Latest Articles (Page 3487)

NVIDIA's unified driverset received a speed bump recently in the shape of Detonator 40. As with previous releases, Detonator 40 will work with virtually any NVIDIA card you could possibly own, and updates multi-screen, image rotation and other functionality to the latest versions, as well as making those critical performance tweaks the Detonators are known for. The drivers are available from NVIDIA's website, and according to articles like this one performance comparisons with previous releases are quite favourable.

Nintendo's European product manager Marco Hein has told C&VG that Animal Crossing is not currently on the way to Europe, but hasn't ruled out a 'crossing' sometime in the future. "I'm not saying we're not releasing it," he said last week. "I'm saying we currently have no plans." Apparently Nintendo believes that its release schedule is sufficiently full. Animal Crossing should not be confused with Animal Leader, which is being published by Atlus in the US later this year along with Nintendo's Animal Crossing. Nintendo will wait and see how AC fares in the US market before making any decisions about Europe, we would imagine. Animal Crossing was once described as a "communication game" by Shigeru Miyamoto in its days of development for the N64. The premise is that you arrive in "Animal Crossing" having picked your name, the name of your town and so on, and you just live out your life, earning and working jobs and interacting with the many distinctly unorthodox and colourful characters. One of the features highlighted by press everywhere was the notion of competing in town raffles and receiving Christmas presents, the prizes and presents taking the shape of NES games like Donkey Kong and Punch Out. Needless to say, the idea of living your life in a forest full of peculiar animals is intriguing, if a little unstructured, and it would have been nice to get our hands on AC in Europe and work out why so many of Miyamoto's fans in Japan rave about it. Back to Marco Hein though, and Nintendo's European product manager also spoke candidly about what governs how he governs the release of games in certain regions including Europe, and that now and then "we try to be a little bit brave". Doshin the Giant was his example - "I think it's a very Japanese game, but it can fit very well into our European portfolio. It's niche, but it's valuable in showing a complete range of GameCube game." Doshin's release is good news for European gamers in more ways than one. Apart from satisfying the legions of hungry consumers yearning for something a little bit different, it also reminds us that games can go from Japan direct to Europe, ignoring the traditional American stepping stone. Doshin isn't coming in the US due to a strategic decision made by Nintendo of America.

Believe it or not, racing these scale models is actually a real sport, and Big Scale sets out to recreate that on the PC. Many of the courses included in the game are based on real world circuits or designed by model race club experts, and the resulting races can end up looking like a shrunken TOCA event, with eight brightly coloured cars going wheel to wheel around twisty tracks, hopping over the kerbs and spinning off into the grass.

The game's ten tracks vary from beaches and seaside castles to military bases, and the focus here is on causing mayhem rather than professional racing. Many of the courses are wide open, complete with multiple routes and shortcuts, and races tend to devolve into a mad dash from one checkpoint to the other, with cars flying in all directions as you jostle for position and dodge obstacles.

3DO are best known for churning out countless derivative Army Men games, but their line-up at ECTS this year showed that the company is trying to establish a reputation for publishing more serious games as well. Heading up the list was Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse, a gratuitously gory action game in the vein of Devil May Cry, but with the added advantage of a storyline rather loosely based on Biblical stories of the end of the world. Throw in voice acting from the likes of Tim Curry and Lance Henriksen, not to mention design work from comic book artist Simon Bisley, and you have a game which should be well worth a look if the whole is equal to the sum of its parts. 3DO were also highlighting two brand new motor racing games. Street Racing Syndicate does exactly what the title says, giving players the chance to compete in both illegal and sanctioned events on city streets. The stakes are high, with everything from cash to your opponents' cars and girlfriends up for grabs, and naturally any prize money you earn can be spent on upgrading and customising your vehicles. Jacked, on the other hand, is an action-packed motorbike racing game where players are encouraged to drive dirty, smashing rival riders with bottles, chains and golf clubs in an effort to claw their way to the front of the field. As if that isn't dangerous enough, there's also talk of saw blades, fire pits and car crushers. Motorbikes Of Might & Magic this ain't. Naturally 3DO aren't abandoning their old kiddie-friendly catalogue though, and along with the more adult fare there were some reassuringly familiar faces. The robots from CG-animated cartoon series Cubix will be returning for another outing in Cubix Showdown on PlayStation 2 and GameCube, while several more Army Men games are also on the way for Nintendo owners. Sarge's War on the GameCube is a third person action game in which Sarge has to take on the entire Tan Army single-handed (again) in a variety of real world and outsized locations. The graphics are certainly a step forward for the franchise, although it remains to be seen whether it will have the gameplay to match. Also on the Cube is Air Combat - The Elite Missions, more helicopter-based plastic action in locations ranging from a Japanese garden to the wild west. And finally there's Army Men: Turf Wars on the GameBoy Advance, with (you guessed it) Sarge single-handedly taking on the Tan Army in various "backyard environments" such as sand pits and ponds. I sense a pattern emerging here... Related Feature - UK Release Date List

