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Japanese games publisher Access Games is apparently working on a new MGS-style stealth espionage 'em up called Spy Fiction for PlayStation 2. According to the Famitsu report on the subject, Spy Fiction has been underway for several years, three of which were spent just planning the game and its numerous Hollywood-style spy scenarios.

The most likely question you'll have as you stare at this review is 'where were the other Clock Towers?' Indeed, despite our advancing years and encyclopaedic knowledge of gaming obscurities, this series has managed to completely pass us by, and for good reason. The first version sold all of 1,500 copies in the UK five years ago, and the second wasn't even released here, so forgive our total ignorance. Suffice to say they were PlayStation-only point and click adventures that apparently didn’t go down too well, so the series has been dragged into more contemporary survival horror territory.

Ambitious new UK publisher Play It has announced details of its release schedule between now and Christmas, revealing that at least 15 more £9.99 priced PlayStation 2 games are planned by the end of the year.

C&VG claims that EA is making another game based on Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, this time for PS2, Xbox and GameCube. Although EA has already released games based on the Philosopher's Stone, these only appeared on PC, PSone and Nintendo handhelds, as it was deemed more important to have the next-generation versions of the Chamber of Secrets better prepared for the following year.

Hip Games and Namco have signed a five-year exclusive licensing agreement, which will see Dead to Rights appear on the PC in Europe (via LSP) and North America (via Hip Interactive). In Europe, the game has already appeared on Xbox courtesy of Electronic Arts, with PS2 and Cube versions due out on July 16th.

Capcom's Onimusha Blade Warriors will feature a story mode comprising three chapters, at least according to the latest Famitsu. These chapters, dubbed the Onimusha chapter, the Onimusha 2 chapter, and the Genma chapter, will focus on Samanosuke (post Onimusha), Jubei (post Nobunaga duel) and Marcellus (who just wants to kill humans) respectively.

THQ sends word this week that Alex Ward (creative manager on Burnout 2) and Shawn Hargreaves (lead programmer on MotoGP and MotoGP 2) will be available to answer questions from the huddled, yearning masses on July 2nd (that's next Wednesday) from 7PM GMT. According to the release, the chat - in association with Xbox.com, or something - will be accessible at www.xbox.com/uk/live/ (or whatever your regional alternative may be). The two chaps will be fielding queries for over an hour.

Former subscribers to NetDevil's online space combat title Jumpgate are being invited back to reactivate their accounts and have a look at how the game has improved, as part of a ten day free trial aimed at tempting players both old and new to join in.

Maximo Vs. The Army of Zin, announced last month, has already suffered the indignity of a hearty slip, sliding past Christmas and into 2004 according to Capcom Studio 8 producer Mark Rogers. "We have until January to make sure everything turns out right," he told IGN, "and we're going to use every bit of that time to do it." As a big fan of Maximo, I'm a bit miffed [note the lack of a royal 'we' for once -Ed], but if it makes the game better then one can hardly protest.

When PS2 Online stumbled into view at the beginning of June, we weren't all that enamoured by its launch line-up, which comprised a multi-platform racing game (since surpassed on Xbox), a third person Counter-Strike rip-off and an unwieldy Carmageddon clone. A fortnight on and we haven't stopped tinkering with our £25 network adapters, USB cables snaking over discarded Doritos packets and through puddles of Coke towards our keyboards, but we're still far from overwhelmed. In hope of changing that, this week we rolled off the sofa and pulled Tony Hawk out of the nearest pizza box. Maybe he knows something.

It's been delayed three times, slapped with a succession of unusually critical previews, and subsequently praised by less than convincing reviews. You could say it's been a rocky road in the build up to the release of the latest Lara Croft adventure.

Atari has announced the GameCube port of Dragon Ball Z: Budokai will be released this October, and released a few screenshots to celebrate. The PS2 Budokai, created by BIMPS, has apparently shipped more than 3.5 million units worldwide since its December 2002 release.

Jester, developers of Music 3000, a music-making package that we write about because it's on a games console, are today encouraging users to build up a decent tune and submit it to a panel of music industry judges. Those whose work impresses will then be invited to London in September to take part in a Music 3000 workshop, polishing up their tunes ahead of a party at the AKA in London later that month, where the winning track will be aired and announced.

Going to the States? If you're a Cube fan, you might want to find a hotel whose TV system is handled by LodgeNet, as the company has just announced - as part of their 10-year strategic relationship with Nintendo of America - that their "Signeture TV" service will now incorporate GameCube games. LodgeNet has until now been providing SNES and - as we experienced last month - N64 games to hotel rooms.

