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- NVIDIAPrice - ~£300

One of the first GameBoy Advance games we got our hands on last June was Ready 2 Rumble Boxing : Round 2 from Crawfish and Midway. Unfortunately it was a lacklustre conversion and (ahem) lacked punch. On the other hand, Digital Fiction's THQ-distributed Boxing Fever is the closest thing we've seen to a decent handheld boxing game, and short of a GBA version of Punch Out from Nintendo themselves, the chances are it will remain as such. Boxing Fever is surprisingly good-looking, with much larger fighters than Ready 2 Rumble Boxing, which was more like a beat 'em up than anything. Characters take up the whole screen and the game is viewed from the first person, with multiple layers of background animation adding to the illusion of three dimensions. The characters themselves are a bit bland, but the animation is a sterling achievement. Originally published by Majesco in the States, Boxing Fever features everything you might expect to find in a boxing title; eight playable characters, two boss characters, championship and practice modes and a link cable option for two players. Design-wise it's extremely easy to pick up, with a no-frills control system consisting of duck and block buttons as well as high and low punches. This four-button system fits the GBA perfectly. Each character also has a few special moves and super moves - charged attacks that are really only applicable in the dying moments of the match.

When we noted that Lik Sang was still stocking NEO4 mod chips in light of the recent Sony court case we said this probably wasn't the end of the matter, and according to this story on Wired, it wasn't. According to the article, US Customs officials have blocked shipments from Lik Sang, hoping to stop the import of products that may go against federal copyright protections. NEO4 is generally accepted as a bad breed of mod chip, built more or less entirely for the use of copied and backed up PlayStation 2 games. Only recently this writer was offered a NEO-chipped PlayStation 2 and nearly 70 pirated games. It's clear that NEO has made its mark, and attempts to protect against its distribution are now widespread. Lik Sang for its part has pulled the product in light of the controversy, but the Americans aren't especially bothered and continue their blockade. It's not just NEO customers that suffer though. As Wired points out, everything, including Dreamcast coder cables for amateur programming, has been blocked at the port so to speak, and there is no word on when Customs aims to give up on this one. According to Customs, the Dreamcast coder cable and NEO shipments amongst others violate the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Related Feature - ELSPA backs Sony

To celebrate the release of State of Emergency this Friday, Take 2 has teamed up with Virgin Megastore in Oxford Street and has hired TV pseudo-celeb Dermot O'Leary to host an evening of on-screen mayhem starting at 9PM on Thursday, February 21st. Apart from offering gamers their chance to buy the game a day ahead of its official release date, the promotion will include all night game challenges with a star prize of a PlayStation 2 and a Sony Wega TV. For a game like SoE, we had half expected some sort of promotional anti-globalisation march; all these free electronic goods don't really seem to be in the spirit of the thing. Nevertheless, they are up for grabs, and the first 50 through the door will also receive a free Rockstar T-shirt, but beware, because the event is being flagged on Kiss, Capital and Virgin Radio on Wednesday and Thursday, along with Virgin's in-store radio. If you plan to head down there - we'll be staying in to play the game as it happens - try not to cause a riot. Related Feature - State of Emergency preview

Nintendo, Sega and Namco are teaming up to create an arcade board based on GameCube hardware, the former announced today. Codenamed Triforce, the board is aimed at creating a low-cost arcade solution capable of linking the arcade and home markets as SNK once attempted with its plan to store save data on the Neo Geo Pocket handheld. Nintendo may attempt a similar feat with its GameBoy Advance, which can already interact with the GameCube itself. Exact details of Sega and Namco's involvement has yet to be ascertained, but with their strengths in the software development side of things and newfound allegiance with Nintendo, we can expect to see some major titles based on familiar franchises. Triforce will be unveiled in prototype form on this Friday, February 22nd in Makuhari at the AOU 2002 Amusement Expo, with playable Soul Calibur II GameCube code promised also. It's surely no coincidence that Microsoft's Xbox videogames console launches on the very same day.

