Latest Articles (Page 3448)

As reported by IGN and others in September, THQ is planning to release Summoner 2 on Nintendo GameCube during Q2 2003, going by the name of Summoner: The Prophecy. This after the PS2 version of the game failed to make the console's Top 40 here in the UK - quite a spectacular bombing (source: ChartTrack).

[Update 09:49: Nobody respects the sanctity of the release calendar any more. We believe Metroid Fusion (GBA) has also appeared on store shelves this week, despite protestations from Nintendo that it's out next week. Hey ho, if you're a Metroid fan you'd be a fool not to buy it!]

Codemasters has secured the global publishing rights to Russia-based 1C Company's World War II: RTS (working title). If you're trying to place the name, 1C are the folks responsible for the critically acclaimed IL-2 Sturmovik.

Midway's record in Europe since it set up a few years back has been patchy to say the least. Full of slick, but US centric sports titles, and playable, but shallow arcade ports, the publishing veteran has realised it needed to start producing content with depth, and a broader appeal than the quick fix gameplay it relied upon before the arse fell out of the amusement arcade market.

Intel is planning the UK's biggest ever gaming event, with £25,000 in prize money, a museum setting and Chris Barrie. The Intel Masters tournament will see 24 gaming clans from across the UK (including the Intel-sponsored 4 Kings clan) competing for the inaugural Intel Masters crown and a stupendous £25,000 prize purse.

Activision recently signed a deal with Tony Hawk which means it has exclusive rights to make games based on the skating legend until the year 2015. That's a lot of skating games. That does give Neversoft plenty of time to come up with some new ideas, and that's just as well, because unless they do, THPS games numbered 5 to 17 are going to very shallow indeed. Judging by the progress made from 3 to 4, the developer has almost run out of ideas.

Ubi Soft has convinced Mathieu Ferland, senior producer on the incredible Splinter Cell, to spend an hour this evening between 6 and 7PM answering questions via the Ubi Soft website. If you wish to participate and ask Mathieu about the game (which is due out on Xbox on the 29th and PC on January 31st), simply head over to chat.ubisoft.fr at the allotted time and join the Splinter Cell chat room. No passwords necessary.

After the disastrous, bug-plagued launch of the GameCube Phantasy Star Online, Sega has announced that version 1.1 of the game, a revised edition eliminating problems, will be released in early December and that punters can obtain it by mailing their original game to Sega. However, sadly the new version of the game runs on separate servers and in the transition, characters will be stripped of all their items and equipment. D'oh!

Square has been steadily patching PS2 MMORPG Final Fantasy XI since it was first released via downloadable updates, picked up at the start of each gaming session. However, the Japanese gaming giant now plans to release an expansion disc for the game entitled Final Fantasy XI: Vision of Girade according to The Magic Box. All previous updates will be rolled into the expansion, along with a lot of new content including new towns, areas, summon beasts, character abilities, items and equipment. However, Square has yet to reveal how it plans to distribute the disc, whether it will be free or whether they plan to charge for it. If they do indeed plan to flog it, the extra content must be really quite extensive.

IGN is reporting via the Dow Jones News that Sega may discontinue its Sega Sports line on GameCube starting next year. Poor sales are blamed for the move, with the Sega Sports NFL and NBA 2K3 games both tanking on GameCube - in October, NBA 2K3 sold 98,000 units on PS2, 53,000 units on Xbox and 7,000 units on the Cube. Go back a month and you'll find similar figures for NFL 2K3, while EA's competing Madden NFL 2003 sold several times as many copies on the platform.

Headfirst Productions has revealed that its Call of Cthulhu project has grown to three separate games. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, a first person horror adventure based on the work of H.P. Lovecraft, is due out in the second half of next year on Xbox and PC, and yet Headfirst has confirmed two other Cthulhu games are already in development.

Sony has strongly denied that it plans to cut the price of PlayStation 2 in Europe this Christmas, with David Reeves, EVP of sales and marketing, stating that "We are very content with the sales of PlayStation 2 in Europe following our price reduction at the end of August this year."

Microsoft's campaign against Xbox mod chips has ratcheted up a notch with the launch of the Xbox Live online gaming service. According to a posting at Got Mod?, (there's a site that's going to be pretty concerned about the issue) the company is attempting to detect mod chips when users connect, then placing them on a banned list - forever.

C&VG is reporting that Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, corresponding versions of the infamous Pokémon game, will make their GameBoy Advance debut on March 17th 2003 in the US. The Japanese press is said to be delighted with the new games, and even if Pokémon mania is waning a bit, Ruby and Sapphire are both still expected to fare well in the US and Europe.

