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Duke Nukem will be back on the PC in Europe this May, courtesy of French publisher Ubi Soft. Before you get too excited though, the game in question is Duke Nukem : Manhattan Project, a third person action platformer by Sunstorm Interactive. Originally designed as an episodic game to be distributed over the internet, it's now being revamped and packaged as a run of the mill retail release. Just for a change aliens are invading the Earth and taking our babes hostage (oh dear, here we go again), and naturally it's up to the Duke to kick ass, chew bubblegum and swipe lines from famous movies. Say hello to my little lawyer... Players can look forward to a mixture of classic Duke Nukem monsters like the Pig Cop alongside newcomers such as Uzi-wielding mutant alligators (don't ask) and fem-mechs (not to be confused with fembots). As you would expect there's also a devestating arsenal to dispatch your enemies with, including rocket propelled grenade launchers, shotguns and pipe bombs, as you fight your way through the game's eight New York missions. Cheap cash-in or platform revival? We should know in a few weeks... Related Feature - The Duke is back

What do you get if you cross Unreal Tournament with Carmageddon? Mobile Forces - an online-focused shooter featuring an unusual mix of traditional infantry action and Mad Max inspired vehicular mayhem. We took an early beta version of the game for a spin to find out how it's shaping up...

At last, Sony has confirmed the forthcoming release of Final Fantasy Anthology on PlayStation in Europe this May. The package will consist of Final Fantasy IV and V, as previously speculated, but no pricing information is currently available. Neither game has been released in Europe in the 11 years since development finished, but FFIV made it to the States as Final Fantasy II. FFV was first translated into English for its use in the Anthology set Stateside. Although over there, IV and Chrono Trigger were released as Chronicles and V and VI were Anthology. Confused? I bloody was. Veterans of the 16-bit formats will doubtless want to add these to their collections. Apart from the GBA version of Final Fantasy Tactics, it is not thought that Square plans to delve any further into its past for further re-releases at this time. Although that said, a Final Fantasy Mystic Quest update for the GBA would be delightful, if you're reading, chaps. Final Fantasy Anthology is due out on 15th May, 2002. Related Feature - FF Anthology Europe-bound

Ubi Soft has penned a worldwide deal with 20th Century Fox, allowing the company to develop Aliens vs. Predator on the GameBoy Advance until 2003. This doesn't give Ubi all that long to act, but GBA games don't typically take as long to develop as their big screen counterparts.

Electronics Boutique UK is going to the High Court to see if it can overturn a royalty agreement with Electronics Boutique. EBUK, the UK's biggest games software retailer, currently pays one per cent of turnover to EB Inc., of America, in accordance with a services agreement struck between the two firms in 1995. This amounted to £4m last year. EBUK has taken legal advice to the effect that the agreement is no longer valid, as the recent fall in the Kim family's EBI shareholding to 46 per cent means an effective change of ownership. It has issued a declaratory action to see if its interpretation is correct. A judgment is expected to take several months. EBUK and EBI were once allies: now they are looking like competitors, with the two companies racing to gobble up games retailers across continental Europe.

The fourth Destruction Derby game is currently in development for PlayStation 2 at Studio 33 in Liverpool, according to GameSpot. Studio 33 originally took the franchise over when Reflections started working on Driver for Infogrames, and are currently working on the fourth game in the series if the report is to be believed. No details on the game have been released officially. Destruction Derby takes a slightly less Machiavellian approach to car combat when compared to the likes of Carmageddon and Twisted Metal, but the focus on realistic physics and spine-tingling pile-ups made for some classic entertainment. Hopefully DD4 will live up to its lineage. Related Feature - Twisted Metal : Black review

THQ have announced that they will be publishing GT Advance : Championship Racing 2 in Europe some time this summer. The original was one of the more entertaining GBA launch titles last June, but was marred by the removal of the Japanese version's battery backup function, inexplicably replaced by daft 16 character alphanumeric passwords for the European release. The good news is that the sequel will suffer from no such shortcoming, with a proper save game system being promised this time round. GT Advance 2 will sport 42 tracks spread across 14 stages, with a variety of different settings and weather conditions on offer over the course of the championship. You'll also have the chance to get behind the wheel of 15 rally cars, which come complete with a navigator calling instructions to you as you career around the courses. Throw in half a dozen single player modes and two player head-to-head races, along with a replay system to relive your antics after the race, and THQ may have hit the jackpot. As long as they leave the battery in this time... Related Feature - GT Advance review