The first concrete details and artwork from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance have appeared on the Internet, and as speculated it will be an entirely new adventure, from characters and plot to artwork and featureset. FFTA will scrap the PSOne version's rotatable 3D engine as was anticipated, using an isometric 2D engine, which may or may not rotate - that remains to be seen. However, the plot seems to concern a couple of young chaps, the strong-willed Mash and his timid young friend Myu, and a young and intelligent lass named Ritz. Reports indicate that the three are clawed back into FFT's medieval setting from the modern day, and have to make their way like three particularly large fish out of water. There are said to be three new systems in the game; Judgement, Kuran and Region Create. We don't know too much about those at this stage, but "Region Create" sounds like it could be along the lines of Ogre Battle's terrain changing system, where water rose between terms to alter the layout of the battlefield amongst other things. Or, it could be something completely different. Expect to see lots of speculation all over the place until this appears in Japan in time for the end of Square's financial year in March.

Console owners after LucasArts' port of Jedi Knight II will be pleased to learn that the PS2, Cube and Xbox versions will creak under the weight of a veritable Millennium Falcon-sized stash of multiplayer features. In a recent edition of "Ask LucasArts" on the publisher's website, a slew of options for multiplayer modes was confirmed. Amongst them, a two player Jedi Arena with the option of fighting 14 AI-controlled bots, and the familiar CTF, Free For All, Team FFA, Duel and Jedi Master modes. Weapons-only options will be included for those too clumsy to wield a lightsaber. And to satisfy those with a thirst for single player adventuring, LucasArts has found a way to incorporate the much-needed 'save anywhere' option, which will make the somewhat difficult pre-saber stages all the more bearable, one would imagine. Not content with that though, there will be a separate single player campaign called "Mission at Alzoc III", although we don't really know much about it at this stage. Related Feature - Jedi Knight II review (PC)

When it was released a little over two years ago, Shogun was a breath of fresh air for the real-time strategy genre. Not only did it sport a novel setting in the form of feudal Japan, but it also grounded the epic real-time tactical battles in a wider turn-based conflict raging across the whole country, with room for diplomacy and covert action alongside wholesale invasions.

Electronic Arts has agreed to publish a portion of Namco's Xbox and Cube output across PAL territories (including Europe obviously), including Dead to Rights on Xbox, and Pac-Man and Soul Calibur II across both platforms. It's not yet clear how many titles feature in the agreement, but the first games will be released in the run-up to Christmas according to EA. Sony currently publishes Namco's PS2 titles - the next to see release in Europe will be Tekken 4 on September 13th.

We come across some bizarre game concepts in the course of our work, but one of the more unusual ones to crop up in recent days is MEG. The game is apparently based on a best selling novel of the same name, in which a Carcharodon Megalodon (a prehistoric shark of truly scary size) emerges from the depths of the Marianas Trench in the Pacific and promptly terrorises everyone in the area. Unusually you'll get to experience both sides of the story in the game, controlling submersible pilot Jonas Taylor and the giant shark itself. As Jonas you'll get to swim and dive in the ocean, as well as taking control of submersibles, ships and helicopters to help you track the shark. Playing as the beast you'll be able to bash, thrash and bite potential victims, using MEG's huge weight and massive teeth to defend yourself, while a combination of audio and visual cues are used to locate prey. It's certainly a novel idea, although games like Everblue and Aquanox have proven that underwater action-adventure games can be a hit and miss affair. With MEG not due out until well into 2004, everything's a bit vague at this stage, but no doubt more information will gradually emerge over the coming months, like a giant fin rising from the water. Or something.

