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Sony Online Entertainment is giving FilePlanet subscribers the chance to play its massively multiplayer FPS PlanetSide free for seven days. This is a great chance to decide if you'd actually like to pay a monthly fee for the privilege of playing what is actually nothing more than a fairly good first-person shooter. Should you happen to be a subscriber, you can get the necessary files and info here - expect a 1435MB download though! While you're clogging up your pipes with that beast, you might like to have a read of our PlanetSide review.

It's getting a bit old in the tooth now, but Medal of Honor: Allied Assault still stands tall among the best PC first person shooters. No wonder, then, that EA - the master of the mission pack - has another one up its sleeve for a September release.

As anybody who's been keeping up with all things gaming will know, EA is currently hosting a bunch of journos in San Francisco and showing off just about anything that they happen to be developing, and one of those shameless liggers is Eurogamer's very own Kristan Reed, who was kind enough to send us all these screenshots via the medium of the interweb. Enjoy.

What do RPG characters do when they've completed their quest? Like the rest of us, they take some much-deserved time off, venture outside their troubled kingdoms and set up base camp on a beach somewhere. Unhappily for them though, adventure has this habit of lingering in the air.

Now we've got the business of shooting Nazis in the face out of the way, it's only logical that gamers should want to spend hours online working out where the Yanks went wrong in South East Asia. Whatever Napalm smells like first thing in the morning, EA wants to make sure we breathe it deep into our lungs.

Sega AM2 is working on a sequel to OutRun, tentatively titled OutRun2, which at least clears up what Sega's most formidable R&D division has been up to lately. The game will run on Chihiro arcade hardware, which should mean an Xbox version somewhere down the line, and the first screenshots are available here. It looks jolly nice, we're sure you'll all agree.

Publishers: pay attention. We don't care if your turnover can be measured in gold bars, if you drive around killing hookers in a car made out of mushed banknotes, or if you've just secured a licence to print your own currency, we just want you to tell us honestly and without then royally screwing it up when exactly your bloody games are coming out! Why is this so unfathomably difficult for all of you? Why do we have to sit around researching this nonsense every Friday morning when you are the people pushing the buttons? Gah.

Capcom has announced that along with the PlayStation 2 version, it will be publishing the PC remake of Cinemaware's classic Defender of the Crown, and the developer has stated that the game is nearing completion and is in its beta stages. For players not clued up on the original 80s title of the same name, DotC is based around tales and characters from the legend of Robin Hood, and lets you get medieval with some jousting, archery, sword mastery and good old fashioned castle sieges.

Yes, space combat can be done on the Game Boy Advance, but with how much success? Well, Raylight Studios certainly seems to think it can be done, as the developer has taken as much of the concept of the original PC Wing Commander as possible and squeezed it into everyone's favourite diminutive console.

Soul Calibur II will be released on PS2, Xbox and GameCube on September 26th, it was announced today. Nintendo and Namco will be co-publishing the Cube version, according to a press release from the pair of them this evening, and a quick glance at EA's press site reveals that they will be co-publishing the PS2 and Xbox versions on the same date. Neither the PR nor EA's press site mention further character additions on top of the Japanese line-up..

Not content with forcing us to think about Postal 2 every so often, Whiptail Interactive is now re-releasing the original Postal of 1997 as Postal - Classic and Uncut on August 11th. "Step aside Kubric [sic]," said Running With Scissors CEO Vince Desi, "Once it had been banned, it took them 21 years to re-release the ultraviolent cult film 'A Clockwork Orange'. We've done the same thing with POSTAL in less than six." Yes but Vince, A Clockwork Orange was actually worth re-releasing because it was good. Postal, however, isn't. Wasn't. Whatever.

When Final Fantasy VII arrived on the RPG-starved shores of Europe to a fanfare of critical acclaim and commercial success, we dared to hope for a while that in future, all console RPGs would make their to this side of the globe. However, although the subsequent Final Fantasy games have been released here as regularly as clockwork, less well-known RPGs are thin on the ground - and even some of Square's own masterpieces never made their way to Europe.

Monolith has released details of its latest title in the No One Lives Forever franchise. As opposed to delivering another sequel, the developer is backtracking to create a spin-off prequel called Contract Jack. The player takes up the role of John Jack, a contract killer working for H.A.R.M. in a story that begins just after the events in NOLF1 and criss-crosses and triggers events in NOLF2. Apparently the title will offer a far more action-based experience than its predecessors alongside a more robust multiplayer element. Here's some screenshots for you, scamps.

GameSpy has done another one of those exclusive beta subscription jobs, this time with Shadowlands - the first expansion pack for the massively multiplayer RPG Anarchy Online. Spaces for the beta are limited, so hurry on over to FilePlanet to grab the (ouch) 1049MB download and generate a key before everyone else does. Which is, admittedly, unlikely.

