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Titus Interactive has just released a demo of the spirit-crushingly dodgy looking Robocop, which you can pick up from the charmingly named GamersHell. We're not actually going to be able to tell you if it's worth the 25MB download just yet, because the PC being used to write this can barely run Minesweeper without a bit of a struggle, so do let us know if it actually turns out to be any good.

Console versions of Star Wars Galaxies have been put on hold according to LucasArts, something that various sources picked up on when they were removed from the PS2 and Xbox sections of the publisher's website. According to GameSpot, LucasArts has since confirmed that the games are on hold, whilst the PC version has progressed on to beta testing. "We are currently focusing all of our efforts on the successful launch of the PC version of Star Wars Galaxies," LucasArts said in a statement.

Unreal Championship fans can look forward to a new auto-update when they next log in, which fixes a number of problems identified by fans and the developer in the last few months. The fixes mostly consist of corrections to various known exploits (using weapons like the T.A.G. and Rocket Launcher) and map bugs, but it also takes care of some rather more basic stuff, like trying to load a map without checking if the server's full...

GameSpot is reporting that the third in the Fear Effect series, Inferno, is on hold. The game was first sighted at last year's E3 in trailer form, but nobody's seen nor heard anything about it until now, with Eidos ambiguously stating that the game is "on hold at the current time." Oh dear.

Infogrames has announced that Microsoft has assimilated action-oriented RPG Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes exclusively for the Xbox, and the October release will no longer see the game arrive on GameCube or PS2. "The full development team is extremely excited to be working with Microsoft and Wizards of the Coast to bring this product exclusively to the Xbox platform," said Scott Walker, vice president of product development, with the pistol dug into his back just out of shot.

EA has announced that Namco's overdue PS2 and Cube ports of Xbox noir-tacular Dead to Rights will both be released in Europe (and all other PAL territories) during August. Both are expected to resemble the tweaked PAL release of the Xbox version, which came out in February.

It may have sold diddly squat on both PS2 and Xbox, but the original Project Zero/Fatal Frame (as it was known in the US) was a survival horror game of gruesome beauty. Hopefully you'll bother to take notice of the recently announced sequel, which is coming to the PS2 late in the year in the US, most likely meaning an early 2004 release in Europe.

If you thought it was grim up North, you should try paying Silent Hill a visit. Fog, mutant dogs, slime, axe-wielding nurses and deranged paedophiles are just a few of the delights that will greet the unsuspecting traveller. For some strange reason, every psycho loser seems to end up going there at some point or other, and Silent Hill 3's lead character Heather (who looks spookily like the sister of James Sutherland, Silent Hill 2's lead) is no exception.

If there was one constant amongst the many, many World War II-based shooters on display at E3, it was each developer's attempts to downplay the brilliance of Medal of Honor, mostly citing its linearity and lack of story-based emotion. And in retrospect, it's easy to remember it their way. It was very much a shoehorned adventure through Private Ryan-inspired environments, shooting things in a particular order and then quick-loading to get a bit further through them, eventually escaping into the next, even more difficult Nazi-popping Allied excursion.

Midnight Club II was on display on both PC and Xbox at E3, showcasing various improvements over the PS2 version. Xbox fans will be pleased to hear that graphically the game has updated vehicle models, environments, higher-resolution textures, and better effects and lighting throughout, along with the virtual pre-requisites of Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound and widescreen. There will even be HDTV 480p support, although if you can afford a TV like that then you can probably pay developers to make you a personal version [oi! -Ed].

All this week, Eurogamer will be on-site in Los Angeles at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, better known as E3. But we aren't planning to sit around chatting to publishers about how brilliant they are, swapping anecdotes about press parties and acting like we're actually cool - aside from a few pre-show press conferences, we're there to play the big games, and tell you how they're shaping up. That means our first impressions of games like Half-Life 2, Nico, Mario Kart, Halo 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3. Games that matter!

Ubi Soft has officially announced the next Splinter Cell game, titled Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow. The game is in development for multiple systems, as you'd expect, and will apparently feature more realistic environments and a more "cinematic" feel.

Infogrames and TimeGate have identified a major gap in the videogaming sector with the announcement that they're developing World War II RTS Axis & Allies, based on the eponymous board game. There aren't many details available at present, but directing the fates of either the United States, England, Germany, The Soviet Union or Japan, you can naturally expect to be faced with the strategic and tactical decisions experienced by generals during the war, and perhaps even change the course of history. If you like. You'll have to wait until Autumn 2004, though.

CDV has released more details about American Conquest Fight Back, the standalone expansion pack (ala Cossacks: Back to War) which is due out on May 30th in Germany. Apparently the rest of Europe can now look forward to getting their grubby bayonets on it in August.

Comments made by Sonic Team boss Yuji Naka had UK journos in a spin last week, with some taking his hopeful optimism as proof that discussions are taking place at SEGA HQ about a new console platform.

Nintendo has dropped us a line to remind us that Game Boy Player is out on June 20th - something we mentioned last week when we heard they were planning to bundle it with the Cube for €199. It'll be about €60 on its own.

Charlie's Angels is about to be translated into videogame form for the first time ever, thanks to Ubi Soft. You will be able to switch between each of the Angels on-the-fly during combat as they take on 32 different enemies across six missions. The game incorporates a "new and unique storyline", which sees the Angels going undercover to unravel a worldwide mystery and foil the plans of some criminal mastermind or other who wants to steal the world's most famous monuments. Unique. It's out 18th July on PS2 and GameCube - start saving now.

