Latest Articles (Page 3475)

Microsoft is bringing its own brand of tennis to Xbox. Developed by Power and Magic Developments, Top Spin will be an Xbox exclusive and Xbox Live enabled tennis title offering the best of simulation and arcade worlds currently dominated by Virtua Tennis (the sequel to which is due out on PS2 next month, we're guessing Microsoft have also spotted).

The European Commission has found Nintendo guilty of price-fixing charges dating back as far as 1991 and has imposed a fine of €149 million on the company as a result - the fourth largest fine ever handed down by the commission for a single offence.

With all the hype surrounding the movies, it was only a matter of time before Electronic Arts produced a game to capitalise on what is a seriously hot property right now - and just in time for the festive season!

When we first cast eyes on Mystic Heroes, the premise seemed to be a fairly unashamed rip-off of Fromsoft's Rune (Lost Kingdoms in the West). An opposing rune system would govern battles, and a clichéd RPG storyline would govern the in-between. But as it happens, Koei neglected to include one somewhat pivotal detail: Mystic Heroes is just one big battle, rather like Dynasty Warriors.

Konami recently made a confusing announcement in Japan concerning Winning Eleven 6. In confirming that World Soccer Winning Eleven 6: Final Evolution (WE6 plus all the improvements found in Pro Evo 2) will shortly appear on PlayStation 2, the firm also told of a new Winning Eleven game due for release on GameCube. Naturally, certain sections of the press leapt on this slip and joyfully proclaimed that Pro Evo was Cube-bound. Not for the first time.

EA Canada's NBA Street team will join forces with AKI Corporation (creators of some decent N64 wrestling titles) to produce Def Jam Vendetta, a PS2 and GameCube beat 'em up with more than 45 fighters, including 12 of Def Jam Records' recording artists.

Acclaim has agreed a co-publishing deal with Sega for three forthcoming titles, which will see the publisher responsible for European distribution of updated PS2 versions of some of the well-known Japanese company's recent classics.

GMX Media has announced its first console game - a GameBoy Advance platformer. No no, don't click 'Back' just yet! Hear them out, eh? Kien is the name of the game, and we're told that it's an action-stroke-platform game with RPG elements, in which the player guides two youngsters on a (non-linear) path through the 23-level world of Kien. And if you're still not convinced, you can have a butchers at 18 rather colourful screenshots here.

With DDRMAX, Konami's latest console-bound rhythm-action title shipping for PS2 in the US at the moment, news has filtered through that a Japanese website has been erected to represent the PS2 version of the sequel, DDRMAX2 (otherwise known as Dance Dance Revolution 7th Mix). The site is... somewhat nondescript to say the very least, but it is at least confirmation of the PS2 version's existence. Hopefully this one will get further toward Europe than the others, and satisfy our urges for embarrassing party videogames.

Ensemble Studios' long-awaited Age of Mythology is due out on November 8th in Europe, but why wait that long to play it? Earlier today the developer released the game's official demo, which contains a portion of the single player game. The final release will let players take the side of Greek, Egyptian or Norse gods to do battle - hence, Age of Mythology - although the demo limits you to the Greeks. The only problem is that Ensemble wants half a blummin' CD for it - this is the first 337.2MB demo we've seen in a very long time. Download it here.

Electronic Arts will take over Waterstone's in Piccadilly, London next Wednesday to demonstrate their Two Towers-based PS2 adventure game. EA is inviting gamers to come and play the game, which "will allow players and fans of the movies to relive the most memorable moments from the first two films," quite a feat given we've only seen one of them.

We've been watching with interest the banter crossing our various comments threads for some time now, and we've noticed that a lot of you find them restrictive. The ability to warble off-topic with like-minded readers is something you've been requesting for quite some time, and starting today, it's something we're happy to offer you.

The flagship GameCube version of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, probably the most exciting of all the Star Wars Episode II games, will appear in Europe a week earlier than anticipated. Activision has brought forward the release of the game to coincide with Episode II's appearance on DVD, both of which now appear on November 15th.

Ever since Sega Soccer Slam first appeared on the GameCube in the US much earlier this year, we've been following the progress of the game quite zealously. Ignoring the tried and trusted conventions of, well, rules, Soccer Slam sees two teams of four players (three 'characters' and an automated robot goalie) duking it out on various tiny footy arenas worldwide, winning the ball with no small amount of brutality and scoring with similar aplomb.

Over a year into its existence, the number of titles that truly push the Xbox is sadly limited to a handful - and most of those were released at the time of the machine's launch. Since then, Xbox owners have been fed a diet of lame PS2 ports or all format releases that have obviously been designed around the PS2's limitations.

Oddly named developer ToonTRAXX has announced that it has spent the last 20 months developing ChickenShoot, an "arcade game for everybody who likes fast fun", for PC, PS2, Xbox, GameCube and GBA. Even Mac OS and Linux versions are in the making.

Westwood Studios is planning to celebrate Halloween by introducing new themed quests, unique items and content for high-level players of its sci-fi MMORPG Earth & Beyond, which recently received a limited release in the UK and Europe.

