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With the British Grand Prix at Silverstone coming up this weekend, we decided it was high time that we followed the success of our Football Week with an F1 Week. Over the next seven days we'll be bringing you reviews of the latest Grand Prix games from EA and Infogrames and an interview with Downforce developers Smart Dog.

Last week, journalists in San Francisco (including IGN) were invited to have their backsides whooped at NFL Fever 2003 by two of Microsoft's number. The difference to usual was that both Microsofters would be in Chicago, which for the uneducated (hands up, including me) is thousands of miles from San Francisco. At the heart of this long-distance multiplay experience was the long-awaited Xbox Live online gaming service and its various components; the 100Mbps network adapter inside the Xbox console, the Xbox Communicator headset, and a healthy internet connection. Not to mention NFL Fever 2003, which will be one of the first (and in the US at least, one of the most popular) titles to take advantage of the service, connecting two Xboxen with up to four human players on both. Xbox Communicator is described as a small, comfortable headset with a left earphone and an almost anonymous microphone, which plugs into a memory card-shaped adapter in the back of the Xbox controller. The adapter includes a volume knob and a mute function, and the voice data beamed back and forth can already be masked by the player's choice of voice in the profile setup. We don't know much about American Football, truth be told, but it sounds as though NFL Fever 2003 is shaping up to be an excellent addition to the expansive genre, and editors from IGN reported last Friday that lag during the experience was minimal, limited to a couple of hiccups; a second's pause during play at one stage and the two-second lag of Xbox Communicator. However, the most important news is that the game is said to have been delightfully responsive, unlike the attempted online shenanigans of Dreamcast-based sports games. All the signs are good for Xbox Live at the moment, but the real test will come when the service goes live this winter, and we're anxious to see how it copes with the volume of users who will pick up the $50 year's subscription, free game and Xbox Communicator pack. With titles like Unreal Championship on the way, it shouldn't be too difficult to test the capacity. Microsoft's is certainly the most impressive of all three platform holders' online excursions in the West at this point, if only because the project actually bears fruit. In Europe at least, Sony and Nintendo are virtually anonymous at present. The issues of capacity, connectivity, text input, community policing and so forth still need addressing, but we're slightly happier now that somebody at least has seen it working, and we look forward to hearing more about it. Related Feature - Xbox Live Demodulated

Japanese developer-publisher Squaresoft has announced that Final Fantasy XI now boasts some 90,000 subscribers, a figure which is mightily impressive considering the hardware shortages and technical problems that have plagued the world's first PS2 online RPG. Square also reports that the average number of concurrent users in Vana D'iel at any one time is 55,000. To put all that into perspective, PC-based MMORPG EverQuest (which is of course due out on PlayStation 2 in the fullness of time) has a worldwide subscription figure in excess of half a million users. Related Feature - Final Fantasy XI preview

Those of you excited about the VR missions in the E3 showing of Metal Gear Solid 2 Substance will be pleased to learn that Konami has plans to release a handful of these 'training' missions, as part of its upcoming interactive DVD, The Document of Metal Gear Solid 2. "The Document" will be released in Japan on August 22nd, and thanks to the popularity of MGS2 in Europe, where the game was one of the fastest titles ever to earn ELSPA's coveted Gold sales award, we can probably expect to see The Document or something along the same lines later this year. However, although MGS2 Substance is due out on PS2 and Xbox, reports suggest that the VR missions in The Document will be PS2-only. And before you quip, yes, The Document will probably have the same playable sections-to-cut scenes ratio as the original release. That's very funny - well done. Now, go off and polish your M-16s. Related Feature - Metal Gear Solid 2 review

