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The PlayStation 2 version of Super Monkey Ball has fallen off the bottom of Infogrames' release radar, and nobody at the company seems to know anything about it. US and Japanese releases have still yet to take place, and the game will not appear at E3 this year according to Sega officials. The GameCube version of the game is due out in Europe tomorrow alongside the console itself. Although not originally developed by Nintendo, the quirky simian concept drives precisely the sort of game you might expect the Japanese developer to produce, and with the console at a convention-defying price in this country from day one, sales may well pick up. As for the PlayStation 2 version of the game, we'll keep you posted. Earlier this morning Infogrames refused to speculate on whether or not the game had been canned. Related Feature - Super Monkey Ball 2 in development

One of Nintendo's GameCube launch promotions here in the UK involves seven-foot Perspex cubes showcasing a variety of contemporary artists, from the peculiar (contortionists, magicians) and the healthy (aerobics instructors and Tai Chi experts), to young musicians (Soil) and young offenders (Asher D). This week, for the first time, photographs emerged of the Clear Cubes campaign in action, outside HMV in Covent Garden, London. The first photograph is taken from some way away, and seems a mite innocuous, but the band in the second photograph is believed to be Soil, originally expected to take their turn in the Cube this afternoon. Oddly named pop group allSTARS will be appearing at noon tomorrow in the same Cube, and midnight openings are planned at HMV stores in London's Oxford Street, Glasgow and Birmingham. Virgin were heavily involved in the promotion of Microsoft's rival Xbox, opening a number of Megastores in the United Kingdom at the stroke midnight, 13th March. HMV may have banked on receiving greater returns from GameCube affiliation, but if the store plans to carry the console at £129.99 - and it would be an incredible blow to its relationship with Nintendo if it were to ignore the suggested retail price - it may make as little as £4 / €6.45 per unit sold. Related Feature - Nintendo fills the Cube

Having sampled first hand the simian delights of GameCube launch title Super Monkey Ball, your humble correspondent was pleased, but not altogether surprised to read that development of a sequel is now underway at developer Amusement Vision. GameSpot reports that the four characters who made up the cast of the original game - an enhanced version of the Monkey Ball arcade game - will return for the sequel, and that a number of extra modes have been added in addition to the main game mode, one of which is said to be a story mode spread across ten themed worlds. Other additions are said to include six new party games; monkey boat race, shot, dogfight, tennis, baseball and soccer (of which screenshots have already emerged), and returnees monkey race, target, billiards, bowling and golf will also receive updates. For instance, monkey target - a Pilotwings derivative - will be expanded to include formation flying, and monkey golf will receive a complete going over, with a new course of 18 holes. The report concludes with the news that the (presumably Japanese) release date is set for later this year on GameCube. More information is expected from American publisher Sega at E3 later this month.

Acclaim Entertainment has forged a new development studio in the crucible of harsh market conditions. Acclaim Studios Manchester, which was officially unveiled early on Wednesday morning, consists of 70 former employees of Software Creations, including former CEO, Paul Hibbard, who takes up the position of General Manager at the new company, reporting directly to John Ma, Acclaim's Executive Vice President of Product Development. Software Creations is responsible for a multitude of titles stretching back to 8-bit systems. Some of its more memorable titles include 16-bit oddities Equinox and Plok. Last year the developer completed work, along with co-developer EA Sports, on the GameCube version of FIFA Soccer 2002 Major League Soccer, released to critical acclaim in the States last Christmas. It was not however involved in the porting of the game to the PlayStation 2. Acclaim has positioned the studio strategically, with Rod Cousens, President and Chief Operating Officer at Acclaim International, commenting that the addition of Acclaim Studios Manchester "broadens our global development capabilities". It has not been revealed whether any employees were laid off in the transition from Software Creations, nor which projects the new company will now start work on, but "certain proprietary assets" have also been rescued from the ashes of the former developer by Acclaim. Representatives of Acclaim were not available for comment at the time of writing, but then again it is 10pm.

