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Namco has confirmed rumours that the next PS2 title in its Tales RPG series will be called Tales of Rebirth, and revealed that recent GameCube outing Tales of Symphonia will be ported to the PS2 as well. Both games should be out in Japan this year. But while Symphonia dabbled in 3D, Tales of Rebirth will be returning to a hand-drawn 2D style with gorgeous background visuals, as these early screenshots aptly demonstrate.

Vivendi-Universal Games is planning to give away Starsiege: Tribes and sequel Tribes 2 via FilePlanet and on a DVD bundled with the American Computer Gaming World magazine this May. Apparently the French publisher is doing it all to celebrate the forthcoming release of Tribes: Vengeance, which is currently in development at Irrational Games and due out by the end of the year.

You can imagine the scenes in Kyoto (loosely translated):"You know, what the world needs right now is another Golf title."

In a surprising move, Electronic Arts' president and COO John Riccitiello has announced that he is to resign from the industry-leading publisher, effective immediately, with CEO Larry Probst to assume his duties while a replacement is sought.

Half-Life 2 disciples will rejoice that the remaining videos of its celebrated E3 presentation are now available for download.

The 1.05 patch for Hidden & Dangerous 2 is now available for download, and the 25MB patch makes several additions including an updated Normandy multiplayer map, a new Normandy2B multiplayer map, and several other minor tweaks. An expansion pack with the much missed co-op mode is also on the way.

Ghost Recon 2 will be released on 'consoles' and PC in time for Christmas, Ubisoft confirmed this afternoon, while promised to deliver "an emotionally charged storyline, a completely redesigned graphics engine and the most intuitive gameplay to date, to fully immerse gamers into the chaos of a high tech war."

SCi has always had something of a fetish for old movie licenses, and it would appear that Wandsworth-based publisher has plans to turn its attention to 1963 action classic Jason And The Argonauts.

The ever-generous Ubisoft has released yet more free downloadable content for Rainbow Six 3 on Xbox, with the fifth and sixth multiplayer maps now available for Live subscribers to suck down the pipe. It's apparently the most popular Live game ever - we can almost hear the garbled Xbox Live whoops from here.

Brotherhood Of Steel is to Fallout what Dark Alliance is to Baldur's Gate - or at least that appeared to be Interplay's intention when it commissioned a "gritty and darkly humorous" (their words not ours...) third-person action-adventure take on its successful PC-derived RPG series from the late 90s. While DA and its recently released sequel are largely entertaining action-adventure approximations with a smattering of RPG, BOS (as it shall be referred to from now on) isn't far off being a travesty for those who enjoyed the post apocalyptic series a few years back.

With Easter coming up, we had hoped to reward this week's best review with a jolly old chocolate egg. Unfortunately, we didn't remember to buy one, so instead we'll be inflicting something else on this week's winner. Speaking of whom... This week was a tricky one. Although there was a temptation to reward Peej (again) for his unusual approach to Battlefield Vietnam, Tannerd narrowly wins this week, partly because it makes a nice change and partly because we enjoyed his piece, but mostly because he too worships at the altar of brevity, and we managed to read the entire thing without having to pop to the loo. Tannerd: we'll be in touch.

Easter: a time of eggs, relatives, Jesus and, most importantly, the four-day weekend. Four whole days. With that much time we could paint several fences, tile the bathroom, reorganise our entire CD collection in seven different ways, write an abridged version of the last Potter book and still find time to wash the dog. However, in reality all we'll do is sit around on a beanbag eating chocolate and playing videogames, and if you're honest that's probably what you have in mind too.

While Xbox owners are celebrating the promise of a new Rainbow Six title this August, GameCube owners can take some consolation from the fact that Rainbow Six 3 will be appearing on their console this June. Cobbled together by Ubisoft's Shanghai studio, the Cube version will feature a split-screen two-player mode to make up for the lack of online play, as well as just about everything that made the Xbox and PS2 versions so enjoyable. You can see how it's shaping up thanks to these five screenshots.

With Far Cry PC currently towering over its contemporaries at the top of the UK PC Top 20, French publisher Ubisoft has today confirmed previous reports that console versions are underway, and surprised a few of us by announcing that the new games will showcase an entirely new adventure built on the same technology.

