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Konami's stand had more playable games than most of the rest of ECTS put together, but sadly the games we really wanted to play - Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance and Silent Hill 3 - were nowhere to be seen. Well, that's not exactly true. Behind closed doors both games could be seen churning away in E3 trailer form, but being told that Konami was waiting until the Tokyo Game Show to let journos loose on Substance didn't do much for my temper. However, Konami did use ECTS to update us on when some of their more pressing titles will be landing and what we can expect from them. First of all, Silent Hill 2: Inner Fears will debut on Xbox later this year, and could feature the Making Of documentary DVD alongside the finished game - unlike its Japanese and American counterparts - but Konami were somewhat downbeat about the possibility, on the basis that even if they did bundle it gamers would have to fork out extra for the DVD controller to see it! It stands more chance of happening if MS Europe follows the US and bundles the DVD pack with the hardware. The Silent Hill 2 Director's Cut due out on PlayStation 2 next February will more than likely feature the Making Of DVD, so if you've been holding off buying the game in light of these revamps, that might be the one to wait for. Nevertheless, the game is a sight to see on Xbox anyway, particularly thanks to the game's graphical tune-up, and the promised Born From a Wish episode is said to be worth a good 2 1/2 hours of gameplay on top of the critically acclaimed single player game. From a purely European perspective, since the Yanks won't have it, Pro Evolution Soccer 2 was running at 80% complete and we had to queue for nearly 20 minutes to get a go on it. Although to the untrained eye it might seem nearly identical to the Japanese Winning Eleven 6, subtle changes are abound. You can now nutmeg opposing players and play the ball off their shins, which helps to dismantle some of our many grievances with the Japanese game. As Konami were only too pleased to remind us, it took some 80 hours of gameplay to come up with anything approaching a criticism. It's not nitpicking, per se, but when your love for the game is solely to blame for any minute problems, you know the formula is almost perfect anyway. Although there was some dismay at the game's selection for Best Console Game of the Show in yesterday's awards, we can't think of much else that could top it. Contra: Shattered Soldier was playable behind closed doors, and as a delightfully beautiful 2D shooter of the old school Probotector vibe, it had a certain frenetic charm and simplism lacking from many contemporary 3D shooters, with which it'll arguably complete when it shows up early next year, one of which was Silent Scope 3, being shown as footage only. Although Konami professes to having gold discs sitting at their office, unfortunately the game won't be out until January, and we won't be getting our hands on it until sometime around then. At least it won't get lost in the Christmas rush, I suppose. A surprise success story at the Konami stand was the Disney Sports Soccer game. Reminding us more than a little of Sega Soccer Slam and Midway's RedCard, teams of individual Disney characters with a plethora of special moves at their disposal battle for the ball and blast it into the net with gay abandon. To be honest, we were having far too much fun with this, and expect to be in detox all next week as a result.

Mobile gaming developers Masabi paid us a visit at ECTS this morning to demonstrate their handheld versions of the BBC Micro classic Repton, and we're happy to report that it looks just like the real thing. In fact, as it uses the more colourful sprites from the old Archimedes port, it actually looks even better than the real thing. For those of you who came along too late to enjoy the original game, or were unfortunate enough never to own a BBC Micro, Repton is the lizard-like lead character from a series of puzzle games which involved guiding him around various mazes collecting diamonds, shoving rocks around and gobbling up dirt. The basic gameplay is incredibly simple, but some of the levels will have you scratching your head as you work out how to move the rocks around to avoid trapping yourself or blocking off a valuable item, while avoiding ghost-like sprites and eggs that crack open to release monsters. All of this has been faithfully recreated in handheld form by Masabi, and the PDA version in particular (which was running on a Compaq iPaq PocketPC) had sharp colourful graphics. Originally the plan was to release a basic version of the game and then sell additional levels and graphics sets from the series, but apparently the billing structure needed for this isn't in place yet, and isn't likely to be until towards the end of this year at the earliest. Rather than wait for technology to catch up with them then, Masabi have decided to release the original Repton 1 on PDAs and Java-enabled mobile phones within the next few weeks, with additional goodies to follow once more people have handsets capable of running the games and the mobile phone operators have sorted out their billing system. The impressive looking PDA version will probably set you back about £10, while the mobile version (shown to us on a Nokia 7650) will be going for somewhere in the region of £7. Both should feature bonus graphics and tutorial levels. Looking further ahead, Masabi raised the possibility of multiplayer Repton, which would work a bit like the ghost car option in Mario Kart. Played between two PDA owners using Bluetooth, the game would show your rival's score at the bottom of the screen and a little ghost Repton would be visible darting around the map, showing your opponent's progress as the pair of you race to finish first and score the most points. It's certainly an intriguing idea, although having seen one of Masabi's designers rushing through an entire level in a matter of seconds, we're a little daunted at the prospect of taking him on head-to-head. I guess it's time to dust off the old Beeb and get some practice in... Related Feature - Repton Thru Time

