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GameSpot is reporting that Microsoft has released the latest version of DirectX in beta form. The release is marked as a release-candidate. Now, here at Eurogamer we haven't exactly enjoyed a pleasant relationship with past DirectX betas, but more fool us for trying them, eh? This latest version is a major revision to Microsoft's graphics standard, which concentrates on simplifying the development of shader effects. Expect tech demos by the truckload to impress this fact upon us.

GameSpot is also reporting that Shiny's Enter The Matrix game is due out on May 15th, 2003 in the US, and that the next Matrix movie should be around sometime around then. The news comes via the new issue of Game Informer magazine, which lso states that the game features voice acting from all the film's major actors and a story crafted by the Wachowski brothers themselves.

From Software's follow-up to partly successful card/RPG 'em up Rune will appear in the US (and Europe) once again thanks to Activision, and will unsurprisingly take the moniker of Lost Kingdoms II. The game is expected to hit the US sometime in spring, setting us up for a summer/winter European release, as with the first game.

Sony Online Entertainment has announced that Emodiv, Inc. are in the final stages of developing EverQuest for the Pocket PC. The new EQ is a single player only, isometric adventure through the lands of Norrath. Players will have to choose from four character classes (Dwarven Warrior, High Elf Magician, Human Wizard, or Wood Elf Druid) and complete 10 major quests across 15 adventure areas to banish an evil undead army and save the public.

Ubi Soft has announced that IL-2 Sturmovik expansion Forgotten Battles is no longer an expansion. The game's status (and presumably price tag) has been upped to full sequel, and the game will no longer require installation of IL-2 to run. What's more, Ubi Soft has pinpointed the game's release date: February 20th, 2003.

EVE Online: The Second Genesis has entered the third stage of beta testing, according to publisher Crucial, which means its stays on track for an ominous Q1 2003 launch date. More than just an arbitrary point at which to issue a press release [cynic! -Ed], stage three sees the implementation of "important gameplay features and finished major technological milestones" according to the game's art director and one of developer CCP's founders, Reynir Hardarsson.

Japanese weekly gaming bible Famitsu has confirmed a rogue Nintendo announcement, which states that those who pre-order the game after November 28th will receive a special bonus disc containing free GameCube ports of Ocarina of Time and never-before-released 64DD addon Ura-Zelda. The disc will also contain footage of F-Zero and Biohazard 4. Quite a nice treat, although as you might expect there's no word (and perhaps no chance) of seeing these in Europe. Keep an eye on importers though, because they're bound to wrangle a few copies somehow.

Capcom has announced its quintessential Cube line-up for the next year and beyond. The line-up, which is headlined by Biohazard 4, consists of four new titles, mostly from the action fold.

Vin Diesel, the star of The Fast And The Furious and, most recently, secret agent testosterone sponge xXx, will form his own games company after watching Activision's xXx games receive horrible reviews.

Sony snuck a console kaleidoscope into our cereal this morning with the announcement that red, blue, white, yellow and silver PlayStation 2s have gone on sale at the newly opened official UK PS2 shop. A quick scout around Sony's other European sites reveals that this is currently a UK-only operation.

Dark Age of Camelot: Shrouded Isles has gone gold. The expansion pack is due to ship in the US on December 3rd, with a European release scheduled for February. "Dark Age of Camelot is the fastest growing massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) in North America and Europe, and the launch of Dark Age of Camelot: Shrouded Isles will only accelerate that growth," said Mark Jacobs, President of Mythic Entertainment. Jacobs went on to thank the development team and international partners including Vivendi, who will distribute the game in North America, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Microsoft is set to roll out the first phase of Xbox Live later this month. Starting November 30th, Microsoft will start flogging the Xbox Live Test Drive kit as a sort of public playtest which lasts until March 14th, 2003, when the service will go "Live". But we're impatient, so here's a look at the Xbox Live beta test through the eyes of Gameplay Head of Internet Mat Braddy, who has been Living it up, if you like.

Sega has promised that the nasty disconnection bug afflicting broadband Phantasy Star Online players will be fixed and game discs replaced. That's the latest word from Japan on a saga that's becoming hugely embarrassing both to Sega and Cube platform holder Nintendo.

Being one of the first games I ever got addicted to during my videogaming infancy on the Amiga, Sim City has lived on in my memory as a title of intriguing strategy and life destroying addiction. Thirteen years later, and in its fourth incarnation, can Maxis pull off another classic with Sim City 4?

World Championship Snooker 2003 is underway and on its way to PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox, publisher Codemasters has been bellowing this week. Developed by UK-based Blade Interactive Studios, Snooker 2003 aims to match its current game engine with highly detailed visuals. Changes under the bonnet include tweaked AI (with some babbling about "neural network techniques" that we're not too sure about) and enhanced physics. The game gets far more than a lick of paint in the visuals department, with motion-captured player models using 9,000-15,000 polygons and all sorts of sweeping camerawork to accentuate the action.