The last few months have seen Activision expanding their in-house development capabilities, with a buy-out of Wolfenstein developers Gray Matter in January, and last October's acquisition of Treyarch, who are now working on the Minority Report game. This week they've continued that spending spree by picking up Californian developers Shaba Games for about $7.3m worth of shares, with another $2m in stock up for grabs if the developer meets its performance targets. Shaba worked on the PSOne versions of Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, and are currently developing Shaun Murray's Pro Wakeboarder for all three next-gen console systems. Related Feature - Activision acquires Gray Matter

According to a report in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, an American woman is taking Sony Online to court after her son committed suicide last Thanksgiving. Apparently the man was logged on to Everquest just minutes before he shot himself. Despite repeatedly suffering epileptic fits while playing the game, 21 year old Shawn Woolley played up to twelve hours a day, quitting his job and leaving his family to spend more time with the addictive game. Now a Miami lawyer representing the unfortunate woman wants to force Sony to put cigarette-style warning labels on the game, cautioning that "extensive playing could be hazardous to your health". While players jokingly refer to the game as EverCrack, this lawsuit looks like another case of overambitious lawyers trying to make a quick buck out of bereavement. Shawn was an overweight loner diagnosed with depression and a schizoid personality disorder, using Everquest as an escape from every day life. Even if something that happened in the game did trigger his suicide, it's not something that is likely to happen to more stable Everquest users, and past experience has shown that warning labels aren't going to put people off playing the game for hours at a time. Rather more worrying is the story of another 21 year old Everquest addict, this time a college student who started skipping classes to play the game during his senior year. According to Jay Parker, a chemical dependency counselor, the student played the game for 36 hours straight and then suffered a severe psychotic break due to sleep deprivation. "He thought the characters had come out of the game and were chasing him. He was running through his neighborhood having hallucinations." While this kind of incident is obviously incredibly rare, it does bear remembering that too much of a good thing can be bad for you. Related Feature - N64 Killed My Son!

Building up the GBA catalogue with rehashed 16-bit classics is par for the course nowadays, but on the bright side it does mean that from time to time we get something as exciting and enjoyable as Super Mario World to sink our teeth into. The game still stands up to 90% of GBA software and is the pinnacle of portable platforming delight. If you haven't played the ten year old SNES original recently, or found yourself slightly irked at the short-lived Super Mario Advance, then this could be just the game you've been looking for. What made the SNES version of the game so enjoyable was the sense of non-linearity and the scope of Mario's adventure, not to mention the large number of innovative and hardware-straining features first put to work during the course of the game. Although Super Mario World has none of its predecessor's impact and these days counts as a fairly simple game, it's a timeless platformer on a par with anything else currently available to handheld owners. The token story elements, outlined via crude cutscenes at the beginning of the game and after significant boss encounters, concerns the plight of Princess Peach who has once again been kidnapped in the plumbing protagonists' absence. Mario and Luigi are off adventuring on Dinosaur Island, and once they learn of the Princess' abduction it's up to them to put pay to the interminable Bowser and his endless stream of henchmen, hench-turtles and hench-soforth, rescuing trapped Yoshis along the way. Yoshi's inclusion eventually led to his own game (a pair of them, in fact), but it was here that he first really made his name. By hatching an egg (many of which are strewn around the game) players can jump on the back of Yoshi and use his big stomping feet to dispatch troublesome bad guys, or his tongue to slurp them up. Gobbled up items and baddies can often be spat out as fireballs, giving Yoshi riders a particular advantage over their enemies, and secret Star Road levels give players the chance to uncover different coloured Yoshis, some of which do much more than spit fireballs…

Codemasters has announced its plans to develop a multi-platform first person shooter called Shoot to Kill : Colombian Crackdown. The press release seems to concentrate largely on studio head Gavin Raeburn's thoughts on the FPS market, which "really needs its arse kicking," apparently. Raeburn's answer is a "deep and gripping plot of deception, betrayal and revenge, coupled with intense and refined gameplay," not to mention "revolutionary AI and physics systems". None of which is a cliché. The game, set for release on PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube and PC, will chart several Drug Enforcement Administration Officers' united quest to undermine the Colombian drug underworld by uncovering individuals and gangs involved in the trade and trafficking of cocaine.