Resident Evil is launching on the GameCube on Friday, September 13th, but Cube owners won't have to wait the usual year or two for the next instalment of the series. Capcom has confirmed that Resident Evil 0 will be released in Europe during Spring 2003, and although it's difficult to say precisely when, it's taken only four months since its US release for the first game to materialise in Europe, so we'd hazard a guess and suggest March. Related Feature - Resident Evil 0 hands-on preview

Mobile phone games provider IN-FUSIO has unveiled a licensing deal with Vivendi Universal to bring Spyro The Dragon and Crash Bandicoot to handsets. Both franchises have shifted millions of units on various console formats over the years, and IN-FUSIO are hoping that the popular platformer characters will bring similar success to the world of mobile gaming. Details are somewhat scarce at this stage, and most of the press release is given over to gibberish about market momentum and brand consistency, but no doubt more information will emerge later in the year as the latest generation of Java-enabled mobile phones begins to take off. Related Feature - Mobile gaming goes 3D

During the course of ECTS literally hundreds of visitors left their business cards at EuroGamer's stand, which featured a winning combination of really comfy seats and free beer straight from the fridge, not to mention several PCs showing content from EuroGamer.net and sister site GamesIndustry.biz. Some of our visitors got more than a drink and the latest news and reviews out of their visit though - thanks to ATI and Entertain we gave away one brand new Radeon 8500 graphics card for each day of the show. The lucky winners of these desireable lumps of silicon, which offer full hardware support for DirectX 8.1 and all manner of other fancy doohickeys with bizarre names like Charisma, Pixel Tapestry and Truform, were Mark Everett of Nicely Crafted Entertainment, Jim Cliff of the BBFC and Dominic Rayner. We'd like to thank everyone that visited our stand, and we hope to see you all there again next year!

I'm about to state the obvious, but I need to get this off my chest - Splinter Cell looks stunning. Every single thing about the game is stunning, from the characters and their beautiful flowing animations, the design of the weapons and gadgets and the scenery right down to the way a piece of plastic curtain flows and refracts light when disturbed. Our time with the game at ECTS 2002 revealed exactly why we should be excited about yet another Tom Clancy license from Ubi Soft.

ECTS is over for another year - the doors have been closed, our stand has been demolished and our staff have all staggered home under voluminous piles of press packs and demo CDs. Naturally we've not been able to tell you everything we'd like to about everything we saw during the last week though, so our show coverage will be continuing for the next couple of days, with endless galleries of screenshots, a show round-up, news reports and previews, including looks at Splinter Cell, Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse and the proverbial much much more. It's been an exhausting few days, but we hope you've enjoyed our coverage as much as we've enjoyed bringing it to you.

A consumer hall was added to the bill for the first time at this year's ECTS, so that the public could get a piece of the action as well as scrounging journalists. Sony's PlayStation Experience filled an entire hall at the front end of Earls Court with hundreds of PlayStation 2 consoles, a handful of PSOnes and a few hundred games to play on them. There was also live music and entertainment, and even a Lara Croft model leaping about enthusiastically, but such frivolities did not concern us - we were there for the games.

Half-French, half-Slovenian, all weird. Yes, it's Arxel Tribe, the brains behind games such as Ring, Faust, Trainz and .. er .. Paddington Bear. The pan-European developer had a range of games on show at this year's ECTS, including Ring 2, the sequel to their best-selling adventure game, loosely inspired by Wagner's Ring cycle (rather than the cult Japanese horror movie of the same name). Moving on from the old point and click days of yore, Ring 2 features 3D characters against a pre-rendered backdrop, producing some eye-catching graphics. The gameplay has advanced somewhat as well, with less mind-destroying Myst-style puzzles and more interaction with the environment. Also on show was a very early demo build of Hannibal, a sequel of sorts to the cannibalistic character's last movie. Sadly there wasn't much of a game to see at this stage, but the graphics look respectable if a little dark. On the other side of the stand The Gladiators was looking closer to completion, offering a tactical-focused approach to the real-time strategy genre, with lots of frantic action rather than tedious base building and resource gathering. And last but not least there was Mistmare, an ambitious first person role-playing game with skill-based character development and some rather tasty looking graphics. We'll be taking a closer look at that one later...

