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Criterion is moving ever closer to announcing its acquisition of MathEngine plc's middleware business. The proposed acquisition is subject to a number of conditions, including obtaining shareholder approval from both parties. The firm's RenderWare package already helps to power games like their own Burnout, and third party successes like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and Grand Theft Auto III on the PlayStation 2. MathEngine should help to cement Criterion's position as a major force in console middleware, by helping to divert developer/publisher resources away from expensive engine development and letting them focus on creativity and game design, although in practice, lots of people will just use it to churn out games at a faster rate - a bit cynical, but who can argue with games that actually hit their deadlines? David Lau-Kee, President and CEO of Criterion commented: "we are also continuously searching for ways in which we can further enhance our solutions and future-proof them for the gaming environments of tomorrow." Related Feature - Burnout GameCube review

Nintendo has leapt on the mobile monitor bandwagon this E3, showing off its own adjustable LCD display for the diminutive games console. The official mobile monitor - which lacks a proper name at the moment - is said to provide a crisp image with plenty of colour and no fragmentation or image blurring. Hopefully the eventual product will deal comfortably with the issues of power supply and functionality missed by others. Something portable should be, well, portable. As we've said again and again over the years, official peripherals always seem to work out better (with the Dreamcast and Xbox pads perhaps an exception to the rule), and consumers have a lot more faith in them. Expect this to fly off the shelves if it ever hits them, and if it's reasonably priced. Related Feature - Another LCD panel for a console

Squaresoft has announced a couple of PlayStation 2 games based on Final Fantasy X, to be released within this fiscal year in Japan. Sceptics have cited growing financial pressure on the company as the reason for these uncharacteristic spin-offs, which will expand on the stories of Yuna and Rikku from Final Fantasy X, within the same game engine and world. Depending on what sort of a job the former FFX development team does with these, we can either expect further financial problems for the Japanese RPG giant, or a couple of enjoyable companions to help the time pass before the next single player Final Fantasy, XII appears. Squaresoft's financial report also highlighted changes in the structure of the developer, aimed at reducing costs, with developers moved into divisions rather than freeform teams. Related Feature - Final Fantasy X preview

Grand Theft Auto 3 practically sold the PlayStation 2 single-handed last year, ending a famine of must-have titles in style. But with that exclusive period now over, the console's finest game has finally found its way back to the series' spiritual home on the PC.

When Ubi Soft secured the rights to the products of Tom Clancy's vivid imagination, they went into overdrive with game announcements. After releasing a few screenshots of games in development, it became clear that the multi-platform Splinter Cell was going to be the one to watch.

RoWeb's next LAN party is being sponsored by Ubi Soft, with a £1,000 Ghost Recon tournament amongst the highlights, as well as a chance to take on the real deal, battling it out with British Army personnel in the game. The French publisher is also expected to be showing off their new tactical action sim Rainbow Six : Raven Shield to the 250 punters at the event. And if sneaking around with an assault rifle wearing a balaclava isn't your idea of a good time, attendees will also have the chance to take part in a Superbike 2000 tournament, with a VIP pass to get you into the paddock at the 2002 World Superbike Championship up for grabs. If you fancy taking part, the event is due to kick off in Bicester near Oxford over the weekend of June 14th to 16th - full details on the RoWeb website.

Respected Japanese magazine Famitsu has conducted an interview with Microsoft Japan's Toshiyuki Miyata, concerning the launch of Xbox in the far east and Microsoft's future plans for the system in the region. Miyata-san has confirmed that Microsoft Japan is working on ten titles, and that most of these should be made available before the end of 2002, although details are not currently being released. Unfortunately, Famitsu did not question how many of these titles will be Xbox Live compatible, or what Microsoft's plans are for the service in Japan. Responding to a question about character-driven titles, he told Famitsu that "there's a tendency to imitate other companies by trying to developer trademark characters," and that "I'm more concerned with developing new games which appeal to players." "If a game is high quality, players will embrace it regardless of its main character," he pointed out, adding in jest that "perhaps the main soldier from Halo will end up as our trademark character!" Microsoft Japan is also advising Microsoft in the USA on its domestically developed RPGs, which will be released in Japan as well as the States and Europe. "Potential international appeal isn't a decisive factor in selecting first party games to develop," he said, using horse racing RPG Jockey's Road as a prime example. Microsoft is trying not to flood the Japanese market for the sake of it. Recognising the large number of Western games on the system at the moment, Miyata-san went on. "We're not under any pressure to deliver foreign games," he explained. "Regardless of the popularity of a game in America, if we don't think Japanese players will embrace it, the game won't be released here. Microsoft is keenly aware of Japanese consumers, and the American side understands our perspective on the software issue." Confirming that Microsoft is in this for the long run, he said of the 'console war' that "software is the key. Specifically, unique Xbox-exclusive games are the answer. We must continue releasing as many high quality games as possible."