It's not the most inspiring start to a promo movie... "In a world of peace... there is a legend 100 years old of an unspeakable evil and the battle between darkness and light, but when an ancient enemy awakens an unlikely hero would be chosen to save humanity once more."

Japanese giant Nintendo has established a special fund to provide for a programme of mergers and acquisitions in the near future, suggesting that the company is planning to accelerate its growth in certain technology sectors.

In Japan, Capcom has published Western games that nobody else would touch, like Grand Theft Auto III, and proven that they can be a success with the country's notoriously picky gamers. In Europe, Capcom has just signed up two games from Japanese developer Spike - Way of the Samurai 2 and this, Riding Spirits II - sequels to games that nobody around here can remember except fanatical weirdoes like me. So the question is, can they emulate their own success?

Yet another bundle deal for Microsoft's Xbox will launch in Japan next month, with the "Platinum Pack 2" set to include copies of Halo and Crimson Skies as the company continues its battle to build installed base in the Far East.

Capcom is poised to officially unveil a sequel to Resident Evil Outbreak 2 in the next few days, and hopes are that Europe will get to experience the game online this time around.

Samus Aran's adventures could appear on the big screen by the end of next year, following John Woo's decision to option the rights to the Metroid franchise. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Woo plans to co-produce the movie and also has the option to direct. "This type of story has a proven track record of success with film audiences," he said, the scent of a franchise prancing around his nostrils.

How's your smash-o-meter today? Wound tighter than a G-string? You might want to buy some extra pads, or at the very least some extra padding, because Uncle Sam Fisher is back to taunt us again. You half expect the grizzled old sleuth to appear upside down at your living room window, decked out in his best rubber perv suit, pointing a laser sighted silenced pistol right between your frazzled and disconsolate eyes - all the while singing 'That'll Be The Day'.

Game design veteran Harvey Smith has confirmed reports that he has left the ION Storm Austin studio, where he most recently worked as project lead on Deus Ex: Invisible War on Xbox and PC.

A new three and a half minute promo video of GSC's promising FPS mutation STALKER: Shadow Of Chernobyl hit the interweb today, and gives just a glimpse of what adequately specced PC owners can expect when the title hits the shelves in September.

The Unreal Tournament 2004 bonus map pack we mentioned on Friday has now been released, offering a pair of interestingly titled Onslaught maps - ONS-Ascendancy and ONS-Aridoom. Along with the official, Windows XP-only installer, this link should also take you to an unofficial distribution which packages the two maps as a zip file. Fight the power!

Sega will show "around six brand new games" at E3 this year, a spokesperson for the company confirmed today, although top level talk has confirmed that a new 3D Sonic game will not be among them.

Following Eidos' mid-year financial report last month, prying eyes have uncovered a corporate slideshow on the publisher's UK website that points to new Deus Ex, Commandos, Freedom Fighters and Backyard Wrestling titles within the next 18 months.

Gamers in the United States will be able to get their hands on a limited edition Halo Xbox pack as of next week, with the $169 bundle featuring a transparent green Xbox, branded controller and copy of the game.

If it were not for Return of the Jedi, videogame forests would be distinctly less interesting. Sure, everyone ribs a developer when they make the effort to craft a jungle and then give up fill it with furry critters and exotic interconnected tree houses, but for one this is hardly a LucasArts-only convention - we've seen Ewok Villages in everything from Donkey Kong Country to Brute Force - and for another it's difficult to imagine how else to do interesting forests in three dimensions.

Although Scottish developer Rage produced a lot of fairly rubbish games (sorry guys), the now-defunct software house did manage to polish up the occasional gem, and the original Rocky boxing title was certainly one. Clearly we're not the only ones who thought so either, because Ubisoft and MGM (those lion people) have this week announced Rocky Legends, which is in development at Venom Games - a developer comprised largely of ex-Rage talent.

Ubisoft enjoyed another seven days at the top of the UK games chart today as Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow held off Everything Or Nothing to claim its second week at the top, being boosted by the release of PC and GBA versions (No.4 and No.17 respectively).