Latest Articles (Page 3351)

Oh for crying out loud. What's wrong with April 16th? What is so unspeakably repulsive about this particular Friday that makes it such an unattractive proposition for the launch of a new game? It's not as if the tens, if not hundreds, of games currently down for April 30th and thereafter couldn't have come out this week, and just look at the quality of the competition! Any two-bit garden-shed publishing firm could claim a decent chart position on a week like this! All it needs a bit of creative marketing and packaging decent enough to tempt impulsive gamers out from behind their wallets, as they traipse disappointedly through GAME this lunchtime in search of something to buy.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, is it? Ah well. It's easy to get indignant about yet another ticked box on a list of '80s TV shows to plunder, but it's such an inevitability in the current creative vacuum that there's a temptation to just roll with it and see what happens. So we decided we would. Just this once. It only took us until the Konami logo disappeared to realise our mistake, but by then it was too late - we were caught up in an introductory sequence of such piercing dreadfulness that it took us a full 30 seconds afterwards to regain our senses and stem the flood of tears gushing from our disbelieving eyes.

Say what you like about Metroid Prime (we'd prefer that you say it was magnificent, but that's neither here nor there), there's no doubt that it's done wonders for the career of one Samus Aran. From her beginnings in a 2D game which left her gender in doubt right until the very end, young Ms. Aran has come on in leaps and bounds (often off the heads of frozen enemies) and is now probably one of the most bankable stars in videogames. John Woo wants to make a movie with the power-suited vixen in it - and since so many videogames have spent the past decade stealing ideas unashamedly from the self-same Mr Woo, there can hardly be any higher praise than that.

Following on from last month's three-track single-player demo, Codemasters has been in touch today to announce the release of the PC multiplayer demo, which features three different tracks and cars and support for up-to-12 players over the Internet or via network connection. The 115MB demo is available from the Downloads section of the official TOCA Race Driver 2 website. TOCA 2 is of course due out on PC and Xbox next Friday, April 23rd, and will feature online support on both platforms. Rather encouragingly, it's picked up some very healthy review scores to date.

Developer Factor 5, which was responsible for the Rogue Leader and Rebel Strike titles for the GameCube, will not be developing any further software for the Nintendo console and has started work on other platforms.

As noble an intention as 'open-ended gameplay' is, Hitman: Contracts is both blessed and cursed by its refusal to lead the gamer by the hand. As good as it sounds on paper to give the player the freedom to attempt their objectives as they see fit, it's a hefty risk to leave people with a joypad in hand and a headful of ideas. But while Contracts takes time to appreciate, somehow it gets away with it. As much as it can come across as trying to be all things to all people, and less than the sum of its parts, Io succeeds by always remembering that games are supposed to be fun. Contracts is never less than fun, no matter how many times you tell yourself that it's neither the most convincing stealth experience nor the most clued-up action game. It's an odd blend, but like Peanut Butter and Jam on toast, somehow it works.

Electronic Arts and Swedish developer DICE have announced Battlefield: Modern Combat for PlayStation 2, the Battlefield series' first foray into console gaming. Currently in development and scheduled for a late 2004 release, the PS2 Online enabled title is also the first official Battlefield release set in the present day, with previous PC-only instalments in the series sticking to historical conflicts (namely World War II and Vietnam). You can see the first screenshots of the game here.

Ubisoft has announced an exclusive long-term licensing deal with the US Army, which gives the French publisher the right to develop and publish games based on the successful America's Army PC FPS title. Ubisoft plans to release an America's Army title on consoles in summer 2005, emulating the feel and features of the PC titles.

British developer Mobius has been bought out by US publisher Take-Two, with the studio - previously responsible for the GBA version of Max Payne - being renamed to Rockstar Leeds but retaining its focus on handheld platforms.

Nintendo has officially confirmed the line-up for its second run of Famicom Mini titles - NES titles ported to the Game Boy Advance and manufactured in limited quantities to help commemorate the NES console's 20th anniversary this year. The second run of titles consists of Mario Brothers, Clu Clu Land, Balloon Fight, Wrecking Crew, Dr. Mario, Dig Dug, Adventure Island, Makaimura (Ghosts n' Goblins), Twinbee (Stinger), and Mystical Ninja Goemon.

Support for PS2's innovative EyeToy peripheral continues to grow, with the announcement in Japan this week that Sony is working on an Ape Escape-inspired, simian-fuelled mini-game title called Saru EyeToy (screenshots), while Konami is working on the tentatively-titled EyeToy: Sport (due out on July 15th) and Bandai is planning a kids EyeToy game called Kaiketsu Zorori: Mezase! Itazura King (due out April 28th).

Ahead of its anticipated E3 unveiling this year, scans taken from subscriber issues of the latest American Game Informer magazine have shed some light on Retro Studios' Metroid Prime 2, confirming the presence of a rumoured four-player split-screen mode.

Mobile communications giant Nokia has taken the wraps off the new version of its N-Gage game platform, N-Gage QD, revealing a substantially redesigned and cheaper device which will begin appearing on retail shelves next month.

Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow held on for its third straight week at the top of the UK games chart this week, holding off Sonic Heroes and James Bond 007: Everything Or Nothing to score an Easter No.1 for Ubisoft.