If I mention the words "Uridium" and "Paradroid", I can more or less see rows of C64 and Amiga owners bolting upright. Having witnessed updated versions of both games at the Paragon Hotel near ECTS on Thursday, I can imagine why. When Uridium first materialised on the C64, it was a very simple, devastatingly difficult game by a chap called Andrew Braybrook, who now works in insurance circles. Andrew's game had about eight levels, and the idea was the fly back and forth across the deck of a Dreadnought ship fighting clusters of enemy ships before landing your craft to complete the level. The difficulty was that one collision could kill you off outright, and that landing your ship was no mean feat in itself, especially when that telltale blip-blip-blip noise came up, indicating a missile lock-on... The new GBA version is very much the same, although you now have a life bar to stop you from getting killed repeatedly - it was certainly a welcome addition to me - and the level design has also been tweaked. Other changes include updates to the visuals and the end of the level. Landing your craft is now somewhat easier, and like the 1993 Amiga version of the game, when you land you have to complete a little subgame blasting at the ship's core. Furthermore, levels have been tweaked and instead of just repeating levels 1-4 with tougher enemies, levels 5-8 should be quite different, ala the C64 pseudo-sequel, Uridum+. Uridium Advance will of course feature the game's Manta Fighter in most of its original glory. Although brilliantly animated at the time - even casting rudimentary shadows over its surroundings - the Manta Fighter has been altered to move smoothly in this incarnation, and frames of animation have been rejigged to supplement bombing runs and blasting. From what I played of it, Uridium Advance is every bit as addictive and intense as it once was, and as apparently with many other journalists, I found myself commenting that the game played as I remembered it. Glancing back at the old C64 version on an emulator was almost alien. What's more - Andrew Braybrook himself has given the game his blessing. What stronger recommendation could you ask for? Next up from Jester was Paradroid, both GBA and next-gen console. We didn't get to play either version, nor see the GBA version in action, but Jester is promising the same emphasis on stealth and subversion, and judging from in-game footage of the now-spider-like parasite scampering around and drilling into the back of droids' heads to possess them, this should be an absolute laugh. We've even heard that you can take control of a cow in certain areas - wouldn't that be smart? Also from Jester was the latest version of Music Generator, and we were quite taken with this. Sadly though, you'll have to wait for another time to learn about that one, as I've got to be up and off to ECTS again this morning, and the snoring emanating from my roomie at the Earls Court Travel Inn is causing my head to spin. However, it should prove very interesting to musicians and fans of music alike. Related Feature - Uridium Advance screenshots

When we first heard about XIII we were a little sceptical. Here was a first person shooter with cel shaded graphics (the latest gimmick), based on a Belgian comic book we'd never even heard of before. It's big in France apparently. But having had a chance to chat with one of the game's designers and take the Xbox version of the game for a spin ourselves, we're happy to report that it's actually a lot of fun.

The Unreal engine is getting around a lot these days, and the latest game to pop up powered by Epic's technology is Devastation. Developed by Digitalo, it's promising online and bot-based teamplay modes along with a complete twenty mission single player campaign.

The ECTS Awards have just been announced by Gareth Jones aka Gaz Top at a stage to the rear of the show floor. In front of the assembled legions of literally hundreds of huddled journalists and representatives from publishers, developers, retailers and countless other games industry corporations and bodies, Splinter Cell won the coveted Best of Show award, with Breed and Pro Evolution Soccer 2 picking up Best PC and Best Console titles respectively. The Best Handheld game award fell to Super Monkey Ball, and the madcap Korean Multiplayer Ping Pong title won Best Multiplayer Game of the Show - hardly a surprise to those of us who've played it. Unsurprisingly, the pan-European awards, sponsored by various European publications, were a walk in the park on the console side for Grand Theft Auto III, which scooped three awards and a total of five overall - the most popular single title of the entire ceremony.

