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BioWare have released the first official add-on module for Neverwinter Nights, which is expected to teleport on to shelves across Europe tomorrow. Before you get too excited, Contest Of Champions is a fairly straightforward deathmatch module allowing four teams of characters to battle it out online in two different arenas. It's a neat demonstration of what the game can do though, with the ability to raise or lower your level as appropriate to give an even match and a shop in each team's base from which to purchase extra equipment before the battle. Hopefully more interesting modules will follow, and the comprehensive editing tools that come with the game should ensure a flood of user-made add-ons in the months to come. In the meantime though, if you fancy turning your Neverwinter Nights into Quake 3, you can grab the module from the downloads page at Bioware's website. Related Feature - A Neverwinter Night's Dream

XenGamers reports that Square has capped the level limits on jobs in Final Fantasy XI to encourage players to investigate more of the diverse range of tasks available to them. However, the move to cap characters' abilities at level 50 has sparked anger amongst diehard MMORPG enthusiasts, who insist that constantly improving one's character and specializing is one of the most important aspects of a persistent world. Square hopes to increase the level limit to 100 in the coming months, XenGamers reports, by releasing downloadable scenarios with tougher boss figures. Related Feature - Final Fantasy XI preview

Despite being set before Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis is still a great game, and because the pair is being ported to the Cube concurrently, when they are released across Europe in 2003 you will be able to play them in whatever order takes your fancy. And by the sound of it, Capcom is eager to give you every opportunity to buy them both and play them both. The original Resident Evil - due for release on the Cube this September - is a full-blown remake of the first game with glamorous visuals and a refined mansion, and will be released at a typical retail price of about £40. However, both Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis will be released in the States this year for $19.99 a piece - approximately €20 or £13. With the games still some way off, Capcom's European pricing remains a mystery, but being able to buy both games for the price of a single major release would greatly increase their chances of finding favour amongst gamers. More details on both games are available for the uninitiated. Related Feature - Resident Evil GameCube preview

Riding high on the success of Dark Age of Camelot, developers Mythic have announced their second massively multiplayer role-playing game - Imperator. Appropriately enough it's set in a parallel universe where Rome never fell, side-stepping the Dark Ages. Instead the Roman republic has carried on for thousands of years, gradually turning into an interstellar empire where classical themes and sci-fi technology meet. In other words, it's Star Wars with togas and stuffed doormice. In fact, Mythic are taking the frankly bizarre decision not only to go up against the much anticipated Star Wars Galaxies head-on, but to make a point of this in the press release announcing their new game. "When we first began work on Dark Age of Camelot, everyone in the industry thought we were crazy to compete with EA, Microsoft and Sony, and that we were doomed to failure", Mythic president Mark Jacobs boasted. "As our success has shown, this was not the case. Sony and LucasArts have some of the best people in the industry working on Star Wars Galaxies but so does Mythic and soon they will be focusing on Imperator. We look forward to the challenge; it's going to be fun." Mythic might be setting their sights a little high, and there's likely to be a considerable gap between the release of Star Wars Galaxies (expected out towards the end of this year) and Imperator (which has only recently entered development) which will make any direct comparison between the two rather pointless anyway. We're taking Mythic's claims that their latest effort will turn out to be "a revolutionary game that will help define the MMORPG genre for years" with a healthy dose of scepticism for now, but no doubt more details will emerge over the next year or two as the game gets closer to completion.

Jobs aren't the only thing being downsized at Infogrames' Sheffield House studio, with the announcement today that they're hard at work on bringing the MicroMachines franchise to the latest generation of consoles. For those of you with a short memory or a penchant for lurking under large boulders, MicroMachines is a fast and furious racing game played from an overhead view in which you guide tiny toy cars around outsized tracks at high velocity. It's the kind of manic gameplay that's best enjoyed with a few friends and a pint of beer. Now that winning formula is coming to the PS2 and Xbox, with eight new characters to choose from, a variety of vehicles to drive, and of course four player head-to-head options. Other details are thin on the ground at this stage, but with the game due on shelves in November all should become clear soon. Related Feature - Infogrames cuts back at Sheffield House

