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Having launched Xbox Live in eight European countries on March 14th, Microsoft is now preparing to roll it out in another six. Before the end of the calendar year (as opposed to the financial one), gamers in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway and Switzerland will be able to beat Kristan at any game he's playing, which should include the likes of Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Brute Force, Midtown Madness 3 and Midnight Club II - all of which will be Living it up by the end of June. We don't have any specific dates or beta details, unfortunately, but if we find anything we'll let you know.

Apart from a rather dodgy game engine, Conflict: Desert Storm was easily SCI's best game in ages. For some, it was the next Ghost Recon. Not for Ubi Soft, obviously, who are busy working on Tom Clancy's Xtreme Recon 2004, but for some.

Ubi Soft revealed at E3 (we're only just now picking our way through the mountains of press releases... oh you have no idea) that Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield will be winging its way onto the Xbox in – wait a minute – March 2003? Yeah, we have no idea what they're on about there, but it definitely didn't ship in March.

It was announced a few days ago while nobody was looking that Capcom and Buena Vista will be bringing the videogame incarnation of Tim Burton’s animated movie The Nightmare Before Christmas to the PlayStation 2 late 2004. No further details have been released about the title, but we smell platformer.

Empire announced at E3 its five-year licensing deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment, enabling them to develop and publish an official Starship Troopers title based on the movie and animated series. We have to admit that the Starship Troopers license lends itself well to a videogame context, and thus far all we've seen is a decidedly average RTS from Microprose three years ago. No details yet about what type of game we're going to see from Empire, but we'd put money on a squad-based FPS.

Our pals at Vivendi have announced their publishing deal for Quantic Dream's Fahrenheit. The Omikron developer has crafted an "interactive thriller" set in New York, where ordinary people are murdering total strangers for no apparent reason (what's new, then?). The player, as one Lucas Kane, finds himself in the shoes of a murderer haunted by strange visions and the need to find out exactly what's going on whilst on the run from the police.

Vivendi has released some details on a new Simpsons title due for release this September on PS2, Xbox and GameCube. The Simpsons Hit & Run combines mission-based driving with out-of-car platforming - so when Tony Hawk's Pro Skater isn't being shamefully ripped off, it's GTA3.

2015, developer of the often great Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, is once again defiling our fine language by releasing some press about its newest title Men of Valor: The Vietnam War, for Xbox and PC. Surprisingly, it portrays infantry combat in the Vietnam War, following a Marine as he guides his fellow soldiers through the early stages of the war to the Tet Offensive.

TDK has released details on its forthcoming Dinotopia: The Sunstone Odyssey. Developed by Vicious Cycle, the game is centred on a civilization in which humans and dinosaurs live alongside and quite probably eat each other, on the island of Dinotopia.

As regular readers will no doubt acknowledge wearily, we're quite partial to a bit of monkey magic at Eurogamer, and the prospect of a game involving herding up a group of cheeky chimps merely increases our intake of bananas to ludicrous levels.

"If in doubt, revenge." Walking around the GDC last year I was half expecting to see a number of placards offering advice like this - like real life tooltips for developers. "If in doubt, revenge." "Game too difficult? Bullet time." "Off a project? Pitch a rally game." Ahem. Fortunately I didn't see any such signs or slogans, thus restoring my faith in humanity, and of the lectures I attended I certainly didn't hear anybody evangelising such nonsense. Although EA did tell us how one of its big flops of 2002 took a mere six months to build…

We've nabbed and locally hosted a teaser trailer for SOE's forthcoming massively multiplayer Star Wars title, Galaxies. The 19mb QuickTime movie has a fair amount of in-game footage detailing character creation, environments and communities, and is well worth a download if you've been longing to see the slippy mmorpg in action. There's no sign of the space combat sections, or any imperial machinery for that matter, but what's there has whet our appetite for the game's release this summer.

We know the exclusive presentation has now leaked out onto the net, but any game that makes us physically shake with excitement deserves some measure of evangelism nevertheless. With Half Life 2, Valve has taken the FPS by the scruff of the neck, whirled it around its head, and drop kicked its sorry arse into another dimension. The five years of quiet hype-free development have positioned the US team so far ahead of the competition it's almost embarrassing. Better than Doom III and Halo 2? Yep. But how?

We never expected to be writing about Pac-Man at E3, right from the day we bought the plane tickets to about five minutes after Miyamoto brought the subject to life on Tuesday. Even after we'd seen Nintendo's creative overlord locks horns with Pac-Man creator Toru Iwatani, Hideo Koshima and NOA's George Harrison at the Nintendo conference, the prospect of spending as much as a minute of the show this week hunting down ghosts and munching pills was farther-fetched than the notion of our trading Matrix Reloaded tickets for magic beans. But as we strolled somewhat disgruntled from Kirby's Air Ride this afternoon, we just so happened to fill the fourth seat at one of the Pac-Man consoles. And so we renewed our friendship with the first Man of gaming.

We're sure you've spent many an hour raking about the web trying to find some Half-Life 2 videos to lap up and get yourself all sweaty about Valve's forthcoming goliath. We know we have. That's why we were especially chuffed to come across this FTP archive of GameSpot footage straight from the show, mirrored on Blueyonder games here in the UK. Now we've not had the opportunity to watch most of the content, so we're not sure how much of it you're likely to have seen, but we're sure you wouldn't want to miss the opportunity to have a peek anyway. Knock yourselves out (not literally, natch).