This afternoon at ECTS we were very privileged to share a few words with the great Dino Dini, the man behind such games as Kick Off and Player Manager, a man whose name has become almost synonymous with addictive gameplay over the years. After what you might call a quiet spell of almost 10 years, Dino chose ECTS to speak to journalists about his latest project with Italian developer Tresicion. Fans of Kick Off rejoice: it's another football title! Dino was keen to stress that the game will find its roots in addictive gameplay, and he hopes to fill a gap in the football genre. Although the game is only in the early prototype stages, Dino has a number of ideas and a solid vision of what to do with the title, and we will be watching this one very closely. Expect to see the full dialogue of our interview with Dino very soon.

Ubi Soft seemed especially keen to show us their console ports of tactical-action favourite Ghost Recon and Sum of All Fears at their PlayStation Experience pods, despite their respective unfinished state. Sum of All Fears on PS2 appears to be pretty much a straight port of the slim PC original, and didn't seem to be altered in functionality from the original. This isn't really surprising, as we doubt it could have been much simpler in the first place. The far more impressive port is easily Ghost Recon. Eventually arriving on both Xbox and PS2, we got to play the latter and see just how far along the port has come. The Ubi Soft representative was keen to express the fact that much of the game has been reconstructed from the ground up, and has a great deal to offer in the way of features to attract newcomers to the genre. An example of this is that the in-game planning facilities of the original are intact, but should you wish to sidestep it completely then a simple click of R3 on a piece of the landscape will direct your secondary team to that spot without further instruction. Should you not trust your AI team-mates though, a split-screen co-operative mode is also included, and we're promised full Xbox live support on that platform as well, making the Xbox port a far more multiplayer focused package. Graphically the engine doesn't appear to be pushing the PS2 envelope at all, and it appeared to be fairly rough around the edges compared even to the PC version. Apparently the team are concentrating on implementing AI properly before they embark on tidying up the visuals, and are confident they can get it much closer to the original. The final release will include all of the single and muliplayer maps from the original Ghost Recon, and Ubi have thrown in all of the maps from the Desert Siege expansion pack as well for good measure. It's nice to see Ubi Soft and Red Storm producing something worthwhile from their PC ports for console gamers, and this reflects their willingness to bring in new recuits to the burgeoning tactical action genre.

Midway had a pretty slight presence at the PlayStation Experience. With only Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance and Defender on show, there obviously wasn't much to choose from in the way of playable material. Defender on the PS2 is a 21st century version of the arcade classic. Piloting a sleek looking craft we set about shooting down alien craft and rescuing colonists from their extra-terrestrial oppressors. It was fun, although the few fleeting [fired -Ed] moments we had with the game didn't exhibit anywhere near the sense of frenetic pace and frantic action, nor the simplicity of the original. The controls were quite cumbersome and seemed less than intuitive, but with a bit of time on our side we can imagine taking to it. Midway's new Mortal Kombat title was gaining a greater deal of attention, as a variety of fighters - both old and new - came head to head in an array of bizarre but impressively constructed arenas. Some of you may be pleased to hear that the series isn't skimping on the gore that it's famous for, as the combatants spread each others claret across the floor in a wince-inducing orgy of red. The detail on the characters has been bumped up greatly, even down to visible trickles of blood running from their limbs - nice. Apparently boasting an "intense" storyline, we all know the real attraction of any new MK title is going to be its unrivalled passion for sheer violence. And let's not forget those utterly brutal fatalities, which we're happy to say are all present and correct. Despite the fact that it's obviously not deviating from the established beat 'em up formula, Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance should be worth looking forward to.