Microsoft and Ensemble are looking for a few good men (ten thousand, to be precise) to test their real-time strategy game Age of Mythology. The process is expected to start some time early next month, and would-be players are encouraged to sign up before the end of June for their chance of getting into the test group. If you're amongst the lucky chosen ones, you can expect to receive a shiny golden disc with a copy of the latest alpha build of the game burnt on to it, featuring two of the nine civilizations and four player online support. Related Feature - Age of Mythology screenshots

Namco's excessively hyped Soul Calibur II will make its arcade debut in Japan on July 5th, the company announced yesterday. Priced to own at a mere 328,000 yen (that's about €2,755 / £1,789), the unit is expected to sell 8,000 kits throughout Japan, replacing the limited release test version that has received a lot of press lately. With Soul Calibur II on the streets of Japan early next month, and rumours of the arcade unit arriving in America in August, we're going to have to try and work out where the nearest arcade is, because it's been so long since there was any point in going… Soul Calibur II is still scheduled for a multi-platform release next year on affordable consoles, despite Sony's bizarre exclusivity claim at this year's E3. Rumours that Link and Fox McCloud will be making an appearance are vigorously hated by this particular editorial team. Fox has a gun, for God's sake. It just won't work out.

Washed up, that's what Sarge has become. He sits around all day puffing on a cigar and yelling "maggots!" to an empty mess hall. His compatriots were all wiped out in a sizzling textbook example of how to fry a piece of plastic, and he's all that's left, and he's all washed up. But still, he's starring in his own GameCube game; Army Men: Sarge's War, and in this adventure players get to take on the role of the burly old-school alcoholic drill instructor-cast plastic commando himself. Sarge is waging his own personal war against the Tan Army for managing to reduce his platoon into pools of plastic, but Sarge is made of stronger stuff [fired -Ed] and heads off on his own to take the whole bally army on. Presumably players will be expected to combine outrageous weaponry with pulling the trigger in time-honoured tradition, but 3DO is putting an emphasis on combat tactics, improving enemy AI and creating a compelling experience. This is something which Army Men: Sarge's War will have to do if it is to arrive within the same century as the Cube conversion of Medal of Honor, and still make an impact at retail. We are told that the graphics engine has been significantly overhauled, and since this is no fuzzy N64 outing we should hope so too. Character-specific damage makes an entrance beyond the typical "death" scenario, with melting animations, comical hole-blown-through-chest shotgun antics and all sorts of other variations on dismemberment, which could stretch beyond breaking point the Army Men's already tenuous grip on the friendy BBFC certificates. One hopes that 3DO's claims of a Spring 2003 release date will give them enough time to do something creative with the power of the GameCube. We also have hopes that someday the series will culminate in a visual tour de force to put Toy Story to shame, but some might describe those hopes as "high". Or they might just accuse us of being high. Still, Sarge's War will rage next year. Related Feature - 3DO to announce Cube plans

The announcement of a new graphics card from the previously defunct Matrox raised excitement in certain quarters earlier this year, with the 256 bit DDR memory bus getting hardware geeks all hot under the collar. Let's face it, some people are strange like that. Unfortunately that impressive list of buzzwords and big numbers may not have translated into real world performance, with the influential and ever blunt John Carmack describing the card as "really disappointing" after putting it through its paces with his new Doom graphics engine. "I tried to set up a 'poster child' case that would stress the memory subsystem above and beyond any driver or triangle level inefficiencies, but I was unable to get it to ever approach the performance of a GeForce 4", JC reported in a rare moment of coherency. "The basic hardware support is good, with fragment flexibility better than GF4 (but not as good as ATI 8500), but it just doesn't keep up in raw performance." And there's more bad news for Matrox, as "none of the [card's] special features will be really useful for Doom", a prognosis which is sure to send thousands of hardcore gamers running back into the safe embrace of ATI and NVIDIA. "The 10 bit color framebuffer is nice, but Doom needs more than 2 bits of destination alpha when a card only has four texture units, so we can't use it. Anti aliasing features are nice, but it isn't all that fast in minimum feature mode, so nobody is going to be turning on AA. The same goes for 'surround gaming' [which allows you to play games on three monitors]. While the framerate wouldn't be 1/3 the base, it would still probably be cut in half." Ouch.

