Latest Articles (Page 3455)

As regular readers will be aware, American Conquest publisher CDV is conducting an online tournament at the moment to determine whom amongst the AC fan base is good enough to take on the cream of the USA. Two lucky UK-based winners will be whisked away during the month of May to compete in sunny Los Angeles - while E3 ripples and surges a few yards away.

Microsoft, who recently took over European publishing duties on Sega's Shenmue 2, has announced that the game will ship on March 21st and will include a 90-minute-long "Shenmue The Movie" DVD. Viewers will be able to watch it on any DVD player (including Xbox, if they have the DVD remote), and choose from English or Japanese voice-overs and subtitles. However the game itself is dubbed over in English, unlike the European release of the Dreamcast version.

In our humble opinion, the Silent Hill series is the daddy of all survival horror games, and to hear that the third in this scareathon is coming to Europe first (on May 23rd) on PS2 made us fall off our chairs this morning.

Following the launch last month of a single-player Praetorians demo, publisher Eidos is back with another example of the Roman Republic-based strategy title - this time focusing on the multi-player aspect. The smaller 49.8MB demo is available direct from Eidos (indeed, here's a direct FTP link). The game is due out next week, so between the two demos you should be able to get a good idea of whether you'll like it.

Blimey, three whole recommended games this week. One sincerely recommended, one partly recommended and one recommended for fans of traditional Japanese RPGs - like Rob, who's ploughing through Wild Arms 3 apace and aims to bring you a review next week.

The one and only World Wildlife Fund has signed a software license agreement with Russians Buka Entertainment, giving the latter rights to publish and distribute "Save Leopards!", a strategic management sim created by Nikita for the WWF. The game will be published as a supplement to Buka's other titles for free - in hopes of attracting public concern to the ecological problems faced by leopards around the world.

Airport Tycoon 2 is coming and "if it's on a plane it's in the game". AT2 gives you control over every aspect of an international airport. You purchase land in one of 25 rural and urban settings, begin construction and then have to keep your customers happy with reliable airlines, tight security and a wealth of services.

GMX has today released an official demo for Enigma: Rising Tide, the firm's naval warfare title. The full game will feature three warring WWII factions and craft including submarines, corvettes (not the bloody cars), destroyers, battleships and aeroplanes, but the demo gives you control of a British submarine or Flower Class corvette, acting as sub-hunter or wolf pack point man in a convoy attack. The 110MB demo is available from the newly launched Enigma website.

Splinter Cell has just been released for the PC in the USA, and Ubi Soft has wasted no time in getting a bug-fixing patch out of the door. The, er, good news is that since it's a week ahead of the game's European release, you've got plenty of time to download it, and your first post-release patch will reportedly enable Full Scene Anti-Aliasing.

I might as well be straight with you. The only reason I'm reviewing ATV Quad Power Racing 2 is that in the long run, it will mean I'm the most qualified to review Rainbow Studios' ATV Offroad Fury 2, which is due out to coincide with PS2 Online by the end of spring. Does this make me a bad person? Kristan thinks so. Does this imply that Quad Power Racing 2 is a bit of a dud? Well, only a bit.

Oxfordshire-based indie Batfish Studios is busy working on a new Captain Scarlet title in the "tactical strategy" vein, we've been told. Based on Gerry Anderson's popular TV series, players will have to control Captain Scarlet, Captain Blue and other Spectrum agents as they rescue crashed Angel Interceptors, investigate Egyptian tombs, halt the destruction of an underwater base and so on in the battle to defeat Captain Black and the Mysterons - whose mysterious powers of retro-metabolism allow them to control people on Earth and carry out all sorts of atrocities.

Konami has announced its first Yu-Gi-Oh! title for Game Boy Advance. We're not quite sure how we forgot to mention this earlier in the week, but it was probably something to do with the colossal excitement that overcame us all.

We're reeling. THQ has today announced a brand new "interactive adventure" game, but what's left us gasping and wheezing as if plunged into a vat of pepper is that this is an original title. Given Eurocom as developer and THQ as publisher, surely you can forgive our confusion as to how this isn't a licensed game announcement. But it isn't! This is Sphinx (working title), a character-based action/adventure title set in a universe "styled upon" ancient Egypt.

The name 'Torus' may not mean much to you, but if you've played Doom II or Duke Nukem Advance on the GBA then you've already come across their work. And since completing those games amongst others, Melbourne-based Aussies Torus Games have been working on a brand new 3D voxel-based engine with support for large environments full of rolling hills, sloping roads, cliffs and greenery.

PC gamers on a games binge tomorrow will be able to pick up Empire's Arcade Collection for £14.99, comprising some of Sega's 'greatest hits'. 15 bob gets you Virtua Fighter 2, Virtua Cop 2, Virtua Tennis ("Sega Professional Tennis"), Sonic R, Sonic 3D and Sega Rally Championship. By no means a bad deal.

EA has revealed that more than one million romantic gestures were exchanged in The Sims Online throughout Valentine's weekend. That's one million kisses, hugs, dances and marriage proposals combined. Sims also spent millions of Simoleans on romantic items including love tubs, love seats and 'wedding-related objects'. And we thought the build-up was amusing.