Acclaim's stand is located towards the back of ECTS, and rather like Ubi Soft Acclaim has spent most of its estate on wining and dining journos in a private area, complete with foosball table and snacks (quite enjoyable when your sole meal for the day was at 8:15am). Out the back though we found demo pods showing off the likes of Hardcore BMX XXX, Legends of Wrestling 2, Burnout 2 and Vexx. Not to mention Turok, of course, although if you really want to see that in action you could always buy it when it appears this Sunday. BMX XXX caught our eyes not because of its gaming content, but because as we were standing next door chatting to somebody, we couldn't help but notice that the screen was replaced by what appeared to be a virtual peepshow every five or so minutes. Curious, we rounded the corner and discovered that along with foul-mouthed characters and NPCs handing out tasks, and screens generally full of debauchery flanking this Tony Hawk-on-a-bike extravaganza, you can collect coins which unlock video reels of young girls in tight outfits dancing rather voluptuously. Sadly we didn't have enough time on our hands to thoroughly, ahem, research this aspect of the game, but otherwise it was shaping up nicely. The mechanics are very much like the previous Dave Mirra titles - understandably so, as the game is based on the Dave Mirra 2 engine - but Hardcore BMX XXX will be released as a separate entity outside of Acclaim's licensed biking series. Legends of Wrestling 2 was also on hand in all its sweat-soaked glory, with bulky incarnations of Hulk Hogan, Brett Hart, Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka and co. battling it out old-school. LOW wasn't terribly well received, but it won kudos for its attempts to emphasize wrestling over gimmickry. LOW2 appears to have improved matters to a certain extent, with a much more solid-looking game engine behind the grappling and throttling. Action frequently spills out of the ring and into the concourse and the two-player head-to-head modes were pulling plenty of players, not to mention spectators. Plenty of game modes populate the menus and although we didn't get to try all of them, there seemed to be a decent variety of match-types and of course in the region of 21 characters to play with. Next up on our list of must-see titles was Burnout 2: Point of Impact. At times, I had to ask myself whether the PS2 was really rendering all this, because considering the framerate, the level of detail on the cars and the buildings which stretch into the very distance, Burnout 2 was a decidedly beautiful game to play. The reason it looks so good though is the 'shiny' factor. The road glistens, bathed in sun, with what appears to be environmental bump mapping accentuating every little fleck of dust on the road surface. Either that or it's some mighty impressive texturing. Despite all this visual tomfoolery and a lorryload of trackside furniture spicing up proceedings, the game manages to retain its sense of speed between spectacular collisions, and the gameplay is as frenetic as fans of the original will remember. Track design is fiendish to say the least, with turns that challenge you to risk all and not hit the brakes as you roar into them. A wide variety of cars splinter and shatter violently - all in the name of fun - and of course, the replays help to demonstrate just how violently with alarming and costly regularity. One title which wasn't grabbing too much attention, but which, naturally, caught ours, was Acclaim Austin's Xbox version of Vexx. Repeatedly labelled a Jak & Daxter-alike, the game had no qualms about living up to that moniker, and it did so with style and finesse. Visually it matches the sprawling vistas of J&D, which won us over so convincingly last year, and although texture quality is a bit hit and miss, Vexx himself was suitably detailed, and the developer has been unafraid of zooming in and showing him off, along with the real-time shadowing he shares with the game's plethora of bad guys. Vexx's gauntlets allow him to perform a three-stage attack in several guises. On the ground, he can swipe, swipe and slash brutally on the third stroke, and holding the left trigger and then swiping leads Vexx to crouch and uppercut through the air, finishing either with a brutal downward thrust to eviscerate his prey or by landing first and continuing to uppercut again and again. Once we'd got a handle on this technique we heard plenty of maniacal chuckles emanating from the area behind us. Good to know we were in suitably psychopathic company. Vexx possesses many other talents besides his good looks and penchant for violence. Underwater he can swim like a fish, and when he finds a suitable surface he can clamber up walls gauntlet-over-gauntlet, showering the ground in sparks as he slides down again. And although we didn't see it ourselves, apparently the little fellow can jump like a crazed gazelle and become momentarily invincible with the right power-up. The game was in a pretty unfinished state, although the basic tenets of gameplay mechanics were well underway. The enemies are still a little basic and there was a degree of jerkiness, particularly when executing the aforementioned attacking manoeuvres, but we collected several Wraith Hearts - Vexx's equivalent of stars or golden eggs - one for working our way up a mountain, one for collecting a certain number of blue 'shards', and one for defeating a rather unpleasant mini-boss, before we were hurled off the machine by a group of impatient upstarts. Between Burnout 2, Vexx, Turok and the other titles on display, it was clear that Acclaim means business for the next year.

Welcome to the second day of ECTS 2002 at London's Earls Court. As the PlayStation Experience thunders along next door, hoovering up and then spilling countless skaters and other PS2 goodie bag-toting youths happily into the streets by the hour, the trade show located behind closed doors continues to swell as journalists and other games industry folk wander up and down the aisles taking in the sights and sounds. Yesterday was home to the Broken Sword press conference and ECTS keynotes, and today is set to include the ECTS Awards presented by Gaz Top (whose claims to fame include everything from HOW2 and MTV VJing to a current TV series of Game Pad with wife Violet Berlin), and the second day of NVIDIA's Unreal Tournament 2003, er, tournament, amongst other things. UT2003 brought with it Epic's Mark Rein and Jay Wilbur, who took on yesterday's finalists and thoroughly defeated them to their mutual embarrassment. Presumably when the title hits the streets there will be some competition to stand up to the pair of them - unless of course they receive their comeuppance from today's combatants. As for the awards - there are plenty of games on display to vie for the judges' attention, from Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 2 and Acclaim's Vexx to Rage's Rocky and Ubi Soft's countless Clancy blockbusters. Pan-European awards sponsored by a number of publications will also be handed out, and of course publishers, innovative developers and peripheral manufacturers won't be left out either. We'll bring you the news as soon as we hear it from our perch just outside Pizza Express, when the ceremony finishes later this afternoon.