Squaresoft have hooked up an elaborate streaming video of a town in Vana'diel, the fictional world of their forthcoming massively-multiplayer Final Fantasy XI. The stream offers music, and a higher resolution than the company's static webcam, which has been updating once every ten seconds for some time at PlayOnline. According to The GIA, who uncovered the Windows Media format streaming video however, life in Vana'diel consists largely of two people gawping motionless at the camera and others coming and going over a drawbridge. Those expecting titanic, epicurean confrontations of unfathomable magnitude on a global basis stand to be disappointed by the stream. You would be best focusing your attentions on the February 29th release of Final Fantasy Anthology, which includes a demo of the - as far as the FFXI beta testers are concerned anyway - vastly superior Final Fantasy X. It rivals Tolstoy by comparison. Related Feature - Final Fantasy XI preview

Shigeru Miyamoto has clarified the rumours surrounding the GameCube version of Zelda. Special Reserve's online gaming magazine, amongst others, recently speculated on the future of the franchise, hinting that the veteran games designer at its helm may have been struck by a change of heart after the Space World 2001 reaction. Speaking to a Dutch journalist, Miyamoto-san explained that "rumours about a more realistic style of graphics [originating] on the Internet are incorrect," going on to say that E3's playable demo will be "practically identical" to the footage released so far. "However, I have made some adjustments to Link's eyes." Miyamoto-san believes gamers will start to appreciate Zelda's visuals once they get into the swing of the thing, explaining that "you can only truly understand it once you play it." The creator of many an interminable series, Miyamoto-san has also revealed a couple of details about Mario Sunshine, specifically "that that thing on his back is indeed sort of a water gun," and that the control system is "largely based on Super Mario 64's". And since it was a Dutch journalist, Miyamoto-san commented, "[Mario will] definitely be launched n Europe this year." Related Feature - Another day at Space World

Portable Monopoly, a company which sprang up to deal with the problem of GBA backlighting, has relaunched its website and announced that it will shortly be taking American (and subsequently international) pre-orders for its GameBoy Advance backlighting mod kit. The kit will cost $35, for which consumers will receive one light guide and light source, which fits inside the GBA system casing above the LCD and below the plastic screen cover, an optional on/off switch, a generous two-foot length of insulated electrical wire in case of mistakes and one modification tutorial. Other tools required for the job include a soldering iron, wire strippers or equivalent, a knife, a screwdriver and one of those handy compressed air dust removers, which is recommended before performing the modification. Portable Monopoly rate the kit 4/10 on the difficulty scale, "where 1 is putting two Lego blocks together and 10 is building a car engine from scratch". Portable Monopoly is discussing pre-installed mod kits and the possibility of a fitting service with interested companies, and looked set to do it in the past, but "the legal issues were overwhelming". Portable Monopoly expects third parties to do the job "down the road". You can find out more about Portable Monopoly (and witness some impressive photos of the product in action) in the website's FAQ. Related Feature - Extra Good

That's right, a bleedin' bandicoot. What the hell were they thinking? Dubbed the PlayStation's answer to Mario 64, Crash Bandicoot was an enjoyable romp walled in by, well, walls. It lacked the freedom, familiarity and charm of Mario 64 and although it spawned a number of sequels, it never really won my heart. I did predict big things for developer Naughty Dog however… And lo, with Jak & Daxter they have truly delivered. Although the game will come across as too cute for some, this seamless, eclectic blend of action, adventure and comedy served up on a single DVD is a better game than Mario 64, and probably the pinnacle of platform gaming as it stands. J&D rarely lets up throughout its ten hours or so of gameplay, and if you enjoyed the likes of Donkey Kong, Mario and Crash, this gem of a game deserves to find its way into your collection. The story concerns the plight of Jak and his sidekick Daxter. After disobeying Chief Samos' orders and sneaking off to Misty Island, Daxter falls into a vat of Dark Eco and turns into a small fuzzy animal reminiscent of Timone from The Lion King. After liasing with the Chief, Jak and Daxter set off to find Gol, the Dark Eco expert, who Samos believes can undo Daxter's transformation. The only problem is that Gol lives miles away, and between our heroes and his refuge lies Fire Canyon. Never fear though, because the Chief's saucy-looking daughter Keira has an anti-gravity Zoomer, which can cross the lava if you find 20 power cells to fuel its shields. As it turns out, that's the least of the duo's worries.

