that they sound exciting when ‘performing'. Singstar may very well be a defining moment for big men with a softer side.

Microsoft killed Rallisport Challenge. Panicked into releasing the game in the deluge of European Xbox launch titles, not only did it get lost in a ridiculously large swathe of games, but a total lack of marketing or pre-awareness effectively scuppered the game's chances. Some good reviews and word of mouth helped the title along, but the damage had already been done. Commercially it was a disaster for one of the best Xbox titles, eventually selling around 40,000 copies in the UK - about a one tenth of Halo and one eighth of Gotham.

When EA announced the first details of James Bond spin-off title GoldenEye: Rogue Agent last week, the reaction from most of us was one of disbelief. There was even some debate about whether the whole thing was an elaborate joke. The reason was EA's remarkably flaky justification for use of the GoldenEye name - made famous in gaming terms by Rare's unparalleled N64 film adaptation of the same name - which sees us controlling an aspiring henchman whose own eye was knocked out by Dr. No and replaced with a golden equivalent. Why gold? Because we're working for Auric Goldfinger, who is tussling with Dr. No for control of the criminal underworld.

SCI announced a new tactical multiplayer war game late on Friday called Midway (a working title), which focuses on the aerial and naval battles of the Pacific theatre of war in 1942, leading up to the titular Battle of Midway in which US forces took on the Imperial Japanese Navy despite being vastly outnumbered. It should be released on PS2, Xbox and PC in summer 2005.

Along with the various titles Vivendi-Universal Games has trailed ahead of E3, the publisher is also planning to show off a new, as-yet unannounced Monolith title which it describes as "The Matrix meets The Ring", and has released a teaser screenshot which you hopefully can see to the left of this paragraph.

Acclaim is promising to make a series of new product announcements during E3 this week, and plans to show the titles off behind closed doors to various sections of the media. Along with these new titles, the publisher will also be showing off various titles previously announced but never-before-seen in public, including racing title Juiced and 100 Bullets, an action title based on the DC Comics series, which we first caught wind off when SCEA announced various PS2 titles recently. It turns out that 100 Bullets will also appear on Xbox.

With the show kicking off in just two short days (or long ones, if you're flying halfway round the world this afternoon), BioWare has announced that it will show off Jade Empire and a pair of new products at E3 this year.

The inevitable Winning Eleven 8 for PS2 has appeared on Konami's Japanese release list for the first time according to reports, and should be out in Japan this August 5th. Details are fairly scant, but The Magic Box reports that the Master League will have 138 playable teams this time out, and will benefit from a new 'growth and decline' system so that no one single team can always be the strongest.

"Before the 1999 release of Driver, the driving action genre didn't even exist," boasts Atari in the glossy press blurb dished out at the launch of its big summer hope DRIV3R. Strictly speaking, DMA Design might be justified in raising a quizzical eyebrow at such brazen comments, having laid the groundwork with the enormously successful Grand Theft Auto 18 months beforehand - albeit a top down, rather than fully 3D take on mission-based driving mayhem.

Although Ubisoft is keeping a lid on specifics, the French firm has started to tease us with details of Prince of Persia 2 - the working title for the follow-up to one of our favourite games of 2003, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time - ahead of the game's debut at E3 next week.

EA has joined the growing list of publishers shooting nine tenths of their load ahead of the E3 trade show next week in LA, announcing a huge roster of titles ranging from its key sports franchises (which remains PS2 Online enabled with no mention of Xbox Live) and film licenses (although no sign of The Godfather as yet) to EA Partners titles like TimeSplitters Future Perfect and Burnout 3, and the surprise inclusion of Lionhead's Black & White 2, currently listed for release in 2005. EA also promises to announce its support for PSP with four titles set to be unveiled (perhaps at Sony America's pre-E3 conference on the Tuesday), although support for Nintendo DS is thought to be more theoretical than actual at this point.