Japanese footy fans are set to benefit from two new Winning Eleven games according to developer/publisher Konami. The previously announced World Soccer Winning Eleven 6: Final Evolution will be released on both PS2 (Dec 12th) and GameCube (Jan 30th) with all the data and changes which made up the gap between WE6 and Pro Evo 2 in Europe.

RalliSport Challenge has appeared as one of Microsoft's famous trial versions, giving gamers the chance to sample four out of the game's 29 machines on four tracks. As with some of the full game, you'll be tackling three AI-controlled opponents as you duke it out on Safari, Pacific, icy and lakeside tracks, in the Ford Focus Cosworth, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI, Peugeot 206 and Subaru Impreza WRX.

Ubi Soft has picked up the US publishing rights to From Software's Xbox mech-based third person shooter, Murakumo: Mech Hunter. What's more, a extra, Trial mode has been added to the original gameplay modes - it allows players to challenge ten mech bosses, with ten new missions in total.

European beta testing of Asheron's Call 2 Fallen Kings starts today, with players in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain trouping back into the world of Dereth. There's still time to sign up though! If you fancy testing Microsoft's latest MMORPG with thousands of virtual playmates, then journey to www.ac2europe.com and you will be rewarded.

Jaleco has whipped the wraps off the Xbox-exclusive follow-up to Xbox-exclusive spell 'em up Nightcaster, which proved a bit of a turkey on the system's release this March. Nightcaster was a slash 'em up without the slashing, and its repetitive gameplay quickly overcame anybody initially impressed by its visuals.

Every now and then a game comes along which sets completely new standards of visual excellence. Let's not pussy foot around in a stealthy-beating-around-the-bush kind of way - Splinter Cell is the best looking game we've had the pleasure of playing.

The long awaited follow up to Gray Matter's Nazi bashing Return To Castle Wolfenstein, entitled 'Enemy Territory' is to be released on the PC in the 'first half' of next year, Activision assured us this afternoon.

Without wanting to bore anyone with what a great games machine the Dreamcast was, two of the greatest sports titles ever made were released on the console: Virtua Tennis and its superior sequel Virtua Tennis 2.

Sony's Team Soho studio has completed work on The Getaway, to the relief of PS2 gamers worldwide. Although the London-based crime caper has been hideously over-hyped, our first impressions of the game were resoundingly positive, and the news that it might avoid the rank of turkey will come as a great relief to publisher Sony, whose considerable investment is the only reason the game still exists.

Tribes 2 has once again been patched to fix a few bugs. After releasing an 88MB update largely comprising re-released maps and new gameplay modes at the end of September, Sierra has used the new 25034 patch to iron out a few flaws, including a timing bug which affected dual AMD CPU systems. A full list of changes can be found at TribalWar.com, and you can download the full (87.12MB) and 25026 to 25034 (48.64MB) updates while you're at it.

Mucky Foot, the developer behind Urban Chaos, Startopia and the recent Blade II game, has announced that development is underway on two new games, both of which are currently under wraps. The UK-based developer plans to make an announcement about their current projects in the near future.

Terra Lycos has published a chart listing the most-searched-for toys in the world by their popularity. Although there's no information on how many searches were made for each item, they all took place during the last month, and the listing is nonetheless quite interesting.

Rumour's abound that Red Faction II is heading to GameCube, and perhaps even Xbox. According to various net-based sources, the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) recently gave its approval to a GameCube version of Volition's FPS sequel, and now, US-based EBGames.com features a listing for the game and even a release date - March 25th.

Sony plans to lower the wholesale price of PlayStation 2 by several thousand yen in Japan (this morning, 1,000 yen = €8.15), which should prompt retailers to drop the street price. Furthermore, Sony plans to bundle Insomniac's Ratchet & Clank with the console in a new "Action Pack" for 26,800 yen (€218).

Rockstar's GTA: Vice City held off a posse of big name titles to maintain pole position on the All Format charts this week, despite the arrival of the latest Harry Potter title (No.4) and WWE Smackdown 4 (No.3), but there were some shocks elsewhere with some big hitters failing to make a significant impact on their opening weekend.

Microsoft is tooting its horn and throwing confetti because Xbox is the most powerful games console, and the monopolistic platform holder has big plans to try and emphasize this fact over the next couple of months. None of this involves releasing a triple-A videogame, but hey ho.