Ubi Soft has unveiled its line-up for the Electronic Entertainment Expo, taking place in Los Angeles later this month. Two recently announced Tom Clancy games, Raven Shield and Splinter Cell, will take centre stage along with Rayman 3 Hoodlum Havoc, the anticipated sequel to the excellent Rayman 2. Speaking of Rayman, his creator Michel Ancel will be revealing his latest top-secret game at the show for the first time. Amongst the other games on display will be graphic novel inspired first person shooter XIII and a handful of licensed games, including Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Sum of All Fears (another Clancy game) and, ahem, Sabrina The Teenage Witch: Potion Commotion. Perhaps of most interest is the company's focus on online gaming, through console and PC. The company's massively multiplayer project Shadowbane will feature, along with the console version of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon and a smattering of others.

Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader is the most popular pre-order for the GameCube in the United Kingdom, publisher Activision is reporting. The heavily trademarked title (take a look at the press release if you don't believe us) is already the top-selling third party game in the US. To mark the achievement, Activision will be exhibiting full-size Star Wars replica figures including Darth Vader, Boba Fett, C-3PO and R2D2 outside HMV's Oxford Street, London store in time for the Thursday midnight launch celebrations. Related Feature - Rogue Leader preview

Football, it's a funny old game. Every once in a while, a developer takes this bizarre adage to heart, and produces a football game which ejects tradition and focuses on the fun bits. Unlike their hawckey and fwootbwall counterparts though, these loosely bound footy blitz games are often shunned by real football supporters. Thankfully, either Sega did no market research, or it just plain didn't care, because here I am with a copy of Sega Soccer Slam, developed by Visual Concepts in conjunction with Black Box Games, and it's really rather rocking.

Before Maxis spawned The Sims, the best-selling PC game of all time, and descended into a sordid existence of releasing an endless stream of expansion packs, they were best known for the classic city management game SimCity. Now they're returning to those roots with SimCity 4, featuring an all-new graphics engine and a wider scope. Instead of simply running a single city, you will now find yourself part of a larger region with multiple cities that can work together or in competition as they are linked by transport networks and grow towards each other. Maxis have also taken a voyeuristic leaf from their budding Sims franchise, allowing you to introduce a little Sim into your city and then watch them as they go about their day-to-day business, giving you hints as to what's wrong with your urban masterplan, or simply providing a vicarious thrill. "We have really lifted up the hood and made amazing improvements to the underlying simulation to give the player the most responsive, personal and satisfying SimCity yet", Maxis manager Lucy Bradshaw is quoted as saying. If the game lives up to this billing it should be huge - the SimCity series has already shifted several million units worldwide over the last decade, and giving it a more personal touch for all the legions of Sims fans out there could help it to reach an even wider audience. Either way we should know more soon, as the game is due to debut at the E3 trade show in Los Angeles next month. Related Feature - Sim Best Seller

The NES had Super Mario Bros. The SNES had Super Mario World. The N64 had Super Mario 64. Traditionally Mario sells the console and then Nintendo drip-feeds gamers with offerings from its other major franchises, but this time Mario's late to the party. So late in fact, he hasn't even turned up in Japan yet. Nintendo's diminutive console needs something to sell it, and the closest thing to a Mario game we have for now is Luigi's Mansion, brainchild of legendary designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Is it enough? The premise is extremely simple. By way of a peculiar stroke of luck, Luigi has won a mansion in a competition he never even entered, and agrees to meet his brother Mario there for a celebration. Unfortunately, after wandering aimlessly through a spooky forest, our hero discovers that his mansion prize is little more than an elaborate trap, and headstrong Mario has already fallen victim. Teaming up with local oddball Professor E. Gadd, Luigi vows to rid the mansion of its ghostly inhabitants and rescue his brother. The game is a bold departure from previous Mario Brothers titles. Unlike his bouncy brother, Luigi doesn't jump, bop people on the head or throw fireballs. He doesn't fly, and he doesn't collect stars. Well, only once. Luigi's spooky adversaries are almost infallible, susceptible to nothing but the quirky Prof's modified vacuum cleaner, the Poltergust 3000. Using the pressure-sensitive left and right shoulder buttons to blow and suck at the desired rate, Luigi can gobble up ghosties and bag the Boos, before returning to the Prof's lab to turn them into portraits for the gallery.