Nintendo has announced a new GameCube bundle to help commemorate the launch of Pokémon Colosseum next month. The Pokémon Colosseum Mega Pak (a miracle of modern spelling) apparently consists of a black GameCube, a 251-block memory card, a GameCube-to-GBA link cable, and copies of Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon Box. You can expect to find it in your local gaming emporium from May 14th onwards priced 159 Euro (presumably £99.99 in the UK).

Microsoft-owned dev studio Bungie has taken time out from developing Halo 2 to relaunch its website this week. The new-look site features launch-week sweepstakes (win a trip to the studio to see the game!), a downloadable MP3, Xbox Live Friends List integration and, best of all, a new screenshot. It's not the most exciting thing we've seen this week, to be honest, but it's a new screenshot of Halo 2, so we figured we'd mention it. Click here if the idea of the Master Chief in a cave with a pistol in each hand does things for you.

Nokia has followed the official unveiling of the N-Gage QD this morning with news that Activision's World War II-based Call of Duty FPS franchise will be swabbing game decks everywhere come Q4 2004. And if that didn't make any sense to you, Call of Duty is being ported to the N-Gage this year.

Atari UK has confirmed reports that a special DVD edition of Unreal Tournament 2004 has been re-released in the States to help satisfy demand, but reckons there will be no repeat in Europe, where "there should be no problem with supply" according to a spokesperson.

Konami may have a carefully orchestrated promotional campaign in motion - gently fostering free-range MGS hype with a drip feed of new information and footage - but that hasn't stopped series creator Hideo Kojima from giving an insight into the development of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater this week.

Canadian development studio Silicon Knights has parted ways with Nintendo, ending a second party exclusive development agreement which created GameCube titles Eternal Darkness and Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes.

John Riccitiello, Electronic Arts' former president and COO who departed from the company only last week, may well have put it most succinctly. "When I picked it up I knew it was a dog," he said of the original N-Gage game deck, "it just feels stupid." However, he wasn't entirely damning in his condemnation of the platform. "Nokia will figure it out," he predicted. "It's just that they haven't figured it out yet."

Gearbox Software has joined the growing ranks of FPS developers trying to give us a handle on the soldiers behind the guns of World War II, announcing the 'revolutionary' Brothers In Arms military franchise this week. Ubisoft will be publishing the "first game in the series" on PC and consoles this winter.

The DS handheld will not be the only new hardware on show at Nintendo's E3 conference, according to a Japanese newspaper which this week reported that the company has a new Cube peripheral to unveil.

Gaming service provider Jolt has announced a deal to host Steam content servers for the UK, hopefully giving the likes of us nippier access to patches for Half-Life-based games, and a chance to get our mitts on Half-Life 2 without having to rely on transatlantic routing.

Australian developer Krome Studios and publishing behemoth Electronic Arts look set to resurrect "everyone's favourite Tasmanian Tiger" (which is obviously a big feat given the ferocious competition) for a second platform outing later this year. Due out on every platform under the sun, Ty The Tasmanian Tiger 2 picks up where the last game left off, and sees Ty facing off against his nemesis Boss Cass, who has apparently fled Currawong Jail (yes!) and now plans to take over the world with an army of reptiles, operating from his offshore bird and lizard dictatorship, Cassopolis. Crikey. Fortunately Ty has learnt some new tricks, and now has 21 upgradeable boomerangs (including the, er, Lasharang, Kaboomarang and Megarang) and various "mech units" to aid in the fight. We're also promised unlockable cart-racing mini-games and all sorts of other excitement when the game hurtles into view this autumn.

In the past few months we've learnt a lot about Metal Gear Solid 3, but, of its many new features (including the survival/stamina system, context-sensitive combat and jungle setting to name only three), the ambitious Camouflage Index has undoubtedly captured the most attention. To be fair, the idea of recrafting the series' sneaking antics to focus on Snake's level of visibility in his new jungle environment has drawn a degree of criticism (and plenty of cynicism), but judging by a ten-minute movie posted on Konami's official MGS3 website (direct link), Hideo Kojima's team is deadly serious about making it one of the player's primary concerns.

Devil May Cry 3 will take centre stage alongside Resident Evil 4 at Capcom's pre-E3 trade event on May 10th, US sources close to the publisher told Eurogamer this week.

Resident Evil will return to PlayStation 2 this winter when Capcom revisits the Outbreak strain of its infectious survival horror series. Resident Evil Outbreak File #2 will once again be exclusive to the Sony format, with the same cast of characters and new dangers including zombie elephants. Tsk.

Condition Zero has long been a millstone around Valve's neck. It was always going to be a difficult project to get right - a single-player adventure infused with the spirit of the world's most popular online game - but over the course of its creation the game has fallen victim to countless delays and reshuffles that saw the project tossed around no less than four different developers. It also suffered thanks to pre-release review versions that felt like cheap knock-off copies, seemingly designed with no first hand knowledge of what made the original such an epoch-defining multiplayer experience in the first place. With middling scores and harsh conclusions in the can, Condition Zero looked set to limp into the wider world without much fanfare, and succeed only in giving the Half-Life-was-a-fluke crowd a slogan to replace "Whatever happened to Team Fortress 2?"

Activision has officially confirmed the title and revealed details of the first expansion disc for World War II based FPS Call of Duty. Fight sighted in the current issue of the American PC Gamer magazine, Call of Duty: United Offensive is in development at Return To Castle Wolfenstein helmers Gray Matter, and promises more of the same gritty war dram-action delivered by Infinity Ward last Christmas.