Winning Eleven 6 is indisputably the most accurate and enjoyable simulation of football available on any system, and according to series producer Shingo Takatsuka, KCET has now set its sights on a football management game. "We feel the need to create a football management game from listening to the voices of our soccer game fans," Takatsuka-san told Official PlayStation 2 Magazine. "We're not sure when we can officially announce the brand-new game, but please do look forward to it in the near future." With Pro Evolution Soccer 2 arriving in Europe later this year - an enhanced version of Winning Eleven 6 - KCET obviously has its hands full just at the moment, but we hope to hear more about the new management title in the future. WE6's realistic player and team stats will be a key factor that stands in the developer's favour, although we're not too sure that Championship Manager creators Sports Interactive will be keen on the competition. Last year the UK-based developer joined forces with Konami to provide their statistical player and team data for Pro Evolution Soccer, but now that Konami plans to compete in the console-based footy management stakes, the deal might turn sour. Unfortunately nobody from Sports Interactive was available to comment this morning. We'll nag them again later. Related Feature - Winning Eleven 6 preview

Beach Spikers. Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball. Outlaw Volleyball. Those are the three volleyball games in development concurrently which spring to mind at 9:38 on a Monday morning. But now I have another name to brandish should anybody stop me in the hall, tap me on the shoulder and demand to know of every volleyball game in development on a console platform. Namco's Klonoa Beach Volleyball is a PSone game featuring Klonoa and his chums in a fairly by-the-numbers arcade sports title with the odd twist. The game is being angled at the younger gamer with cute, stretchy graphics and a special kids control system alongside a complex one for Dads and… yeah, Dads. Unlike its curvy competition, Klonoa Beach Volleyball will have to make its mark on gameplay issues, but I can't remember the last time I minded Namco going head to head with Sega and Tecmo, can you? Something good is bound to come of it. Klonoa Beach Volleyball is due out this Autumn. Related Feature - Another Volleyball Game

EA's next 007 adventure may only be a few months away, but Xbox and GameCube owners who don't have all the time in the world can now enjoy the dubious delights of Agent Under Fire, previously only available on the PlayStation 2.

These days, I sometimes wonder whether the health of the Japanese economy rests solely on exporting rhythm-action games [oh yes? - Ed]. The latest evidence in favour of this [convenient] notion is Koei's Gitaroo Man, yet another bizarre button-bashing affair set to the strains of excessively odd musical stylings. I won't beat around the bush here - Gitaroo Man is stranger than coherent sentences rolling off David Beckham's tongue on the same day as the wedding of Mario and Bowser.

Having topped charts around the world, last year's hit first person shooter Return To Castle Wolfenstein is getting the Special Edition treatment this summer. The new version will come with a free copy of the original Wolfenstein 3D, the WolfRadiant map editor and all of the new multiplayer maps that have been made available over the internet since the game's original release. Also included are demos for other Quake III engined games and a "making of video", along with desktop wallpapers, screenshots and cartoons. Best of all though is the new price - just £19.99. "Return to Castle Wolfenstein has been one of the most widely played and critically acclaimed games of 2001, including a ninety-percent or higher rating by over 35 different publications and multiple Special Edition awards", Todd Hollenshead of producers id Software boasted. "By incorporating all of the new maps, updates, editing tools and bonus material, we've created the ultimate Return to Castle Wolfenstein package." Look for the Special Edition pack hitting shelves in July. Related Feature - Return To Castle Wolfenstein review

Last week we reported that Call Of Cthulhu developers Headfirst were terminating their publishing deal with Ravensburger over alleged breach of contract. Unfortunately things are rarely that straightforward, and sure enough today a poorly translated press release arrived from the German publisher giving their side of the story and dismissing "deviant press releases and reports" to the contrary. Ravensburger Interactive (now a part of JoWooD) are treating the agreement as still being in force, claiming that it has "not been validly terminated by Headfirst". Ominously, the brief statement ends by saying that the company "reserves legal steps" to ensure it maintains publishing rights to the title and that any "unauthorized exploitation of the same" is blocked. Hopefully this will be sorted out in time to allow the game's planned release early next year, but having the threat of legal action hanging over their heads certainly isn't going to help Headfirst's efforts to find a new publisher for the game in the meantime. Related Feature - Shadow Over Cthulhu