While Allied Assault is (deservedly) hogging the limelight at the moment with its European release this week and chart-topping success in the US, another Medal Of Honor game is waiting in the wings. We took an early demo version of Frontline for a spin at EA's recent Allied Assault launch party in London to find out more...

Electronic Arts and Westwood have released a multiplayer-only demo version of their Command & Conquer themed first person shooter, Renegade. Weighing in at just shy of 90Mb, the demo includes one map supporting the C&C teamplay mode, which essentially throws you into the middle of a real-time strategy game where all of the units are real players running and driving around the map. Included are 28 characters, 23 weapons and 11 vehicles, which should be enough to keep any Command & Conquer fan happy. The only downside is that apparently the demo must be played using GameSpy Arcade. Still, if you fancy a little online Conquering you can grab the demo from any of the following sites -

For a couple of years now Multiplay UK have been running Britain's biggest LAN parties, and their next event looks set to break new records. Taking place once again at Newbury Race Course, i10 will take over the weekend of March 29th to April 1st and have room for more than a thousand players. Former sponsors Gameplay have fallen by the wayside, but BT will be making up for the lack of flags and banners with some Games Domain branding, as well as giving out free t-shirts (ooh) and releasing exclusive maps for Counter-Strike, Quake 3 and Return To Castle Wolfenstein designed by Splashdamage. Perhaps more interestingly though, Microsoft will be turning i10 into iX with an Xperience roadshow setup featuring a network of eight Xboxes hooked up to a 50 inch plasma screen for some serious Halo multiplayer action. Other game demos for the new console will also be available, along with an Xbox themed "chillout area", which will presumably be big, green and full of squiggly lines and handle-barred stags. To find out more or sign up for the event, check out the Multiplay website.

The US videogame industry lost $1.9 billion to global piracy last year, half of which originated in Korea and China, according to the Washington-based Intellectual Digital Software Association. The group is asking US trade officials to "take action" against 50 countries which "do not do enough to stop piracy". When we spoke to the European Leisure Software Publishers Association's Director General Roger Bennett this afternoon however, he said he thought the IDSA's figures were "extremely optimistic". The ELSPA Crime Unit conducts its own research with a number of personnel on the streets co-operating with law enforcement agencies to quash piracy, but its figures for 2001 still shows as much as £3 billion in losses in the UK alone, more than twice the figure quoted by the IDSA for America. ELSPA's data is based on the UK videogame industry turnover and crime unit data, topped with a sprinkling of common sense. It says that for every ten games manufactured, the companies make roughly a third of the money they should. Unlike the IDSA however, ELSPA has "less clout" with the UK government, although Bennett pointed out that if it wanted to, Tony Blair's administration could deal a crippling blow by tightening trade with problem countries like Korea and China. He also commented that the problem with many of these countries is that their economies simply cannot support a competitive videogame industry, and so the black market is all that's available, and easy export to the US and UK makes it a tidy business. As far as the PSone is concerned, Bennett pointed to the proliferation of CD writers and CDR imports from Europe, saying that the medium is used "almost exclusively for distributing copyrighted material". While the situation has improved with the PlayStation 2, which is distinctly more difficult to pirate games for, there is still a ludicrous amount of piracy. The GameCube's "minidisks" are a good start, but he expressed doubt over the security of Microsoft's Xbox. But are Sony and other console manufacturers (not to mention third party publishers) shooting themselves in the foot by not releasing their products in all English-speaking territories concurrently, whilst fighting importers from behind their shield of localisation? He wouldn't be drawn on that one, but suggested that the only way we're likely to see simultaneous worldwide releases is in "a perfect world". So until such time as Earth evolves into a utopian society, importers are likely to be penalised just the same as pirates, with the same restrictions affecting them. Does this, as the ACCC is arguing in Australia, restrict citizens from reaping the benefits of globalisation? Perhaps, but the piracy problem takes precedent, and unfortunately for gamers who feel downtrodden by Sony's quest to vanquish imports as an extension of its battle against mod chips, ELSPA will offer no contest. Related Feature - Sony Suffer Screen Indigestion?