Asheron's Call 2 Fallen Kings will go on sale in the UK on December 6th, priced £29.99 including one month's free gameplay, Microsoft has quietly announced. Thereafter punters will have to pay £8.45 per month for subscription.

The GameCube incarnation of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance has been declared gold and shipped off to manufacturers by developer High Voltage Software. With more than half a million sales worldwide of the PS2 version, the Cube and recently completed Xbox versions are expected to sell handsomely, and deservedly so - Dark Alliance is one of the PS2's finest RPGs.

The various iterations of Need For Speed III: Hot Pursuit totalled well over a million units for Electronic Arts, so it's little surprise to see that a great deal of effort has gone into the highly anticipated sequel. Thanks to a supreme marketing push, (and being a frankly kick arse game) Burnout 2 is outselling Mario at the moment, and Black Box Games' Need For Speed title finds itself in Hot Pursuit. But Burnout 2 has already rewritten the benchmark for the PlayStation 2's arcade racers - can Hot Pursuit 2 overtake it?

Microsoft has officially confirmed that starting November 1st, punters will be able to purchase the Sega GT 2002 and Jet Set Radio Future Xbox bundle for €249.99 / £159.99. Unlike the American bundle though, the European edition will include a traditional Xbox controller rather than the smaller Controller S, despite launching on the peripheral's official release date. The "Sega Christmas Pack" is Microsoft's attempt to outperform Sony's PlayStation 2 in Europe, having recently hopped into second place in the console race. The PS2 retails for £169.99 game-free.

Grand Theft Auto 3 is the big winner of the afternoon, taking home three awards - PlayStation 2 Game of the Year, Game Innovation of the Year and overall award Game of the Year, while developers Rockstar North add to the bucketload of awards by picking up the gong for British Developer of the Year. There's even an award for the unreleased GTA: Vice City, which picked up the Most Wanted Game for Christmas award.

Sony Europe plans to develop a 12-mission expansion pack and a sequel to Team Soho's ambitious, as-yet unreleased tale of organised crime, The Getaway. Despite a strong presence at The PlayStation Experience in August, many still view the game with cynicism after an extensive development period full of highly publicised setbacks. Nevertheless, Sony is firing ahead with its expansion plans.

Blizzard has released a trailer of in-game footage taken from StarCraft: Ghost, the PS2, Xbox and Cube tactical action title announced at this year's Tokyo Game Show. Ghost puts players in the role of elite stealth unit Nova, as she uses her sophisticated arsenal of physical and psionic abilities to take out targets. The DivX format video weighs in at 13.1MB (with a 33.9MB QuickTime version also on offer for Mac users), and shows mostly in-game footage of Nova racing around, sliding down ladders, sneaking around sci-fi environments slicing and dicing hulking footsoldiers. You can find it on Blizzard's excellent Ghost website, which has been up since the original announcement.

Internet download centre Gigex is serving a 132MB demo of Surreal Software's The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. This being the book adaptation to be published by Vivendi, rather than EA's film adaptation. There are no details on what's included in this PC sampler, but at that size we'd imagine that it's playable, so if you like a bit of Frodo, Gandalf and Aragorn in the morning, you could do worse than to check it out, but beware, that link launches a pop-up, rather than functioning like a respectable website.

Nintendo has been harping on about the Metroid Prime/Metroid Fusion link-up capabilities for a while, but now the publishing giant has relented and explained just what a link cable can add for Metroid nuts, and there are two major benefits.

Not for the first time, peripheral manufacturer Datel claims that its GameCube import boot disk, the fabled Freeloader, is finally on the verge of release. Reputed small-time importers GoblinDirect bring us Datel's "definite, 100 per cent" assurance that Freeloader will ship to punters within the next fortnight. If you're willing to buy into this particular claim, then you can answer Datel's cry here by signing up for one of Goblin's various bundles.

As has been known for a while, Microids France is working on a licensed adaptation of fifties chariot-racing spectacular Ben Hur, starring a bloke who will no doubt resemble Charlton Heston (despite our best efforts to have him removed - last time we employ apes, that's for sure). Microids has this week released a few more details (and screenshots) of the game. The developer has realised many of Ancient Rome's majestic coliseums, mixing legend with history and taking us from Pompeii and Olympus to the Pantheon and Guizeh. Players will have to wield all manner of weapons and spells in these brutal exhibition races, fighting across more than 17 tracks to become King of the Arena.

The UK is about to be hit by another freak storm. After winds of up to 90mph battered central and southern parts of the country for most of yesterday, Independent Television (ITV) executives are set to gust through gaming during a regular prime time TV slot in early 2003, investigating the LAN phenomenon and following various 'pro' gamers (one of whom just insured his fingers for £375,000) to the World Cyber Games in Korea. "Lan Jam" also promises the Games Master-esque sight of "the cream of the kid's gaming world" competing against one another for prizes "and, more importantly, the respect of their peers."

Delta Force - Black Hawk Down has been set back to Q1 2003 by publisher NovaLogic. "We feel that we need to invest some additional time in polishing the title to make sure that when it does hit the streets, it will be a benchmark for the genre," says president Lee Milligan. "We know that a number of fans will be disappointed with the delay, but they can be sure that the game will be worth the wait."