Microsoft plans to cut the price of Xbox in Japan, product manager David Hufford has revealed in an interview with Xen Gamers. Hufford, who also revealed a number of details relating to the Xbox Live service in a recent interview, says "it's just a matter of when it happens."

Partners Microsoft and Nvidia are at war over the troubled Xbox, for which the latter supplies graphics chipsets. In this SEC filing, NVidia discloses that Microsoft is seeking damages for violation of the deal. Microsoft - and not Nvidia as reported by some wires today - took the case to arbitration a week ago. The tattooed encyclopedia says Microsoft wants to pay less than was agreed in the original deal, which tots up to $13 million as of this January. As part of that deal, The Beast paid NVidia $200 million: money that NVidia says it's now spent. Microsoft cut the price of the console in Europe recently to revive demand, and consequently will face lower margins, or more likely since the box is subsidized, a greater loss than it expected.

Rockstar Games has announced Smuggler's Run: Warzones for the GameCube, to be developed by Angel Studios. Warzones is less of a port and more of an extension, which is why Rockstar has opted for the new moniker. As with the PlayStation 2's Smuggler's Run 2: Hostile Territory, players will be dragged all over the world, from war-torn Vietnam to the perilous streets of Eastern Europe, but the GameCube version will also include a couple of extra levels. The graphical engine has been given an overhaul to take advantage of the GameCube's capabilities. Apart from the usual, expansive 3D environments and incalculable draw distance, Angel Studios has used the Cube's power to include realistic trees and vegetation, rocky outcroppings and building architecture. In addition, more vehicles will be able to move onscreen this time without incurring slowdown. All sorts of particle effects will be included, says Rockstar, along with dynamic reflection mapping on the vehicles. Split-screen multiplayer is promised once again, this time with the capacity for up to four participants. Take 2 confirmed this morning that Smuggler's Run: Warzones is set for a 26th July release in Europe. Related Feature - Smuggler's Run 2: Hostile Territory PlayStation 2 review

Midway have signed a licensing deal with DC Comics and Warner Brothers to produce games based on their Justice League comic, which spawned the trippy Super Friends cartoon series during the 1970s. The deal gives Midway access to some of the world's best known super-heroes, including Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, as well as more obscure (and frankly useless) characters such as Aquaman and .. er .. Wonder Dog. Yes, we hope that one gets left on the cutting room floor. No self-respecting hero would be able to don his gaudy costume without a super villain to do battle with, and Justice League should give Midway access to everyone from Lex Luthor and The Joker to The Shade and Brainiac. Midway are said to be "looking forward to bringing these iconic characters to gamers everywhere", especially as the Justice League has recently been revived, with a new cartoon series and tie-in comic launched late last year. Expect to see a whole plethora of heroes and villains finding their way on to the GameBoy Advance and next-generation consoles some time in the not-so-distant future. Related Feature - Punish your machine

GTA Vice City, sometimes referred to as GTA3: Miami, is happening on PlayStation 2. On Friday, Sony issued a press release through its SCEE.com website confirming the forthcoming release of a number of big titles over the coming year, and much to the mortification of Rockstar Games, GTA Vice City was among the titles listed. If you check the press release now, of course, you will find no trace of it. The American website that picked up on the release - Gaming Horizon - didn't store a local copy of the release, but did quote the offending chunk, which we have reprinted below. "More than 30 first party games titles and over 200 third party games for PlayStation 2 are scheduled for release in the coming year. These include The Getaway, Primal, WRC 2002, Ratchet and Clank and This Is Football 2003 from SCEE and Virtua Fighter 4, Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy X, Harry Potter, Timesplitters 2, Superman; Shadow of Apokolips, TOCA Race Driver, Medal of Honor Front Line, Onimusha 2, GTA Vice City, Red Faction 2, Tribes 2, Tony Hawk 4 and Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness, all from third party publishers." Both Rockstar and Sony are keeping schtum, but we understand the former is more than a little annoyed with the latter. GTA Vice City is expected to be among the games announced by Rockstar at E3 next month, and will take place in a fictional interpretation of Miami, as fans of the original Grand Theft Auto will no doubt have guessed. Watch out for it. Related Feature - Grand Theft Auto III review

