Latest Articles (Page 3463)

Eidos has been in touch with news of a 'Making Of' movie, available via the www.tombraider.com website in Windows Media and QuickTime formats, both streaming and not. We're not quite sure why this is being released before the game (it's the stuff of bonus discs and other retail promos, surely?), but we won't argue with it. The server is under a lot of stress at the moment, but you should be able to get hold of it at direct URL. If you're one of the lucky ones that can get on the server, it's a 20.1MB download...but it crawls, so be patient.

In one of the cheekiest marketing exercises of all time, Namco revealed today that each console version of its long awaited beat 'em up, Soul Calibur II, will get their own exclusive characters.

March 21st is the date Nintendo will be releasing its Game Boy Player in Japan - a cunning peripheral that clips onto the bottom of the GameCube, enabling gamers to plug in Game Boy / Color / Advance carts and enjoy some old school gaming on their TVs.

Electronic Arts' stance against the Xbox appears to have cooled even further following the news that it has reportedly canned the port of the excellent WWII shooter Battlefield 1942, according to Gamespot.

Unreal II: The Awakening has gone gold. Yes, amazingly Epic Games and Legend have finished the long awaited first person shooter when they said they would, and the game will be released in Europe on February 7th, with those lucky Americans getting the game on February 4th.

Acclaim has happily announced that impossibly fast crash 'em up Burnout will be released on the PS 2 Platinum label on February 7th, probably going for £19.99. No doubt Acclaim is keen to capitalise on the success of sequel Point of Impact, which has been discounted to £30 by most retailers already.

What with fly on the wall live-ins like Big Brother and late night flesh markets like Ibiza Uncovered, basking in the spectacle of caged, drunk or holiday making weirdos has become something of a national pastime. So it's no surprise really that The Sims - which allows us to direct the lives of a group of virtual people - is the most popular PC game ever invented, and that its regular 'expansions' sell hundreds of thousands of copies in the UK alone.

Following the closure of its credit line on Monday and the suspension of its shares on the London Stock Exchange, embattled British publisher Rage has been in discussion with bank receivers and a transfer of ownership could take place within the next 24 hours, according to sources within the company.

Forty quid seemed like a lot for Bits' rather rubbish Cube FPS Die Hard Vendetta, particularly when the much better Die Hard Trilogy could be had on PSone for a fiver in most bargain bins. However, that hasn't stopped Bits Studios teaming up with NDA Productions (Vivendi pretending not to be Vivendi to boost sales) to rattle off a PS2 port this year - with a multiplayer mode thrown into the bargain.

According to an announcement today, Sony will publish Sega's long awaited update to the classic Shinobi franchise across PAL territories in May. And that's about it. Sony and Sega, sitting in a tree, S-H-I-N-O-B-I.

Tecmo has revealed that Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball has been rated 'M' for Mature by the American ESRB. The M rating is similar to the BBFC's 18 certificate here in the UK, conveying that the game's content may be suitable for those over the age of 17 and may contain themes of sex, violence and bad language. However, this isn't quite an Adults Only rating, which is reserved for the truly graphic depictions of the above.

Q: How do you know when the games industry has woken up again after Christmas?

It's almost two years since Sony first unveiled Primal to the world - an ambitious, dark action adventure far removed from Studio Cambridge's most famous offering Medievil.

We haven't heard much about Chaser since it was first announced in 2001. Apart from a single batch of screenshots which didn't reveal too much about the character of the game, we've been left largely to our own devices. And as such, Chaser has slipped out of focus. Fortunately publisher JoWooD now aims to rectify that as the game - in development at Bratislava-based Cauldron - closes in on its Q2 2003 release date.

The world of Gothic II is set to feature as many as 400 non-player characters when the game hits Europe this quarter. As we've already heard, players will be tooled up with a selection of the game's 150 weapons, which should help persuade the legions of NPCs to be accommodating.

After a busy end to last year, Acclaim has a rather US centric set of releases coming out over the coming months, but Burnout 2 for Cube and Xbox are now on the radar for a 'Q2 release'.

