Latest Articles (Page 3418)

Sega is dominating our GBA-time at the moment. Between Monkey Ball Junior and Sonic Advance 2, we don't want for too much else. So it's going to take some effort to squeeze another game in - unless it lives up to the exceedingly high quality of the developer's other recent releases. Over to you, Sega…

The Friday before last, we asked you whether Jen's boyfriend's demon attacker could fly or not. Some of you pointed out that it has wings, but that might not mean it can fly. These people have been killed. The correct answer was of course "Yes", "No" and "An African or European demon?" Anybody who put "What do you mean?" clearly should not win.

Management simulations are, to put it mildly, a very unusual corner of the gaming universe. From Championship Manager and Sim City to the likes of Master of Orion or Galactic Civilisations, they all share common traits - like a heavy reliance on statistics, an extremely in-depth gameplay model, and the derision of those who don't "get" the genre as being nothing more than a glorified spreadsheet.

Whoever said Championship Manager was the most addictive gaming experience known to man was sage-like in their wisdom. And probably divorced, friendless, jobless, and living in an Internet Café, having been evicted from the home they once occupied. After a period of enforced abstinence, there was almost a feeling of dread when the CM4 review code arrived, as we knew just how all-consumingly antisocial the effect of installing it on our fearful PC would be.

Rainbow Six is a true benchmark for the tactical action genre. However Red Storm seemed disappointingly keen to continue milking the first two titles in the series with absolutely no shame, with mission pack after mission pack slowly diluting our enthusiasm for the fine originals. Now, at last, Raven Shield - the sequel to Rogue Spear - sets out to offer fans of the genre what they've been gagging for all these years.

EA and Vivendi are once again spamming us with news of their next Lord of the Rings titles. For those who missed last year's circus, EA has the right to make games based on the movies (which it did with mainstream-tapping aplomb), and Vivendi has the right to make games based on the books (which it did somewhat lamentably).

Dutch site PC Inside Gamer has movies of the PC version of Vice City, Blue's News reports. But like them, we can't get to that site at the moment, so instead you can grab them from Gamer's Hell, 3D Gamers or Tiscali Games. The latter had the decency to convert them from the laughably named QuickTime to DivX format, which was nice of them.

Codemasters is preparing to show off its Dragon Empires MMORPG at this year’s E3. This will be the first time (we think) that we’ll get to see how the game actually looks, as the screens released so far have exhibited a range of jaw-droppingly impressive and disappointingly mediocre shots.

Vivendi has released some details about the forthcoming The Fast And The Furious game, developed by Genki. The game will incorporate cars and characters from The Fast And The Furious movie as well as its forthcoming sequel, the ridiculously named 2 Fast 2 Furious. Players will be racing more than 20 licensed cars around the Los Angeles streets throughout some 80 missions enabling them to earn cash, “increase their street credibility” and further the game's original story.

Elixir is working on a second strategy game using the same engine as Republic: The Revolution, GameSpot reports. Little else is known, other than the publisher: our friends Vivendi. Hi Frazer!

IGN is reporting that the GameCube sequel to the immensely fantastic Metroid Prime will get its first ever exposure at this year’s E3. Inside sources claim that the game will not be playable, instead present only as a short video teaser. So, what… some CGI of Samus looking all hard, and a logo? We’ll see.

Important notice: In the following news item, "the world's only virtual universe incorporating a real economy with a convertible currency" and other similar phrases have been replaced by "blah".

Activision has announced the development of a new first-person shooter with a somewhat familiar name. Trinity, in development by Id’s consistent bedfellows Gray Matter, was, if we recall correctly, the name of a project Id was working on before the announcement of Doom 3.

Darkmonth (that's "month", not "mouth") Studios has announced its first original PC title, and is hoping to locate a publisher for it in short order - with representatives showing off a demo of the game to interested parties.

Microsoft has announced the in-house development of an intriguing massively multiplayer RPG called Mythica, based on Norse mythology. We say intriguing because the aim is to apparently blend the “depth and sophistication” of a single player RPG with the social experience of a massively multiplayer game. This is achieved through “Private Realms” technology, whereby a player will be able to his or her own private adventure that focuses on providing rich gameplay experiences and storylines in which their own actions have lasting consequences in a persistent game world.

