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Britsoft developer Climax has spoken out about the cancellation of Warhammer Online announced earlier this week by rights-holder and project partner Games Workshop. In a statement released late on Tuesday, CEO Karl Jeffery expressed sadness but admitted the firms had "little choice" following a review of the costs involved in bringing the game to market.

Valve Software head crab Gabe Newell has given us another update on the whole Half-Life 2 release date situation. Speaking in an interview with US site Home LAN Fed about the recently released 2D side-scroller Codename: Gordon, which is a free mod based on Half-Life and its as-yet unreleased sequel, said the game was "in great shape".

Vivendi Universal Games has announced that 350 staff have been laid off as part of the firm's restructuring efforts, representing some 40 per cent of its US workforce - with the toughest cuts coming at the Sierra operation.

The PS2 version of Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow has helped propel the Ubisoft title back up to the number one spot (No.1 PS2, No.4 Xbox, No.10 PC, and No.18 GBA) - almost two months since it dropped from the summit after its initial Xbox and PC launch.

Disney/Square crossover RPG sequel Kingdom Hearts II will not appear until 2005, although GBA pseudo-sibling Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories is still on track for release this year. That's according to the latest issue of Japanese Shonen Jump magazine, which also reports that developer/publisher Square Enix will be demonstrating the two games for the first time at a gathering in late August.

Nintendo has sent forth word that Wario Ware, Inc.: Mega Party Game$ will be released in Europe on September 3rd, some five months on from its outing in North America and many more still since its release in Japan. Fortunately, the game will retain its budget price point in Europe, retailing for €30, which is bound to mean £19.99 in the UK.

The Command & Conquer online community was thrown into excited chaos this weekend past when fan site Planet CNC posted a tantalising piece of concept artwork purporting to be Command & Conquer 3.

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Games Workshop has terminated development of massively multiplayer online RPG Warhammer Online, which had been under construction at Britsoft development Climax.

Rockstar North's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas will not feature any online play when it launches on PlayStation 2 later this year, according to Rockstar creative director Dan Houser, who claims that it would be "impossible" to implement GTA online.

In the latest example of willy waving in the graphics card market, Nvidia has signed Id's Doom III to help promote its FX range of Geforce graphics cards.

LucasArts has released a four-and-a-half-minute trailer for Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, in which the publisher's producer Mike Gallo talks over in-game footage of two of the planets from the RPG sequel, including one mentioned but never seen in the first game.

Blizzard Entertainment has quietly confirmed that StarCraft: Ghost, its ambitious tactical-action game based on the StarCraft real-time strategy universe, has been delayed. Or, as the developer rather optimistically phrases it on the wires, "Blizzard today announced plans to expand and evolve the design of its upcoming tactical-action console game, StarCraft: Ghost."

Although it's not quite on the same scale as the Half-Life 2 source code theft at the end of 2003, developer Slitherine Software is presumably feeling similar levels of strain after the gold master disc for its forthcoming standalone Spartan expansion pack Gates of Troy was stolen recently.

Hip Interactive has acquired the worldwide publishing rights to Stolen, the third-person action game two-and-a-half years in the making at Britsoft developer Blue 52. And although reports last August linked the game to Sony Computer Entertainment Europe as a potential PS2 exclusive, Hip says Stolen is multi-format.

Konami has released a crop of new Metal Gear Solid 3 screenshots, showing off some sections of the recent E3 demo's introductory movie, and giving us a glimpse of the heavily camouflaged Snake having difficulty with a tricky mudpool.

Eidos has released a patch for the PC version of Thief: Deadly Shadows, correcting a frustrating issue that thrust the difficulty level back to default whenever loading from a save file - much to the annoyance of the Thief hardcore more than anybody, who were forced to revert to "Normal" level whenever they died, when they really wanted to test their wits against "Expert".

Richard Burns Rally has "gone gold" and should be available in Europe on PS2 and Xbox from July 9th. According to publisher SCI, Richie "breathes new life into the rally genre". SCI also points out that the UK Official PlayStation 2 Magazine described it as "eye-bleedingly fast, ultra realistic and totally exhaustive," and gave the game eight marks out of ten. We'll let you know whether it's any good if and when SCI sends over review code.

Classic franchises are a bit like children in an old country village. (Yes, this is going somewhere). One day there’s an abundance of them, vying for more attention but never getting it - and then the next, they’re gone. Grown up, forgotten, left for the big city. Suddenly, the old country village is in a spot of trouble; without children, it has no future; without them, it will not survive.

It's been a while, no? Fortunately for those of you who've submitted reviews over the past couple of months, persistent reports of this feature's demise have been... not so much greatly exaggerated, but the subject of misplaced pessimism on the forum. For you chaps hopefully this - the first of several such instalments we hope to publish during quieter moments over the next fortnight - will lay your fears to rest.

Because I'm either stark raving mad or just love you all, I actually spent most of the England match yesterday finishing off my Mashed review, while glancing over during the good bits, such as when Rooney smashed the ball onto a post and watched bemused as the ball ricocheted off the Swiss goalie's bonce at such velocity the poor guy lay in a stunned heap for what seemed like an eternity. Wayne's World, Wayne's World! Party Time! Excellent!

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Microsoft Japan has released the first images of its Video Chat system, a package comprising a webcam, the ordinary Live chat headset and a year’s subscription to Live.

Tennis is as synonymous with the British summer as abject, horrific failure is to the weasley face of 'Tiger' Tim Henman. And just as the public will never, ever accept that Henman will not win Wimbledon before he finally dies, tennis will always inspire thousands of slightly rotund people with red cheeks to do their only exercise of the year and waddle off to the local courts before getting bored and drinking Pimms and eating strawberries while getting sunburnt. This lemming-like phenomenon has not gone unnoticed by game makers. Anything that makes British people stand up has to be worth game-ifying, says the logic of the corporate man. We’re surprised that we’re still not in receipt of the first summer drinking game. Now that would shift some units. Of alcohol.

Yesterday, we took a look at one of the most controversial titles on the GameCube - Square Enix' poster-child for GBA connectivity, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicle - and having assembled a group of boisterous gamers and a motley collection of link cables, GBA SP handhelds, controllers, beer and pizza, it would have been a waste not to try out another Nintendo four-player game which left many fans scratching their heads in puzzlement when it was originally announced.

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Acclaim has signed the much-fancied Kreed, Russobit-M's first person shooter which puts you in the shoes of a "so-called legionnaire, one of the most dangerous warriors of the 3rd millennium".

Neither Pandora Tomorrow nor Red Dead Revolver could unseat Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban at the top of the UK software chart, as EA made it three weeks in a row at number one with its fifth chart topper of the calendar.

In simple terms, buying the right movie license for your game is the accepted publisher shortcut to the retail shelves and instant media attention. But the problem for any aspiring videogames publisher is how does it know for sure which of the crop of upcoming releases are going to be hits two - or more - years before the movie hits the theatres?

Nintendo is asking its fans to vote for which NES titles should join its Classics range, and has devised a brief survey on its US website (www.nintendo.com) polling for votes.