As well as Virtua Fighter on the GameCube, Sega AM2 has also officially announced a PlayStation 2 version of Dreamcast and arcade racer F355 Challenge this week. The company has revealed no specifics, other than the existence of the game and that it will comprise a number of original features. European and North American release dates have yet to be confirmed, but the game is scheduled for a Japanese release later this year.

Rage Software is in serious financial trouble, MCV is reporting, after a turbulent week for the company and other UK games outfits. Disappointing interim results from Rage have led to speculation that the Liverpool publisher's time may be running out. Rage reported a loss before tax of £8.5m on sales of £5.8m over the course of six months ending December 2001. Losses for the full year are now liable to be higher than market expectations and funding has become a major problem. According to MCV, the David Beckham game hasn't sold particularly well and the in-house development is drawing a massive overhead, leading to short-term cash-flow problems aggravated by a poor share price. Some now believe that the firm is too weak to launch its forthcoming titles and its overseas deal with Majesco relies on software to pay back, leaving the company back at square one. Rage has recently witnessed a number of staff changes and boasts several major titles in the offing, including Crash ('Totaled!' in the States), Mobile Forces and Incoming Forces. Work continues on several others. Related Feature - Crash is Totaled!

Content and technical difficulties are holding back the Japanese launch of the PlayStation 2 online gaming service, PlayStationBB, Bloomberg is reporting. Sony had planned to roll out games, music and movies online to almost nine-million users as early as Monday, but incomplete talks with the nine broadband providers involved in the project have caused a hold-up. A spokesman for NTT Broadband Initiative mentioned "continuing talks" to Bloomberg, and none of the companies involved is willing to speculate on the completion date. Related Feature - PlayStationBB details

Reuters is reporting that Nintendo will cut the price of GameCube if Sony drops the PlayStation 2 from $299 to $199 or $249 at E3. Although marketing veepee George Harrison admitted that the company hasn't made a decision specifically relating to the price cut yet, a big PS2 cut would likely prompt some sort of retaliatory action. PlayStation 2 is at its most expensive in the States, where it costs several pounds/Euros and several hundred yen more than its overseas equivalent. The price was originally set at the North American launch in the last quarter of 2000, and many have speculated that it's high time for a big cut. In terms of software, neither company plans to change its standard retail price, but again, Nintendo is willing to consider a discount program for best-selling games further down the road to rival Sony's. Related Feature - PS2 price drop official

Sega AM2's Yu Suzuki has personally announced a Virtua Fighter project for the GameCube to coincide with the series' 10th anniversary. Stunning the huddled masses at Sega's GameJam event in Tokyo, Suzuki-san confirmed that the game will not be a fighter, but an action-adventure in which story is important, comprising certain RPG elements. Every character in the series so far is expected to feature. Related Feature - Shenmue II review

Nintendo aims to attract more mature punters to its GameCube console by "taking [Eternal Darkness] to emerging filmmakers" and thus "tapping into those same traits to introduce [the game] to older audiences beyond our typical marketing avenues." These statements, made by Nintendo of America executive veepee Peter MacDougall, concern the EternalDarknessFilms.com competition, which opened last autumn in association with entertainment film company Hypnotic. The competition, which received more than 500 entries, asked budding filmmakers to produce a five-minute short to represent the game, touching on elements like hallucinations, Black Magic and of course insanity. To increase exposure, Nintendo will be asking the public to vote for its favourite film between 23rd May and 4th July, via its website. The overall winner will receive $2,000 cash and the chance to have their film shown at a Hypnotic venue during a major film festival. Runner-up prizes include GameCube systems and games. Silicon Knights' Eternal Darkness : Sanity's Requiem is due out on 24th June in the States, with a UK release date still to be announced. Related Feature - Eternal Darkness preview