Stepping into the shoes of Peter Cushing and Anthony Hopkins might faze any other actor, but Hugh Jackman doesn't seem to be having any problems. Judging by the Van Helsing trailer and all we've read about Stephen Sommers' forthcoming action movie, the Australian thesp (probably best known for his work in the X-Men movies) has not only managed to create a believably remorseful anti-hero (torn apart by the fact that he rids the world of demonic monsters, but loses the repressed souls in the process), but he's even injected Bram Stoker's scholarly vampire hunter with a satisfying degree of Wolverine. We're certainly looking forward to catching up with him on the big screen later on this year.

Pitch Black. To paraphrase one of the first reviews at IMDB, it was nothing new, but it had its moments. And most of those moments involved Richard B. Riddick, Vin Diesel's eerie prisoner-in-transit, who finds himself let loose on a mysterious planet when the ship he's travelling on crash-lands and only a quarter of the crew survive. The real fun of the film was what happened when the sun went down on the remnants of the crew, but even when the final curtain fell it was clear Riddick had a bit more mileage than anybody else.

I wonder what you'll be doing on September 30th. If you're even near a PC, we'd wager you'll be spending every waking moment swishing a crowbar joyously at hordes of leaping headcrabs in Half-Life 2. At bloody last.

Of all the odd press trips in the world, none can quite come close to the culture shock endured on the THQ-sponsored 'jolly' to GSC's Kiev-based studio in the sunny Ukraine. Of course poker-faced customs officials are par for the course - ever been to the States? Even the legions of furry hat-wearing folk (with no furry hat shops, sadly) and unfeasibly long-legged beautiful women didn't phase us as such, nor the fact that they wired us up to a vodka drip and forced us to eat a selection of some of the most bizarre and inedible 'food' substances ever.

"If it's all the same to you, I'm glad I joined the f**king Air Force," says a man who just glibly told two teams of US infantry waltzing into Zekistan's capital, Zafarra, that the region they're about to occupy is 'US-friendly'. In an astonishing turn of events, he's completely wrong. Homer, Iron Man, Rabbit, Delta Boy, Bot, Nova and Crawdaddy are about to get shot at by Middle Eastern types with rocket grenades and AKs. And you are about to lay eyes on the most technically advanced, flag-waving war simulation ever made.

Although you still remain in the dark about Sly 2: Band of Thieves, now that we're aware of a sequel to Sucker Punch's depressingly under-appreciated platform thieve-'em-up - which proved that linear gameplay, heavily scripted abilities, basic sneak-'em-up antics and complex platform environments can deliver a rich and absorbing blend - we're actually poised, lurking in a perpetual state of alertness, ever capable of pouncing on the first scrap of info. Well, actually, with Kristan out of the country again this Tuesday, your portlier correspondent is in more of a state of constant glazed over-ness, ever capable of flopping in the general direction of any blatant outbursts from SCEA or Sucker Punch, flailing arms and hoping to suffocate spokespeople in flaps of... Ooh look, there's one right now! [Flop.]

The latest issue of US games magazine Game Informer has, well, informed us of some interesting new additions planned for the next instalment in Insomniac's critically acclaimed Ratchet & Clank series of platform games, which the developer recently confirmed has been dubbed "Up Your Arsenal" - at least in the States. Ooh they love their puns, that lot.

Given that we all bitch and moan about the number of unimaginative sequels and me-too titles filling up the shelves these days, a game like Death By Degrees seems like a healthy alternative. It's based on a well-known franchise, which ought to appease the bean-counting publishers, and yet it's been spun so far off its original axis that it's relying on cameos and adventurous cut sequences to keep the connection alive. Believe it or not, the girl in the shots is Nina Williams. Namco's Tekken some liberties...

Unveiled yesterday at a LucasArts press-entation in the heart of London, Mercenaries is one of many interesting projects currently underway at Pandemic Studios, and although we're beginning to detect a bit of cynicism for "GTA meets..." titles [no shit -readership], it's difficult to sound cynical about a game that offers as much destructive potential as this one, let alone a game built around the tagline, "If you can see it, you can steal it, use it, or blow it up."