Thanks to the hard work of our wonderful technical bods, registered EuroGamer users can now block posts from specific people, a feature which has been one of the most widely requested amongst our regular readers. If somebody annoys you, just hit the "ignore poster" button next to their name and you won't ever have to read another comment from them. If you have a change of heart, you can unblock people from the "edit profile" page, where you also have the option to ignore every post made by non-registered users. All of these features obviously only work when you are logged in. As part of the changes, we have also posted guidelines on the use of the comments system. The short version is that racism, personal abuse, excessive swearing, requests for CD keys or warez, potentially libellous comments and reposting of copyrighted material are not tolerated on EuroGamer. Any posts which break these rules will be deleted by our staff as soon as they are spotted, and repeat offenders may have their user account closed or (in extreme cases) be blocked from the site. As always, any feedback on the latest changes and suggestions for other site features are welcome.

Microsoft's Xbox Customer Care division has come under fire recently for failing to keep up with demand for the Xbox Reward Pack - the two-games-and-a-controller perk offered to people who paid full whack for the console ahead of its surprise price reduction. According to a few of our readers, Microsoft has been sending out a message asking for patience from those still waiting for their reward packs. Demand has obviously been high for the estimated £9m worth of free kit earmarked for early adopters, but reports of problems have been relatively few - I received my Reward Pack, containing a controller, RalliSport Challenge and Munch's Oddysee, about a fortnight after first requesting it. But in spite of these reports, Xbox Customer Care has definitely proven its worth elsewhere. Until last week, our Xbox (purchased from Amazon) suffered from an unfortunate fault which saw blue flecks of interference appear in dark areas of the screen, a problem particularly noticeable during the opening level of Halo with its claustrophobic corridors aboard the Pillar of Autumn. After speaking to a friendly member of customer care on Saturday morning (having waited only a few minutes in the automated queue), we were told that it sounded like a hardware problem, and arrangements were made to have the Xbox sent home for maintenance. Sniff. On Tuesday we received a nice pre-paid box delivered by our chums at couriers Securicor Omega, and after backing up all of our save data onto one of those £30 memory cards (did you know that one Halo save takes up 223 of the card's 502 blocks?), we shipped it off at no expense to ourselves and began twiddling our thumbs. This morning, I was woken from my slumber somewhat unexpectedly by a loud knock at the door, and lo and behold, it was my Xbox returning from its short holiday. This wasn't much of a surprise though, because Xbox Customer Care emailed me repeatedly with updates on its progress, tracking numbers and all sorts. I felt suitably taken care of. Upon unpacking the Xbox, I was delighted to discover that Microsoft had acknowledged the fault (apparently with the motherboard) and fixed it. A few moments trotting around the Pillar of Autumn later, I was content. Microsoft wasn't though, and sent me a complementary Xbox hat, a trio of Xbox stickers and an Xbox DVD wallet. Furthermore, they actually repaired my machine instead of simply sending me another off the production line. This was an added bonus, because all of my save data and my encoded copy of Queen's Greatest Hits was intact on the hard disk, just as I had left it, negating the earlier memory card juggling entirely. So, to those of you still waiting for your Xbox Reward Pack, we say this: we did not at any point seek special treatment or expose ourselves to Microsoft, so purely from the perspective of Joe Public, Xbox Customer Care does a bloody good job. Your Reward Packs are in good hands.

Microsoft has struck up a deal with TV manufacturer Thomson to produce various "Xbox Ready" televisions for the American market. Using a chunkified RCA (composite) arrangement branded VPORT, the TVs will accept input from a single, custom block and not separate video and left and right audio jacks, but the effect will be much the same. Thomson is promising enhanced picture quality with its range of televisions, which comprises three 36-inch, three 32-inch, four 27-inch and one 20-inch model, all of which are available in flat and bubble screens, but shrewd observers will have noted that S-Video is still bound to be superior to VPORT. Unfortunately for Microsoft, these expensive televisions are unlikely to sell to die-hard Xbox owners, who will see little sense in buying an "Xbox Ready" television only to ignore the VPORT gimmick in favour of the superior S-Video option, but retailers in the States are sure to lap it up as a My First Games Console seller. There is currently no word on whether Thomson will be releasing Xbox-ready televisions in Europe, but if you find yourself eyeing this offer with interest, this writer suggests a huge flat-screen television of some other design with RGB inputs for your games consoles - arguably the best way to play games on anything, with the possible exception of the financially-crippling HDTV.