A poll of gamers on Amazon.co.uk has revealed that dispatching your first lemming is the world's top gaming moment. Apparently the sensation accompanying the event caused such a maelstrom of emotions that it affected Amazon's customers forever. In a close second place was the sound of the infamous motion detector from Aliens Versus Predator, described by one customer as "the scariest thing to hit my PC, ever." Completing the top three was finishing Tetris Game B on level 9, height 5, getting the dancing Cossacks and the Space Shuttle. Other popular moments included getting chased by a T-Rex in Tomb Raider and sniping an enemy in the head from 500 metres in GoldenEye on the N64. We were unable to get hold of DMA Design to discuss the result this afternoon, but we pulled this quote from DMA's then-PR-and-writer-man Brian Baglow in Edge, January 1997 out of the archive: "Don't ask anybody at DMA what their favourite game is." "Is it Lemmings?" "No, it f*$%ing is not!" Take a gander at the press release for the full list.

This time next week the Xbox launches in Japan, priced marginally above the market-leading Sony PlayStation 2. Missing from its launch line-up though is famed first person shooter Halo, and according to the new-look IGN, Microsoft has finally announced when Japanese gamers will be able to get their hands on it: April 25th. Until then, gamers in the land of the rising sun will have to make do with the platform's few Japanese market exclusives such as Dead or Alive 3, Project Gotham Racing and Jet Set Radio Future, or one of the various ports launching alongside the console, such as Silent Hill 2 or Onimusha. Japanese gamers have not traditionally gone for first person shooters, preferring RPGs amongst others. With Halo Microsoft is hoping to buck the trend and will be mounting an aggressive advertising campaign to try and penetrate the Japanese market. Related Feature - Japanese Xbox launch unveiled

More details of Sony's PlayStation 2 online gaming service have emerged, courtesy of an Adobe Acrobat presentation which appeared on a games industry site yesterday afternoon. The service is to be known as PlayStationBB. As we reported on Wednesday, hosting of the service and payment facilities will be hosted by partner ISPs from Fujitsu, NEC and NTT, with Sony's proprietary "DNAS (Dynamic Naming Authentication System)" helping to purvey a "secure and copyright protected environment". Connections to "the existing Internet and mobile phones" are all part of the service. In the absence of Internet Explorer and its partner technologies, which are obviously unavailable to SCEI, Sony's own "Broadband Navigator" will act as a unified delivery mechanism for broadband content, which includes games, music and movies, along with full web-browsing capability. The main aspects of PlayStationBB content will be downloadable games available through "e-Distribution", which are stored on the PS2 hard disk, email and instant messaging facilities (remember Sony's alliance with AOL, whose AIM and ICQ networks are extremely popular), and "PlayStation Jukebox", which will give users access to downloadable music (presumably at a price, given Sony's other business interests). Finally, RealPlayer will offer streaming video. Through the addition of "various network interfaces and firmware", Sony aims to extend Broadband Navigator's capabilities "to the networked AV, such as personal video recorder (PVR) with TV tuner, home server, extended DVD video player, and others." Related Feature - PS2 online for 70% of DSL users in Japan

Today sees the arrival of Medal Of Honor : Allied Assault on this side of the pond, and although (as usual) the Yanks are arriving late, we'll let them off this time, because from what we've seen so far Allied Assault appears to have been well worth the wait. Three weeks ago we ventured down to London to help EA celebrate the game's completion with a launch party at the Imperial War Museum in London. As well as enjoying free booze and nibbles, listening to a live jazz band and getting to play both Allied Assault and a demo of the forthcoming PS2 Medal Of Honor game, we were also treated to speeches by executive producer Rick Giolito and military consultant Dale Dye, both very colourful characters in their own ways. And so without any further ado, here's what they had to say for themselves...