German devlopublisher [nice -Ed] Sunflowers will be presenting their latest product line-up behind closed doors at E3, somewhere in the Kentia Hall of the LA Convention Center. The presentation should shed some light on what Austraisn Max Design, Germans SEK and Bulgarians Black Sea Studios are up to, along with details of the first planned add-on for Anno 1503 - The New World.

JoWooD has handed off more of its publishing duties to a third party, by penning an agreement that will see Bigben Interactive market and distribute 21 titles (mostly back catalogue) for PC, PS2 and Psone in Germany, France, Benelux and Switzerland. We take it this means that the publisher will continue its duties in other regions - like the good old U of K. Amongst the 21 titles are PC newcomers Spellforce and Söldner: Secret Wars, which are due out soon.

Eidos has released a 2.7MB patch for Praetorians, addressing issues ranging from "minor disk-reading issues" (deleting Safedisk?) and text corrections to gameplay bugs like save problems and the way German cavalry could get stuck. A lengthy list of fixes can be found here, and this is a direct link to the patch file on Eidos' FTP. Remember to honour the Gods before you download.

Lionhead Studios will use RenderWare to fasttrack the development of The Movies on next-gen consoles (the game is also due out on PC), the middleware gurus Criterion have announced. As with previous titles like GTAIII and Burnout 2, which have utilised RenderWare to great effect, Lionhead will be hoping to free up time normally spent on low-end technical components, porting code and so on, and instead focus on what's important to the player.

Somehow we let this one slip past us. Sorry about that. Anyway, Vivendi has revealed that development on the next in the Tribes series was well under way. Tribes: Vengeance is currently being worked on by Irrational Games of System Shock 2 and Freedom Force fame.

Nintendo is announcing that its become best of buddies with Square Enix, and will be exclusively publishing and distributing Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, Final Fantasy Tactics and Sword of Mana for their diminutive portable (that's the GBA by the way). Nintendo says the games are scheduled for launch in the US "this year, followed by European launches shortly thereafter" - handy.

Although we still await the obligatory back slapping official press release, it appears that Vivendi and its Sierra subsidiary have retained the rights to publish the blockbusting sequel to Half-Life.

It’s like London buses around here. First Valve gets around to announcing Half-Life 2 to a salivating public, and then admits that Team Fortress 2 will be updated with its proprietary Source Engine technology.

Sega Europe today announced that it would be publishing Team 17's forthcoming Worms 3D on GameCube, PS2, Xbox and PC. Well you can colour us confused, because we could have sworn Activision were meant to be doing it.

TimeSplitters developer Free Radical has divulged that it will not be developing a TimeSplitters 3 - at least not for its next project, C&VG is reporting. Apparently the team is working on a secret project, rather ambiguously stating: "It's a third-person action title with a bit of stealth in there - it'll be a huge departure from TimeSplitters but is shaping up to be amazing."

Dear old Arnie Schwarzenegger is to have his likeness and voice appear in a videogame for the first time ever with the arrival of Black Ops-developed Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. The game is set to feature movie segments from the eponymous film (due in the summer), and another five-minute sequence shot exclusively for the game.

Activision has launched the official Star Trek: Elite Force II website, which contains a wealth of information on the forthcoming first-person shooter. Probably of most interest is the screenshots section, exhibiting a few previously unseen shots of the game in action, but the site also features fairly comprehensive sections detailing the weaponry, characters and back-story.

If there's one thing you can rely on in life, it's that us poor Europeans have to wait many moons for Capcom's PAL conversions. In the case of the GameCube-exclusive Resident Evil Zero, it'll be March 7th before you get your sticky paws on, confusingly, the fifth in the long running series.

When Mario Party appeared in early '99, it was one of the pioneers of the party game genre, but the second game in the series, released a year later, was arguably the best. Now it's 2002, and Hudson is throwing a whole new party, with 50 original mini-games, five whole boards to traverse, support for four players and an optimistic "Story Mode" to fill the hours between multiplayer parties. But is it really any different to what's come before?

Activison has released a map test for its forthcoming Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory free multiplayer download. The test features one map entitled Fuel Dump, and allows players to play as either Axis or Allies (natch). There are some known issues with the test because... well, it's a test. Anyway, those are outlined in the readme included with the demo. If you feel like pretending to be an unpaid beta tester for a while, you can grab the 101mb installer from 3D Gamers.