With Championship Manager, you either get it or you don't. And frankly, having followed the game ever since the very first version over ten years ago, we can safely say we get it. You've heard it all before, undoubtedly, but once you embrace this game into your life, you may as well forget any plans to a) conduct any sort of normal relationship b) play as many games as you used to c) function like a normal healthy happy human being.

Disney presents...

In one of the less surprising pieces of news you'll ever read, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City has become the fastest selling game of all time in the UK, having sold a phenomenal 300,000 units in its first two days on sale, official figures from ELSPA/ChartTrack revealed this morning.

Capcom has rejigged a few of its upcoming release dates, with several PS2 games and one key Cube release slipping a week. Cel-shaded racer Auto Modellista has slipped from the end of November until December 6th, while Gio Gio's Bizarre Adventure has slipped from December until Valentine's Day, February 14th. However, Devil May Cry 2 stands firm for March 21st.

CDV has signed up and plans to bring another real-time strategy game to the UK. Airborne Assault: Red Devils Over Arnhem will soon find its way onto retailers' shelves, having only previously been available via the Battlefront.com website. Or rather, it'll find its way exclusively onto the shelves of GAME branches across the UK as of November 29th.

Although they've been hinting at it for a while, announcing that the audio was complete, organising scavenger hunt promotions and releasing various screenshots, LucasArts has finally confirmed once and for all that Star Wars: Bounty Hunter has gone gold. Yes, the long-awaited virtual tale of Jango Fett's path through the galaxy has picked up those famous words. The Yanks are looking forward to it next Friday. In Europe, we'll have to wait a bit longer - November 29th for the PS2 version and "January 2003" for the GameCube version. So expect a bit of slippage there, then.

UK-based FireFly Studios has released a multiplayer demo of its real-time strategy epic Stronghold: Crusader. In the complete absence of any further detail (thanks!), you'll have to judge just how much you want to play it based on this bank of screenshots. Is that worth downloading 88MB for? You decide. Be sure to download the UK and presumably European demo ( direct link), however, as opposed to the American one you may have seen elsewhere.

In an industry obsessed with endless sequels and "franchises", it makes a nice change to be greeted with some new characters. Sony recent track record in introducing new "brands" deserves credit, with recent examples such as Jak & Daxter, and the forthcoming The Getaway, Sly Racoon and Primal all looking worthy of any discerning gamer's attention.

Games journalists often gossip about redefining genres and other unwieldy concepts, but Medal of Honor: Allied Assault was the most heavily scripted and beautifully directed first person shooter since Half-Life, and that was more than enough for us. The follow-up, dubbed Spearhead, has been under development at EA's Los Angeles studio for quite some time now, and with a release date set for early December, we returned to Normandy (and Belgium, and Germany) in the shiny boots of one Sgt. Jack Barnes to complete our tour of duty.

These days, developers are forced to come up with ever more elaborate ways to justify World War II-based action games, but Oxygen Interactive's Red Shark is one of the best amalgamations of the various approaches we've seen. Instead of taking up arms with the Yanks or the Brits (or even the Frenchies), we're thrown into the role of a crack Russian fighter pilot. What's more, it isn't World War II, it's peacetime closer to the present day, and we're being sent back to do away with the Third Reich before it even kicks up a fuss, armed with the most advanced helicopter in the Russian air force: the heavily armed KA-50.

Artoon is working on two new Xbox titles, if reports from the Far East (The Magic Box, then) are to be believed, and one of them is a sequel to disappointing sci-fi cat and hard drive combo Blinx: The Time Sweeper, which debuted in the UK and Europe last Friday.

Final Fantasy series producer Yoshinori Kitase has told Famitsu that Square may consider a direct sequel to Final Fantasy VII, in the same way that Yuna is being dragged out for Final Fantasy X-2, the immediate and unconventional successor to Final Fantasy X.

Legend Entertainment has confirmed that Unreal II: The Awakening won't be with us until January 2003, and that may only be the American date. However, the developer, whose previous work includes the Unreal engine-based Wheel of Time, has apparently completed the game and is spending the festive season covering up bugs and other eccentricities in time for the game's post-Christmas release. A sensible plan, if you ask us - if you've as many leeching relatives as us then pre-Christmas finances simply don't permit this kind of extravagance...

I'm guessing that some sort of mass work-dodging web surfing exercise aside, most of you are reading this on your own PCs. Which means you have PCs. And you also have a pulse, which means you probably want to play Final Fantasy XI. Or you are at least a little curious about how it turns out, non?

Ukrainians GSC Game World have released a 42MB trailer for their impressive-looking, potentially radioactive Chernobyl-based first person shooter, Stalker: Oblivion Lost. Due for release in summer 2003, the game actually saw the development team delve deep into the forbidden area around the site of Chernobyl, as we revealed in an interview earlier this year.