Grand Theft Auto 3 has got its first official patch on the PC, fixing the problems some users had reported with loading save games, as well as putting a stop to an exception error that could cause the game to hang up after the Rockstar logo was displayed during the start-up sequence. You can also now copy the game's audio files to your hard drive to stop the game constantly trying to load radio stations and other sounds from your relatively slow CD-Rom, and most of the copy protection systems that could cause issues for some legitimate users have been disabled, although you'll obviously still need the game disc in your drive when you start the game up. The diminutive 1Mb patch can be downloaded from the Take 2 website. Meanwhile the English language version of Neverwinter Nights was patched yesterday, before the game had even hit the shelves here in Europe. The fixes mostly seem to be for fairly minor issues though, with the possible exception of the mildly ominous sounding "creatures will now use their spell-like abilities again". More details are available on the patches page at the official Neverwinter Nights community site, or you can take the plunge and download the patch from within the game using the Update option. Related Feature - Grand Theft Auto 3 review

Crave last night announced that Japanese developer Dream Factory is working on UFC Tapout 2, a sequel to the recently released Xbox fighting game. The company is promising a "complete overhaul" of the game engine, with improvements to the AI and graphics, while the career mode has been enhanced to allow players to design their own fighters from scratch, adjusting everything from overall body shape to hairstyles and clothing. Other features will include new moves, more fluid animations, rippling muscles and a wider range of real world UFC fighters to take control of. Americans can look forward to a November release, although European release details have yet to be confirmed.

The world isn't exactly short of Tom Clancy branded games, with several titles already on shelves and a whole new series on the way to consoles and PC alike. One of the most exciting, and certainly the best looking, of this fresh crop of militaristic games is Splinter Cell. We caught up with producer Mathieu Ferland at Ubi Soft Montreal to find out what's cooking up there in Canada.

Eidos have confirmed that they will be publishing Acquire's promising action-adventure game Way Of The Samurai in Europe and Australasia, with a September release on the cards. The game has already topped the charts in Japan, and is also available in America thanks to Bam. Now the PAL territories can look forward to getting their hands on this novel game, which drops you into feudal Japan and leaves you to find your own way through three days of action in and around the Rokkotsu Pass, with the gameplay changing depending on the decisions you take. "We are continually looking for new and exciting games to add to our already impressive product portfolio", Eidos' Jonathan Kemp declared. "Way of the Samurai meets these criteria perfectly and we are confident this innovative game will be very well received." Related Feature - Way Of The Samurai preview

Ah, motorcycling. The fine art of putting a bit of throbbing metal between your legs and risking life and limb by driving it roughly across tarmac and through chicane. It's a noble sport, assuming you don't fall off awkwardly and sprain your ankle, and for the first time that I can remember, it has a very clear leading light in the world of gaming: Climax Brighton's Moto GP.

