Latest Articles (Page 3358)

As you may have seen reported elsewhere, a US firm called Mastiff (who will be publishing La Pucelle Tactics in the States, if you're trying to place the name) has announced plans to release a 3D version of Space Invaders called "Space Raiders" exclusively on GameCube in the US this April. For just $19.99.

Rainbow Six 3 owners will be able to download a new map next time they log on to Xbox Live, we found out this morning. This third and latest bit of Downloadable Content is thankfully free and is called "Meat Packing Plant". We're not saying anything. Previous levels were called "Garage" and "Carnival".

Archer Maclean's Pool Paradise will debut at a wallet-friendly price of £19.99 when it launches this April 2nd on PS2, Cube and PC, developer Ignition announced today. The game, for which Jimmy White provided exclusive consultancy, is generally thought to be rather good, and we'll be picking our way through it in the next few days now we've got our hands on some code.

We may have seen more screenshots of Sonic Advance 3 in the past few weeks than for most of everything else, but it wasn't until yesterday evening whilst probing my list of recently launched official game websites that I stumbled across details of what you can actually do in this one.

The Xbox, PC and Game Boy Advance versions of Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow have gone gold, publisher Ubisoft announced this week, which will probably make it quite difficult for Sam Fisher to sneak around undetected, but remains good news nevertheless.

007 reigned supreme at the top of the UK games charts for the third straight week as Everything Or Nothing did enough to prevent Codemasters from chalking up a No.1 with the latest version of its console-based football management sim LMA Manager 2004.

Capcom is developing Viewtiful Joe 2 according to reports emanating from Hong Kong magazine Game Watch, which had the game on the cover of its most recent issue.

LucasArts has just finished making a first showing of its brand new PS2 and Xbox action title, Mercenaries, at a London event, and revealed that the Pandemic-developed third-person shooter - previously known only by its internal moniker Project Y - will use the Havok physics engine that so endeared us to Max Payne 2, and stunned us with its role in Valve's much celebrated E3 presentation of Half-Life 2 last year.

Take-Two sent over a brief but rather surprisingly statement this afternoon announcing plans to market and distribute Square Enix's Drakengard on PS2 in Europe during 2004. EA and Sony usually handle Squenix's efforts, so it's a peculiar one - maybe the Final Fantasy developer just doesn't attach as much importance to this game for some reason?

Codemasters has revealed that IndyCar Series will be venturing onto Xbox Live and PS2 Online when the Indy Racing League sanctioned track series returns to Europe this summer.

Sony confirmed today that it is pushing to release PSX in Europe this year, as the console prepared to make its European debut at technology show CEBIT in Hannover, Germany.

I was never into Robots as a teen. Transformers well and truly passed me by the first time around, and have already had to put up with astonished gasps around the office when I admitted I'd never seen the movie [astonished gasp! -Tom]. I'm not sure what it was about Transformers. I recall finding the theme tune fantastically annoying for a start (but I'm over that now) and had, at the age of 13, already grown out of cartoons about improbable superheroes - even if they could turn from a stompy robot into a truck when they felt like it. 18 years on, you'd think that I couldn't possibly find the enthusiasm to play a nostalgia-fuelled videogame, when I didn't even care about the subject matter in the first place. Wrong.

Last week we saw reports that Sony Computer Entertainment America had taken the unusual step of patching SOCOM II: US Navy SEALs, one of its most popular PS2 Online titles, by means of a downloadable update stored on the memory card alongside SOCOM save date.

Deep Silver sends word of a new 1.3 patch for X2: The Threat, which updates the game with a wealth of new features and presumably requisite bug fixes. Amongst the highlights in 1.3 are a secret star ship (called the Teladi M6) and the "Modder's Kit", which includes tools and documentation allowing fans to customise the game universe.

SCEE has confirmed what we told you last week (ooh, hark at her!), that Sly 2: Band of Thieves, Sucker Punch's much desired sequel to PS2 platformer Sly Raccoon, will launch on Darth's toaster this winter.

Atari has announced that critically reviled but multi-million-selling movie tie-in Enter The Matrix has appeared on Xbox Classics, GameCube Player's Choice and PS2 Platinum budget ranges, while the PC version has also enjoyed a dip in price.

