Latest Articles (Page 3349)

UK developer Zoonami has revealed its debut project, and it's not the Cube-only title the studio was rumoured to be working on - instead it's a multi-platform rhythm-action title called Funkydilla, which sounds a bit like a cross between Frequency and Tetris. The UK developer (founded by Martin Hollis, whose credits include N64 titles GoldenEye and Perfect Dark) will be taking the game out to E3 next month with a view to getting support from a publisher and potential licensing partner.

Midway has confirmed the line-up for its next batch of Arcade Treasures, including a number of relatively recent titles like Mortal Kombat 1-3 and Primal Rage, ahead of the package's launch in autumn this year.

Perhaps in response to recent reports (based on magazine scans posted to the web), Nintendo has updated its official website with a product page unveiling Retro Studios' Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, shedding a little more light on plot, multiplayer details, and virtually confirming our report that the title will debut at the platform holder's pre-E3 press conference on May 11th - with the game more or less certain to appear at the trade show the next day to boot. The Nintendo.com update also brings us official screenshots to replace those grainy mag scans.

As reported here around a month ago, the next Tomb Raider game will not be appearing at E3 this year. "It's official," an Eidos representative reportedly told the US press this week. The Crystal Dynamics-developed seventh title in the series is currently listed for release in the middle of 2005, and ought to be an improvement on the dreadful Angel Of Darkness at the very least.

The clear skies and sunshine outside the office notwithstanding, it's become apparent in the last few moments that hell actually has frozen over, and that Satan will soon be ploughing through banks of snow on his way to work whilst simultaneously singing Hark The Herald and playing a harp in a tutu. That's right, folks - Unreal II on the Xbox came out this week! Give it a big hand!

The Xbox version of Doom III currently in development at Vicarious Visions will feature co-operative online play via Xbox Live, according to word coming out of an Activision press event in California today. Our source on the scene reports that it "looks great" up and running, and that the four-player Live deathmatch mode is also quite something to behold.

Broadband game delivery proponent Infinium Labs has announced a revision of its stock issue plans, which will now see the company raising $44 million from the venture rather than the previously planned $15 million.

Chavs and boy racers rejoice! EA has finally announced a direct follow-up to Need For Speed Underground, promising to build on the original game's mixture of arcade-style racing, shiny visuals and Max Power style tune-up options. Expect under-car lighting, and all manner of other fancy upgrades that fans of The Fast And The Furious and trendy sportswear will be able to immediately latch onto.

Following yesterday's revelation that Doom III would be playable co-operatively over Xbox Live, our sources at Activision's Californian press event have confirmed that there will be no split-screen options in Vicarious Visions' forthcoming Xbox adaptation, and shed some light on other aspects of the presentation.

The US publishers of forthcoming Hefner-'em-up Playboy: The Mansion have confirmed that the "two major console systems" mentioned in last year's product announcement were indeed PS2 and Xbox, with corresponding versions due out along with the flagship PC version sometime around Christmas. Ubisoft will be publishing in Europe.

Record label EMI has filed a lawsuit against leading publisher Electronic Arts, claiming that the company used its music without permission in a number of recent EA Sports branded videogames.

Microsoft has announced the first European Pandora Tomorrow Xbox Live tournament, giving budding Sam Fishers the chance to walk off with what is quite frankly one of the coolest prizes we've ever written about: a customised Pandora Tomorrow Spy Kit (worth about £2,650).

Developer Mythic Entertainment has announced it will offer Dark Age of Camelot subscribers a new "account splitting" service beginning April 27th (next Tuesday). Quite simply, it allows players to transfer one or more characters from an existing account to a new account.

Eidos has officially confirmed the multi-platform sequel to Backyard Wrestling, which was first mentioned in a financial results document accidentally uploaded to a public area of the publisher's website last month.

With Tak and the Power of Juju ticking past the one-million-unit mark globally, THQ has wasted no time in announcing the sequel, Tak 2: The Staff of Dreams, which is in development at Avalanche Software for release on PS2, Xbox, Cube and GBA as soon as this October. The game will be one of THQ's key products at next month's E3.