Permanently depressed looking cartoon dog Droopy is on his way to the GameBoy Advance in a cartoon tennis game imaginatively titled Droopy's Tennis Open. Developed by Bit Managers and French publisher Light & Shadow Production, the game will also feature Droopy's son Dripple [don't ask - Ed], the "puzzling and completely off-the-wall .. Screwy Squirrel" [ditto], Butch, the glamorous Bubbles Vavoom, and of course Droopy's arch nemesis McWolf. As well as offering "classic" tennis, the game also includes a cartoon mode which sports a variety of distinctly unsporting special attacks and traps to unleash, from toon staples such as time bombs and steam rollers to having multiple balls on court at once to confuse your opponent. Throw in four player multiplayer action, tournament and arcade options and bizarre settings ranging from the wild west to the north pole, and you have a .. er .. rather odd tennis game. Look for Droopy drawling his way on to shop shelves across Europe in June.

Here we go again. The milking of the Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon license has begun in earnest, and the initial droplet of calcium from this particular gaming cow comes in the form of Desert Siege, Ghost Recon's first mission pack. There are eight new single player missions to crack in Desert Siege, along with a couple of new multiplayer modes (Siege and Domination, both simple team-based territory defence and attack games), four more multiplayer maps and nine new weapons, also for multiplayer. The brand new single player campaign sees the elite team of Green Berets known as the Ghosts heading into Eritrea to protect the small country from invasion by neighbouring Ethiopia, the peak of sixty years of conflict which is putting the Red Sea's vital shipping lanes at risk. If there's one thing that bugged me about Ghost Recon, it was the fact that just because Red Storm had knocked together a fancy-pants engine capable of rendering lush open battlefields, they used it as an excuse not to bother with the superb detail and variety of locations so resplendent in the Rainbow Six series. While the locales on offer in Desert Siege create a distinct change in atmosphere and scenery from the predominantly green marshland of the original, there is still a distinct lack of variety on the whole. Assaults on well-designed sites like a train depot and an oil refinery do offer some reprieve from the sprawling desert scenes though, both in tactical decision-making and the actual pace of the game.

The air is filled with the sound of rushing water, hundreds of metres below at the foot of the cliff. There's a windmill just ahead of me, with a broken spiral staircase slumping apologetically into a pool of gleaming water. As I look around I'm dazzled by the sun and have to retreat a few steps into the shade to see properly. I've just beaten a severely irritating room packed with spirits of the netherworld, but this is far from a thankless task. The serene beauty of the scene before me, two hours into Ico's adventure, is one of the most spectacular sights ever witnessed in interactive entertainment, and this is nothing compared to the rest of the game. ICO was borne of an incredibly simple concept: escape. The huge castle in which the game is set was supposed to be Ico's prison and eventual tomb, the last chance for his community to purge itself of the burden of evil. Apparently children born with horns are no good, telltale sign of coming famine and desolation, and so Ico finds himself locked in a peculiar egg-shaped casket at the age of twelve, shut away in an enormous, impregnable but more importantly inescapable cliff top Bastille. When he finds himself the beneficiary of an unusual stroke of luck, however, he - and by extension the player - is offered the chance to affect an escape. Within a few minutes of escaping Ico comes up against a set of tightly locked doors, signalling the end of his good fortune. But not for long, as he spots a giant birdcage hanging from the ceiling of an enormous room, which, he discovers, contains the fetching princess Yorda, whose bizarre language is apparently incompatible with his, or indeed our own. Releasing her proves important, because some bizarre power pulses through her veins, and the distinctive doors barring the couple's path magically part at her very presence.

To tie in with today's big Tale In The Desert interview here on EuroGamer, developers eGenesis have graciously organised a special twelve hour beta session for all our readers, giving you the chance to take their innovative massively multiplayer game for a spin. Replacing the traditional hack and slash gameplay of most online titles with a more constructive, co-operative approach, it's a radical change from your average Everquest clone. Instead of slaying monsters and looting their corpses you will be gathering resources, constructing buildings, researching new technologies, and working together with other players to advance Egyptian culture.