Take 2 have announced that Pterodon and Hidden & Dangerous developers Illusion Softworks are preparing a new tactical shooter set during the Vietnam war. Due out this autumn through the publisher's Gathering Of Developers label, Vietcong will feature detailed jungle environments to battle your way through in n-n-n-nineteen missions (give or take one) alongside a squad of up to six elite US Special Forces troops. Although this unit is known as "the A-team", we pity the fool who expects to find Mr T in there somewhere. Apparently the whole thing will be built around a storyline "that captures the danger, fear and unpredictability of the war itself", while providing a wide selection of realistic weaponry to help you get home in one piece. The developers are also promising multiplayer support, which will give you the chance to fight for the US of A or slip into the black pyjamas and comfy sandals of the Vietcong for some online jungle warfare. Zippos at the ready.

It seems that work is progressing on a movie adaptation of Alone In The Dark. According to a report on Creature Corner, production company Angry Films (who are behind the forthcoming Victorian fantasy adventure League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen) will be helming the project. Producer Don Murphy apparently met with Infogrames during last month's E3 trade show to discuss the project and, according to Angry's Hans Rodionoff, the French publisher "was very clear about wanting to do the movie with Angry Films". It's possible that the Alone In The Dark movie could go into full production once work is finished on League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, sometime next year. Don Murphy is no stranger to videogame movies, having co-produced the awful Double Dragon. Hopefully this effort will turn out better... Related Feature - DIsaster Movies

Codemasters have released a new one minute teaser trailer for their forthcoming rally sim Colin McRae 3, this time focusing on the game's weather effects. The footage included in the trailer shows the Ford Focus sliding down an icy woodland track with snow falling all around, kicking up clouds of dust on a sandy course and slithering along wet tarmac through narrow village streets. The smooth movement of the vehicles from the in-car camera looks quite convincing, but the most impressive aspect of the graphics is probably the nice effect caused by rain falling on your windscreen and being blurred by the rapidly moving wipers. It's the little things in life, you know? The trailer weighs in at a scant 6Mb in AVI format, and is available to download from Codemasters' website. Related Feature - Colin McRae Rally 3 screenshots (Xbox)

Having colonized America in the first Cultures, the sequel sees young Bjarni and his tribe of Vikings scuttling back across the Atlantic to Europe in search of allies, after a terrifying vision suggests that the end is quite literally nigh. But despite this impending apocalypse, there's no real sense of urgency to the game. You have no time limits, few real goals to achieve beyond gathering X units of resource Y, and once you've completed one of the vaguely defined missions you're free to continue playing for as long as you want.

THQ is set to publish versions of Microsoft's Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee and Monster Truck Madness 2.0 on GameBoy Advance, thanks to an agreement with the Big M to do so. Amidst much backslapping on both sides, the two companies mentioned that the games will be released sometime in 2003, but no further details about either title were discussed. Related Feature - Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee Xbox review

Bandai releases videogame in Europe shocker! That's right - for some reason that we haven't quite fathomed, the hilariously named Dragon Ball Z: Legendary Super Warriors is on its way to Europe on the GameBoy Color, and publisher Infogrames claims that you can pick it up at your local gaming emporium from this Friday. We weren't going to detail the entire plot, but it's almost as peculiar as releasing a European conversion of a game called "Legendary Super Warriors" on the GameBoy Color in this day and age, so here we go. Gohan, son of Goku (victor of the World-Class Tournament, obviously), was told by a chap called Radditz that he wasn't actually human and instead belonged to a warrior-race called the Saiyan. Radditz (whose job it is to conquer star systems and sell them) kidnapped Gohan only to succumb to Goku's calming influence, and both of them shuffled off the mortal coil. Now Gohan is training intensively for the battle of his life as an even stronger Saiyan approaches, and he must use his punishing card technique to prevent Vegeta and Frieza from obtaining the seven scattered Dragon Balls and achieving immortality. Yep, it's another world beater. The mechanics of this… unwieldy mission involve playing through a Story Mode and collecting the most powerful of up to five types of card to win battles, before pitting his or her deck against friends in a multiplayer link-up mode. Related Feature - Dragon Ball Z: Legendary Super Warriors screenshots