IGN reports that SN Systems has announced a Network Development Kit (NDK) for Nintendo GameCube, which will allow developers to build online functions into their Cube releases, from the obvious multiplayer battles to more subtle functionality like in-game chat, the infernal buddy lists and even web browsing. The toolkit is said to include a TCP/IP stack that runs on the console, suitable for linking game code to the Internet view both the broadband and modem adapters Nintendo have planned for release. Interested developers should contact SN, and interested gamers should wait and see who dares put it to use first. Related Feature - Xbox Live Demodulated

Valve Software has announced yet another round of patches for Half-Life and Counter-Strike. Updates numbered 1.1.1.0 and 1.5 respectively will be available "in the coming weeks", which in Valve terms means nothing. Team Fortress 2 anybody? Needless to say these will grind the Internet to a halt as everyone and their assorted animals scrambles for the data, but despite only highlighting a number of fixes for both titles and Valve's Ricochet anti-cheating technology, we understand that a new map from Iikka Keranen, de_piranesi, will be included with CS 1.5. Many people have joined forces to promote the downfall of Counter-Strike's online community since the release of version 1.4, but it is still far and away the most popular online first person shooter.

Video footage of Infogrames' V-Rally 3 on the GameBoy Advance indicates that developers are finally pushing the GBA beyond the generally accepted boundaries of Super Nintendo and Mega Drive emulation. Although the quality of first party games and updates on the system has been quite high, many publishers have been keen to cash in on the opportunity to resurrect familiar franchises which never made the jump from 16-bit upwards, and it's only now that we're starting to see technically accomplished games breaking with tradition. Curiously, it's a driving game which first puts distance between GBA graphics and the pinnacles of 16-bit output. V-Rally 3 may not look like RalliSport Challenge, but the developer has the unmistakable staples of the rally game - loud, booming and varied sound effects for everything, the varied, slithery-sliding physics of dirt, tarmac and snow tracks, and realistically modeled vehicles - a combination of elements perhaps conducive to a good game, even if V-Rally hasn't exactly bowled us over in the past. It certainly moves a bit, with plenty of detail on screen and a handsome framerate, albeit with the addition of a certain amount of clipping. You can still see a decent way down the road. Fluid animation, particularly from the in-car view with the driver's hands on the wheel and gear stick, and the bumping up and down of the display helps to inexpensively recreate the feeling of the world rally circuit, at least from the TV spectator's perspective, and the sodden tracks and mud-streaked vehicles of V-Rally 3 should be with us on GBA and PS2 this summer. Although this latest footage of the game has yet to make it out onto the open Internet, IGN has a collection of assets from earlier in the year, which you can view here. Related Feature - V-Rally 3 GBA screenshots

Metroid Prime is not simply a modern day reworking of the formula; it's the same formula applied to a 3D world, and the first step to translating the game was to come up with a believable alternative to the 2D side-scrolling measures of the past. Choosing the first person perspective was brave, but using a visor's eye view and third person sections to roll around in ball form was like a leap of faith.

Football, we understand. Any monkey in a green suit can tell you whether or not the ball has crossed the goal line, and whether that two-footed stud-platter you just served the right back was legitimate or not - in fact we might even suggest employing monkeys as a cost-cutting solution to FIFA's current financial problems - but put that same monkey, or indeed your average European, on a shiny wooden court with a bunch of seven foot men in vests and shorts, and before long he won't know where he is, what he's doing or what his name is.