High Voltage Software has confirmed that development of a sequel to Hunter: The Reckoning is underway. Despite having cleaned up the sleepy town of Ashcroft some two years ago, the four Hunters are thrust back into action when a new, cult menace begins to permeate the streets and threaten the peace and tranquility of this peculiarly warped American town.

Flush from the success of the Xbox version of Splinter Cell, Ubi Soft has confirmed the release dates for a number of big titles over the next few months.

PlayStation 2 owners will no doubt be intrigued to know that their version of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell is to include an exclusive level, and not just the new level that Xbox owners will be treated to when Live gets up and running. The PS2 level will be set on an oilrig, and we'll be bringing your our thoughts on it soon (along with the PS2 version in general).

As expected, Ubi Soft has slipped the PC version of Splinter Cell from its previously "firm" release date of January 31st to the altogether more manageable February 28th.

THQ has confirmed what the American ESRB unwittingly did in November - that Red Faction II is headed to GameCube and Xbox this year, with a PC version also on the cards. The ports, which are not being handled by original developer Volition, will feature "a number of enhancements and improvements".

Sega plans to re-release the original Sonic Adventure in a new "Deluxe" version on GameCube in 2003, The Magic Box reports. And after the alarming success at launch of Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, who can blame them?

Commandos developer Pyro Studios has released a demo of their latest project, the Roman Republic-era war game Praetorians. Set in the final years of the Republic, Praetorians gives you command of Caesar's legions in an ongoing battle to displace the Gauls, the Egyptians and treacherous Roman factions. There will be more than 20 missions in the full game, along with the occasional chance to command the armies of Gaul and Egypt, and each conflict will be based on an actual period battle. Perhaps the most revealing thing about Praetorians is that there is no building/resource model - it's all about the combat. As such, the entire map and its features are visible from the start, but enemies only appear when your troops have clear line of sight.

Super villains were born on a Monday morning. It's obvious. Pure evil is always the product of hangovers, early mornings and that poorly made first cup of coffee. But if super villains are the product of Monday mornings, then Bastion - the chief bad guy in X-Men: Next Dimension - was invented when the boss insisted everyone work over Christmas, cut the bonuses and banned mistletoe on the grounds of health and safety.

Konami has confirmed in its latest PR periodical that Silent Hill 2: Director's Cut will appear simultaneously on PS2 and PC this February 28. However, instead of demanding full admission from PS2 owning Silent Hill fans, the Director's Cut release will debut on the Platinum label - at £19.99.

Grand Theft Auto is to be recognised. And I don't just mean when you walk into the lounge and spot your en-laws crowded round the TV with a six star wanted rating.

The fans favourite Square/Enix merger plans have been thrown into doubt this weekend by news that Square's chief shareholder, Masashi Miyamoto, does not agree with the terms of the merger. The news first appeared on the Japanese Nikkei Keizai Shimbun news wire.

It may be slightly harsh to say it, but Unreal Championship seemed to be the most likely candidate for patching when we got our hands on the first Xbox Live titles. Whether it's to do with the developer, the franchise, the haste with which they had to put it together or how it felt to play, something told us we'd be reporting on this sooner or later.

IGI 2 fans unable to get into the recent closed Beta test can now sample some team based multiplayer action here as those nice chaps at Codemasters have decided to allow members of the public to join in the fragging frolics currently going on.

Looking for something to keep you warm and snug this wintery Friday afternoon? Well look no further. Internet reports claim that Namco will unveil the console versions of Soul Calibur II next Tuesday, and when we recently got access to a working arcade cab running the most eagerly anticipated beat 'em up ever, we didn't want you to miss out. So, what we have for you today is a trio of shots, which admittedly aren't the best quality, but still convey the amazing depth of detail obviously present, and an exclusive movie captured direct from the cab - Raph Vs Xian (kindly hosted by bygames) or download direct from Eurogamer (11.78MB). Enjoy!