Settling down in a comfy leather chair, presumably modelled after the one Morpheus used in the Matrix, Infogrames proceeded to reel off footage of six titles on the way in the near future. The board above the theatre entrance proudly displayed the words "ENTER THE MATRIX" amongst five other teasers, and as we scuttled through the door our anticipation swelled. The show kicked off with a fairly uneventful trailer of Reflections' new driver, Stuntman. Unfortunately we didn't really get to see anything new, especially since we had been playing it an hour previously in the PlayStation Experience. Moving on, the next games to grace our screens were Unreal triplets, the highlight of which was definitely Unreal 2, fluttering its eyelashes seductively and winning us over with some incredible draw distances and gorgeous visuals that earned their place on the big screen. Superman was up next in a trailer for his Xbox outing, and we were immediately impressed with how the game was looking, in particular the immense, sprawling comic book cityscapes stretching out into the distance. This was the perfect background to the wonderfully overblown special effects utilised by Superman and the various villains on display - flying around wielding large chunks of civic buildings looks like great fun. We also got to see the other Superman game in development, Shadow of Apokolips, this time on PS2 in a cel-shaded form more suited to his ancestry. The PS2 adventure is looking good, but nowhere near as technically impressive or indeed as fun as the Xbox title. Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee on the GameCube made an appearance, and it looks insanely fun. We couldn't help displaying a broad grin as the enormous mutant lizard and a variety of other bizarre adversaries attack each other with some spectacular special effects, all the while stomping the surrounding city to the ground. Superb. We've been extremely worried about Terminator: Dawn of Fate on the Xbox since we first got our hands on some screen shots a few months ago. The trailer for the game on show served only to increase those fears as we were shown an entirely CG sequence, and a fairly unimpressive one at that. We could and should be excited about a Terminator license, but Infogrames were reluctant to show us what the game actually looked like. Ho hum. Oh, and what of The Matrix? Saved for the end of the showreel, Infogrames had decided to tack on the Matrix Reloaded trailer that's been swimming around on the Internet for months now. Cheeky devils.

Vivendi's recently established Black Label Games brand will publish Mace Girffin: Bounty Hunter on PS2, Cube and Xbox in March 2003, the Frenchmen announced this morning in London. The PC version will be published by Electronic Arts. Mace certainly looked bleak and sounded gruff based on the trailer footage witnessed this morning, and Vivendi is promising a smooth transition between gameplay sections set in first person action levels and in deep space combat. Mace himself is a disavowed ranger, thrown in the clink for 10 years after he led an unsuccessful coup against the powers-that-shouldn't-be. Now he's all pissed off, and apparently he's going to wreak havoc and kill every last one of them. Related Feature - Mace Griffin: Bounty Hunter screenshots (PC)

Yesterday's press conference at ECTS gave us our first glimpse of Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon, the third episode in the million selling adventure series from British developers Revolution. And mighty impressive it looked too, with eye-catching 3D graphics and action-packed gameplay and cinematics. Which begged the question, is this really an adventure game? Luckily then we managed to track down studio boss Charles Cecil at the end of the press conference to find out more about the game's adventure credentials and how it fits into the Broken Sword saga...

Sudden Strike shot straight to the top of the charts in many European countries when it was released back in 2000, and with a combination of fiendish gameplay, epic battles and the ever-popular World War II setting, it was perhaps no surprise. It was only natural then that the game soon spawned a sequel to cash in on that success, and with Sudden Strike II arriving in the UK today, we caught up with producer Thorsten Feld from publisher CDV to find out more...

One of the hits of the show so far (at least as far as PC games go) is Bandits from Swedish developers Grin, a fast-paced vehicular action game set in the now ubiquitous post-apocalyptic future. As you might expect there's plenty of Mad Max style shenanigans in store as you drive through environments varying from deserts and sandy beaches to snowfields, but the real attraction at ECTS has been the game's multiplayer modes. With four computers networked together, each sporting three monitors courtesy of Matrox's new Parhelia graphics card, it's certainly an eye-catching prospect. Grin CEO Bo Andersson warned us that "smoke is very important to me", and that's fairly obvious when you watch the game - smoke trails arc through the sky as you fire rockets, grenades and mortars at each other, and spectacular explosions rip vehicles apart, leaving little piles of debris behind. If you can stop shooting each other long enough to appreciate the visuals, the game also sports some incredibly detailed terrain and vehicles, with all the independently animated shock absorbers and whatnot that you would expect. Having had a play on the game earlier, we're happy to say that it's just as much fun to play as it is to watch. The controls are a bit fiddly at first, but as the game has just gone gold we should have more time to practice our drive-by shooting skills in the near future. Related Feature - Bandits screenshots