Bam! have announced a publishing deal with Japanese company Spike which will see their oddly titled motorcycle racing game Riding Spirits appearing on European shelves this summer. Featuring over 150 real life motorcycles and super bikes from the likes of Honda, Suzuki and Kawasaki, Riding Spirits "represents high quality gameplay from a top Japanese software house", according to Bam's Anthony Williams. As you would expect, the game includes all the standard quick race, time attack, versus and career modes, with the added ability to customise your bike or trade up to a faster model using the cash you win in your races. Riding Spirits should land on our shores in June. In the meantime, we have some dodgy low resolution screenshots of the game in action for you to squint at. Related Feature - Riding Spirits screenshots

It's not very often that the massively multiplayer genre comes up with a radically new idea, but A Tale In The Desert has done just that. Replacing the usual stats obsessed power levelling of most online games with a more co-operative, constructive approach, it's already attracted something of a cult following during recent beta tests. We spoke to designer Andrew Tepper to find out what the future holds for this unusual game, and to give you a chance to try it out for yourselves.

You lot may be packing away your pencils and tottering off home for a long weekend, but I'm delighted to report, despite beer o'clock long having past us by, that Super Monkey Ball developer Amusement Vision will be producing a Triforce arcade version of F-Zero in time for the end of 2002, with a Nintendo-made GameCube version to follow. Neither Nintendo nor Sega are being drawn on specifics, but we expect to see something of the game at E3 in Los Angeles this May. Related Feature - Cube-based Arcade Board Planned

Microsoft continued their struggle against reality today by issuing a press release euphemistically titled "Xbox meeting strong demand". According to the PR, "weekly replenishments are ensuring that strong demand for the Xbox video game system is met .. with no stock shortages". At no point do they say exactly how strong that demand is, but judging from the sales figures we have seen so far, we doubt that the Hungarian factory pumping out our Xboxes is exactly being stretched to capacity to meet it. "We are very pleased with the success of Xbox in Europe to date", Sandy Duncan reiterated, apparently subscribing to the theory that if you repeat something often enough people will believe it. "We're happy with the strength of Xbox sales, and especially happy with the software and peripheral attach rate, which we believe will set a record level for the launch of a console in Europe. When you consider that we didn't launch before Christmas, the feedback we are getting from retailers is even more encouraging. We're off to an incredibly strong start in Europe and gamers are obviously liking what they see - feedback from new Xbox owners has been fantastic." Related Feature - Xbox European launch a success [sic]

It's over two years since Swedish developer SouthEnd Interactive (nothing to do with the Essex seaside town of the same name) announced Blitz : Disc Arena, a violent future sports game which we described as "Unreal Tournament meets Speedball with frisbees". Things had gone rather quiet of late, but today all has been revealed with the announcement that Ubi Soft will be publishing the game this autumn. Now going by the name of Deathrow and headed exclusively to the Xbox, the full contact sports game sets you the task of winning brutal four vs four matches, either by scoring points or simply battering the other team into submission, Shaolin Soccer style. "Deathrow has the perfect combination of aggressive hand-to-hand combat, third person action and cooperative team play to appeal to action, fighting and sports gamers alike", according to Ubi "who you calling" Soft's Anne Blondel. "This is an incredibly competitive game that will definitely pump up your heart rate as you experience all of the intensity and action it has to offer." Players will be able to choose from any of 13 teams, select a squad from the 130 plus characters on offer, and take them through the game, developing their abilities from one match to the next as they gain combat experience. Deathrow will also sport an eight way multiplayer mode, allowing two teams of real live players to battle it out across the game's fifteen unique arenas, which will feature more than just cosmetic differences. Throw in all the usual Xbox bells and whistles (bump mapping, reflections, specular highlights, MP3 support, kitchen sink) and SouthEnd could be on to a winner. Related Features - SouthEnd Interactive interview