We've said it before and we'll say it again - if you want novel games, look to Eastern Europe and Russia. The latest such publisher to break out into the west is 1C, owners of Maddox Games, the developers behind World War II flight sim IL-2 Sturmovik. 1C's stand at ECTS has been showcasing several new games from their stable of Russian developers, including some real eye-openers. For pure fun there's RC Cars, which (as the title suggests) involves racing radio control cars around tracks in a variety of environments, from seaside fortresses to military bases. Although your cars are miniature, everything else in the game is full size, and there's plenty of opportunity to interact with the environment by running into people's feet, knocking cans around and dodging full size cars. On a more cerebral level there's Perimeter, a real-time strategy game based around the idea of terraforming the land around you. The scenery is made up of literally millions of tiny polygons, producing some truly staggering graphics if you have the hardware to handle the highest detail levels, and the whole thing shifts and moves as your units mould new hills, trenches and other terrain features at your command. We also got brief looks at Borderzone (a first person role-playing game in the style of Morrowind, with a vast 3D world to explore) and Jazz & Faust (a good old fashioned point and click adventure game which is already out in the US and Russia and coming to the rest of the world soon hopefully). Look for more details and screenshots for all of these games later this weekend.

It might seem a little odd that I've attached quite a lot of significance to this, but in a genre which continues to mimic itself shamelessly, Konami's goal for a different control system and Rosh Rash style sensibilities is a breath of relatively fresh air. The graphics are the most obvious improvement - your skater is a much bulkier fellow, and he doesn't have to dress up like Darth Maul to keep your attention. Animation is incredibly smooth between moves and in particular when hitting the deck. Even the very latest Tony Hawk-alikes seem to enjoy vanishing your board and having you flop unrealistically in mid air, spitting blood into the ether and so on. A tumble in Evolution has you wincing, and it looks almost as painful as it does when the kids outside the front doors of the PlayStation Experience smack their knees on the half-pipe.

Konami's stand had more playable games than most of the rest of ECTS put together, but sadly the games we really wanted to play - Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance and Silent Hill 3 - were nowhere to be seen. Well, that's not exactly true. Behind closed doors both games could be seen churning away in E3 trailer form, but being told that Konami was waiting until the Tokyo Game Show to let journos loose on Substance didn't do much for my temper. However, Konami did use ECTS to update us on when some of their more pressing titles will be landing and what we can expect from them. First of all, Silent Hill 2: Inner Fears will debut on Xbox later this year, and could feature the Making Of documentary DVD alongside the finished game - unlike its Japanese and American counterparts - but Konami were somewhat downbeat about the possibility, on the basis that even if they did bundle it gamers would have to fork out extra for the DVD controller to see it! It stands more chance of happening if MS Europe follows the US and bundles the DVD pack with the hardware. The Silent Hill 2 Director's Cut due out on PlayStation 2 next February will more than likely feature the Making Of DVD, so if you've been holding off buying the game in light of these revamps, that might be the one to wait for. Nevertheless, the game is a sight to see on Xbox anyway, particularly thanks to the game's graphical tune-up, and the promised Born From a Wish episode is said to be worth a good 2 1/2 hours of gameplay on top of the critically acclaimed single player game. From a purely European perspective, since the Yanks won't have it, Pro Evolution Soccer 2 was running at 80% complete and we had to queue for nearly 20 minutes to get a go on it. Although to the untrained eye it might seem nearly identical to the Japanese Winning Eleven 6, subtle changes are abound. You can now nutmeg opposing players and play the ball off their shins, which helps to dismantle some of our many grievances with the Japanese game. As Konami were only too pleased to remind us, it took some 80 hours of gameplay to come up with anything approaching a criticism. It's not nitpicking, per se, but when your love for the game is solely to blame for any minute problems, you know the formula is almost perfect anyway. Although there was some dismay at the game's selection for Best Console Game of the Show in yesterday's awards, we can't think of much else that could top it. Contra: Shattered Soldier was playable behind closed doors, and as a delightfully beautiful 2D shooter of the old school Probotector vibe, it had a certain frenetic charm and simplism lacking from many contemporary 3D shooters, with which it'll arguably complete when it shows up early next year, one of which was Silent Scope 3, being shown as footage only. Although Konami professes to having gold discs sitting at their office, unfortunately the game won't be out until January, and we won't be getting our hands on it until sometime around then. At least it won't get lost in the Christmas rush, I suppose. A surprise success story at the Konami stand was the Disney Sports Soccer game. Reminding us more than a little of Sega Soccer Slam and Midway's RedCard, teams of individual Disney characters with a plethora of special moves at their disposal battle for the ball and blast it into the net with gay abandon. To be honest, we were having far too much fun with this, and expect to be in detox all next week as a result.