Sony has whipped the wraps off its new PlayStation 2 Platinum range, to be made up of nine games including four first-party releases. Gran Turismo 3 : A-Spec (10/10), Tekken Tag Tournament, Formula One 2001 and Dead or Alive 2 are to be joined by TimeSplitters (9/10) from Eidos Interactive, Crazy Taxi from Acclaim, Oni (7/10) from Take 2 Interactive, Red Faction (9/10) from THQ and Star Wars : Starfighter (9/10) from Activision. The range is set to go live on March 1st with GT3 available first, priced at £19.99 (€32.75). Meanwhile, Sony has also confirmed that a special Metal Gear Solid 2 PlayStation 2 bundle will be made available when Solid Snake returns to Europe. Although the bundle will not include the special edition DVD shipping with retail copies of MGS2, it will be priced at £229.99 (€377.15), some £15 cheaper than buying the console and game individually.

NVIDIA last night announced its financial results for the three months to January 27th 2002, showing a massive boost in revenues, partly thanks to strong sales of the Xbox in America. Revenues stood at a touch below $500m, up about 130% compared to the same period the previous year, while profits rose 135% to $73m. All of this at a time when rival companies are continuing to suffer from a slowdown in the PC market or even leaving the graphics card industry entirely. Unfortunately the cloud that came with this silver lining was a confirmation that NVIDIA is being investigated by the Securities & Exchange Commission over continuing allegations of insider trading, and that it has also now begun an internal investigation into some of its accounting practices during the year 2000.

The GeForce 4 MX has taken a bit of a hammering since its launch in Brussels last week, with several big names in hardware journalism and developers (including Quake God John Carmack) lining up to have a go at its lack of pixel and vertex shading support, and it's - some say unreasonable - use of the GeForce 4 moniker.

Titus Interactive have announced that Top Gun : Combat Zones is on its way to the GameCube, with a June release on the cards for Europe. This should make it the first flight combat game to appear on Nintendo's latest box of tricks, and adds to an already crowded summer release schedule for the lunchbox look-alike. Compared to the original PS2 release of Combat Zones, the Cube version will feature enhanced graphics and "redesigned campaigns and a refined game structure" following feedback from the (not particularly good) PS2 version. Once again though the focus will be on outrageous stunts and arcade-style action in exotic settings rather than realistic flight models. Which is probably a good thing. Related Feature - Top Gun : Combat Zones screenshots

Kalisto has succumbed to its long-running financial woes following a terrible year which saw its share price slump almost 95% after a collapse in revenues last spring. The company finally threw in the towel and declared bankruptcy last week after its latest refinancing plan was blocked by the French stock market's regulators. It's now expected that a larger company will move in to take over the ailing developer, which is currently valued at just €18m. Infogrames has its own problems and has already ruled itself out of the bidding according to a report in the Financial Times, which leaves Ubi Soft as perhaps the most obvious buyer - the French publisher has seen sales booming in recent months, and has already bought the likes of Red Storm, Blue Byte and GAME Studios in the last couple of years. If it has any spare change left down the back of the sofa it could try to rescue Kalisto, which is working on a new Nightmare Creatures game for them at the moment. The sequel was only officially announced two weeks ago, but already its future is in doubt unless somebody steps in to rescue the developer. Other projects under threat include a spooky console platformer called Halloween which was due to be published by Wanadoo this fall, while a massively multiplayer Highlander game was also under development at Kalisto at one point. Related Feature - Ubi Soft to publish Nightmare Creatures 3