As well as the now much publicized Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance, Konami also announced Zone of the Enders 2: Second Runner in its pre-E3 financial report. And this morning, alongside a light-hearted look at MGS2: Substance, the company is also serving up a video of ZOE 2, weighing in at a slightly larger 18Mb. Unfortunately we don't have a direct link for this from Konami, but IGN is currently serving the file from here. Beware though, their Windows Media plugin was clever enough to crash both Netscape 7.0 and IE6, so you might want to get in there, nab the download link and close the browser before it takes over your computer and destroys your life. [Bit melodramatic, maybe? - Ed] At five minutes long you'll have to spend more time with ZOE 2 than you did Substance, and it's a lot more serious, with Orbital Frame Jehuty laying down the storyline. BAHRAM has started armed suppression against Martians, and Martian liberation activities against Earth's oppression have surfaced. BAHRAM's forces are, of course, overwhelming, and Mars falls to them with ease, which is where you come in. Encased in your orbital frame and on cardiopulmonary life support to boot, you have to go in and destroy BAHRAM's military fortress, in much the same ways you went about fighting the battles in the original ZOE. Graphically it looks a lot nicer, reminiscent of the recently released Xbox shooter Gun Valkyrie, but with far more aerial combat in the traditional ZOE style. The graphics in the game were always anime esque, but now it's doubly so, with the sharp angled bodies of the Jehuty and its compatriots brightly coloured and fleet of foot, or jetpack. The whole thing could just be a big interactive CG cartoon by the looks of it, with ornate visuals highlighting every angle and detail of the orbital frames right down to the shimmer of electrical current washing over them, and the game looks to consist of a typically elaborate Japanese storyline, and a stirring soundtrack. If you like big mechs, the idea of martial arts in a mech with MGS2-level presentation, directed by the careful hand of Hideo Kojima, bathed in a graphics engine which looks like a cross between the cel-shaded worlds of Jet Set Radio and the action-packed confines of the original game, then you want to download this video. And if the game delivers in the same way the first one did, we'll be laughing come Christmas when it gets its release. Hopefully with an MGS2: Substance demo.

Here's an amusing little fact for you - my first tentative steps into the world of videogame journalism came at the tender age of nine, when I wrote a fictionalized walkthrough of the first level of Repton for my school magazine. Flash forward some sixteen years and Superior Software's classic BBC Micro platform puzzler is being brought back to life on PDAs and the next generation of Java-compatible mobile phones, courtesy of Masabi. Once again players will take control of the reptile-like hero Repton as he wanders around colourful mazes clearing soil, hoarding diamonds, opening safes, defusing bombs, escaping ghosts and shoving rocks over ledges to crush monsters. A massive 144 levels from the original Repton series will be included in the new mobile version of the game, along with several exclusive new levels designed for the re-release by Repton veterans. Mobile Repton will even include a modern web-based equivalent of the revolutionary editor that shipped with the original BBC Repton games, allowing players to create their own sprites and levels for the game and share them with other users. And you thought mod-making began with Doom. Shame on you. "Repton is Superior Software's highest-selling game series, and gamers continue to contact us asking if any new Repton sequels or conversions are under development", according to Superior Software founder Richard Hanson. "The game is as enjoyable and well-loved today as it has always been, and we are delighted to have made this licensing deal with Masabi to bring Repton to fans new and old, wherever they may wish to play." Expect to see Repton emerging from hibernation this summer. Now all we need is a GameBoy Advance version of Repton to put that upstart Mario in his place...