Sunflowers, the German company best known for their popular medieval strategy game Anno 1602, have "disbanded" their internal development team. Henceforth the publisher will be focusing on working with external development teams, such as Austria's Max Design, who are currently working on Anno 1503. Sunflowers also have a 30% stake in a Berlin-based studio called SEK, and a long-term deal with recently formed Bulgarian developers Black Sea Studio. "We have decided to intensify our focus in the future in order to offer our studios an even better level of support", founder Adi Boiki declared in a prepared statement. "Sunflowers' support and areas of responsibility are diverse: conception, game design, technical design, music/sound, quality control, product support, worldwide marketing and sales and much more." It's not known how many staff are effected by this refocusing. Related Feature - Anno 1503 screenshots

Bloomberg have picked up on what we all suspected already, reporting that the Xbox has fallen short of its sales targets in both Europe and Japan. Sales in Japan slumped to around 10,000 units a week by its third week on sale there, meaning that the initial shipment of 250,000 Xboxes which were sent to Japan on February 22nd almost certainly haven't all been sold yet, a month on from the console's launch. And while European numbers still aren't being given out, it is obvious that things haven't gone as well as Microsoft had hoped in many countries on this side of the pond. Xbox marketing director John O'Rourke tried to put a brave face on things by claiming that "we're off to a great start in every region", but others weren't so charitable. Analysts now suspect that Microsoft's strong showing in America won't be enough to let them reach their target of selling 4.5 to 6 million Xboxes worldwide by the end of June, and some suggested that the company may have to cut pricing soon. While this would undoubtedly provide a huge boost to the console's fortunes here in Europe, we're not convinced that pricing is the problem in Japan. The Xbox is already cheaper in Japan than anywhere else, and lack of Japanese games probably has more to do with its slow sales there, not to mention the fact that its rivals both have a huge head start on their home turf. Leave it to EA's ever-controversial president John Riccitiello to really put the boot in though. El Ricco is quoted as telling Bloomberg that "Microsoft has had its teeth kicked in, in both Europe and Japan". Ouch. This may help to explain why EA have been quietly shuffling all of their European Xbox releases further back into the summer for the last few weeks... Related Feature - Twelfth Night

Nintendo has revealed that Super Mario Sunshine will be released in Japan on the 19th July, so if any of you Cube owners can't wait for the US release on 26th August, or the unconfirmed UK release date of the game, then this looks to be the ticket. The game, which we refuse to shorten to SMS, will be known simply as Mario Sunshine in Japan, where the relative 'Super'-ness of the game is not considered relevant to brand recognition. The game will retail for 6,800 yen (£35 / €58) and IGN speculates that the game will be fully playable at this year's E3. Related Feature - Cube gets new toys

Americans seem to have a strange idea of motor racing, with most of their drivers spending half their lives driving round and round in circles very fast. In Europe, on the other hand, punters are more likely to be watching a Formula One car bumping through a chicane or some nutter flying down a narrow forest dirt track in the middle of the night amidst a cloud of gravel and dust. Which brings us to Rallisport Challenge, developed right here in Europe by Digital Illusions and cherry picked by Microsoft to help them launch the Xbox on this side of the pond. And what a catch it is. With its fast paced arcade-style action, stunning graphics and wide range of insane events to take part in, it is without doubt the single most entertaining title in the Xbox launch line-up. If you don't have a grin the size of a hairpin corner on your face after a couple of hours with this, you should have your pulse checked. The game's tracks are split between rally, rallycross, ice racing and hill climb events. The rally stages are traditional A to B affairs, spread over three locations - the sandy African Safari, winding Mediterranean stages with a mix of dirt and tarmac surfaces, and heavily forested Pacific mud tracks. Hill climbs are much the same, but take you anything up to 500m up the side of a mountain, with sheer drops and rocky cliffs on either side of the road. In both cases you will be racing against the clock, with only one car on track at a time. Rallycross events, on the other hand, involve four rally cars racing head-to-head around a dirt track, while ice racing takes this action out on to slippery snow and ice circuits. All of these tracks are purely fictional, but the design is mostly impeccable and they offer a wide range of challenges and experiences.