Earlier this month we reported that Eidos were planning to auction off the original Lara Croft costume, as worn by model Nell McAndrew back in 1998, with all the proceeds going to UNICEF. Those of you wanting to get your hands on this unique and rather kitsch piece of gaming history can now head over to eBay UK to put in a bid for the costume, which includes everything from the infamous skin-tight shorts and vest to a pair of replica pistols and Lara's sunglasses. The auction isn't for the faint of heart or empty of wallet, because with six days left to run the asking price is already above £2,000. But if you have deep pockets and a strange fetish which we really don't want to know about, this could be just the thing. And it's all in aid of a good cause, as you can try to explain to your girlfriend when you tell her you just spent a few thousand pounds on a pair of sweaty pants. Related Feature - Tomb Raider : Angel of Darkness screenshots

Norwegian developers Funcom will be unveiling an expansion pack for their massively multiplayer game Anarchy Online at this year's E3 trade show. Titled Anarchy Online : Shadowlands and due for release at the end of the year, the add-on will feature new locations to explore (including the eponymous Shadowlands and a floating city), new variations on the original game's breeds, new high level items and a wider choice of armour. The pack will also give players more ways to develop their characters, with a specialization system which allows you to branch off into new subprofessions that can give you access to special abilities or reduce the cost of improving certain skills or attributes. Expect to hear more after this year's E3, where Shadowlands will apparently be the only game on display at Funcom's stand. Sadly this seems to suggest that no further progress has been made on their much more interesting viking MMRPG Midgard since it was put on hiatus a few months ago. Related Feature - Midgard put on hold

Having unwittingly blown the lid on Xbox Live through its own Official Magazine in the United Kingdom, a story since removed (albeit not by us), Microsoft is now talking openly about the service, and the best example of this so far is a GameSpy interview with product manager David Hufford. Xbox Live will provide online opposition 365 days a year, and access will be controlled by a single password, Hufford explains. Amongst the core features of every Xbox Live game will be instant messaging and voice communications (with voice masking). Furthermore, the Xbox Voice Commander product will actually plug into a memory card slot, saving players the torment of giving up a gameport. Apart from these standards, Microsoft also plans to ban cheaters as and when they are found out. The lobby system will allow players to switch games without severing the connection, Dreamcast style, and message people in and out of all the supported games. The system, currently in testing at Microsoft, will control all the niggling aspects of online gaming; subscription fees, server management, tools, interface standards and so forth, in the interests of putting online gaming within a developer's reach without substantial support costs. And if it has been worrying you, the service will not be based on The Zone. The service has been built from the ground up, if Hufford is to be believed, and currently has more people working on it than worked on the Xbox launch itself. Hufford tells us to pay close attention to E3, where he believes online gaming will take centre stage in each of the format holders' presentations, along with a number of big software announcements. Seamus Blackley is also expected to unveil his plans, which will almost certainly include Xbox. Hufford also admits that Microsoft is in discussion with big name companies about massively multiplayer games, and that there may be a few under wraps at Microsoft. Promising news indeed. Related Feature - Xbox Live details emerge

It's finally here! On Friday, European gamers will be able to buy the coveted Nintendo GameCube for €199, or £129 in the UK, a price which, despite staggeringly low margins, many retailers are planning to honour in the hope of securing the most customers. The Cube has suffered numerous setbacks, including one of the longest transitions between Japan and Europe for yonks, lacklustre third party support, and a couple of niggles which only emerged once the darned thing was sat in our front room. The question is, will it emerge this Friday a handsome console with a number of strong titles at a sensible price, or would we be better off buying a real Fisher Price tape recorder?

British developer Rebellion, best known for their Aliens vs Predator games on the PC and Atari Jaguar, have unveiled their latest project - Pinball Advance. As the name suggests, it's a pinball game for the GameBoy Advance, featuring three pre-rendered tables for you to knock your balls around on, each with six difficulty levels and its own unique set of game modes for one or multiple balls. Fellow arachophobes will be glad to hear the game includes a Tarantula table which "will allow budding pinball wizards to venture into the spider's lair and..." No, stop right there. I've heard enough already. There's also a Jailbreak table, and a Daredevil machine where you must "take your chances with the Wheel of Death and Loop of Fire". Throw in hundreds of pinball sound effects and a voluminous soundtrack, and pinball fans who just can't wait to get to the pub before slamming some balls around should be in for a treat. Expect to see Pinball Advance appearing on shelves come June, courtesy of Digital Worldwide. Related Feature - Pinball Advance screenshots

