Latest Articles (Page 3367)

President Taylor may be snatching the column inches this week with his comments on Gas Powered Games' RTS project, but that hasn't stopped Mad Doc Software releasing a "bonus pack" for fans of GPG's Dungeon Siege hackandslash.

As predicted (no, seriously) Ubisoft is the lucky publisher raring to release the new expansion pack Gates of Discord for MMORPG EverQuest this month, as part of the company's longstanding agreement with Sony Online Entertainment.

Gas Powered Games president Chris Taylor, former lead designer at RTS developer Cavedog, has told an audience of academics at Redmond, Washington's DigiPen Institute of Technology that his company is working on "an RTS follow-up to Total Annihilation".

Microsoft has released the full source code for space strategy/combat title Allegiance, in response to an enthusiastic and dedicated group of hardcore fans who remain committed to bettering the game, despite its failure to catch on at retail since its release in 2000.

Europe can expect to be playing Metroid Prime 2, Geist, and Pokemon Fire Red/Leaf Green by the end of 2004, according to a report originating in the UK Official Nintendo Magazine that Cube-Europe picked up on.

Tony Hawk developer Neversoft plans to expand its 50 plus workforce into two teams this year. One team will focus on the lucrative Tony Hawk franchise (now in its sixth incarnation), but according to a jobs posting on its website, Neversoft has "some other ideas" that it wants to bring to life.

Along with the Snow Tour, Nokia has today announced another pair of Sega-branded, Bluetooth-enabled N-Gage titles due out this spring; Virtua Cop and Alien Front.

Nokia is taking its maligned N-Gage phone/handheld games console on a whistle stop tour of European ski resorts, starting next week in Harmagor, Austria, and covering 27 winter sports locations in total across Austria, France, Finland, Italy, Norway, Switzerland and Sweden.

Given the speed and intensity of Criterion's destruction-minded arcade racing series, it was probably hardly surprising that EA's Burnout 3 announcement made it out of the blocks early. Today, the world's biggest publisher has confirmed the poorly kept secret that it will help to develop, and eventually publish, the latest instalment in Criterion's pacey racing franchise. Given the success of its own high production arcade racer, Need For Speed Underground (still at the top of the charts this week), few would doubt EA's credentials in this area.

EA and Marvel have signed an agreement which grants the publisher rights to develop and distribute a new generation of beat-'em-ups starring Marvel superheroes and a new, original cast of EA superheroes.

Capcom's rather ace hackandslash platformer Maximo vs. Army Of Zin hits the streets this Friday, and despite causing a cup of tea to fly all over the laptop I'm typing on, Tom reckoned it was worthy of a coveted 8/10 in his recent review. Oblivious to the effects of its hard but compelling game, those splendid fellows at Capcom invited us to its swish Hammersmith HQ to interview the game's producer Mark Rogers. Just as well I went armed with the questions and not Tom. Who knows what might have happened...

Microsoft has announced plans to launch the Xbox Live gaming service in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore this April, continuing the Asian roll-out of the service following last October's launch in South Korea.

Sony is planning to launch an Aqua (light blue) colour version of the PlayStation 2 in limited quantities across Europe in early March, priced £139.99. A matching vertical stand and memory card will be released to complete the set.

When Kain signed on with Eidos to star in a series of videogames, he probably wasn't expecting so many goddamned curtain calls. Such is the life of a multi-million-selling demon. His latest "re-vamp" however has split audiences, and it'll be interesting to see how it's received here in Europe following its release today. Players can take on the role of either Kain or Raziel (a series first), and developer Crystal Dynamics (since entrusted with the once-coveted Tomb Raider franchise) reckons the game's new direction - complete with new combat system - is more than a match for anything else out there. Reviewers, on the other hand, have been critical of its continued use of box-pushing and find-the-key puzzles, even if the new gameplay/story balance is to be praised. Kain's legacy refuses to die, so we can probably expect more in the future, and statistically, it has to turn up a triple-A title eventually. This, however, probably isn't it.

Publisher Evolved Games has this week announced release estimates for Argonaut's wayward pairing of Powerdrome and Malice, which it snapped up recently for release on PS2 and Xbox.

