Latest Articles (Page 3452)

Grand Theft Auto 3 just keeps on breaking records. The latest official UK ChartTrack figures from the ELSPA monthly software report reveal that Rockstar's opus has now broken the one million unit barrier - thought to be the first time that a game has managed this feat since records began.

Ubi Soft has announced a sequel to Batman: Vengeance, the fairly accomplished videogame adaptation of the DC Comics and cartoon crusader. Currently called Batman 2 internally, the game is due out at the latter end of 2003 thanks to a licensing agreement with DC Comics and Warner Bros. Ubi Soft has full production and publishing rights for the game, and claims that its developers in Montreal it will usher in a brand new arcade-style of superhero game with extensive fight sequences and gorgeous visuals. A couple of rather uninspiring Batman renders accompanied the release.

Hitman 2: Silent Assassin is tightening fibre wire around the Cube's neck, fresh from its success on PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC this October. Io Interactive is developing the port of its number one assassin simulation, and plans to release the game in spring 2003. "With an installed base of millions, there is a massive potential audience for a game like Hitman 2: Silent Assassin," Io's MD Janos Flösser explained in a statement. "We are very impressed with the GameCube and feel that Hitman 2 and the Cube is a perfect match."

PS2 owners struggling to fill the hours before next week's release of GTA Vice City (which has already topped a million units in the US, by the by), will be left pining, lonely in the corner this week, as, though the postbag is bursting with new releases, the PS2 goes sadly unloved by anything particularly desirable. Ecks vs Sever and Runabout 3 are both questionable, whilst Twin Caliber is a bit of a laughing stock and Total Immersion Racing is curiously absent from our code piles. Still, those with a spare £20 will find Zone of the Enders on budget a decent use of it, and those with a penchant for American sports will probably prefer NHL Hitz 20-03 to last month's EA offering.

Now that Formula One is officially the most predictable sport in the world, it must be hard for videogame makers to generate enthusiasm for something that has lost all the elements of competition and surprise that it once had.

Our sources at Sony originally told us that the platform holder's long-awaited European Broadband network gaming announcement would appear during October, and as it turns out, 12 hours short of deadline, they were right.

Medal of Honor: Allied Assault Spearhead, the nine-mission expansion pack for 2015's most excellent World War II FPS, has finished development at EALA, publisher Electronic Arts has confirmed. The game is currently set for release on December 6th in Europe, having slipped a week along with the Cube and Xbox version of MOH Frontline.

Epic Games has released a version 2136 patch for Unreal Tournament 2003, which will become necessary in order to play online if past precedents mean anything. Since you're no doubt eager to start the download, you can find a list of mirrors at Blue's News along with an exhaustive list of changes taken from the readme file.

Serious Sam developer Croteam has revealed that the sharp-tongued veteran of two PC releases and an Xbox compilation will appear in an all-new guise on GameCube in 2003. The news came up in an interview with Adrenaline Vault, which you can read here. "This will be a totally new game based on the Serious Sam character, but will have the same Serious Sam frantic action feeling," Croteam's Admir Elezovic explained. He also confirmed that in answer to demand, there will be further adventures on PC and Xbox.

Unreal Championship has slipped a fortnight from November 1st to the 15th. Infogrames' latest release schedule also reveals that Sega GT 2002 will appear a week later than expected on November 8th. We're not sure how this affects the Sega Christmas Pack (of which GT is half the bundle), which is still due out on the 1st.

Microsoft is bringing its own brand of tennis to Xbox. Developed by Power and Magic Developments, Top Spin will be an Xbox exclusive and Xbox Live enabled tennis title offering the best of simulation and arcade worlds currently dominated by Virtua Tennis (the sequel to which is due out on PS2 next month, we're guessing Microsoft have also spotted).

The European Commission has found Nintendo guilty of price-fixing charges dating back as far as 1991 and has imposed a fine of €149 million on the company as a result - the fourth largest fine ever handed down by the commission for a single offence.

With all the hype surrounding the movies, it was only a matter of time before Electronic Arts produced a game to capitalise on what is a seriously hot property right now - and just in time for the festive season!

When we first cast eyes on Mystic Heroes, the premise seemed to be a fairly unashamed rip-off of Fromsoft's Rune (Lost Kingdoms in the West). An opposing rune system would govern battles, and a clichéd RPG storyline would govern the in-between. But as it happens, Koei neglected to include one somewhat pivotal detail: Mystic Heroes is just one big battle, rather like Dynasty Warriors.

Konami recently made a confusing announcement in Japan concerning Winning Eleven 6. In confirming that World Soccer Winning Eleven 6: Final Evolution (WE6 plus all the improvements found in Pro Evo 2) will shortly appear on PlayStation 2, the firm also told of a new Winning Eleven game due for release on GameCube. Naturally, certain sections of the press leapt on this slip and joyfully proclaimed that Pro Evo was Cube-bound. Not for the first time.