Konami has released a short video demonstrating Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance. Distributed as a 10Mb ASF file, the footage is taken directly from E3 and begins humorously, with a montage of audio lines from the game set to one of the game's haunting low-key themes. "Why are you repeating the same mistake?" and "I knew he had the real thing up his sleeve" were my favourites, but overall the humour is self-deprecating, and it put me in the mood to learn more about the game - the video's ending is also pretty funny. Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance was announced in a Konami financial report before the trade Expo, and looks set to let players do just about anything they want to do within the confines of the Metal Gear Solid universe. If you fancy playing through the tanker section of the game as Raiden (god help you) then you can, and if you fancy playing through as Snake wearing a tuxedo, that's also an option. In fact, MGS2: Substance is like a toy chest full of action figures and the game's locations are bits of carpet, painted cereal boxes and stacked CD cases - you're making your own game now. Hundreds more VR Missions are promised besides the complement of regular alternate missions (including the option to go back through the game using a ninja sword like a lightsaber, or to play through Snake's bomb-disposal section), and the VR simulator and effects it employs look great. It even appears as though you will be able to play VR-simulated versions of the original MGS single player game. In fact, it looks like someone has hotwired the VR simulator and is using it to teach our poor heroes a lesson, with mountainous soldiers marching about at several hundred metres in height. And of course the highly anticipated skateboarding sections look… interesting. Very Tony Hawk, but then that was to be expected. The skateboarding sections are meant to act as an advert for Konami's new skating title, in which you can also find a playable Solid Snake. Substance is definitely looking less like a cash-in and more like a fairly well thought out expansion and reinvention of this year's most impressive seller to date. If Konami can deliver a game with enough surprises and fanboy-tastic extras then it might even be worth picking up. Either way, you should download the video, particularly if you're a fan. Be warned though, it does contain a few minor spoilers. For those of you already dying to play it, we hear it will be out before the end of the year in Japan and the USA, on PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC. Related Feature - Metal Gear Solid 2 review

British developer and publisher Rage is in trouble again this week, with the Royal Bank Of Scotland threatening to call in the company's £6.2m overdraft if they can't get more funding in the near future, according to a report from the Financial Times yesterday. As a result the company will be holding a shareholders' meeting next month to approve the issuing of around 445,000,000 new shares. Given that these shares are worth just over 1p each at the moment that's not quite as impressive as it may sound, but it will provide enough loose change to cover the company's expenses for the next year and stop their bank from demanding their cash back. If for some reason shareholders refuse to back the move though, Rage could be put into adminstration this summer. Luckily this seems somewhat unlikely. Rage is now banking on one or more of its big releases finding success, with licensed games based on the Rocky movies and SAS veteran turned novellist Andy McNab expected on shelves by the end of the year, along with actioneer Twin Caliber and inline skating sim Rolling. In the more immediate future, an Xbox version of the previously unsuccessful David Beckham Soccer is being timed to tie in with World Cup fever, Transformers-inspired action game Gun Metal is due to arrive on the Xbox early in the summer, and online shooter Mobile Forces should be out this week for the PC. "If we don't have a big winner it is going to be a hard slog", Rage's managing director Paul Finnegan admitted, adding that "we have our fingers crossed". Related Feature - Rage losses grow

Back in the mists of time, before the likes of Diablo and Baldur's Gate resurrected the role-playing genre, SSI were the lord of the dice. Although they're best known for the classic Gold Box series of the late 1980's that included the original Pool Of Radiance, SSI were also one of the first companies to introduce a first person viewpoint to computer role-playing games with 1991's Eye Of The Beholder. Now this piece of Dungeons & Dragons history is being brought back from the beyond, with a new interpretation due out on the GameBoy Advance this autumn courtesy of Pronto Games and Infogrames. Once again players will be called upon to deal with an evil afflicting the city of Waterdeep, but with revamped dungeons to explore, additional side quests to complete and an update to bring the game's character development and combat in line with the latest Third Edition AD&D rule set, it's much more than just a straight port. Time to start polishing those d20's... Related Feature - D&D Heroes on the way

Budding game designers will want to check out Agetec's RPG Maker 2 when it materialises in the fourth quarter of 2002. It's already out in Japan, but interest will obviously hinge on the English-language release, announced at E3. The second release in the RPG Maker series will allow 'players' to create a turn-based 3D fantasy RPG with help from a variety of tools, which will allow the user to generate or design their own characters and monsters, edit backgrounds, special effects and the very shape of the world, as well as script events and dialogue. And of course, once created players can play their way through to their heart's content. With only an 8Mb memory card upon which to store data, RPG Maker 2 will presumably be quite restrictive, and is much less of a bedroom-developer tool than the original Net Yaroze, but it's something different, and if you've ever sat through a sequence of dialogue in an RPG and wondered if you could do any better, now's your chance. Related Feature - Modern games are rubbish

