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Although we continue to resist the onslaught of unnecessarily detailed information about Ubi Soft's forthcoming 3D platformer, we heard something vaguely exciting about it yesterday as Ubi outlined enemy movement patterns and back-stories and so on. Picking through the detritus, we were excited to learn that the GBA and GameCube versions of Hoodlum Havoc will be able to link up, and that it will be GBA owners who benefit - from 11 extra levels! We're not sure of the circumstances or the steps necessary to achieve this, but it's encouraging to see more developers utilising the GC/GBA link cable, and a good argument for buying the Cube version over its likenesses on other platforms - something Nintendo software dearly needs.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2 has sold more than a million units across Europe in its first forty days on sale, Konami reports. That ties in nicely with the fact that its Japanese predecessor, Winning Eleven 6, also sold more than one million units - within eight weeks of going on sale. Said Kunio Neo, President of Konami Europe: "After the success of Winning Eleven 6, we were confident that Pro Evolution Soccer 2 would be warmly received by the public - but these figures are nevertheless extremely pleasing."

Defining moments in videogames number 3044268: Virtua Cop. The first on-the-rails light gun shooter to take place in a fully rendered 3D polygon environment, with a locational damage system which saw enemies crumple or fall spectacularly depending on where you hit them. It was also, along with its sequel, one of the more cerebral light gun games, where one shot killed, but three-hit-combos were important and accurate blasting was absolutely critical. It's funny how even the genre's recent success stories like Time Crisis failed to mimic this approach, and even Sega themselves abandoned it for their part in the finger-tiring nocturnal Namco collaboration snooze-fest Vampire Night.

Virtua Fighter 4 is our favourite beat 'em up on PlayStation 2. There are of course many vying for our attention, but of all of them, none can punch, bodyslam or carve their way into our souls like VF4 did. Which is why Sega's latest Japanese PS2 announcement has us flailing our arms in mock punching delight.

Interplay's sci-fi survival horror Run Like Hell will be ported to Xbox, an American press release states. The PS2 version of the game continues to slip repeatedly in Europe (it's currently on track for February 7th), and has so far received mediocre reviews. Interplay promises that the Xbox version will be "expanded" and "enhanced" (as ever) to include Dolby Digital 5.1 and downloadable content via Xbox Live.

Sega will recycle further Master System, Mega Drive and Saturn games. Yesterday the former platform holder announced plans to release many of its old games in updated or "retro" versions on PS2 for 2500 yen (about £10) apiece in Japan. The games will be published by the recently established 3D-Ages.

Microsoft has released a 121MB demo of Cyberlore/FASA's MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries to celebrate the game's recent release. The demo offers five mechs and two missions from the single-player campaign, with two multiplayer maps thrown in for good measure.

Can it really be six years ago that we were first seduced by Lara Croft and her plaintive sighs? Apparently it is, although we'd swear the calendar is lying profusely, and after five fairly exhausting adventures, and two fairly forgettable Game Boy Color stabs, we're now presented with the first Tomb Raider to hit the Game Boy Advance.

Codemasters will launch an "expanded" and "enhanced" version of TOCA Race Driver on Xbox this coming March, the publisher has announced. After achieving critical and commercial success on the PS2 (despite looking like a PSone game and playing somewhat erratically), Codemasters decided that Xbox owners deserved a piece of the pie, and decided to increase the graphics detail, add DD 5.1 surround sound and up the car count to 20.

Telewest is looking for volunteers to take part in a trial to test the online gaming service Xbox Live.

Japanese comic magazine Shounen Jump reportedly contains a bleeding edge first look at the next two games in the Dragon Quest series; Dragon Quest VIII for PS2 and Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart for GBA. The article does not discuss release dates, although Quiter reports that they will be released simultaneously. There's obviously no word on Western releases of either title, but hopefully Square Enix will inherit the latter's newfound dedication to multiple markets, and not the former's ridiculous, pointless, lazy attitude to anybody who doesn't live in Japan, in which case we may one day see something.

This one was so unsurprising that we barely noticed it at all, but Koei's Japanese website has been updated with a Shin Sangoku Musou 3 (Dynasty Warriors 4) logo. The game will apparently be developed by the same team. This being the fourth game in the as-yet unadventurous series, you can expect more of the more of the more of the same.

Lionhead's Peter Molyneux has confirmed that the lazily named Black & White: Next Generation will appear on PS2, Xbox and GameCube, describing it as "a totally different Black & White experience for the console gamer", despite sounding very similar. According to IGN, players will control a giant god-like creature, roaming, performing miracles, solving puzzles and duelling with adversaries. The object is apparently to gain faith from the people and become the one god in the land of Eden.

Despite WarCraft III having already bucked the downward trend in PC games sales with a true Reign Of Chaos, Blizzard has just this week released the long-awaited demo of the game. The reason being that the PC developer wanted to create an entirely new section of WCIII for the demo - and has done. The new three-level single player demo chronicles the Orcs' travels from Lordaeron to Kalimdor, and Blizzard has also thrown in three multiplayer maps for use in the full game. We seem to recall that the benevolent developer did something similar for the last WarCraft game.