Described by yours truly as "the pinnacle thus far" in terms of handheld RPGs upon its release earlier this year, Golden Sun was a big hit with GameBoy Advance owners the world over, and with the highly anticipated sequel The Lost Time due out in Japan later this month, developer Camelot has revealed a number of details about the sequel. Golden Sun: The Lost Time focuses on an area of the story previously left unexplored. The game stars the hostile Garcia, who was absent on the day of the storm that began the original game, and the sequel charts the three-year spell of his absence to help you understand his character better. The game world should be about three times as large as the original, appearing as more of a "world" than its predecessor did, and the player's progress through the original Golden Sun will impact their experience in The Lost time. Camelot recommends that those interested in getting off to a good start with The Lost Time have a trundle through Golden Sun and capture as many enemies as possible. Gameplay should remain quite traditional, but Camelot believes that players will find the game sufficiently different and enjoyable. Golden Sun: The Lost Time is not currently due out in Europe this year, but we will let you know if that changes. In the meantime, one expects to see it appear about a year after the original, in February 2003. Related Feature - Golden Sun review

Cambridge-based Nicely Crafted Entertainment have formally announced their first project, Time Of Defiance. The game marks something of a departure for the company's co-founders Tony and Ben Simpson, who made their name working on the painfully cute Creatures artificial life games. By contrast, Time Of Defiance is a massively multiplayer real-time strategy game which looks like a mixture of Project Nomads and Homeworld, with up to a thousand players on each server squabbling over the shattered remnants of a planet. "We've come up with a game so flexible in structure and tactics that there is an almost limitless strategy for victory", Toby boasted. "To date, we've run a dozen full games with a fairly small number of players with every player emerging with a different strategy. The winners of each game will be those that demonstrate the most skill, cunning, treachery and bravado. It is a strategy game unlike any other." NiCE also claim that the game's efficient networking system means that you can play the game from a laptop using a mobile phone, if you're a glutton for punishment, while a lowly 56k modem should be more than adequate. Obviously you can't be online all the time though, so automated defences will hold the fort for you while you're away from the game, and optional e-mail and SMS alerts can let you know if you're attacked. There's also the promise of over 14 million square kilometres of territory to control, with "lavish 3D visuals" throughout. Revolution in online strategy gaming or meaningless hype? Judge for yourselves - a 400 player demo version of the game is already available to download for free from NiCE's website, with a low monthly fee of just £5. The full thousand player version of the game will launch some time in August. Related Feature - Time Of Defiance screenshots

Gamers will soon be able to experience THX sound, although quite how is currently up for debate. Lucasfilm's 20-year-old subsidiary is breaking off from its Daddy to form an independent company, and a division of that enterprise will be THX Games. THX Games will target PC and console systems as an area for expansion (unless you have a better suggestion… Palm Pilot perhaps?). THX (named after George Lucas' first movie, THX 1138) is often mistaken for another sound format, like Dolby Digital, but in actual fact it's a set of standards which cinemas must be able to live up to in order that they become THX-certified. To begin with, THX certification requires that uncomfortable or obstructed viewing angles, outside noise, distortion, reverb and unequalised audio be limited, and that Lucasfilm's THX division certify the auditorium in person. The reason that THX is so popular (and the reason why cinema owners waste time and money in the pursuit of certification) is that it is weighted entirely in favour of cinema goers. The aim is for you to have a good time; in comfort, engaged and entertained without hindrance. If THX Games can provide that sort of experience to gamers at a reasonable price, and we'll be interested to see how they go about it ourselves, then it could become as de facto for games as it is a standard for movies.

The Sci-Fi Channel has revealed that it will be airing a new videogames TV series in the UK this summer as part of their Saiko-Exciting Saturday morning programming. The half hour show, imaginatively titled Sci-Fi Gamer, will debut on July 6th and appear at 10am every Saturday morning. Hosted by former BITS co-presenter Emily Newton-Dunn, the show will include everything from news and reviews to cheat codes, and won't be limiting itself to sci-fi games - the press release even makes mention of (brace yourself) Britney's Dance Beat. "Gaming is now the key entertainment source for the youth market and yet, with so much choice available no one is delivering the required standard of honesty when scrutinising gaming content", Tor McLaren of Sci-Fi Channel owners USN pontificated. "Sci·Fi aims to redress the balance with the attitude of SFG. Having Emily on board is a huge boost for the show. She is well known within the gaming industry and her expert knowledge will ensure SFG is topical, interesting and at times, brutally honest. She is not scared to speak her own mind." Whether this latest attempt at a videogames TV series will prove to be a resounding success or another Blam-like disaster remains to be seen, but all should become clear in a couple of weeks when the show makes its first appearance. Related Feature - Myst : The Mini-Series