Early this afternoon we were lucky enough to steal some time with Capcom's Yoshihiro Sudo, producer of Gio Gio's Bizarre Adventure and Auto Modellista, who spoke to us about the game's conception, misconceptions and the things that help it to stand out from the swathe of competing titles.

Drawing perhaps the largest crowd in the PlayStation Experience today, The Getaway was available to play on an enormous collection of booths, and those privileged enough to get to the front of the assembled throng were able to try one of the most eagerly awaited PS2 games since... well, since we first heard about it three years ago. Yours truly was one of the privileged few [violent few, more like -Ed], and first impressions are that the game could quite possibly be everything we were expecting of it. The most glaringly obvious point that we have to make about The Getaway is how astoundingly gorgeous the whole thing looks. Present day London is modelled in incredibly anal detail, and has photo-based textures to match - it's a miracle that the PS2 manages to move it all around at any sort of pace, but we barely noticed any slowdown as we took to the streets on a high-speed chase. To top it all off, the draw distance is impressive with only a miniscule amount of fogging right in the distance. The game has no actual interface or HUD to speak of, which is apparently a design decision in order to lend the game its overwhelmingly filmic quality. Instead of a radar, your car's indicators merely blink in the direction you're supposed to be heading. Also, instead of a health bar, your character limps like a weak puppy and bleeds through his clothes until he takes enough bullets to finally drop to the floor. Cut-scenes begin and end each action segment, gently unravelling the tale, and are superbly acted and directed. The motion-captured characters interact with each other in the finest British gangster flick tradition, and level of extremely bad language in the script has justifiably earned the game an 18 certificate. Developers Team Soho seemed particularly proud of their achievement in making the game so starkly unpleasant and its resemblance to film and television favourites Snatch, Lock Stock and The Sweeney. The Getaway is sure to go down a storm with a public gagging for a new GTA-style title, or a game that injects some much needed gritty realism into the cartoon violence formula of GTA 3. While there are still quite a few rough edges to be tidied up, particularly in the cut-scene department and character models, The Getaway looks to be entirely deserving of our attention when it hits the shelves in a couple of months.

Sony's EyeToy is one of the more eccentric peripherals on display this year at ECTS, demonstrated exclusively inside the PlayStation Experience. Billed as something that would "revolutionise the way we play games", it boils down to what is essentially a webcam that plugs into the USB port on your PS2. Applications that are designed to utilise the technology then overlay graphics for the player to interact with in real-time. Drawing the crowds at the demo pods were three different titles; WishiWashi was a bizarre little game that puts you up against a friend to see who can wash the most windows with their sponge. Kung Foo was a simplistic 2D action game reminiscent of classic arcade titles like Shinobi and Double Dragon with players flinging their arms in the direction of ninja opponents advancing from beyond the screen boundaries. Finally we saw a rhythm-action game where the player punched on-screen speakers in time to music, which brought back painful memories of late night Samba de Amigo sessions that we'd really rather forget. The latter is probably the more obvious application for the EyeToy technology, but it's difficult to see where else developers could take it in order to revolutionise our experience. It seems to be a sure-fire hit with the kids though, so if your better half is complaining that you don't spend enough time with the family, this could be just the excuse you need to spend more time on your PS2. Word is that the EyeToy will ship with a compendium of 18 small titles to get you going, with more titles to follow.

As you might expect, the stands with playable software are drawing the biggest crowds here at ECTS, and Ubi Soft's was no exception. In fact, in typical Ubi style, most of the stand was shut away for press drinks (wahey) and press screening rooms, where we were busy playing Rayman 3 with the game's producer, meaning that the crowds spilt out onto the gangways and caused a right royal blockage. And of course, the more crowded things get, the more people are busy trying to catch a glimpse. A section of the stand facing outwards was given over to what we were told was an E3 demo of Rayman 3, along with versions of Splinter Cell, XIII and lone PC title Raven Shield, which was, if anything, enjoying the lion's share of the spectators. Splinter Cell looked resplendent, with quirky visual modes adding to the MGS-style gameplay, and those immersed at the console simply would not be kicked off. If you thought the screenshots were a bit too good, you should see the game in motion - you'll come to the same conclusion. XIII, likewise, was very impressive in action, coupling typical cel-shading effects with slightly less typical visual approximations of sound effects. "Tap… tap… tap…" gradually crawls along a wall - certainly helpful in the din of ECTS - and before long a guard emerges and you make use of your stealthier weapons to silence him. Rayman 3 was perhaps the biggest surprise to us, borrowing aspects from a myriad different genres and infusing them into one single experience. The game thrusts you from obvious platform elements into boat-racing and helicopting, and juggling the various aspects of the control system is refreshingly different to mastering the likes of Mario Sunshine. The graphical style when it comes to level design, characters and power-up visuals are all extremely distinctive.