Britsoft publisher Digital Jesters has signed the UK publishing rights to PC-based future sports title Chaos League from French developer Cyanide, and aims to release it in June 2004 priced £29.99, or so we were told last week. Screensheeeeeeeoooorrrts.

Take-Two's Gathering label is preparing to ship Mafia on Xbox in the UK on March 26th, the publisher confirmed today, to be followed by non-English language versions across the rest of Europe on April 2nd. The news came courtesy of a shipping announcement for the US release, which is already on store shelves.

It's been pointed out to me - by over two people - that I haven't mentioned who won our recent Savage competition. Sorry about that. The answer to the question - "What was the name of the free official modification bundled with Savage?" - was obviously "Samurai Wars", and a goodly number of you got that one right. Well done.

Hip Interactive has released a demo of The Bitmap Brothers' PC port of Namco's rather straightforward PS2 shoot-'em-up Kill.switch, which we recently reviewed. We haven't had a chance to look at the demo yet, but reports suggest it consists of a single mission from the final game, which is a fairly sizeable percentage of the final product if nothing else.

Namco is refusing to comment on rumours that Tekken 5 will be shown at E3.

Nintendo Europe has announced plans to release Donkey Kong Country 2 for Game Boy Advance on June 25th, and has confirmed various changes that give it the edge over the original 16-bit SNES release of the same name. As with the original title's GBA debut, we're hardly dealing with a groundbreaking list of additions, but it's nice to see a little more effort than simply copying and pasting from the platform holder.

Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban will be the first third-party game in the world to take advantage of EyeToy, and in addition to various mini-games reminiscent of the EyeToy: Play package, EA UK's Azkaban adaptation will also accept voice input to help repel Peeves and perform other tasks. "Accio jaw from floor!" as some of our more excitable colleagues might put it.

It's Friday, it's ten past two, and I haven't had any lunch yet. So, as you can imagine, I'm not taking any shit from anyone right now. It's also so cold that my arms feel like they're encased in stainless steel whenever I try to bend them, and I will be surprised if my nose ever functions properly again. I tried to blow it just now and the results look like that bloke who went headfirst into the toxic waste drum near the end of Robocop. Fortunately I'm on crack rather than coke, so the chances are my lifestyle will be largely unaffected my current inability to smell things - unless Martin leaves the oven on again and I die in a massive fireball, which quite frankly wouldn't be that much of a loss to most of you in any event.

Microsoft has announced a firm release date for the Limited Edition Crystal Xbox, which was announced earlier this year. As predicted, the console will launch next Friday on March 19th - a few days after the second anniversary of its European launch on March 14th, which rather unhelpfully falls on a Sunday this year.

Valve has announced that it is now accepting pre-orders for Counter-Strike: Condition Zero through Steam, its broadband content delivery service, and that owners of the original boxed Counter-Strike can take advantage of a $10 discount, meaning that it will be available for $29.95 instead of its regular retail price of $39.95.

Konami of Europe has confirmed long-standing rumours that Pro Evolution Soccer will appear on Xbox in 2004, ending speculation that dates back as far as X03 in September, and giving Xbox footballing fans something to shout about other than the dreaded but depressingly popular FIFA Football series from EA Sports.

When it comes to rumours, there's often no decapitated head without a head-stump, and Tecmo has now responded to reports that the European version of gorgeous Xbox slash-'em-up Ninja Gaiden will be trimmed of some of its more gratuitously violent aspects prior to its PAL release. Spokesman John Inada reminded the US press this week that "most of the European countries have much more strict standards against the use of violence," and that "if we have to make minor alterations [to get it published in every European country], we will."

This week Britsoft publisher SCi Games found its way into headlines on both sides of the pond after a financial report mentioned a new Carmageddon title, scheduled for a provisional 2005 release date on PS2, Xbox and PC. Some folks also got rather excited about mention of Conflict: Vietnam, a September 2004 target on PS2/Xbox/PC.

One of the most interesting things to be found on the show floor at the Tokyo Games Show last year was the return of a few familiar faces, as Square Enix proudly showed off its long-rumoured return to the world of Final Fantasy VII in a short trailer which sent shivers down the spines of the many among us for whom the epic RPG title was a huge milestone in the development of our gaming addictions.