Mobile gaming developers Masabi paid us a visit at ECTS this morning to demonstrate their handheld versions of the BBC Micro classic Repton, and we're happy to report that it looks just like the real thing. In fact, as it uses the more colourful sprites from the old Archimedes port, it actually looks even better than the real thing. For those of you who came along too late to enjoy the original game, or were unfortunate enough never to own a BBC Micro, Repton is the lizard-like lead character from a series of puzzle games which involved guiding him around various mazes collecting diamonds, shoving rocks around and gobbling up dirt. The basic gameplay is incredibly simple, but some of the levels will have you scratching your head as you work out how to move the rocks around to avoid trapping yourself or blocking off a valuable item, while avoiding ghost-like sprites and eggs that crack open to release monsters. All of this has been faithfully recreated in handheld form by Masabi, and the PDA version in particular (which was running on a Compaq iPaq PocketPC) had sharp colourful graphics. Originally the plan was to release a basic version of the game and then sell additional levels and graphics sets from the series, but apparently the billing structure needed for this isn't in place yet, and isn't likely to be until towards the end of this year at the earliest. Rather than wait for technology to catch up with them then, Masabi have decided to release the original Repton 1 on PDAs and Java-enabled mobile phones within the next few weeks, with additional goodies to follow once more people have handsets capable of running the games and the mobile phone operators have sorted out their billing system. The impressive looking PDA version will probably set you back about £10, while the mobile version (shown to us on a Nokia 7650) will be going for somewhere in the region of £7. Both should feature bonus graphics and tutorial levels. Looking further ahead, Masabi raised the possibility of multiplayer Repton, which would work a bit like the ghost car option in Mario Kart. Played between two PDA owners using Bluetooth, the game would show your rival's score at the bottom of the screen and a little ghost Repton would be visible darting around the map, showing your opponent's progress as the pair of you race to finish first and score the most points. It's certainly an intriguing idea, although having seen one of Masabi's designers rushing through an entire level in a matter of seconds, we're a little daunted at the prospect of taking him on head-to-head. I guess it's time to dust off the old Beeb and get some practice in... Related Feature - Repton Thru Time

