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Nintendo of America has updated its official release list with firm dates for four first-party titles. On the Cube, WarioWare Inc. Mega Party Game$ (this does seem to be the title) is due on April 5th, with Custom Robo Battle Revolution due a month later on May 10th.

Cyan Worlds, developers of Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, has confirmed in a letter to fans that its innovative Uru Live service "is being put to bed".

Budding Jedis on both sides of the Force have another big patch to download today courtesy of LucasArts and BioWare. The 25MB v1.02 patch for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic makes a large number of small changes, which are dealt with in detail here. (If you're interested, incidentally, you can see the 1.01 changes list here.)

Although EA has apparently released several auto-update tweaks for the PC version of its chart-topping street racer, fans of Need for Speed Underground can now choose to download and keep track of their patch files.

Ensemble Studios has once again patched its RTS Age of Mythology and expansion pack The Titans, bringing the original game up to version 1.09 and the expansion to 1.02.

2015's Vietnam FPS Men of Valor has been set back to Q4 2004 for reasons unknown, according to publisher Vivendi-Universal Games. It's the second setback that MoV has endured lately, after the game was originally put back from Christmas 2003 to first half 2004. Men of Valor: Vietnam is due out on PC and Xbox.

Mythic Entertainment has announced that a one-week free trial copy of Dark Age of Camelot will be made available for general consumption on Tuesday, February 10th. The 561.2MB package is currently only available to FilePlanet subscribers here.

Digital Illusions CE has begun collaborating with DesertCombat mod developer Trauma Studios on "one of Digital Illusions' previously announced projects", in a deal that runs for 12 months worth approximately $550,000.

The offices of German developer Crytek, currently finishing work on PC first person shooter Far Cry for Ubisoft, were allegedly raided by police this morning following a tip-off from a former employee regarding pirated software.

R: Racing is a difficult game for me to write about. I've long held the PSone's Ridge Racer Type 4 up as one of the most exhilarating and enjoyable racing models ever developed, and R: Racing's stark departure from previous Ridge titles meant that my first few hours in its company were spent moaning and groaning, punctuated by the occasional accusatory glance aimed at the heavens. This isn't what I expected. Or wanted.

Valve Software "is currently targeting this summer for the completion of Half-Life 2," director of marketing Doug Lombardi told CNN/Money this week, and doesn't plan to reveal any new information before E3, where the highly anticipated first-person shooter will once again make an appearance. The planned Xbox version (and any other console ports) will be set back until roughly spring 2005 as a result.

Apart from identifying a new release date for Half-Life 2, CNN/Money's Game Over column has also confirmed that Troika's Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, which so impressed at last August's Activision press event, has now been set back to spring 2005.

Vampires and alien stocks may have to be re-sourced after Valve and Troika announced delays this week, but that hasn't stopped French developer Arkane Studios licensing the Source Engine for an unspecified PC project.

Ubisoft chairman Yves Guillemot has confirmed that the French publisher is planning a sequel to Ubisoft Montreal's phenomenal Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, describing the original game as "a resounding success for our group." The game sold more than two million units worldwide, and met with universal acclaim, although it did rely on discounting to make its point in some areas.

Having thoroughly pissed me off earlier this week by opting to bundle Pac-Man Vs. with the mostly disappointing R: Racing, EA is making amends today by announcing plans to publish Namco's ridiculously good-looking Xbox-exclusive Breakdown in June.

Lionhead "Community Pet" Sam Vantilburgh has penned a heartfelt update as the first diary entry at The Lionhead Times, commenting on the progress of various projects in and around Lionhead Studios and Big Blue Box based on his experiences in the three months he's been there.

Screenwriter David Freeman has reportedly been signed to script Uwe Boll's film based on hackandslash adventure Dungeon Siege. Having previously worked on scripts for various games (including as-yet unreleased movie tie-in Van Helsing, Mission: Impossible - Operation Surma and, as Rob notes, the jingoistic nonsense that passed for a script in Command & Conquer: Generals) and TV projects, producer/director Boll fancies Freeman for the role and certainly the attachment suggests that Boll might get this, one of his many game-based movies, off the ground in the near future.

Publisher Take Two Interactive has knocked $27 million off its sales guidance for the quarter ended January 31st as a result of a number of factors, but shares remain buoyant as key analysts indicate that the stock is still undervalued.

Ubisoft has announced that Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow will debut worldwide on Xbox and PC at the end of March, with a matching GBA sequel due out at the same time.

World War II obviously enjoyed stunted development, given the subsequent social, economic and moral fallout, but we got there in the end. World War II games aren't much different - in fact some of them are quite similar, and even wind up being reinforced at the same time by eager publishers like EA and Activision.

Infinity Ward has finally completed work on Call of Duty multiplayer mode Headquarters (HQ), which is delivered in this week's 1.2 patch along with various tweaks and fixes - like the option to balance teams forcefully online.

Japanese publisher Square Enix has announced its financial results for the nine months through to December 31, revealing that the company is on track to meet its full-year forecasts despite the bankruptcy of retail subsidiary DigiCube.

Microsoft still can't convince the Japanese to buy Xbox, with this week's share of the hardware market (0.87 per cent) not that much of an improvement on any previous figure (the week ended August 11th 2003, for example - 1.02 per cent). However, in one of what must by now have become its regular all-night marketing meetings, some bright spark came up with a new regional promotion aimed at "boosting awareness" in the ailing console, and what better way to put the message (and the console) out amongst the geeky herd than by sponsoring a pizza delivery company?

Jesper Kyd has written more than 90 minutes of music to accompany the third title in the Hitman series, Contracts, and has described his score and the game as "dark" and "sinister". It's a theme you might well have picked up on anyway from the recent release of this trailer, which also features Kyd's work.

EA's unstoppable run at the top has continued, with Need For Speed holding onto the No.1 spot for the sixth straight week.

It may be tempting to compare Microsoft to the taxman (or indeed any symbolic evildoer) in announcing online gaming renewal payment options, but even when the big M squeezes us for cash these days it still seems oddly worthwhile. Perhaps because in Xbox Live it has a visionary new toy that everybody wants to play with - literally for years on end.

Nintendo has sent out a couple of missives in the last few days highlighting forthcoming release dates for both Kirby Air Ride and, today, Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles.

Following Kristan's dissection of Vietcong: Fist Alpha's single-player campaign last week, gamers are now getting the chance to trial its multiplayer aspect in a new demo released by developers Pterodon/Illusion Softworks on Friday.

Exciting footage of Pandemic Studios' Battlefield 1942-alike third-person Star Wars title Battlefront has been released, giving us a nice chunky minute-and-a-half of AT-ST walkers chasing a fleeing rebel through the forests of Endor, sun peeking through the gaps in the canopy overhead, detailed Stormtroopers blasting at anything in sight, and the Imperial March thumping along to proceedings.

"So remember last year when we told you we don't announce release dates until we're confident we'll meet our deadline?" Bungie's webpage asked on Friday. "Well now were confident. Halo 2 will ship in Fall, 2004. Please make a note of it."