MindArk got an unpleasant surprise when their offices in Gothenburg were raided by around 70 Swedish court officials, having received allegations that the company was using software without a license. This actually took place way back in April, but for some reason (presumably related to on-going legal action surrounding the case) details have only just emerged today. According to the press release which we received from the developer this morning, the raid was brought about by accusations from Microsoft and three other unnamed companies, which we understand to have been Adobe, Autodesk (makers of 3DS Max) and Macromedia (of Shockwave Flash infamy). Naturally MindArk vigorously denied any wrongdoing, claiming that the company "has procured licenses for all software used in its offices", and furthermore that "MindArk is one of the companies with the most stringent policies regarding software licenses in use by its employees". MindArk MD Jan Welter Timkrans went on to launch some fairly wild accusations of his own, suggesting that Microsoft were trying to disrupt the release of MindArk's massively multiplayer role-playing game Project Entropia to reduce competition for their own effort Asheron's Call. "All through our development process we have kept track of which companies are visiting our site on the Internet and without comparison Microsoft has been one of the most frequent visitors", Jan reports. Whatever the reasons behind the raid though, MindArk are considering taking legal action of their own against Microsoft and the other companies that lodged the complaints. According to a representative, the Swedes would be seeking "a substantial number of millions of United States dollars" in damages. And thanks to Project Entropia's one big innovation, the ability to exchange real life and in-game currency, the company is promising to promptly convert any court winnings into Entropian Dollars for players to uncover in the game. Aw, bless. This isn't the only problem to have beset Project Entropia in the last few months though. A recent power cut caused the loss of some data, resulting in equipment going missing, and players have experienced bugs and server connection issues which have caused lost items as well. As these in-game objects are worth actual real world money, some of the beta testers were obviously quite irate about the situation, and MindArk are currently polling them on whether they would prefer to get a full refund for any money they've put into the game so far at the expense of having everybody's character data wiped, or for the beta to continue uninterrupted but with no refunds. The developer is promising that safeguards are being introduced to make sure that this doesn't happen in the final game, but that's cold comfort for those who now face the choice of either losing money or dozens of hours of work on their characters. To make matters worse, one beta tester e-mailed us recently to complain that she was being charged a $10 withdrawal fee to cover the cost of converting her remaining Project Entropia Dollars back into real world cash and transferring it to her bank account. Unfortunately, while the issue of compensation is being voted on, no transfers are being accepted anyway, leaving those who want out stuck in limbo. Project Entropia is certainly an ambitious effort, especially for a rookie development team, and the idea of being able to convert real world cash into in-game currency and vice versa is a novel one. Sadly the fine details are obviously causing some problems for MindArk. Related Feature - MindArk interview (May 2001)

One of the groups working on a mod chip for the Xbox has pulled the plug on its project following legal consultations. The group, Enigmah-X, had hoped to create the second Xbox chip to go into circulation, following the release of the first working chip, the Xtender, for the system in May. However, earlier this week their site was replaced with the following message: "After speaking to lawyers we feel that we must not do this project anymore. There are many other chips and methods for guys to play with anyway so have fun and good luck to everyone out there." Microsoft is known to have looked into legal methods to shut down mod chip production in the past. However, only Sony has successfully taken on the creators of mod chips in court - the company forced Channel Technologies, the makers of the Messiah PS2 mod chip, to shut down its activities before the chip was commercially released. However, it was a somewhat incomplete victory for Sony, and Microsoft would be unwise to celebrate the closure of the Enigmah-X project too soon either. Messiah chips are currently being mass-produced in the far east, and several companies and individuals in the UK have stock of the chips and are prepared to install them for a price. Similarly, Xbox mod chips aren't going to go away any time soon; plans for devices like these achieve a kind of immortality when they are uploaded to the Internet. Xbox mod creators, however, claim to have the moral high ground in this discussion. Similarly to the Dreamcast hacking teams, they focus their efforts on creating chips which can run homebrew software rather than pirated games, such as the Xbox version of MAME (designed to emulate old arcade machines) and the recently released DivX video player.

American gamers will be able to celebrate independence day in style this year by joining the army and shooting terrorists. Yes, the Unreal-engined Operations portion of America's Army is getting a suitably patriotic send-off, with a July 4th release on the cards. To quote the Army's website, "what better way to celebrate America's freedom then [sic] by downloading and playing Operations: Defend Freedom". As reported previously, this half of the cunningly disguised recruitment drive is a Counter-Strike style teamplay game where up to 32 players battle it out online with realistic weapons, each side believing that they are the good guys thanks to some technical tomfoolery. Reactions to the game when it was demonstrated at the E3 trade show in Los Angeles last month were apparently very positive, and with the backing of the US Army it's sure to score highly on authenticity. Could this be the new Counter-Strike? Will there be a way to switch off friendly fire? And will the Army release the dedicated server code so we aren't all stuck playing on the official US servers? All should become clear soon, and as the game will be free to download it won't cost you anything except time and phone bills to find out the answers... Related Feature - Operation Patriotic Video Game