Norwegian developers Funcom have cut more staff this week, according to a company statement quoted on American news site Blue's News. An undisclosed number of workers at their US offices have been laid off, while more staff in Scandinavia have been put on "forced temporary leave", an oddity of the Norwegian welfare system whereby the staff remain employees of the company but most of their salary is paid by the government. Similar steps were taken back in December, when about 30 staff were put on leave as Funcom tried to turn around their business after the relatively disappointing launch of their bug-afflicted massively multiplayer game Anarchy Online. Once again Funcom are saying that it's business as usual for Anarchy Online itself, with future patches and a planned add-on pack for the game still on schedule despite the latest round of job cuts. "Subscription numbers for Anarchy Online have been steadily climbing" this year, according to Funcom's statement, and the company is optimistic that they will be able to re-hire most of the staff they've put on leave. The news wasn't so good for the company's Java games division though, with the website (which offered a range of free games) shut down earlier this month after talks aimed at selling the site as a going concern fell through. Meanwhile the company's other massively multiplayer project, the highly promising Midgard, still appears to be on hold as all hands focus on turning around Anarchy Online. Related Feature - Midgard put on hold

Stuttgart's purveyors of musical software eJay have announced that the PlayStation 2 will be stretching its sonic capabilities this summer with the release of eJay Clubworld. Although not strictly speaking a game, it will give PS2 owners a chance to mix it up in eight clubs around the world, including the likes of The End and Amnesia, with top DJ Carl Cox introducing you to the various venues. Over ten thousand sounds and loops will be included to let would-be musos roll their own, complete with the ability to have up to four people jamming together live through a multi-tap. And because the sounds are all stored on the eJay CD, over a hundred songs can apparently be crammed on to a single PS2 memory card, allowing you to easily transport your musical compositions from A to B with the minimum of effort. Everything from hip hop, 2-step and R&B to trance, trip hop and chill-out will be included, and players can even use the analogue sticks on their Dual Shock to scratch and mix their tracks. Throw in a jukebox mode and a 3D visualizer to produce the appropriate trippy visuals, and eJay are presumably hoping that it will also be perfect for those pre-club build-ups and late night relaxation. Expect to see eJay Clubworld appearing on shelves some time this summer. Air horn and neon clothing optional.

Cenega's forthcoming horror adventure game Nefandus has undergone a name change "due to copyright reasons". We're not entirely sure what lies behind this, as the only other Nefanduses we've managed to find are an obscure Swedish black metal band and a deity from a homemade Dungeons & Dragons campaign. Whatever the reasons though, the game will now go by the name of Shade : Wrath of Angels. Oh, the excitement. Related Feature - Nefandus Shade screenshots

Obviously nobody sets out to develop a bad game, but somehow dozens of them still find their way on to shelves each year. Explaining why bad games get made requires a long and very arduous chinwag though, if you actually want to emerge from the conversation with anything of consequence. In fact, you could theorise about it for weeks, but unless you're talking to the people directly involved, it would be difficult to come up with anything of substance. Which is why we spoke to a number of developers both in the UK and overseas about their experiences across the years to find out exactly what makes a game turn out bad.

Red Storm's tactical combat game The Sum Of All Fears is already available in the USA, along with the film on which it's based, but thanks to the vagaries of movie distribution it won't be appearing in Europe for some time yet. Bizarrely the film will first surface in Belgium and France at the end of July, with the rest of Europe getting it during August. Except for poor Sweden, who apparently have to wait until September. As a result, the game is being held back by publishers Ubi Soft to tie in with the movie's launch here in Europe. Today they have confirmed that the PC and GameBoy Advance versions will debut in August at a modest £19.99, with a PlayStation 2 port following in September at £29.99 and a GameCube release also planned before the end of the year, but with a relatively hefty £39.99 price tag. Expect a full review of the game closer to its European release, but in the meantime you'll have to make do with the latest screenshots of the game in action. Related Feature - Sum Of All Fears screenshots