If I mention the words "Uridium" and "Paradroid", I can more or less see rows of C64 and Amiga owners bolting upright. Having witnessed updated versions of both games at the Paragon Hotel near ECTS on Thursday, I can imagine why. When Uridium first materialised on the C64, it was a very simple, devastatingly difficult game by a chap called Andrew Braybrook, who now works in insurance circles. Andrew's game had about eight levels, and the idea was the fly back and forth across the deck of a Dreadnought ship fighting clusters of enemy ships before landing your craft to complete the level. The difficulty was that one collision could kill you off outright, and that landing your ship was no mean feat in itself, especially when that telltale blip-blip-blip noise came up, indicating a missile lock-on... The new GBA version is very much the same, although you now have a life bar to stop you from getting killed repeatedly - it was certainly a welcome addition to me - and the level design has also been tweaked. Other changes include updates to the visuals and the end of the level. Landing your craft is now somewhat easier, and like the 1993 Amiga version of the game, when you land you have to complete a little subgame blasting at the ship's core. Furthermore, levels have been tweaked and instead of just repeating levels 1-4 with tougher enemies, levels 5-8 should be quite different, ala the C64 pseudo-sequel, Uridum+. Uridium Advance will of course feature the game's Manta Fighter in most of its original glory. Although brilliantly animated at the time - even casting rudimentary shadows over its surroundings - the Manta Fighter has been altered to move smoothly in this incarnation, and frames of animation have been rejigged to supplement bombing runs and blasting. From what I played of it, Uridium Advance is every bit as addictive and intense as it once was, and as apparently with many other journalists, I found myself commenting that the game played as I remembered it. Glancing back at the old C64 version on an emulator was almost alien. What's more - Andrew Braybrook himself has given the game his blessing. What stronger recommendation could you ask for? Next up from Jester was Paradroid, both GBA and next-gen console. We didn't get to play either version, nor see the GBA version in action, but Jester is promising the same emphasis on stealth and subversion, and judging from in-game footage of the now-spider-like parasite scampering around and drilling into the back of droids' heads to possess them, this should be an absolute laugh. We've even heard that you can take control of a cow in certain areas - wouldn't that be smart? Also from Jester was the latest version of Music Generator, and we were quite taken with this. Sadly though, you'll have to wait for another time to learn about that one, as I've got to be up and off to ECTS again this morning, and the snoring emanating from my roomie at the Earls Court Travel Inn is causing my head to spin. However, it should prove very interesting to musicians and fans of music alike. Related Feature - Uridium Advance screenshots

When we first heard about XIII we were a little sceptical. Here was a first person shooter with cel shaded graphics (the latest gimmick), based on a Belgian comic book we'd never even heard of before. It's big in France apparently. But having had a chance to chat with one of the game's designers and take the Xbox version of the game for a spin ourselves, we're happy to report that it's actually a lot of fun.

The Unreal engine is getting around a lot these days, and the latest game to pop up powered by Epic's technology is Devastation. Developed by Digitalo, it's promising online and bot-based teamplay modes along with a complete twenty mission single player campaign.

The ECTS Awards have just been announced by Gareth Jones aka Gaz Top at a stage to the rear of the show floor. In front of the assembled legions of literally hundreds of huddled journalists and representatives from publishers, developers, retailers and countless other games industry corporations and bodies, Splinter Cell won the coveted Best of Show award, with Breed and Pro Evolution Soccer 2 picking up Best PC and Best Console titles respectively. The Best Handheld game award fell to Super Monkey Ball, and the madcap Korean Multiplayer Ping Pong title won Best Multiplayer Game of the Show - hardly a surprise to those of us who've played it. Unsurprisingly, the pan-European awards, sponsored by various European publications, were a walk in the park on the console side for Grand Theft Auto III, which scooped three awards and a total of five overall - the most popular single title of the entire ceremony.

This afternoon at ECTS we were very privileged to share a few words with the great Dino Dini, the man behind such games as Kick Off and Player Manager, a man whose name has become almost synonymous with addictive gameplay over the years. After what you might call a quiet spell of almost 10 years, Dino chose ECTS to speak to journalists about his latest project with Italian developer Tresicion. Fans of Kick Off rejoice: it's another football title! Dino was keen to stress that the game will find its roots in addictive gameplay, and he hopes to fill a gap in the football genre. Although the game is only in the early prototype stages, Dino has a number of ideas and a solid vision of what to do with the title, and we will be watching this one very closely. Expect to see the full dialogue of our interview with Dino very soon.