The internet has been alive with rumours of the next Zelda game's full title ever since the Japanese version was named and nobody knew what it meant. Fortunately, Nintendo has hopped into this embarrassing confusion and confirmed that Link and co. will reappear on GameCube in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, which is due out in Q2 2003 in Europe.

UK-based Kuju, purveyors of flame in recent movie adaptation Reign Of Fire, will develop the first title based on THQ's Games Workshop deal for worldwide rights to Warhammer 40,000. The game will be called Fire Warrior, and released in summer 2003 on PC and PlayStation 2.

Film director Kevin Smith has had a videogame produced to thank celebrity couple Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck for appearing in his latest movie, Jersey Girl, the BBC reports.

EA is testing the water down under by dropping the price of its GameCube titles in the run-up to Christmas. Clearly dissatisfied with sales of Cube ports, EA's MD for the region Bob Katz used the opportunity to attack Nintendo. "Given Nintendo's disappointing reluctance to compete with Microsoft and Sony, Electronic Arts are leading the way in helping to ensure that hit GameCube titles are accessible and affordable to the general public," he said.

IN-FUSIO will provide mobile games to Orange SA's 21 worldwide subsidiaries, the mobile operator has announced. IN-FUSIO has served Orange's French operation since July 2001, and starting early this month will begin supplying mobile games in the UK and many other regions.

Wanadoo will publish the first official Dark Age of Camelot add-on in February, and we have a batch of new screenshots to illustrate the expansion here. The Shrouded Isles of the title introduce 18 new zones over three new territories (one per realm), three new races, six new character classes, countless new monsters and weapons and of course additional quest content. Developer Mythic claims that the add-on's visuals will benefit from version 4.0 of the NetImmerse engine and most of DirectX 8.1's environmental effects (shadows, rippling water, etc), so the add-on to the 100,000-selling MMORPG looks set to make quite a splash when it arrives in February. Assuming the lakes aren't all iced over.

Arena combat is fast becoming a linchpin of Xbox gameplay. Just recently we've witnessed MechAssault and Unreal Championship, both games whose staccato machine gun dialogue, sharp visuals and frantic gameplay have made them obvious early choices for the Xbox Live service. And of course where would the great, award-winning Halo be without its many deathmatch variations?

Why do Bond games seem to be so hard to get right? The ingredients are all there waiting to be put in the mix, and the hard work of getting the player to identify with a lead character and the role they fulfil is practically done for them, yet only one developer has ever managed to do it right - Rare. Every time a new Bond game is released, it seems appropriate to line it up against Rare's standard-setting N64 classic GoldenEye. So how does the Gearbox-developed Nightfire stand up against that stalwart of Bond gaming?

Last week's competition attracted a surprising number of entrants, and the question seemed to probe you a bit deeper than our regular efforts. Many of you actually got it quite severely wrong! We asked you, which of the supplied answers was not a Delta Force or Tom Clancy game, and the correct answer was of course Bravo Two Zero. Nice though it probably would be to lead Sean Bean to certain death at the hands of terrorists (are you paying attention, Mr. Clancy?)

As those of you who frequent our forums will be aware, this week we soft launched the Eurogamer Shop, and we hope that with our help you'll never have to buy a bad game again! We're only planning to stock the games that the editorial team have played and recommend, and starting this week our regular look at what's new will change to reflect that. Hopefully you'll still find it useful for ferreting out the best of each week's crop of releases, and we promise never to cut a game from the list to the right unless we have conflicting release data.

EA has released the Battlefield 1942 patch, bringing the game up to version 1.2 and touching on issues ranging from frame rate to hit detection for handheld weapons. The bad news? It's US-only! EA has yet to release a European version and we're not sure when they plan to.

The GameBoy Advance title Konami's Hideo Kojima is reportedly developing has taken a bit more shape. Reports from Japan suggest that Bokura no Taiyou ("Our Sun") is aimed at getting gamers out of the house. The game is an RPG about fighting vampires, and the cartridge sport a light-sensitive panel of some description, with the player's character relying on sunlight input to power-up, making the game a lot easier to play during daylight. When vampires have more difficulty moving around.

Barely three weeks ago, TDK proudly announced that Robotech: Battlecry for the PS2 would appear on November 29th, followed only days later on December 13th by the Xbox and Cube versions.

BioWare is combining its efforts with those of Floodgate Entertainment (a developer comprised mostly of former Looking Glass employees) to produce an official expansion to just-plain-massive RPG Neverwinter Nights. Shadows of Undrentide is due out in spring 2003, and offers "all-new content" for the lone player as well as "the tools to push their own creations to the next level" with the NWN Aurora Toolset.

Strategy First has released a demo of O.R.B, the 3D real-time strategy title recently released in the US. The 250MB demo is available from Gigex and offers six tutorials, two missions from the 'Malus' campaign and a skirmish map for multiplayer.

Konami's PC line-up for 2003 will include Silent Hill 2: Director's Cut, the publisher has revealed today. Along with the previously announced Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance, Shadow of Memories and two previously unannounced titles, Silent Hill's PC debut represents Konami's desire to sew up the survival horror niche on multiple platforms. It already arguably has the PS2 and Xbox markets to itself.