Earlier this week a German teenager called Robert Steinhauser walked into a school in Erfurt carrying a pump action shotgun and a pistol. During the next twenty minutes he shot dead 16 people, including two students and a police officer, and wounded several others before eventually being confronted by a former teacher and apparently committing suicide. But now, as Germany comes to terms with one of the worst shooting sprees we've seen in Europe recently, some politicians are starting to point the finger at .. you guessed it .. computer games. It seems that Steinhauser, like hundreds of thousands of other gamers around the world, was a Counter-Strike fan. Unlike the many other people who spend hours playing the world's most popular online shooter each week though, Steinhauser was a member of a local gun club and legally owned four firearms, including the ones that he used in the attack this week, along with an astounding one thousand rounds of ammunition. Naturally a lot of attention has been focused on gun control laws in the wake of the massacre, but today Christian Democrat leader Edmund Stoiber called for an immediate ban on violent video games, with (funnily enough) his Minister of Culture Monika Hohlmeier demanding that "the trash must finally be forbidden". No doubt she'll be organising some nice cosy bonfires down there in Bavaria to burn copies of Quake and Half-Life, maybe with a few books thrown on for good measure... Ironically Germany already has some of the toughest laws on violent games in Europe, with many titles eventually ending up on a list which prevents them from being advertised or openly displayed in shops. If Stoiber and his cohorts have their way though, many violent games and movies could end up being banned outright.

Our Tony's first outing on the GameBoy Advance in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 impressed us mightily with its sexy pseudo-3D graphical trickery, yet at the same time baffled us with some dodgy level design quirks born of the isometric perspective we were forced to live with. It was hard to see how Vicarious Visions might overcome these troubles. The forced perspective was a thorn in the side of THPS2, an otherwise fantastic title, and has duly reappeared in the inevitable sequel.

According to a new book that's just come out in the States called "Opening The Xbox", Microsoft put in a $25bn bid for Nintendo at the tail end of the last millennium. The gargantuan take-over offer was apparently met with laughter by the Japanese gaming behemoth, whose success with the Pokemon franchise and the ever popular GameBoy series of hand-held gaming systems has left it rolling in cash. "I was surprised, we didn't need the money", Nintendo Of America's Minoru Arakawa is quoted as saying. "I thought it was a joke." Joke or not, half-hearted negotiations apparently continued over the winter, before finally floundering in January 2000 after opposition from Nintendo's elderly president Hiroshi Yamauchi. "It became clear that our objectives and their objectives were not the same", Arakawa explained. If the book is to be believed, Microsoft's ultimate aim was to get Nintendo to drop their plans for the GameCube and throw their support behind the newly conceived Xbox instead. Certainly such a move would have provided a massive boost for the Xbox, particularly in the difficult Japanese market. It's a funny old world...

Specialist British publisher Just Flight are probably best known for their string of unofficial add-on packs for Microsoft's Flight Simulator games, introducing new scenery, planes and missions for fans of the series. Now they're going all extreme on us though, with the arrival of a new aircraft racing game from Victory Simulations. Titled Xtreme Air Racing, it puts you behind the yoke of a turbo-charged 3,000 horsepower plus plane as you fly your way around 15 varied tracks at under two hundred feet. Featuring over twenty aircraft to fly, each with its own 3D virtual cockpit, and settings ranging from Thailand to Iceland, it's certainly got plenty of variety. Then there's the eight player online support, three championship seasons to work your way through, race commentary, coaching from your co-pilot (real-life aviation expert Bob Hoover), air combat and stunt modes... If you fancy trying out the game before it arrives on European shelves on June 7th, you can download a 54Mb demo from the official Xtreme Air Racing website. Related Feature - Xtreme Air Racing screenshots

we took a look at some of the work that Blizzard have been doing on Warcraft III, from balancing the races through the multiplayer beta test to the effort that has gone into scripting and storyline for the single player campaign. But what happens after the game is released? We talked to Blizzard's Bill Roper to find out...