Ubi Soft seemed especially keen to show us their console ports of tactical-action favourite Ghost Recon and Sum of All Fears at their PlayStation Experience pods, despite their respective unfinished state. Sum of All Fears on PS2 appears to be pretty much a straight port of the slim PC original, and didn't seem to be altered in functionality from the original. This isn't really surprising, as we doubt it could have been much simpler in the first place. The far more impressive port is easily Ghost Recon. Eventually arriving on both Xbox and PS2, we got to play the latter and see just how far along the port has come. The Ubi Soft representative was keen to express the fact that much of the game has been reconstructed from the ground up, and has a great deal to offer in the way of features to attract newcomers to the genre. An example of this is that the in-game planning facilities of the original are intact, but should you wish to sidestep it completely then a simple click of R3 on a piece of the landscape will direct your secondary team to that spot without further instruction. Should you not trust your AI team-mates though, a split-screen co-operative mode is also included, and we're promised full Xbox live support on that platform as well, making the Xbox port a far more multiplayer focused package. Graphically the engine doesn't appear to be pushing the PS2 envelope at all, and it appeared to be fairly rough around the edges compared even to the PC version. Apparently the team are concentrating on implementing AI properly before they embark on tidying up the visuals, and are confident they can get it much closer to the original. The final release will include all of the single and muliplayer maps from the original Ghost Recon, and Ubi have thrown in all of the maps from the Desert Siege expansion pack as well for good measure. It's nice to see Ubi Soft and Red Storm producing something worthwhile from their PC ports for console gamers, and this reflects their willingness to bring in new recuits to the burgeoning tactical action genre.

Midway had a pretty slight presence at the PlayStation Experience. With only Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance and Defender on show, there obviously wasn't much to choose from in the way of playable material. Defender on the PS2 is a 21st century version of the arcade classic. Piloting a sleek looking craft we set about shooting down alien craft and rescuing colonists from their extra-terrestrial oppressors. It was fun, although the few fleeting [fired -Ed] moments we had with the game didn't exhibit anywhere near the sense of frenetic pace and frantic action, nor the simplicity of the original. The controls were quite cumbersome and seemed less than intuitive, but with a bit of time on our side we can imagine taking to it. Midway's new Mortal Kombat title was gaining a greater deal of attention, as a variety of fighters - both old and new - came head to head in an array of bizarre but impressively constructed arenas. Some of you may be pleased to hear that the series isn't skimping on the gore that it's famous for, as the combatants spread each others claret across the floor in a wince-inducing orgy of red. The detail on the characters has been bumped up greatly, even down to visible trickles of blood running from their limbs - nice. Apparently boasting an "intense" storyline, we all know the real attraction of any new MK title is going to be its unrivalled passion for sheer violence. And let's not forget those utterly brutal fatalities, which we're happy to say are all present and correct. Despite the fact that it's obviously not deviating from the established beat 'em up formula, Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance should be worth looking forward to.