Square has confirmed that apart from a PlayStation 2 version, Final Fantasy XI, the much-vaunted online evolution of the series, will be released on the PC during calendar year 2003. Related Feature - Final Fantasy XI preview

John Carpenter's The Thing has taken new shape at this year's E3. After a slew of less than impressive PlayStation 2 shots, mostly from the less than impressive PlayStation 2 video of the game released at last year's ECTS, punters looking forward to the film adaptation will be able to look upon the new PC screenshots with a smile. Locations reminiscent of those from Silent Hill 2 and graphics approaching those seen in the Cube version of Resident Evil look set to do the film's eerie, often sickening visuals justice. This is in stark contrast to the PlayStation 2 footage and screenshots of the game. In the ECTS video, characters slid along the ground unrealistically and the various incarnations of The Thing were blocky and not scary in the slightest. If anything, they were scarily simple models. In these latest screenshots characters appear to be much more detailed, and there are clear signs of the vaunted relationship-based gameplay falling apart in spectacular fashion, with one shot of a showdown between three would-be conspirators and a fourth, slightly puzzled member of the salvage expedition. Other shots show enormous flamethrowers and dank and dirty sections of the snow-buried research post. The question of how well The Thing can work as a game remains, but these are encouraging signs. One has to wonder why Vivendi were so keen to show it off at ECTS. Related Feature - The Thing PC screenshots

I've wanted to play console games online since the summer holidays of the 16-bit era. I didn't even have an Internet connection back then, something completely unthinkable to me now, and the thought of growing up with game playing friends on-tap 24 hours a day seemed wondrous.

For Ang Lee's seminal Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to do so well at the box office is a testament to the average consumer's open-mindedness. Admittedly there were a lot of snickering kids in the audience when I saw it, and people to whom the concept of reading subtitles is taboo, but the film, described as the most beautiful film ever made by some, and its subsequent DVD release, may have already helped to elevate the traditional martial arts film to a position of high regard in the West. Starring Chow Yun-Fat (Li Mu Bai), Michelle Yeoh (Yu Shu Lien) and the delectable Ziyi Zhang (Jen Yu), the film made an instant impression, and license holders Ubi Soft chose E3 to demonstrate the early traits of the software reincarnation. Armed with screenshots from the PlayStation 2 version, the firm announced that players can play as any of the three main characters, and the screenshots confirm that the early character modelling is very impressive. The premise is the same as the film, with the overall objective to bring about the downfall of Jade Fox, the killer of Mu Bai's master and Shu Lien's fiancé. Ubi Soft says that each character will have a different story, but Jen Yu's has not be elaborated upon at this stage. Each of the main characters is armed with an assortment of weapons including the Green Destiny sword itself, and each will have a number of staple 'special moves', which will hopefully bear a lot of resemblance to their big screen counterparts. Translating the frenetic, often dizzyingly fast-paced action of the film into a game format will be quite a challenge. The game will be released on PS2 and GBA in November of 2002, with a Cube version following in the first quarter of 2003. Cube owners shouldn't fret though - we understand that a bonus character (Chen Chang's Lo, or Dark Cloud) will be included for players to get to grips with. Related Feature - Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon PlayStation 2 screenshots

If you're just catching up on the tail end of E3, so are we! With so much on display at this year's Expo there will be a fresh E3 info to serve for many days to come. At the weekend we learnt that Koei has announced that unreleased GameCube fantasy action game Mystic Heroes will be released on PlayStation 2 later this year. The game is considered a Chinese mythology version of Dynasty Warriors 3, so fans of that will do well to keep their eye on Mystic Heroes. As we understand it, the PS2 version will feature more multiplayer options for cooperative and versus play, and four new hidden characters. PlayStation 2 owners will also get to try out the developer's popular war simulation RPG Sangokushi Senki, which will be released as Dynasty Tactics in the US later this year. Hopefully the game won't suffer the same fate as many similar games have done, and particularly games with 'Tactics' in the title. In other Koei-related news, the company has confirmed that Crimon Sea is progressing nicely for the Xbox. This is effectively a sci-fi version of Dynasty Warriors, with the same gameplay dynamic, but a setting far in the future and hordes of aliens to destroy. A neat addition to this game is the Enemy Detection System, which allows you to detect the position of enemies around you by vibration and sound. Dolby Digital surround sound looks to be a pre-requisite for this one. If aliens and quasi-future sci-fi nonsense doesn't rock your boat though, Dynasty Warriors 3 itself will be released in the US on Xbox this summer. We hope to speak to THQ (publishers of the PS2 version of the game) about the game's European release date when they all recover from their E3 hangovers. Related Feature - Dynasty Warriors II review