EA Canada's NBA Street team will join forces with AKI Corporation (creators of some decent N64 wrestling titles) to produce Def Jam Vendetta, a PS2 and GameCube beat 'em up with more than 45 fighters, including 12 of Def Jam Records' recording artists.

Acclaim has agreed a co-publishing deal with Sega for three forthcoming titles, which will see the publisher responsible for European distribution of updated PS2 versions of some of the well-known Japanese company's recent classics.

GMX Media has announced its first console game - a GameBoy Advance platformer. No no, don't click 'Back' just yet! Hear them out, eh? Kien is the name of the game, and we're told that it's an action-stroke-platform game with RPG elements, in which the player guides two youngsters on a (non-linear) path through the 23-level world of Kien. And if you're still not convinced, you can have a butchers at 18 rather colourful screenshots here.

With DDRMAX, Konami's latest console-bound rhythm-action title shipping for PS2 in the US at the moment, news has filtered through that a Japanese website has been erected to represent the PS2 version of the sequel, DDRMAX2 (otherwise known as Dance Dance Revolution 7th Mix). The site is... somewhat nondescript to say the very least, but it is at least confirmation of the PS2 version's existence. Hopefully this one will get further toward Europe than the others, and satisfy our urges for embarrassing party videogames.

Ensemble Studios' long-awaited Age of Mythology is due out on November 8th in Europe, but why wait that long to play it? Earlier today the developer released the game's official demo, which contains a portion of the single player game. The final release will let players take the side of Greek, Egyptian or Norse gods to do battle - hence, Age of Mythology - although the demo limits you to the Greeks. The only problem is that Ensemble wants half a blummin' CD for it - this is the first 337.2MB demo we've seen in a very long time. Download it here.

Electronic Arts will take over Waterstone's in Piccadilly, London next Wednesday to demonstrate their Two Towers-based PS2 adventure game. EA is inviting gamers to come and play the game, which "will allow players and fans of the movies to relive the most memorable moments from the first two films," quite a feat given we've only seen one of them.

We've been watching with interest the banter crossing our various comments threads for some time now, and we've noticed that a lot of you find them restrictive. The ability to warble off-topic with like-minded readers is something you've been requesting for quite some time, and starting today, it's something we're happy to offer you.

The flagship GameCube version of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, probably the most exciting of all the Star Wars Episode II games, will appear in Europe a week earlier than anticipated. Activision has brought forward the release of the game to coincide with Episode II's appearance on DVD, both of which now appear on November 15th.

Ever since Sega Soccer Slam first appeared on the GameCube in the US much earlier this year, we've been following the progress of the game quite zealously. Ignoring the tried and trusted conventions of, well, rules, Soccer Slam sees two teams of four players (three 'characters' and an automated robot goalie) duking it out on various tiny footy arenas worldwide, winning the ball with no small amount of brutality and scoring with similar aplomb.

Over a year into its existence, the number of titles that truly push the Xbox is sadly limited to a handful - and most of those were released at the time of the machine's launch. Since then, Xbox owners have been fed a diet of lame PS2 ports or all format releases that have obviously been designed around the PS2's limitations.

Oddly named developer ToonTRAXX has announced that it has spent the last 20 months developing ChickenShoot, an "arcade game for everybody who likes fast fun", for PC, PS2, Xbox, GameCube and GBA. Even Mac OS and Linux versions are in the making.

Westwood Studios is planning to celebrate Halloween by introducing new themed quests, unique items and content for high-level players of its sci-fi MMORPG Earth & Beyond, which recently received a limited release in the UK and Europe.

Asheron's Call 2 Fallen Kings will go on sale in the UK on December 6th, priced £29.99 including one month's free gameplay, Microsoft has quietly announced. Thereafter punters will have to pay £8.45 per month for subscription.

The GameCube incarnation of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance has been declared gold and shipped off to manufacturers by developer High Voltage Software. With more than half a million sales worldwide of the PS2 version, the Cube and recently completed Xbox versions are expected to sell handsomely, and deservedly so - Dark Alliance is one of the PS2's finest RPGs.

The various iterations of Need For Speed III: Hot Pursuit totalled well over a million units for Electronic Arts, so it's little surprise to see that a great deal of effort has gone into the highly anticipated sequel. Thanks to a supreme marketing push, (and being a frankly kick arse game) Burnout 2 is outselling Mario at the moment, and Black Box Games' Need For Speed title finds itself in Hot Pursuit. But Burnout 2 has already rewritten the benchmark for the PlayStation 2's arcade racers - can Hot Pursuit 2 overtake it?