You're dead. In fact, you've been dead for ten years. Before that though you were a famous wizard, imbued with magical powers as a child by your stepmum, who just happened to be a dragon. So it's not entirely a surprise to find yourself resurrected to face a new menace which is threatening your former homeland and robbing the underworld of fresh souls. Welcome to the decidely odd world of Gorasul... Firing up Gorasul for the first time you are faced by an outraged sounding man demanding to know if "you think this is a game". At this point you will no doubt start to wonder what you've let yourself in for. Perplexity will rapidly give way to worry as he follows up this challenge by questioning whether this is "a tale told by humans, a game designed by humans", or actually the result of some kind of transdimensional portal. Veteran gamers may start to suffer flashbacks of Omikron : The Nomad Soul, and you may even find your hand subconsciously reaching for the uninstall option in an attempt to save you from further mental scarring. This temptation you should resist. Yes, the game loses a little in the translation from its native German, and at first the opening cinematics may sound somewhat pretentious .. or just plain embarrassing, depending on your mindset. The lengthy voice-over which continues to ramble on about dragons and the undead as you fumble your way around the obscure low resolution menu system is a tad goofy, and it gets increasingly annoying once you realise that you will have to put up with it every time you load the game. But once you get past these initial niggles the game hiding behind the clunky exterior is actually rather entertaining.

Bam will be entering the GameCube market with Driven, based on the Sylvester Stallone movie of the same name. Driven should ship for the Cube's European launch and will be one of the few motor racing games available on day one, which is probably lucky for Bam as the original PS2 version of the game was pretty poor. On the bright side, the developers have apparently spent the last few months "further improving the handling of the cars and the overall playability of the game .. using the feedback from the PlayStation 2 version". Whether these changes are drastic enough to make the game fun should become clear soon, as the GameCube version of Driven is due for release in America next month. Related Feature - Driven GBA review

Take 2 has belatedly announced its financial results for the three months to October 31st following an investigation by the Securities & Exchange Commission in America. Trading in the company's shares has been suspended since late January, and on Tuesday the publisher admitted that it had overstated revenues for their fiscal year 2000 to the tune of nearly $20m. Yesterday it added that it was appointing another new Chief Financial Officer, and that departing CFO Albert Pastino (who only joined the company two months ago) would be working as a consultant on the reauditing. The results themselves are a little disappointing, with sales rising 14% to $123m but the previous year's profit of $8.7m turning into a $5.3m loss this time round. The good news is that the next set of results (covering the all-important festive season from November to the end of January) should show a vast improvement thanks to the chart busting antics of Grand Theft Auto 3 and the console ports of Max Payne.

Japanese ISPs Nifty (Fujitsu) and Biglobe (NEC) along with two NTT subsidiaries have been signed up by Sony to cooperate in the April launch of its online gaming service. In an press conference today, Sony Computer Entertainment President Ken Kutaragi told reporters and developers that Sony's service will cover 70% of Japanese broadband Internet users. As of January there were some 1.78 million ADSL subscribers in Japan, 1.24 million of which will have access to PS2 online services. Pricing may vary, but NTT has said that it will charge a monthly fee of 1,500 yen (£7.90 / €12.90) for the basic gaming / Internet package. Users will also either have to pay a one-time fee of 18,000 yen (£94.50 / €155) or monthly instalments of 1,160 yen (£6 / €9.99) for 18 months in exchange for broadband tools that allow them to download games to the PS2. Whether that's a reference to the broadband adapter / hard disk pricing is difficult to say, as all previous information has suggested these will be bundled together. Amongst the benefits of signing up to Sony's online service are online games and digital TV and audio content, as well as full-blown Internet access. Related Feature - Square to confirm FFXI

It's not all doom and gloom for technology companies these days, especially retailers. American e-tailer GameStop looks set to make their initial public offering on the Nasdaq later this week and expects to sell 18.1 million shares at $17-19 each, raising as much as $343 million, trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the proposed symbol GME. According to Core Magazine, there have only been five IPOs this year, the lowest level of interest since 1980.