Do you own a PlayStation 2? Do you live in Europe, Africa or the Middle East? Then you can finally purchase the PlayStation 2 Linux Kit, suitable for use with PAL hardware. But only online. For the princely sum of €249 / £155 plus VAT (€292.58 / £182.13), you will receive a 40Gb hard disk drive, a 10/100Mbit network adapter, a USB keyboard and three-button mouse, a monitor cable adapter with two phono audio jacks for stereo speakers and a two-DVD disc set including Linux installation, RTE and hardware manuals. It isn't all fun and it absolutely isn't games, however. The 40Gb hard disk drive is not compatible with PS2 software, and will not work in the same way as the broadband kit will when that becomes available. Although a network adapter is provided, no modem is included so unless you have access to a network and you use suitable connection sharing, you have no real Internet options with the Linux kit. The monitor cable provided is also less than it seems. For a start you need a monitor with sync-on-green capabilities, and worse than that, you can't actually play games through it, because of the way the VGA output works on PlayStation 2. Or doesn't, as it would seem. The package also requires that you own an 8Mb memory card, although that does seem likely, and of course the PlayStation 2 console. Rumours doing the rounds on the web at the moment also suggest that the Linux kit will not function correctly with modified, or 'chipped' PlayStation 2 consoles. It seems that we were a little harsh on Sony about the kit at first, as it turns out that having ordered the kit from the Linuxplay.com website, you can turn to the excellent and comprehensive official FAQ, on the official website. Which is official, contradicting what we said before. Although Sony seems reluctant to put any marketing weight behind the product, and although it doesn't seem that this "niche product" will ever appear on retailers' shelves, those behind the Linux kit within Sony have contacted us outside the traditional boundaries of PR back-and-forth, and we hope to actually get to play with a kit shortly. If it's as good as they are enthusiastic about it, then it will be difficult not to recommend. Needless to say, we would be very interested to hear from people who have the kit. Sony claims that the Linux kit will be on display at selected exhibitions and conferences, and that the PS2 Linux community website is the place to go for information on those. Related Feature - SCE to release Linux kit in Europe

A high-end graphics chip from ATI was used to power the demo of Doom III at this year's E3, the two companies have confirmed. With so many people selling the farm to upgrade for this game, it now seems certain that ATI's latest graphics card, scheduled for release before the end of 2002, will fly off the shelves. "ATI's next generation hardware has an ideal feature set for the Doom III engine," said John Carmack, a man who needs no introduction, "and at the moment is the fastest platform to run the game on." John's comments through his popular .plan file are used by many to judge the quality of new graphics hardware. His intricate knowledge of graphics card architecture and his position at Id Software mean that many follow his advice almost blindly. Although he has previously backed GeForce 3 as the card for Doom III, he has recently been openly scathing of ATI's biggest competitor, and this latest recommendation undoubtedly still carries a lot of weight. Related Feature - We're All Doomed!

TimeSplitters 2 bowled us over when we managed to get our hands on it before E3. Free Radical's follow-up to the finest action game at the PS2's launch has been praised because of its improved single player game, but as with the original the multiplayer options are the most interesting part of the equation. Unfortunately, speaking to Gaming Age at this year's E3, Free Radical confirmed that although PlayStation 2 online support is happening, Xbox Live support is not currently planned. The different versions are being timed to launch simultaneously, and because the Xbox conversion only began development three months prior to E3, the Xbox version could not feasibly include Live support. A blow for the service? Or one less competitor for the inevitable Halo 2 and Counter-Strike? Related Feature - TimeSplitters 2 hands-on preview

One E3 announcement which has slipped through the fingers of many is Nintendo's reduction in pricing for GBA cartridges. Developers and publishers will pay three dollars less per (64Mbit, 4k EEPROM) cartridge, which means that more new games will cost $29.99 in North America. Because Nintendo serves everything out of its Japanese facilities, it's a safe bet that this applies globally. We should start to see cheaper GBA games in Europe before the end of the summer.