German developers Westka Interactive made a splash earlier this year when they unveiled The Y-Project, an Unreal-engined action-adventure game. That wasn't the only game they had on show in the Developers Pavilion at ECTS today though - they've also announced a brand new game called Race Tracks Unlimited.

Rage's stand was buzzing with activity surrounding their four key ECTS titles. Rocky was displayed on Xbox and Cube and won our attention straight away, allowing us to pit the boxing legend against adversaries from the five films, as well as his transcendental self from Rockys I-V. The game is instantly accessible with four key punch types and a block button, which, when gripped allows Rocky to duck and weave with the motion of the analogue stick to avoid blows, also readying himself for uppercuts and roundhouse attacks. The array of fighters was quite marvellous, and we couldn't even place half of them, but those we could were well defined with rippling muscles. Judging by the oohs and aahs from various ladies loitering on the Rage pavilion, the curves and glistening sweat was quite flawlessly executed. It certainly seemed to outdo Codemasters' recent Mike Tyson outing in terms of accessibility and visual prowess. We hope to spend some more time with Rocky and find out what makes him tick when we speak to Rage later on this week. Elsewhere Rage were exhibiting Twin Caliber, the on-the-rails shooter which gives you control of the main protagonist's pistol-toting arms as they trundle around the proverbial hell on earth. Wading through prison complexes packed to bursting with the undead and blasting them with the analogue stick-shoulder button configurations took a little getting used to, but after a couple of minutes both myself and Martin were dispatching them left, right and centre, miraculously making it through to a boss character who then proceeded to electrocute us to our untimely ends. Although the code we saw was having difficulty keeping up with us, the graphics were quite impressive and the body motion was almost perfect, even if perhaps the heads ought to be shifting focus here and there instead of gazing ahead. Given the amount of blood, guts and gore literally flying around as we dismembered zombies, Twin Caliber is sure to receive an 18 certificate, but it's also sure to attract the attention of gamers in search of mindless blasting fun. Lamborghini on Xbox also caught our gaze with instantly gratifying looks, but there were still chinks evident in the gameplay and particularly the physics system. That said, the game proved extremely accessible with a standard control system as we flung the car around the track, boasting plenty of minutiae and minute detail both on the flashy cars and trackside, but perhaps the most impressive aspect was the towering cityscape looming over the track. The final title Rage had for us was Tony Hawk-alike Rolling, and we were immediately struck by how much it reminded us of Aggressive Inline. However, the animation was a cut above the game's only major in-line skating competition, even if level furniture was a bit sparse. We hope to get some more hands-on time with the game, but from a few minutes grinding and hopping about the place, it seemed to be quite a satisfying experience.

Mobile phone operator Orange today announced the formation of its new games publishing division, which will be focusing on "massively mobile multiplayer games", with six original titles already in development and due out within the next year. All of them will, naturally, be exclusive to Orange, which will be running the games on its own dedicated server system, complete with persistent worlds, online league tables and other features more usually associated with desktop gaming. Amongst the initial line-up is Judge Dredd: Cityquake, a multiplayer action game developed by 2000AD owners Rebellion in which criminals and judges battle it out across Mega City One. Due out this winter, the game will allow you to take on all-comers or to play with your friends in a closed game, with citations and bounties being provided for top players. Rebellion are also working on Star Runner, a space trading game where players can build a trading empire by exploring star systems, upgrading their ship, forming alliances and fighting with scavengers blocking potential trade routes. Another possible highlight is Blood & Sand, a gladiatorial combat game in which players purchase, train and equip gladiators and send them into battle across the Roman Empire. Developers Atomic Planet Entertainment are promising "a labyrinth of opportunities and endless combat scenarios" as you make your way towards glory in the Coliseum in Rome. And if you fancy something completely different, how about Atomic's dating simulator Gangsta Of Love? Yes, you too can now explore bars, clubs, casinos and pools in search of your perfect partner, building up a "little black book" full of dates and contacts as you progress. Bizarre...