We love videogame paraphernalia around here - well, you'd expect us to wouldn't you? One little bit of a spin-off merchandise we didn't see coming was, however, DOAX bikinis - we suppose we should have really. "Buy one for a friend, your girlfriend, or just as a collectible, but make sure you pre-order your favourite suit today because these DOAX original swim suits will not be around for long!" it says on the website. We'd like an excuse to get one, but we're not sure a healthy slap from any of our girlfriends is quite worth it... maybe we could squeeze Rob into one. Anyway, should you fancy forking out the healthy $149.99 for a colourful bit of string, pop off over Tecmo's shop website - or you could just look at the nice pictures like we did. Right! Back to work...

LucasArts sends word that the Xbox version of BioWare's eagerly awaited Star Wars RPG, Knights of the Old Republic, has finally gone gold. This means that the game will be available in US and Canadian stores come 16th July. No clear news yet on when we can expect to see the game arrive over this way, but this suggests that we'll see it a lot sooner than the previously anticipated September. LucasArts also took the opportunity to mention that it plans to make downloadable content for KotOR available over Xbox Live this winter, which should include new weapons and items to assist players in the game.

Electronic Arts may sell more games than anyone else by a mile, but one genre it hasn't had blockbusting success with is Formula One. Given the saturation in the market, and broadly similar titles, it's perhaps not surprising that it chose to let the official license pass onto Sony, which now has the full rights to the sport for the next four seasons.

Grand Prix racing is all well and good, but playing a game of spot the difference between half a dozen nigh on identical F1 titles has become about as much fun as a head on collision with a brick wall at 210mph.

Nintendo is making something of an unusual move by teaming up with Vimto to take Pokémon on the road with the - ahem - "Pokémon Live 2003 unleashed by Vimto" roadshow. Ye-ees. The show will be housed in a huge dome with various themed zones under the Pokémon umbrella, and is expected to attract thousands of fans eager to get a go on the new Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire titles, released on Game Boy Advance on 25th July.

Guildford-based Criterion Games, the company responsible for the excellent Burnout series and sister studio to Renderware creators Criterion Software, has announced two new games in development.

According to Ubi Soft's latest release data, Splinter Cell is set to hit PS2 Xbox budget labels simultaneously later this year. At the time of writing, we understand that Sam Fisher's inaugural incursion will be released on the Platinum and Classics labels respectively on November 7th.

Nintendo tells us that the Game Boy Advance SP has now sold more than one million units in Europe, having already done that in both the US and Japan. To celebrate, the Big N is planning to launch Arctic Blue and Flame Red coloured GBA SP models in Europe on October 24th, priced 129-139 euro (90-95 quid). Just the thing if you happen to be fetishistically obsessed with blue and red, we suppose, although we prefer the basic grey...

In news that won't surprise anybody, Konami says Pro Evolution Soccer 3 is on course for a November release exclusively on PS2. And apparently the latest title in KCET's football series will be significantly revamped.

WWF, E, whatever, is a pretty tawdry licence in the first place, so it's safe to say we weren't expecting much from Crush Hour, a £20 Twisted Metal-inspired vehicular deathmatch game. As you may recall, we had a bit of a go at Incog's online version of Twisted Metal the other week, arguing that it didn't need to go online in the first place and did nothing when it got there. It was, we argued, a total disappointment. At this point, vehicular deathmatch needs to do something new, and we're expecting that from Destruction Derby Arenas and/or Hardware, not WWE Crush Hour...

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles will require GBA consoles for its multiplayer mode, Nintendo's Japanese website seems to have confirmed. According to reports, the final release version will not support standard controllers as the E3 demo apparently did, but to lighten the financial blow there will be a GBA/GC link cable bundled with every copy of the game sold.

Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 has slipped, apparently, due to Nintendo's inability to fit the entire name on existing GBA packaging. Or, perhaps more accurately, because it needs more time to finish dusting off the old Mario All-Stars reworking of the seminal NES platformer for localisation and eReader-related reasons. That's IGN's hypothesis anyway. The resultant slippage in the US has seen SMA4 tumble from September 22nd to October 21st. Whether it'll do similar over here remains to be seen.

Authorities in Thailand are set to impose a strict curfew on online gaming which will see access to online game servers blocked between 10pm and 6am every day, with Internet cafes also facing curbs to their business hours along the same lines.

ZOO Digital has reclaimed the rights to the once proud Premier Manager series, which tumbled into neglect after the then Infogrames bought up Gremlin and slaughtered all their franchises, and plans to release a 2003/04 edition on PS2, PC and GBA this November!

EA will be further expanding Battlefield 1942 soon with the arrival of a new official map based on the Battle of Britain. As well as the map itself, which sees German forces attempting to destroy Royal Air Force radar towers and a Harwich weapons factory, the small expansion will grant the Germans a new aircraft to play with in the form of the Junkers Ju88. It's not yet clear when EA plans to make the map available for download, but still - nice to see something given back to the players.

CDV is planning to release its "mystic" first-person shooter Psychotoxic this Autumn. Mhmm. The game has players take up the role of the "attractive" Angie Prophet, a half-human, half-angel heroine with extrasensory perception skills that enable her to influence adversaries to her advantage. Yep. Autumn, then. Jot it down on your calendars or diaries or whatever.