Nintendo has officially released Memory Card 251 onto the American market. The expansive memory card is priced $19.99 (as opposed to $14.99 for the standard Memory Card 59), and boasts more than four times the capacity of its little brother. MC251's 251 blocks will store a lot of save data. However, not content with this, one third party plans to release a 64Mb memory card in Japan this August, which has a capacity of 1,019 blocks, and access time is said to have improved by more than 50 percent since the original Memory Card 59. Nintendo has yet to announce Memory Card 251's European release date and wouldn't be drawn on it this morning, but if you happen to be importing anything from the US or Japan, memory cards are region agnostic so it might pay to consider one. The only thing to remember is that once formatted, a card cannot be used for another region unless reformatted.

BioWare have released the first official add-on module for Neverwinter Nights, which is expected to teleport on to shelves across Europe tomorrow. Before you get too excited, Contest Of Champions is a fairly straightforward deathmatch module allowing four teams of characters to battle it out online in two different arenas. It's a neat demonstration of what the game can do though, with the ability to raise or lower your level as appropriate to give an even match and a shop in each team's base from which to purchase extra equipment before the battle. Hopefully more interesting modules will follow, and the comprehensive editing tools that come with the game should ensure a flood of user-made add-ons in the months to come. In the meantime though, if you fancy turning your Neverwinter Nights into Quake 3, you can grab the module from the downloads page at Bioware's website. Related Feature - A Neverwinter Night's Dream

XenGamers reports that Square has capped the level limits on jobs in Final Fantasy XI to encourage players to investigate more of the diverse range of tasks available to them. However, the move to cap characters' abilities at level 50 has sparked anger amongst diehard MMORPG enthusiasts, who insist that constantly improving one's character and specializing is one of the most important aspects of a persistent world. Square hopes to increase the level limit to 100 in the coming months, XenGamers reports, by releasing downloadable scenarios with tougher boss figures. Related Feature - Final Fantasy XI preview

Despite being set before Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis is still a great game, and because the pair is being ported to the Cube concurrently, when they are released across Europe in 2003 you will be able to play them in whatever order takes your fancy. And by the sound of it, Capcom is eager to give you every opportunity to buy them both and play them both. The original Resident Evil - due for release on the Cube this September - is a full-blown remake of the first game with glamorous visuals and a refined mansion, and will be released at a typical retail price of about £40. However, both Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis will be released in the States this year for $19.99 a piece - approximately €20 or £13. With the games still some way off, Capcom's European pricing remains a mystery, but being able to buy both games for the price of a single major release would greatly increase their chances of finding favour amongst gamers. More details on both games are available for the uninitiated. Related Feature - Resident Evil GameCube preview

Riding high on the success of Dark Age of Camelot, developers Mythic have announced their second massively multiplayer role-playing game - Imperator. Appropriately enough it's set in a parallel universe where Rome never fell, side-stepping the Dark Ages. Instead the Roman republic has carried on for thousands of years, gradually turning into an interstellar empire where classical themes and sci-fi technology meet. In other words, it's Star Wars with togas and stuffed doormice. In fact, Mythic are taking the frankly bizarre decision not only to go up against the much anticipated Star Wars Galaxies head-on, but to make a point of this in the press release announcing their new game. "When we first began work on Dark Age of Camelot, everyone in the industry thought we were crazy to compete with EA, Microsoft and Sony, and that we were doomed to failure", Mythic president Mark Jacobs boasted. "As our success has shown, this was not the case. Sony and LucasArts have some of the best people in the industry working on Star Wars Galaxies but so does Mythic and soon they will be focusing on Imperator. We look forward to the challenge; it's going to be fun." Mythic might be setting their sights a little high, and there's likely to be a considerable gap between the release of Star Wars Galaxies (expected out towards the end of this year) and Imperator (which has only recently entered development) which will make any direct comparison between the two rather pointless anyway. We're taking Mythic's claims that their latest effort will turn out to be "a revolutionary game that will help define the MMORPG genre for years" with a healthy dose of scepticism for now, but no doubt more details will emerge over the next year or two as the game gets closer to completion.