Intel are showcasing their latest 2.8GHz Pentium 4 processors at ECTS this week, with all the usual promises of giving PC owners a richer experience with faster games, music, movies and kitchen sinks. Apparently high performance Pentium 4 based systems are also "a valuable investment for a child's education". Rather more interesting for gamers though is the fact that (like NVIDIA) Intel have Unreal Tournament 2003 running on their stand to demonstrate just what all that processing power actually means at the end of the day, taking "graphics, sound and gameplay .. beyond the bleeding edge". The game (and in particular its physics system) has been optimized for Pentium 4 processors, hopefully providing higher framerates. As well as demoing forthcoming games, Intel will also be showing off a pair of highly customised 2.8GHz Pentium 4 based PCs on their stand. Produced by veteran PC modders Mark "Geezer" Weitz and Barry "Cold-Dog" Collins, the computers sport plenty of shiny metal, viewing ports, bright paintwork and twiddly knobs as well as Intel processors, GeForce 4 graphics cards, Audigy soundcards and unfeasibly large fans to cool the whole thing down. But are they, as Intel proclaim, "works of art", or merely the product of people with far too much spare time? Judge for yourself, but we anxiously await a case mods exhibition at Tate Modern...

ECTS isn't just about PC gaming and the big console platforms - there are also a variety of mobile phone gaming companies at the show. Amongst them is IN-FUSIO, who will be showing off what they claim is the world's first colour 3D mobile phone game, powered by their own ExEn graphics engine. Mission 3D is a first person shooter (what else) in which you play a secret agent battling a mad scientist and killer robots, with additional levels and equipment available to download via SMS request. Product manager Noelle Beronie describes it as ushering in "a new era in mobile games" as the first real-time 3D actioneer, and we'll hopefully be taking a look at it for ourselves later in the week to see whether it lives up to this billing.

Codemasters will be releasing a new "Game Of The Year Edition" of Operation Flashpoint this autumn, giving gamers who have yet to indulge themselves the "ultimate" version of the excellent Cold War tactical action game. Included in the box is the original game and both the Red Hammer and Resistance add-on packs, along with all the latest upgrades to bring the game right up to date. That adds up to three campaigns and an array of stand-alone and multiplayer missions taking in the US, Russian and rebel forces, with a wide range of weapons and vehicles for all three sides in the conflict. If you haven't already bought the game, you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy of this pack. Related Feature - Resistance is futile

Not to be outdone by their British brethren, who have sponsored a (non-existent) world record queuing attempt and offered gamers money to change their name to Turok, Acclaim's US marketing department has decided to go one better. They're celebrating the release of the company's latest first person shooter by offering $10,000 to parents willing to name their baby Turok. Amusingly dubbed the "Turok labor day contest" [oh dear], the competition will be won by the first parents to produce a baby Turok on release day September 1st. To find out more, head over to the competition page. Related Feature - Mr Turok, I presume?

While most of us were still setting up our stands in the main hall of ECTS, the second European edition of the Game Developers Conference was already in full swing in the meeting rooms upstairs. As you might expect, some of the topics being covered were rather esoteric or even downright boring for casual observers, but the first day of lectures kicked off with an event that anyone interested in gaming could relate to - a discussion on the future of videogame technology. Arrayed on the stage to consider this weighty subject were some of the leading lights of the British gaming industry - David Braben, Peter Molyneux, Jez San and Demis Hassabis.

Summoner 2 has gone gold, as they say, and will ship to retailers in the US from September 13th onwards. The good news for fans of the original game is that the sequel's October 25th release date, currently proposed by THQ, is starting to sound more and more believable. Related Feature - Summoner 2 screenshots

Despite having been originally announced in July of 2000 and released in the US during 2001, Singularity Software informs us that RoboForge is finally set for a European release date this November. RoboForge is a similar idea to popular TV series Robot Wars, although gamers have been spared enthusiastic presentation from the likes of Craig Charles and Jonathan Pearce. Instead, the idea is to design and train your robot and then enter them into free-to-enter or professional online tournaments, competing for prize money. Singularity Software MD Noel Hargrave believes that "prize money and a wealth of online competitors means [RoboForge] is set to usher in the age of the true professional online gamer." You can add low system requirements to the list of good things about it, too - those wishing to take part will need only a 233MHz CPU, 64MB RAM and an 8MB 3D card. Related Feature - RoboForge preview