Open-mindedness is the key to a long and healthy gaming life. Some of you are bound to agree with that - and we're guessing that anybody who does also took a chance on ICO, Viewtiful Joe, Mario & Luigi, perhaps even Gregory Horror Show, and in doing so bucked the growing trend of safety first when it comes to buying videogames. And it is a growing trend. And a worrying one. These days the charts are crammed full of the very rubbish we're supposed to be trying to avoid, and the laughable part is that we're going out and buying this stuff because we're unwilling to take risks on games we're unfamiliar with. It didn't used to be like this. Once upon a time, "I don't like RPGs" wasn't even intelligible English. These days it's common. Plug it into Google. Plug in a few variations. Cry.

True Crime developer Luxoflux is looking for a bit of help crafting the game's inevitable sequel, and instead of just culling ideas from rivals and putting some motorbikes in, the developer sent us an email asking if we'd solicit some help from you lot. Which we're only to happy to do. If you played the original True Crime and have any comments about what you felt worked or didn't work in the original game, then you're encouraged to head here and take part in the survey. "No prizes are offered, to help assure objective feedback, but it is a rare chance to have a direct impact on the course of game development!" Couldn't have put it better.

Although we're still waiting to get our hands on the original over here, Konami of America has announced a sequel to Karaoke Revolution (or Karaoke Stage as it will be called here), featuring a bunch of new songs and a new medley mode, which lets players create a sort of montage of up to five song clips and compete for the audience's approval against their friends.

LucasArts has unveiled Star Wars Galaxies: Jump to Lightspeed this week, an expansion for the MMORPG of the same-name-minus-the-bit-after-the-colon. It's due out this autumn, and as the name suggests the main addition is space exploration and combat, which we seem to recall was due to appear in the original release of the game until time constraints went into overdrive.

Further details of Capcom's recently founded development studio, Clover Studio, have emerged, revealing that Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami and Devil May Cry director Hideki Kamiya will be joining the new company.

French publisher Ubisoft has announced that it plans to hire some 200 additional staff for its flagship development location in Montreal, Canada, with the bulk of the new positions being in the core skilled roles of programming, design and art.

Capcom has finally confirmed persistent rumours that Viewtiful Joe is set to appear on PlayStation 2, following its exclusive appearance on the Cube last year. The PS2 version, which is being overseen by Capcom's newly formed and star-studded Clover Studio, will be out in the States this autumn. And what with the recent unveiling of a sequel, PS2 owners ought to be smiling today. What's more, given that VJ2 is due out this Christmas or thereabouts, the PS2 version of the original should be with us in Europe before then.

THQ UK has rather cleverly announced plans to release Battle For Troy on the PC during Q2 2004. The Zono-developed RTS (more details here) is published by Valusoft in the States and will cost just £19.99 over here. The clever bit, of course, is that THQ doesn't actually seem to have the licence to the Troy movie, and yet with the movie trailer we saw on TV last night fresh in the memory, we were quite interested when we saw a small fact sheet for this pop up on the publisher's press site. Presumably that's the desired effect. Bloody deceptive horses.

Atari has announced a new game in the long running Test Drive series. Called Test Drive: Eve of Destruction, it's in production at NASCAR: Dirt to Daytona developer Monster Games, and should be released on PS2 this autumn in the States.

We didn't much care for RollerCoaster Tycoon 2. It felt like a cash-in. We like Chris Sawyer, we really do, and we felt he let us down a bit there. We probably weren't the only ones. Looking at this trailer for RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, however, we felt our little hearts throbbing faster and faster in excitement.

The brilliantly named Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee is to be followed up this autumn by the slightly less Japlish-sounding Godzilla: Save The Earth, Atari announced this week. Original developer Pipeworks is working on the new game, which will appear on PS2 and Xbox - complete with online options for both consoles.

The incredibly successful Sims franchise is set to take a new direction on console platforms, with EA today revealing details of Maxis' next console title, The Urbz, which is expected to launch towards the end of this year.

Activision has issued another patch for Call of Duty, version 1.4, containing a new multiplayer map (Stalingrad), Punkbuster support, and various adjustments and fixes, detailed in the readme file. Apparently the patch will update all retail copies as well as versions patched to previous 1.2 or 1.3 patches, although you might want to hold off installing it if you can't find your COD box, because it will also ask for you to re-input the CD key. The patch weighs in at around 30MB.

Formula One 04, the second game based on Sony's exclusive F1 rights deal, looks set to debut on PlayStation 2 this June, with PS2 Online options based around posting fastest times and racing against ghost cars. You can see how it's shaping up thanks to these screenshots.

Nintendo of America has announced that the company is throwing its weight behind Majesco's GBA Video playback technology in the most tangible way possible - by releasing episodes of the Pokemon TV series for the system.