For some time now our readers have been asking when Microsoft's miniaturised Xbox joypad, known as Controller S in the USA, would be released here in Europe. Designed for people with smaller hands who find the current pad cumbersome, the Controller S sports a new improved D-pad (the primary cause of complaints against the standard Xbox controller) and a more traditional diamond lay-out for the primary coloured buttons. With the new pad already available in the US and no sign of a European release, we caught up with Microsoft UK's Xbox PR manager Nick Grange to find out what was going on. Sadly he confirmed our fears, telling us that "there's no current plans to release the controller in Europe". Why not? Apparently we don't want it enough. "Our research has found that people like the standard Xbox controller in Europe, so at this time we are not planning to offer an alternative", Nick explained. "If it becomes clear that the same preferences for a smaller controller as in the US are seen in Europe, then we will look to meet that need." So there you have it - if enough people ask for one, it might just get released in Europe. For the moment though, it looks like the only way European gamers will be able to get hold of a Controller S in the short term is by importing one from the US. Related Feature - Microsoft explains Controller S

Deus Ex is one of the finest games to ever grace the PC. A triumph of the Ion Storm "Design Is Law" philosophy (and perhaps the only one to date), the gritty urban tale of conspiratorial government schemes and shady corporate nastiness won the hearts of gamers aching for something different to quench their thirst for originality in the first person genre. Some two years after Warren Spector's masterpiece first hit the shelves, it's now the turn of PS2 gamers to get a taste of the action.

Gore has been in development for something in the region of four years now, designed by a talented team of mostly internet-based amateurs, including a couple of guys I used to work with back in my Quake 2 mod making days. But after countless delays and an extended design cycle which developers 4D Rulers admit had its "highs and lows", last month the game was finally completed. Gore should be out in the USA soon through Dreamcatcher, while Cryo are expected to be publishing the game in Europe some time in July, with Mindscape distributing in the UK. To celebrate, a final demo version is now available to replace the previous "Gore Test" releases. Included in the sizeable 100Mb download is the early stages of the single player campaign, along with a pair of multiplayer maps and support for deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag and tactical gameplay modes. You can grab the demo from all the usual suspects -

Not content with having the west's biggest massively multiplayer role-playing game, Sony Online Entertainment are setting out this summer to bring a whole new audience to the joys of EverQuest. Prepare yourselves for the EQ Invasion Tour! The weapon of choice is a 26 foot long (that's just short of 8m in real units) EverQuest trailer fitted with a dozen VAIO PCs with all the latest bells and whistles, offering punters the chance to sample the game before parting with their credit card details and entering a squalid life of addiction in which every hour is spent either playing the game or earning the money needed to keep their account open. Probably. Sadly (?) the invasion is limited to the USA for now, with the tour truck starting out from San Diego today before travelling around the country, taking in the likes of San Francisco, New York, Seattle, Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston. Venues will range from county fairs to college campuses, giving existing players a chance to meet up and worship the game's designers in person, as well as allowing Sony to demonstrate the game to newcomers. Full details of the three month, ten thousand mile tour can be found at the EQ Invasion website. Related Feature - Everquest, Everquest, Everquest

Amongst the hordes of massively multiplayer role-playing games currently in development, one title stands out from the crowd - Shining Lore. Developed by Korea's rising star Phantagram, it is, in a word, barmy. Features include anime inspired character graphics, a wide range of mini-games to master, machinegun-toting pandas, and the arcane art of .. er .. offensive cooking. And no, we're not talking about Jamie Oliver. While Shining Lore has been undergoing beta testing in the far east for some time now, the game's western beta cycle will be kicking off in July, with testing expected to last about two months. If you fancy being one of the 20,000 pioneers in this strange land, head over to the Shining Lore website and fill out the beta sign-up form. Related Feature - Shining Lore preview

The Japanese gaming press is reporting that the popular manga Captain Tsubasa is set to appear on GameCube. Captain Tsubasa was created in 1981 by Yoichi Takahashi, and follows the story of a young Japanese football player as he works his way through the ranks and - in the current iteration of the series - comes up against supreme international opposition in the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan. Tsubasa's popularity at the moment is particularly understandable. The Japanese response to the World Cup has driven the likes of million-selling Winning Eleven 6 to the top of the sales charts, but it seems unlikely that the spirited performance of the Japanese national team - who went out to an on-form Turkish side in the second round of the tournament - will lead to the game's release outside of the country, and a Konami representative we spoke to this afternoon echoed that sentiment. Captain Tsubasa has already appeared as a peculiar card battle / football hybrid on the GameBoy Advance as Captain Tsubasa Advance: Road to 2002, released last November, and the Cube version is currently pencilled in for a September 2002 release in Japan. Related Feature - Winning Eleven 6 preview