Acclaim's stand is located towards the back of ECTS, and rather like Ubi Soft Acclaim has spent most of its estate on wining and dining journos in a private area, complete with foosball table and snacks (quite enjoyable when your sole meal for the day was at 8:15am). Out the back though we found demo pods showing off the likes of Hardcore BMX XXX, Legends of Wrestling 2, Burnout 2 and Vexx. Not to mention Turok, of course, although if you really want to see that in action you could always buy it when it appears this Sunday. BMX XXX caught our eyes not because of its gaming content, but because as we were standing next door chatting to somebody, we couldn't help but notice that the screen was replaced by what appeared to be a virtual peepshow every five or so minutes. Curious, we rounded the corner and discovered that along with foul-mouthed characters and NPCs handing out tasks, and screens generally full of debauchery flanking this Tony Hawk-on-a-bike extravaganza, you can collect coins which unlock video reels of young girls in tight outfits dancing rather voluptuously. Sadly we didn't have enough time on our hands to thoroughly, ahem, research this aspect of the game, but otherwise it was shaping up nicely. The mechanics are very much like the previous Dave Mirra titles - understandably so, as the game is based on the Dave Mirra 2 engine - but Hardcore BMX XXX will be released as a separate entity outside of Acclaim's licensed biking series. Legends of Wrestling 2 was also on hand in all its sweat-soaked glory, with bulky incarnations of Hulk Hogan, Brett Hart, Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka and co. battling it out old-school. LOW wasn't terribly well received, but it won kudos for its attempts to emphasize wrestling over gimmickry. LOW2 appears to have improved matters to a certain extent, with a much more solid-looking game engine behind the grappling and throttling. Action frequently spills out of the ring and into the concourse and the two-player head-to-head modes were pulling plenty of players, not to mention spectators. Plenty of game modes populate the menus and although we didn't get to try all of them, there seemed to be a decent variety of match-types and of course in the region of 21 characters to play with. Next up on our list of must-see titles was Burnout 2: Point of Impact. At times, I had to ask myself whether the PS2 was really rendering all this, because considering the framerate, the level of detail on the cars and the buildings which stretch into the very distance, Burnout 2 was a decidedly beautiful game to play. The reason it looks so good though is the 'shiny' factor. The road glistens, bathed in sun, with what appears to be environmental bump mapping accentuating every little fleck of dust on the road surface. Either that or it's some mighty impressive texturing. Despite all this visual tomfoolery and a lorryload of trackside furniture spicing up proceedings, the game manages to retain its sense of speed between spectacular collisions, and the gameplay is as frenetic as fans of the original will remember. Track design is fiendish to say the least, with turns that challenge you to risk all and not hit the brakes as you roar into them. A wide variety of cars splinter and shatter violently - all in the name of fun - and of course, the replays help to demonstrate just how violently with alarming and costly regularity. One title which wasn't grabbing too much attention, but which, naturally, caught ours, was Acclaim Austin's Xbox version of Vexx. Repeatedly labelled a Jak & Daxter-alike, the game had no qualms about living up to that moniker, and it did so with style and finesse. Visually it matches the sprawling vistas of J&D, which won us over so convincingly last year, and although texture quality is a bit hit and miss, Vexx himself was suitably detailed, and the developer has been unafraid of zooming in and showing him off, along with the real-time shadowing he shares with the game's plethora of bad guys. Vexx's gauntlets allow him to perform a three-stage attack in several guises. On the ground, he can swipe, swipe and slash brutally on the third stroke, and holding the left trigger and then swiping leads Vexx to crouch and uppercut through the air, finishing either with a brutal downward thrust to eviscerate his prey or by landing first and continuing to uppercut again and again. Once we'd got a handle on this technique we heard plenty of maniacal chuckles emanating from the area behind us. Good to know we were in suitably psychopathic company. Vexx possesses many other talents besides his good looks and penchant for violence. Underwater he can swim like a fish, and when he finds a suitable surface he can clamber up walls gauntlet-over-gauntlet, showering the ground in sparks as he slides down again. And although we didn't see it ourselves, apparently the little fellow can jump like a crazed gazelle and become momentarily invincible with the right power-up. The game was in a pretty unfinished state, although the basic tenets of gameplay mechanics were well underway. The enemies are still a little basic and there was a degree of jerkiness, particularly when executing the aforementioned attacking manoeuvres, but we collected several Wraith Hearts - Vexx's equivalent of stars or golden eggs - one for working our way up a mountain, one for collecting a certain number of blue 'shards', and one for defeating a rather unpleasant mini-boss, before we were hurled off the machine by a group of impatient upstarts. Between Burnout 2, Vexx, Turok and the other titles on display, it was clear that Acclaim means business for the next year.

Welcome to the second day of ECTS 2002 at London's Earls Court. As the PlayStation Experience thunders along next door, hoovering up and then spilling countless skaters and other PS2 goodie bag-toting youths happily into the streets by the hour, the trade show located behind closed doors continues to swell as journalists and other games industry folk wander up and down the aisles taking in the sights and sounds. Yesterday was home to the Broken Sword press conference and ECTS keynotes, and today is set to include the ECTS Awards presented by Gaz Top (whose claims to fame include everything from HOW2 and MTV VJing to a current TV series of Game Pad with wife Violet Berlin), and the second day of NVIDIA's Unreal Tournament 2003, er, tournament, amongst other things. UT2003 brought with it Epic's Mark Rein and Jay Wilbur, who took on yesterday's finalists and thoroughly defeated them to their mutual embarrassment. Presumably when the title hits the streets there will be some competition to stand up to the pair of them - unless of course they receive their comeuppance from today's combatants. As for the awards - there are plenty of games on display to vie for the judges' attention, from Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 2 and Acclaim's Vexx to Rage's Rocky and Ubi Soft's countless Clancy blockbusters. Pan-European awards sponsored by a number of publications will also be handed out, and of course publishers, innovative developers and peripheral manufacturers won't be left out either. We'll bring you the news as soon as we hear it from our perch just outside Pizza Express, when the ceremony finishes later this afternoon.