More bad news for those betting their futures on the internet emerged during E3 last week, with American's Interactive Digital Software Association releasing the results of their latest survey on the state of the gaming industry in the USA. According to their research, although 31% of regular games players now play online, only a third of those people prefer playing online to traditional single player games. Hopefully this statistic means that single player games still have a future, and we're not heading towards a nightmare world where every big new release is an online game, as Microsoft's J Allard recently suggested. It's also worth noting that only one of the top twenty selling games in the US last year featured online support (Tony Hawk 3 on the PS2), and only around half of them included even split-screen or link cable multiplayer options. The good news for publishers and manufacturers touting online gaming as the wave of the future is that 30% of those who don't play online at the moment said that this was at least partly because they weren't interested in any of the games currently on offer. This is something that a new wave of online titles might help to solve, as long as they're not all Counter-Strike and EverQuest clones. The downside is that only 6% of these people would be willing to pay to play games online. Meanwhile a slowdown in broadband take-up in the US threatens to "be a drag on the prospects for online games", according to IDSA head Doug Lowenstein. So is online gaming really the future, as people have been claiming for the best part of a decade now? Is the revolution just around the corner, as it has been for the best part of a decade now? And will anyone actually pay to take part in it once it arrives? Related Feature - Online gaming overhyped

Another story that got lost in the E3 rush was EA's unveiling of The Sims on the PlayStation 2. The announcement that the best-selling PC game of all time is being brought to the world's most popular console by its biggest third party publisher is only surprising in that it took so long to happen. Work is already underway at Maxis on putting right this oversight though, with the game expected to ship towards the end of the year. Rather than simply porting the game over to Sony's console, Maxis and Texan developers Edge of Reality are giving The Sims a 3D make-over and adding a new two player mode to allow you to battle it out with your mates for popularity points. Obviously the interface has been given an overhaul to make it better suit a gamepad, but the game has also been given a more structured campaign mode in addition to the traditional freeform gameplay of the original. Exclusive new characters, artwork and items have been added to spice things up, including stylish hats and an .. er .. strip poker game. Don't ask. If the success of the multi-million selling PC version is anything to go by, expect The Sims to be completely dominating the PlayStation 2 charts in the run up to the all-important festive season this year. Related Feature - Sim Best Seller

One of the stories we missed during the frenetic build-up to E3 earlier in the week was Microsoft's first official confirmation of sales figures for the Xbox in Europe. A disappointing debut saw Microsoft falling back on the excuse that "we typically don't provide sales breakdowns on a regional basis", but following a dramatic price cut and the arrival of some more Euro-centric software (namely soccer games), things are apparently starting to look up. Unsurprisingly Microsoft have abandoned their vow of silence now they have something positive to report... At a news conference on the eve of E3, Xbox supremo Robbie Bach revealed that over half a million Xboxes have been sold in Europe during its first two months on sale here. While this is certainly an impressive turn-around in fortunes, it bears remembering that the GameCube sold around 400,000 units during its first weekend in Europe, and has probably already overtaken the Xbox in terms of total sales. Still, the console war on our side of the pond is at least beginning to look more like a three horse race than a three legged pub crawl. Meanwhile, back in America, the Xbox shifted 1.8m units during its first five months (that's through to mid-April) and is no doubt hovering somewhere around the two million mark by now. Things remain tough in Japan, with Bach admitting that "a year ago people said Japan would be a tough market for us, and they were right". But on the bright side, coming off the back of a strong showing at E3 which was in stark contrast to last year's disappointing outing, things have arguably never looked so good for the Xbox. A worldwide installed base of over 2.5m just six months into its life, a solid line-up of exclusive and ported titles on the horizon and competitive pricing in all territories should ensure its future, even though it's highly unlikely ever to catch up with Sony's gargantuan headstart. Related Feature - Xbox delivers at E3