Jobs aren't the only thing being downsized at Infogrames' Sheffield House studio, with the announcement today that they're hard at work on bringing the MicroMachines franchise to the latest generation of consoles. For those of you with a short memory or a penchant for lurking under large boulders, MicroMachines is a fast and furious racing game played from an overhead view in which you guide tiny toy cars around outsized tracks at high velocity. It's the kind of manic gameplay that's best enjoyed with a few friends and a pint of beer. Now that winning formula is coming to the PS2 and Xbox, with eight new characters to choose from, a variety of vehicles to drive, and of course four player head-to-head options. Other details are thin on the ground at this stage, but with the game due on shelves in November all should become clear soon. Related Feature - Infogrames cuts back at Sheffield House

Microsoft and Ensemble are looking for a few good men (ten thousand, to be precise) to test their real-time strategy game Age of Mythology. The process is expected to start some time early next month, and would-be players are encouraged to sign up before the end of June for their chance of getting into the test group. If you're amongst the lucky chosen ones, you can expect to receive a shiny golden disc with a copy of the latest alpha build of the game burnt on to it, featuring two of the nine civilizations and four player online support. Related Feature - Age of Mythology screenshots

Namco's excessively hyped Soul Calibur II will make its arcade debut in Japan on July 5th, the company announced yesterday. Priced to own at a mere 328,000 yen (that's about €2,755 / £1,789), the unit is expected to sell 8,000 kits throughout Japan, replacing the limited release test version that has received a lot of press lately. With Soul Calibur II on the streets of Japan early next month, and rumours of the arcade unit arriving in America in August, we're going to have to try and work out where the nearest arcade is, because it's been so long since there was any point in going… Soul Calibur II is still scheduled for a multi-platform release next year on affordable consoles, despite Sony's bizarre exclusivity claim at this year's E3. Rumours that Link and Fox McCloud will be making an appearance are vigorously hated by this particular editorial team. Fox has a gun, for God's sake. It just won't work out.

Washed up, that's what Sarge has become. He sits around all day puffing on a cigar and yelling "maggots!" to an empty mess hall. His compatriots were all wiped out in a sizzling textbook example of how to fry a piece of plastic, and he's all that's left, and he's all washed up. But still, he's starring in his own GameCube game; Army Men: Sarge's War, and in this adventure players get to take on the role of the burly old-school alcoholic drill instructor-cast plastic commando himself. Sarge is waging his own personal war against the Tan Army for managing to reduce his platoon into pools of plastic, but Sarge is made of stronger stuff [fired -Ed] and heads off on his own to take the whole bally army on. Presumably players will be expected to combine outrageous weaponry with pulling the trigger in time-honoured tradition, but 3DO is putting an emphasis on combat tactics, improving enemy AI and creating a compelling experience. This is something which Army Men: Sarge's War will have to do if it is to arrive within the same century as the Cube conversion of Medal of Honor, and still make an impact at retail. We are told that the graphics engine has been significantly overhauled, and since this is no fuzzy N64 outing we should hope so too. Character-specific damage makes an entrance beyond the typical "death" scenario, with melting animations, comical hole-blown-through-chest shotgun antics and all sorts of other variations on dismemberment, which could stretch beyond breaking point the Army Men's already tenuous grip on the friendy BBFC certificates. One hopes that 3DO's claims of a Spring 2003 release date will give them enough time to do something creative with the power of the GameCube. We also have hopes that someday the series will culminate in a visual tour de force to put Toy Story to shame, but some might describe those hopes as "high". Or they might just accuse us of being high. Still, Sarge's War will rage next year. Related Feature - 3DO to announce Cube plans