Impressions Games and Sierra have officially announced that Emperor : Rise Of The Middle Kingdom will be the next game in their popular city-building series. So far Impressions have covered Rome in the Caesar games, Egypt in Pharaoh and the myths of ancient Greece in Zeus : Master Of Olympus. Their latest foray takes them further east, putting players in charge of a city in ancient China and covering some three thousand years of oriental history right up to the Mongol invasion of 1211 AD. Along the way you will get to build the Great Wall and the Teracotta Army amongst other epic monuments. Further details are available on the newly launched Emperor website, but pretty much the only thing the press release talks about is Emperor's online multiplayer support. This is being heralded as a first for the city building genre, unless of course you count hybrids such as Stronghold. According to Impressions' Alex Rodberg, allowing players to control their own cities and interact with their neighbours online will mean that they "can form alliances, trade needed goods, send in spies and emissaries, invade each other, or work together on a massive project like the Grand Canal". Producer Jon "Don't Call Me Max" Payne added that "we're really excited to see what gamers will come up with in multiplayer mode, so we're leaving options open for them to invent their own types of gameplay", with both competitive and co-operative support on offer. If you read the fine print though, Emperor is actually being developed by BreakAway Games (the team behind the Cleopatra add-on for Pharaoh) rather than Impressions themselves, and apart from the setting very little else has changed. Sprites are slightly bigger and more detailed, but it's the same old isometric 2D graphics engine underneath, with a new improved combat system the only other major change apparent at this stage. With the game currently heading for an autumn release, we should know more soon. Related Feature - Pharaoh review

Ubi Soft has signed a five year licensing deal with Dupuis Publishing to develop video games based on their comic book series Largo Winch, which was created by Jean Van Hamme and Philippe Francq and has apparently sold some 2.3 million issues worldwide since its inception in 1990. The comic has also spawned a TV series, which was broadcast in France last year and should arrive elsewhere in Europe this autumn. Of course, it goes without saying that none of us have ever heard of this comic and as far as we know it's fairly obscure outside of its native France and other strange countries like Quebec. So for the benefit of those of us who don't have a clue what the comic is all about, here's a brief run down on the story so far. Largo is a Yugoslavian orphan adopted by the world's wealthiest man, who conveniently dies some years later, leaving the multi-billion dollar Winch Corporation to Largo at the tender age of 26. Apparently this "plunges [him] headfirst into a new, unexpectedly vicious world" which somehow makes Largo "the epitome of the ultimate hero .. his adventures packed with action and supense". To be honest we didn't think that corporate restructuring and hostile take-overs were quite so exciting, but Ubi Soft seem to believe that "the world of Largo Winch lends itself perfectly to video games". Some of you may be experiencing a slight sense of deja vu at this point, as some eighteen months ago Ubi Soft signed a five year licensing deal with Dargaud Publishing to develop video games based on their comic book series XIII, which was created by Jean Van Hamme and William Vance and has apparently sold some 6.5 million issues worldwide since its inception in 1984. Again though, the comic is relatively unknown outside of French speaking countries, and since the deal was signed we have heard absolutely nothing about the PlayStation 2 game which was supposed to be based on the license. Signs are that Largo Winch has a better chance of seeing the light of day though, as Ubi Soft are promising that an adventure game (with "a significant financial element" - the mind boggles) will be released as soon as September on PC, PS2 and Xbox. So far all we have to go on though is one "screenshot", which consists of what looks suspiciously like a pre-rendered skyscraper with a dodgy washed-out photograph as its backdrop. Hopefully the final product will look somewhat better... Related Feature - UbiSoft goes shopping for comics

Bam! have announced that the impressive looking GameBoy Advance version of Broken Sword : Shadow Of The Templars has gone gold and is now on its way to manufacturing. This means that the diminutive adventure game's scheduled release has actually been brought forward from April 12th to some time in March. Now there's something you don't see very often in the gaming industry! Related Feature - Broken Sword GBA preview