A few months ago we discovered during an interview with GSC Game World's Sergiy Grygorovych that the company's best selling real-time strategy game Cossacks would be getting a second expansion pack at some point. After a long wait, the add-on has today been officially announced. As we exclusively revealed at the end of last year, Cossacks : Back To War will feature a staggering one hundred new single player missions for fans of the series to wade their way through. Other additions include two new nations (Switzerland and Hungary), four exclusive units for each of them, and a new unit (camel mounted Bedouins) for Turkey and Algeria. Up to eight thousands of these soldiers can now fight it out across huge maps that make your average real-time strategy battle look like a game of Pacman by comparison. The pack is due for release in France and Germany at least some time later this year, but other details are thin on the ground at this stage. Expect to hear more over the coming months though. Related Feature - GSC Game World interview

While there's been a lot of talk about Warcraft III's multiplayer support in recent months thanks to the online beta test, which every webmaster and his dog seems to be part of, precious little has been heard about the single player campaign. We caught up with Blizzard's Bill Roper during a recent press tour of Europe to find out how the beta has been going, and what solo players can expect from the game.

Sony will beat its consolidated operating profit projections this year, the company has revealed, largely thanks to the success of PlayStation 2. PlayStation 2 and PSone hardware shipments in fiscal year 2001 amounted to some 20.14 million and 8.25 million euros profit respectively, while software shipments amassed 135.77 million and 101.46 million euros. Sony projects shipments of PS2 units worldwide for the fiscal year (April 2002 to March 2003) of 20 million (1.67 million per month), according to a report on Bloomberg.

Ubi Soft has announced another Tom Clancy game, this time based on Paramount Pictures' upcoming cinematic release The Sum Of All Fears starring Ben Affleck as Jack Ryan. The PC version of The Sum Of All Fears will be released in conjunction with the film in the US and Canada, and then in the autumn for European gamers. Next generation console versions will follow, although no specifics were discussed. "The film adaptations of Tom Clancy's novels always thrill audiences with their intensity and action-based realism, which is the same formula for making great games," said Laurent Detoc, president of Ubi Soft Entertainment. The game is being developed by North Carolina based Red Storm Entertainment, already world renowned for their impressive adaptations of Rainbow Six, Rogue Spear and Ghost Recon. The Sum Of All Fears is said to combine the physics and graphical technologies behind Ghost Recon with the gameplay of Rainbow Six. Players will be able to take on the role of an FBI elite hostage rescue team member. Up to three players locally, or 36 across the internet, will be able to take part in co-operation missions in locations as diverse (albeit unsurprising) as West Virginia, the Middle East and South Africa, with rendered cinematics breaking up the action and keeping the story alive. A couple of screenshots have already been released, and may be viewed here. Related Feature - The Sum Of All Fears screenshots

Earlier this week it emerged that Factor 5 and Dolby Laboratories had put the finishing touches on a MusyX development tool update, to allow Dolby Pro Logic II surround sound in GameCube software. We commented that many games from now on would support the standard. According to IGN, the first big name developer to embrace the technology is Silicon Knights, the company behind Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem. ED is already a game prone to the odd bout of slippage, but this 11th hour development is not expected to affect its 24th June release date in the States. Related Feature - GameCube gets Pro Logic II

Take 2 have launched a bizarre new competition for Serious Sam : The Second Encounter, with top of the range GeForce 4 Ti 4600 graphics cards up for grabs. All you have to do for your chance to win is fire up the copy of Serious Editor that came bundled with the game and design a fragmatch map. There is one catch though. It has to be a .. Disco Cathedral! "It's up to you to satisfy our desire for funky fresh fragging grooves by creating the hippest, wackiest, most colorful Gothic Cathedral around - transformed into a 1970's shrine to K.C. and the Sunshine Band, Gloria Gaynor and the Bee Gees. Think Notre Dame meets Studio 54 and you've just about got it." The mind boggles. Anyway, if your artistic sensibilities can stoop low enough to meet the entry requirements, head over to the Disco Inferno competition page to find out more about the rules and how to enter. The competition ends on May 17th, so get your groove on! Or something. Related Feature - Serious Sam 2 review