For a company that has spent over a decade making games made in hell, to see Doom III apparently entering its own Hades - development hell - is a sad irony. Although Id wisely never promised us a release date, it was on Activision's release schedule for the end of this year for so long that it's clear that the powers that be hoped that Doom III was going to be almost in the can by now.

To the majority of people who played it, BioWare's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remains one of the finest - if not the finest - titles ever to grace Microsoft's big black box. And it's little wonder. Whereas George Lucas clearly had difficulties returning to his sci-fi franchise on the big screen, the veteran PC RPG developer delivered an epic journey more than worthy of taking place a long, long, long time ago in that infamous galaxy far, far away. It was a gripping adventure unique to every player, and Halo's irrepressible popularity notwithstanding, rose to the top of a lot of gamers' Top 10 Xbox lists shortly after its release.

Sometimes it's hard not to be paranoid. As blissful as we are in our ignorance, certain strangeness creeps up you until you can almost feels its breath on your neck. Is this the scary of coincidence born of the crazy dreams of an overactive imagination or did they really happen? Perhaps a mild addiction to Jarlsberg? Too much herbal relaxation? Could be. But exactly when did the furniture get rearranged? Where did weird wall stain come from? How come the door's covered in chains? They did warn us that chat rooms were full of dangerous weirdos, but how did they get our address? What is that noise? Can you smell something? What's that note? "Don't go out?" Well, it doesn't look as if we have a whole lot of choice right now.

When Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater took a bow at E3 last year, it wasn't quite the showstopper everyone expected. Although the PS2 specialist press wet themselves (bless), the rest of us were far more interested in some game being shown off on the other side of the LA Convention Center. Something to do with spindly legged aliens, or something; we've sort of forgotten about it. Anybody remember it? In light of such a dramatic upstaging though, at the time we remarked that MGS had lost some of its influence.

The unending quest to create the definitive World War II videogame shows no sign of abating, and why not? Despite what could be perceived as a breathtaking lack of imagination, developers are evidently raising their game and producing consistently excellent titles if the likes of Call Of Duty, Secret Weapons Over Normandy and Hidden & Dangerous II are anything to go by. And it's the latter title that bears the greatest similarity to Codemasters' latest signing from Russian publisher 1C Company, titled Soldiers: Heroes Of World War II, a "fast-paced tactical strategy game" that "plays out like a blockbuster war movie" and is due out exclusively on the PC in the summer.

Nottingham-based TimeSplitters developer Free Radical Design has officially unveiled its other project, the aptly named Second Sight, which we're told is now close to completion and should debut worldwide in late 2004 on PS2, Xbox and GameCube. You can see it for yourself thanks to these early screenshots.

When your parents come out with gems like 'the years go by so quick when you're old' it's not just because they're turning into senile doddering old cretins that rarely know what day it is anymore. It's true. In fact, it seems scarcely credible that it's nearly three years ago since Onimusha: Warlords bestrode the summit of the UK's game chart. No wonder time travel seems so appealing to the nefarious types in Capcom's latest attempt to bring feudal-era Japanese hackandslash to the masses - they're fed up with constantly being told how old they are, and want to nip back to their early 20s to recapture their glory years. Who can blame them?

Why do Vampires always hang around in sodding LA, and not, say, Nottingham? LA's permanently sunny and full of beach bums, while Nottingham's mainly damp, cold and grey and populated by three quarters of the world's Goth population. Obviously no one alerted Troika Games to this Vampiric contradiction, because it's only gone and set Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines there.

With Need For Speed Underground racing ahead for its fourth straight week of chart domination, and Criterion's critically acclaimed Burnout series now lost to EA and their marketing gurus, Acclaim's street racing credentials were in danger of evaporating this week, and who could blame them for giving up? EA could market a flaming tyre to chart success these days, and now own the most successful street racing title of the Christmas period (with PGR2 way down the listing) and one of the most revered games in the genre. How to respond?