Rockstar has announced the full title of Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne - and has been showing it off to a select audience at E3 by invitation only. Sadly, Eurogamer wasn't one of the lucky invitees (sniff), but I've been assured that our boys over there are trying their best to "get a look at it somehow". The game is being billed as a "Film Noir Love Story", suggesting that the ham and cheese machine at Remedy is still in full effect for this one. Hopefully we can wring some more details out of Rockstar by going up to its stand and giving them a stern look or something.

InfogramesNotAtari and Turbine have announced that they've got Dungeons & Dragons Online in development. The game will typically involve mooching about in dungeons, knocking seven shades out of a variety of monsters, and rival guilds having power struggles over their particular patch of grass. With Turbine simultaneously developing Middle-Earth Online, it looks like they've suddenly become the poster boys of online beardy fantasy entertainment.

Nintendo has announced from E3 its intention to release a retail bundle that includes the GameCube system and the GameBoy Player, the device that enables players to play any of over 1,200 GameBoy/Advance games on their Cube. For a "limited time" the deal will be priced at the current cost of a regular GameCube system. The offer will launch on June 20th over here at a price of 199.99 euros, while the US price will somewhat irritatingly be set at $149.99 - cheers for that, Nintendo.

When the doors of E3 opened this year, Eurogamer made several bee-lines, and one of the first was in the direction of Factor 5's Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike. Like most of the staff (with the exception of Rob), I was a big fan of Rogue Leader, lapping up the delightful mixture of familiar movie-based sections and challenging new scenarios like a thirsty dog on a hot day. And as one of the most popular third party launch titles in any console's history, it's probably safe to say I'm not alone in this.

After the terrific success that Sonic Adventure 2 enjoyed on the GameCube, it isn't too surprising to discover Sega brewing another Sonic title in the same vein; giving you control of Sonic, Tails and Knuckles in various 3D worlds that Eggman currently has in his easily loosened grip. And it's equally unsurprising to find it on the show floor, in a trio of 20 per cent complete versions running on Xbox, Cube and PS2.

Believe it or not, it's been more than five years since Mario Kart 64. When Nintendo first showed off a tech demo featuring Mario and Luigi karting (which, in retrospect, looks nothing like the nearly-finished article), we'd already been waiting more than three. In other words, it's safe to say that Mario Kart Double Dash has been a long time coming, and given that MK64 failed to set the entire world on fire, it's safe to say that we have heady expectations for this one. It's got to be utterly fantastic - and it's getting there.

At last: a new Tomb Raider game. And what have we here? An E3 demo? After fully three and a half years since the last meaningful Lara Croft adventure, we've had to be pretty patient. Having seen the game at two previous trade shows, it's fair to say that E3 2003 represents the last chance saloon for Core and its interminably delayed project.

If you have any lingering doubts on the merits of the Xbox, then we challenge you to not be astounded by the nine minute trailer of Halo 2. Truly, this extraordinary piece of footage manages to set new standards in real time gameplay cinematics.

Although we had hoped to bring you first impressions of Nico by now, the game isn't on the show floor here in Los Angeles, and we don't think it's doing the rounds behind closed doors either. Sony is being very upfront about games like Jak II, Ratchet & Clank 2, SOCOM II and Gran Turismo 4, which are all over their stand (in the shape of multiple demos), all of which is disappointing for fans of what was arguably last year's best game who were looking forward to setting eyes on the sequel. Rest assured though, we've still got plenty to write about here, and will be doing so in due course. It might take a bit longer today though, because we've got those Matrix tickets to employ. Remember: there is no E3!

Eidos has, at sodding last, confirmed a release date for Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness - 20th June it is. Oh and the next movie - The Cradle of Life - comes out 25th July, but you weren't interested in that were you? Were you?

Ubi Soft will be releasing the first Raven Shield mission pack, titled Athena Sword (how do they come up with them?), this autumn. Developed by Ubi's Milan studio, the pack will feature an eight-mission campaign including missions in Italy, Croatia and Greece, eight new multiplayer maps, five new multiplayer game modes, and seven new weapons. The pack will also contain three "classic" missions from previous Rainbox Six titles, remixed and re-worked for the Unreal engine, although it hasn't been announced what missions these are, or which games they're from.

Rockstar has started to make murmurings about the latest title from GTA3 developers DMA Desi... sorry, Rockstar North. Further to the recent unveiling of a totally noncommittal web"site", Rockstar granted us this: "Manhunt explores the depths of human depravity in a vicious, sadistic tale of urban horror." Nice. So, will this be a title that shows Running With Scissors how to do it right? Hopefully we'll find out by Autumn, when Manhunt is released on PS2. Colour us intrigued.

Warner Bros. and Ubi Soft have joined forces to co-publish The Matrix Online, which is expected to go beta this year, and release sometime in 2004. The massively multiplayer title apparently features a rich storyline - picking up from where The Matrix Revelations will leave off - permeating throughout a persistent game world that enables thousands of players to slowly kick each other in the head at the same time.

October 7th 2003 is the date that Nokia will unleash its N-Gage 'Game Deck' across the world, at the suicidal price point of $299. The price in Euros is also expected to be 299, with a UK SRP expected to be around the £249 mark.

One trailer we were quite pleased with at the Xbox conference was for Star Wars: Republic Commando, a new Live-enabled title that plans to mix squad-based combat and survival horror. The footage showed a couple of Republican guards (Saddam should sue) chasing one of those flappy-winged Episode II aliens in glorious CG, and finally cornering it only to discover a swarming-great ambush of pure death. Republic Commando is due out in 2004 - on Xbox and on PC.