Fox's AVP franchise will head in a new direction for its third instalment - Aliens versus Predator: Extinction. With a new developer (Costa Mesa, California-based Zono, Inc.) and co-publisher (EA) on board, Extinction is described as a "tactical strategy" title with a much greater emphasis on Rainbow Six style mission planning, and will be released on PS2 and Xbox this summer in the USA. The press release makes no mention of a PC version, despite the previous two AVP games having appeared exclusively on the format.

Sony is keen to grow its user base of 200,000 Japanese online gamers, and has unveiled a brace of new initiatives to encourage more sign-ups. "We want to focus more on the online gaming business," a spokesman said. "The online game market in Japan is still small and we want to expand it." Indeed, by comparison the market for online console games in the US and potentially even Europe is now much larger than it is in Sony's homeland.

Tecmo has reportedly confirmed that Dead or Alive: Code Cronus, the next title in the fighting series on Xbox, will feature Xbox Live support. And not just for uploading what remains of your wardrobe so the girls can't get at it. Producer Tomonobu Itagaki is credited with saying that the next in the series will allow players to go head-to-head via the Internet as they can with Capcom Vs. SNK 2 EO - potentially the first fully 3D online console Beat 'Em Up unless someone else gets there first.

Staff favourite Ikaruga will not appear on PlayStation 2. According to XenGamers, developer Treasure has no plans to release the game on PS2 - claiming that the legwork in doing so would be prohibitive because of the PS2's peculiar hardware configuration. Therefore we'll be limited to Dreamcast and GameCube versions. The latter is due out in the US this April and Europe this May from Infogrames.

Shares in UK-based Argonaut took a bit of a tumble this morning, after the developer told the city that Xbox platformer Malice has been delayed from Q1 until autumn of this year. The delay will also affect the PS2 version which is being developed externally. "This is to allow further development time to accommodate editing and game play alterations and so make a uniformly high quality title," Chief Executive Jez San said in a statement.

It's no secret. Capcom is quite clearly one of the finest peddlers of evil videogaming druggery of all time. There's barely been a year since the mid 80s when it hasn't produced one of the top five games of the year, and next month sees perhaps its busiest period since it took residence in West London, with uber mech boy's toy Steel Battalion on Xbox, Resident Evil Zero on GameCube and a surprisingly swift follow up to Devil May Cry on PS2.

Ever wondered what would have happened had Hitler's Germany successfully defeated the British? What it would have been like had the United States decided to do something? Or whether the Italians could successfully invade Germany? Well, probably not the latter, but these and many more peculiar possibilities can be realised in World War II themed Hearts of Iron from Paradox, the makers of the successful Europa Universalis I & II strategy games.

Ubi Soft has finally revealed details of the Xbox Live exclusive Splinter Cell mission promised as a free download recently. Dashing once and for all persistent claims that the PS2's exclusive Power Plant level would make an appearance, the publisher confirmed that "Kola Cell" will be released on March 14th to celebrate Xbox Live's official launch in Europe - and the first anniversary of the console's release.

It's been two long years since Project IGI first crept up on us and stole our hearts with a charming blend of cunning stealth-based shenanigans, interesting gadgetry, an intriguing plot and a superlative engine to boot. I think we mumbled something along the lines of having a PC GoldenEye on our hands, and we meant it. Have Innerloop taken what we enjoyed so much about the first game and crafted a masterpiece? Is it merely more of the same? Why do I always have to put questions at the end of my introductions?

Nintendo is moving to incorporate support for the GBA into several new GameCube titles, in order to send new users in both directions. The first title to show signs of this is Nintendo Puzzle Collection, which is on display at demo kiosks all over Japan. The nifty part though is the ability for gamers to download one-use copies of games like Dr. Mario from the kiosks to their GBAs. The software disappears when the GBA is powered down, but the campaign has already started to attract gamers. It sounds like a fantastic idea to us. Imagine popping into the lounge to load up Dr. Mario before hopping on the train to work, or just freeloading off some unfortunate shopkeeper down the road... XenGamers has pictures of the system in action at an Ito Yokado store in Tokyo.

Splinter Cell is due out on the PC on February 28th, but it's already on the streets in the US and Ubi Soft is planning to release a patch for it today. We don't know exactly what the patch deals with, but 3D programmer Dany Lepage told the Ubi Soft forums that the next patch will probably add anti-aliasing support…

Although PC owners may have felt a bit hard done by with Grand Theft Auto III, having enjoyed the previous two instalments first and foremost before taking second place in line behind the PS2, the possibility of the ever-bustling GTA community throwing up modifications and other downloadable perks were a definite plus. Even if the game itself ran like a dog on most hardware.

EA's F1-minded developers have reacted to consumer feedback, realising "that real innovation is needed in the Formula One space". That's according to the executive producer of F1 Career Challenge, EA's freshly announced F1 update. First PS2 screenshots of the game can be found here.

Sega and McDonald's have joined forces to bring American tykes Sega themed toys with their Happy Meals. Toys from both Sonic The Hedgehog and Super Monkey Ball will be given away starting in the summer as part of the bargain kids meal.