Deep Silver has signed the rights to publish Etherlords II in Europe. Developed by Nival Interactive, Etherlords II is a mixture of role-playing, strategy and turn-based magical combat ala trading card games, and should be released on March 5th.

As part of its quarterly financial circus, THQ representatives this week updated investors via conference call on the status of development for next-generation handhelds from Sony and Nintendo.

EA has signed an agreement with UEFA to develop, publish and distribute a game based on this summer's European Championship finals in Portugal. Developed by EA Canada and due out under the EA Sports banner to coincide with the start of the finals, UEFA Euro 2004 gives you to chance to pick your way through the tournament as any of 51 European nations, arranging and playing friendlies to warm up or just going for glory.

Oft-delayed first-person shooter Breed has once again slipped. Publisher CDV is now claiming that we'll be playing it the weekend after Friday March 19th here in the UK, with a release date of March 23rd for the USA.

Raven Shield has been patched again with the release of the version 1.53 update this week. Described as a "hotfix", 1.53 integrates a new update system to take the fun out of fixing it up every time a patch comes out, now supports adding custom player-made operatives to the game, and also makes numerous slight changes to pave the way for oft-delayed expansion pack Athena Sword, which is due out on March 19th, and indeed any future expansion packs. The patch also addresses a number of other small bugs. Here! Look! Download locations!

Following the massive success of its Finding Nemo adaptation, THQ has signed up another of Pixar's movie projects, The Incredibles. Although the publisher is remaining tight-lipped about platforms and so on, it seems reasonable, given its love of cinematically aligned multi-platform releases, to expect an appearance on PS2/Xbox/Cube/PC/GBA in time for the film's November 5th release date. In fact, a THQ rep did confirm the release target, but nowt else. UK-based Traveller's Tales handled development of the Finding Nemo title, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're handling The Incredibles.

Another product of THQ's quarterly financial report was news that Stalker: Oblivion Lost (or S.T.A.L.K.E.R. as we've deliberately avoided referring to it) has been renamed. Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl, as it's now known, is due out sometime in THQ's fiscal year 2005 - never fear though, that actually starts in March 2004.

THQ has confirmed in its quarterly financial report that Pandemic's Full Spectrum Warrior has been delayed. Although on the positive front, sales were up 35 per cent. Full Spectrum Warrior, though, is one of THQ's key "hardcore" titles, and has been on the end of widespread praise ever since it made its appearance at E3 last year.

Microsoft has confirmed that Day 1 Studios is busy grinding out a sequel to MechAssault for release in Christmas 2004, which promises to expand and strengthen the single-player offering and introduce a few new toys besides endless varieties of heavily armoured Mech.

Major US retailer GameStop has announced that it is to stop selling Nokia's N-Gage game deck 450 of its stores, representing almost a third of its retail outlets, with remaining inventory being moved to other stores.

If there's one piece of apparel you're sure to find in the ensemble of even the most fashion-challenged gamer, it's a nice pair of rose-tinted spectacles - to be used mostly when considering the videogames of yesteryear, particularly those which have become embedded in our minds as the games which defined our "youth". Such as it was.

Japanese publisher Sega has announced that its net profit for the nine months to December 31st rose by some 92 per cent, although the December quarter saw declining revenues and profits.

Implementing control systems which use voice recognition in PlayStation 2 games is set to become easier, with voice recognition systems developer Fonix announcing that it has signed up to Sony's Tools and Middleware program.

This week's bumper crop of reader submissions covers something like six or seven genres, on four systems (and it would have been more if I'd snuck in a couple of retro submissions - look for them next week), with views ranging from the unsurprising to the unexpected and even occasionally the inexplicable. We'll probably avoid an easterly gust of pitchforks and flaming placards this week, but once again it demonstrates that, whether brilliant, inoffensive or repulsive, games always polarise opinions, even within the bounds of a single genre. And there's no such thing as a "definitive" opinion, apart from the old "Empire is better than Jedi" thing...

Platform helmsman Sony has hooked a new PS2 title underway at Sega Wow. In Fish: The Seven Waters and the Legendary Master (or Uo: Nanatsu no Mizu to Densetsu no Nushi to the locals), the player assumes the role of a fish in a reel-y big 3D ocean, brushing fins with various undersea creatures on a quest to eat, swim, survive and collect statues.