Another round of downloadable MechAssault content has made it onto Xbox Live, introducing Capture The Flag (and a couple of corresponding maps) to the proceedings along with a couple of new mechs. CTF works really well, and the two new maps are pretty good - Midtown Mayhem has one team up on a hill and another on a lower plain with hilly cover and an urban cityscape in-between. In our first game this urban playground quickly disappeared as gangs of Ragnoraks and the new Loki and Hellbringer mechs crept through it with autocannons and flamers blazing. The other map is Desert Storm, which has some narrow causeways and chokepoints, perfect for shooting up the enemy.

Whatever your personal feelings on Metal Gear Solid 2, there's no doubt that the once-revered franchise has come down in the world since that incredible trailer wowed audiences and left journalists scrambling for superlatives at E3 a few years ago - selling countless PS2s in the process. At E3 this year, not one but two MGS titles were shown, and to describe the reaction as "muted" would be an overstatement; the fact is that following the disappointing MGS2 and given the wealth of incredible stuff at the show, MGS just isn't that high on most people's must-see lists any more.

InfogramesNotAtari has made a deal with Firaxis Games, giving the Frenchmen rights to publish many of the Maryland-based developer's future works, including a newly announced Civilization III expansion, Conquests, and Sid Meier's Pirates.

Apart from a bunch of big name sequels, a new price point and a new gaming portable, Sony had a pretty quiet E3. Chortle. Actually, they announced a couple of other things which haven't had as much press, all centring around the online service - something that can only stand to benefit us third rate Europeans in the long run.

Tecmo's highly anticipated action/adventure Ninja Gaiden will launch on Xbox this Christmas - in the US, at least. All that could be seen of the title at E3 was a couple of trailers displayed by both Microsoft and Tecmo, and I'm assured by Tom that it really did look rather special. Details on the game have been kept under a particularly tight lid, but Tecmo did let on that the story is one of vengeance as Ryu Hyabusa, a notorious ninja assassin, seeks revenge after his clan is massacred by the Vigor Empire. Also, Tecmo announced but then annoyingly continued to remain tight-lipped about an Xbox Live feature that will "be like nothing gamers have ever experienced before." Gosh.

Although Winning Eleven and its many sons and daughters are by far and away Eurogamer's football games of choice, EA did manage to regain some credibility last year with its revamped FIFA 2003, combining elements of both sim and arcade titles and delivering a fairly laudable ball game. But even at that, the Vancouver-based team behind the series knew that they still had some way to go, and they now claim that this year's version - shooting for an October release date - is making serious strides in the right direction. But don't they always say that? With a 20 per cent complete build of the game at E3 last week, we had a look for ourselves.

Zelda may have been my favourite action RPG on the Super Nintendo (and, er, many systems since), but it was only a few weapon levels higher than Square's magnificent Secret of Mana, which combined real-time combat, traditional RPG magic and levelling systems and a world of endearing characters to great effect. There were and are few games which have conveyed the feel of Mana since then, but after an hour alone with Square Enix's Sword of Mana, I'm starting to think we might finally see a suitable reprise.

Hello. Long-running multi-Nintendo format turn-based strategy series Fire Emblem is finally heading to the US, and subsequently probably Europe as well, on the GBA. "And about time too", says Tom. The game is apparently very much in the same vein as EG favourite Advance Wars, but with a tangy RPG flavouring as your units gain experience points and level up in various battle ability statistics. Lovely. Anyway, you will (probably, remember) be able to get your mitts on it in the Autumn.

Incredibly, Tecmo took some time out to actually talk about one of its games during its "DOA Girls: From Bare Fists to Bikinis" presentation at E3. While the Tecmo bikini ladies brought a corner of the South Hall to a regular standstill thanks to lecherous basement-dwelling ball-jugglers like Tom, the developer shed some light on the forthcoming Dead or Alive Online. It is apparently Tecmo's intention to bring a perfect rendition of the "sublime" Saturn original to the Xbox alongside a completely redesigned Dead or Alive 2, which is where the online component comes in, coupled with DOA3-surpassing visuals and "scenes portraying the familial relationships between certain characters". Oh and some new costumes.

Were it not for Rare's forced defection to Xbox exclusivity, we'd probably be playing Kameo on GameCube by now. Ah well, such is the nature of multi-million dollar business deals. We did, however, get treated to a four-level demo of the game at this year's E3, which gave us a neat glimpse into possibly the most interesting and accomplished of the trio of Rare titles debuted at the Exposition.

World War II games. Two things that the world isn't exactly short of at the moment. But World War II role-playing games? Now there's something you don't see every day. We give you, Another War.

Another interesting E3 debutant this year was Mario and Luigi on the GBA (screenshots), which sees the brothers team up for the first time, in an epic action-oriented RPG. An evil witch steals Princess Peach's voice and replaces it with explosives, and when the pair turn up and find out what happens, they run into Bowser attempting to kidnap the princess. Again. Mario, Luigi and Bowser, in an unprecedented move, decide to unite in order to track down the witch, following her into an unknown neighbouring kingdom.

The PC version of Lost Toys' criminally overlooked Battle Engine Aquila will likely be bundled with the GeForceFX2 (aka NV35, or 'GeForce4 Ultra Ultra') thanks to a deal with OEM specialists Vector OEM, the Guildford-based developer announced at E3. Assuming that manufacturers choose to go for it, you should be able to get your hands on it if you plump for NVIDIA's latest kit from the end of May. The GeForceFX2 PC version of the game was on display at NVIDIA's booth at the show, and includes improved water and explosion effects, and generally enhanced performance. Commenting on the deal, Lost Toys' MD Jeremy Longley says the developer is "pleased with the results".