Having released a beta version of Foundations last week for those with the Shrouded Isles expansion pack, Dark Age of Camelot developer Mythic has now made the update available for everyone else. The add-on throws in 36,000 properties, to be sold by reverse auction, clustered in small villages in special housing zones. You can download the add-on from various places listed on the official Foundations website.

Although nobody really knows when Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness will ship in the UK and Europe (current estimates have the PS2 version out before the end of June, or on July 4th, with the PC version sometime that month), and Eidos has still to say anything to the city on the subject, Lara's leash-holders Core have been talking to the press about what happens next. "We don't think we went traditional enough with this game. For the next one, we want to bring the dinosaurs back," co-founder Jeremy Heath-Smith told C&VG.

GameSpot reports that DreamCatcher Games is planning to release US Open 2003 - a tennis title, strawberry eaters - on Xbox and PC as the tournament of the same name kicks off in September. The game will feature several famous tennis courts and players, and the US Open and Roland Garros tournaments. Players will be playing for cash in order to unlock new players, courts, clothes, exercise equipment and cheat modes. DreamCatcher CEO Richard Wah Kan said the game had "a realistic feel about it".

The North American PC version of Final Fantasy XI will shortly be moving into the beta phase, and various sites are offering their readers the chance to get in on it. Unfortunately, the test only seems to be open to people in the US and Canada (surprise, surprise), although ATI's sign-up page doesn't make that distinction. Still, if you have some clever ploy in mind (like eloping) then FilePlanet, GameSpot and Stratics are all giving spots to paid subscribers. Final Fantasy Vault, meanwhile, has a contest going on to give away their berths. Thanks to Blue's News for the various links.

Publisher Acclaim is set to cease development for Nintendo's GameCube once its current projects are finished, with CEO Rod Cousens stating that the platform does not supply "appropriate yields".

Atari's Enter The Matrix is still the best selling game in the UK this week, marking its sixth week at number one and setting it well on its way to being one of the biggest selling games of the year.

Did you buy Chaser? Apparently you can buy Chaser, although they didn't tell us that, as it was released on Friday. Which is nice. So, if you did buy it, can we just steal your attention for a second because JoWooD informs us that some people might be having trouble installing or running the game (never a good sign, is it?), and has released a couple of little patches to help smooth over any problems. You can pick them up from 3D Gamers.

Even die hard Trekkers, world renowned for their unbridled, costume-wearing, video-hording obsession with Gene Roddenberry's ubiquitous interstellar pageantry, must surely accept by now that Star Trek is at best somewhat inconsistent.

Interplay is collaborating with BattleBorne Entertainment, or so we're told, on the development and distribution of Airborne: Liberation, described as a fast-paced third person action combat game set during World War II. Sounds like just the sort of innovative thinking needed to help balance the Interplay chequebook. It really does.

Remember Primal? It was an overhyped plod-and-poke adventure from the heartland of Sony Europe, and it failed to thrill even the eminently thrillable Kristan, who these days curses its name. If you always wanted to try it, it costs about £20 from GAME, as we recall.

THQ is set to publish an upcoming LucasArts' title called Star Wars: Flight of the Falcon, which will see players piloting Han Solo's Millennium Falcon through 14 missions, from Yavin to Endor and back, with plenty of collateral Ewok damage (hopefully). However much to our disgust, and as is perhaps obvious from THQ's involvement, Flight of the Falcon is a Game Boy Advance title only. Gah! When, Lord, when! We want a proper Falcon game on something which can do three dimensions convincingly!

GameSpot reports that Ubi Soft is working on a new 4x4 racing title for PS2 and GameCube. Monster 4x4: Masters of Metal will feature 50 monster trucks including Grave Digger, Madusa, Spider-Man, Wolverine, El Toro and Bulldozer (shrug) and 30 events from stadium circuits to off-road racing. We can also apparently expect two-player split screen from the game when it's released in November.

I'm Nick Koufou and I'm the project leader.

Following last week's triumphant announcement by Nintendo that it had won a victory over Hong Kong based mail order retailer Lik-Sang, one of the company's founders, Alex Kampl, has spoken publicly about the ruling.

Blizzard has released another Flash demo of a 16-bit GBA remake. Rock N' Roll Racing gets the treatment this time, with a short demo that lets you zoom around the oddly enjoyable isometric racer.

As any committed gamer will tell you, cables are the bane of our lives - forever getting snagged or tripped over by the unwary traveller. At the very least they're a messy nuisance, and at worst result in heartbreaking damage to persons, property or pets (yelp!). Just as well there's such a thing as wireless technology then, eh?