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When the American Army announced its own videogame project, to be released for free via the Internet, it wasn't the first time that the military had taken an interest in the potential benefits of videogames, and it wasn't to be the last. Back in the day we remember several page spreads in Wired with military consultants waxing lyrical about their Doom-based simulators, but on this side of the pond things are now a little more up to date, with the British Army resorting to a Counter-Strike clone from technology firm QinetiQ. Although admittedly several years old, Half-Life is still considered one of the pivotal moments in gaming history, and Counter-Strike is undeniably the most popular first person shooter modification of all time, so the boys from the Ministry of Defence obviously knew how to pick 'em. None of that fancy graphics palaver - just meaty gameplay. Like CS, the specially developed Half-Life modification from QinetiQ is primarily keyboard and mouse controlled, and troops work as a unit to track down and confront the enemy, dropping from the action should they take a bullet at any point. The hope is that soldiers can try out new weapons and new tactics and gauge their capabilities and effectiveness without encountering real bullets and bombs. The MOD hopes that this will reinforce the vital lessons taught during more traditional exercises. It's good to see that the military is wise to the dangers of battle simulators. Speaking to the BBC, Major Bruce Pennell of the army's Logistics Corp, said that "obviously, being killed in the virtual world isn't quite so serious. We don't have virtual officers writing letters to the dead soldiers' virtual parents, but we'd hope the games are authentic enough to reinforce good teaching." The MOD, currently evaluating the system, has explained that one possible application would be to allow troops to practice real life missions ahead of actual engagement. Musing over the idea, Major Pennell was cautious. "You would have to make sure the environment you are modelling is as accurate as possible," he said. "What you don't want to happen is for a soldier in a real situation to run around a corner to find the door that existed in the virtual environment, only to find in the real world the door is not there." It is not clear whether terrorists in this unnamed simulation are being played by other soldiers or whether they are AI-controlled, but one would hope that the MOD is not relying on poor aim and enemies getting snagged on scenery. Solid Snake had a point about VR, you know. Related Feature - Operation Patriotic Video Game

Eidos have officially announced the existence of Commandos 3, the latest episode in the million selling tactical combat series from Spanish developer Pyro Studios. Once again you'll be taking control of an elite team of commandos battling against Axis forces behind enemy lines during World War II, but this time a stronger storyline is being promised to push the action along to replace the simple mission-based dynamic of previous games. Pyro are also promising to make the sequel more accessible for new players, while series veterans can look forward to improved AI and a wider variety of equipment and enemies. "We want Commandos 3 to be the definitive game in the Commandos series", Pyro CEO Ignacio Perez declared. "Our intention is to take the best of the previous games and introduce several new improvements. We are confident that the millions of Commandos fans will be very impressed." We'll be even more impressed if Pyro actually manage to deliver the game on schedule for a change... The current target is summer 2003, but we'd take that with a recommended daily allowance sized grain of salt for now. Related Feature - Commandos 3 screenshots

Do you remember the 5th of June? I remember it as the day that Ireland clawed their way back in the dying seconds of their fixture against Germany; the day that Mick McCarthy dragged his team out of Roy Keane's shadow and installed them in the top tiers of world football. But meanwhile, somewhat closer to home, Staggan Ltd. chose the 5th of June to announce their own entrance into world football, thanks to the massively multiplayer United Soccer. We caught up with their gaffer Martyn Hughes last week to talk ball tricks.

Liverpool-based developer and publisher Rage Software got a cash lifeline today as shareholders voted through a proposal to issue new shares in the company. Around 117m new shares were applied for by existing shareholders, with another 280m issued to investors. The only remaining hurdle now is getting approval for the trading of the new shares from the UK Listing Authority and stock exchange. All told the move should raise around £5m minus expenses for Rage, which should be enough to stave off the threat of having their overdraft called in by the Royal Bank Of Scotland. "Rage is very pleased to have successfully secured .. the working capital needed to help restore stability into the company's balance sheet", Rage MD Paul Finnegan commented, adding that "the Board of Directors believe that the company has its strongest line up of game titles ever due for release during the next 12-18 months across all of the leading console platforms. Further, through several strategic partnerships recently entered into in mainland Europe and in the United States, we believe that the Company has the opportunity to realise the significant investment we have made within our product development area during the past 18-24 months and successfully take the Company forward as a leading games publisher and developer." Related Feature - Rage looks for cash injection

British developers Headfirst Productions have put out a brief statement regarding the publishing status of their much anticipated Lovecraftian horror game, Call of Cthulhu. Originally the game was signed to Ravensburger Interactive to be released under their Fishtank label, but since then the company's line-up has been sold to Austria's JoWooD. When the deal was announced we assumed that Call of Cthulhu would now be published by JoWooD, along with other Fishtank games such as Arx Fatalis, but apparently that's not the case. According to Headfirst MD Mike Woodroffe, the developer has terminated its publishing deal with Ravensburger Interactive due to alleged breach of contract by the defunct German publisher, a breach presumably relating to the company's recent sale. Whatever the cause of the split though, the end result is that the game is now up for grabs once again, with Headfirst looking for a new publisher for their highly promising game. Meanwhile development work continues, with Call of Cthulhu now expected to emerge menacingly from its aeons long slumber some time early next year. Related Feature - Call Of Cthulhu preview

Introduced by Episode II, the Jedi Starfighter is a nimble craft with the ability to symbiotically harness the powers of the Force with the help of its pilot. In the videogame of the same name - now available on Xbox - it's piloted by a librarian of a Jedi Master named Adi Gallia. Adi's tale begins with an assignment from the Jedi Council to investigate a disturbing trend of unrest in the Karthakk system, a system under the suspected leadership of Count Dooku and teeming with Trade Federation types. Something odd is going on there, and Adi has to go and find out what, allying with tentacled space pirate Nym, the only surviving playable character from Jedi's predecessor Star Wars Starfighter.

Word has emerged from Korea that Phantagram are working on a massively multiplayer game based on the Oscar-winning Chinese movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Due for release towards the end of 2004 on unspecified platforms, the game is being billed as a revolution for the genre, replacing the normal slow hack and slash of most titles with the kind of fast-paced over-the-top kung fu fighting seen in the film. Phantagram are also promising a "deep cinematic storyline" to immerse players in the game, and if nothing else the oriental setting should make Crouching Tiger stand out from the horde of 'me too' fantasy epics looming on the horizon. Other details are thin on the ground at this early stage in development, but an official website is expected to launch within the next few months.

Some consoles might not need leading characters, but Nintendo's GameCube could do with one at the moment. Although sales in its homeland have rallied following a price drop, it's bound to slip further off the pace the world over in the absence of new releases. Which is where Mario comes in, nearly twenty years after his Japanese arcade debut. We have been waiting with bated breath for Mario Sunshine ever since Super Mario 64, and now, with barely a month left, the anticipation has reached fever pitch. The packshot on the right is the official Japanese packaging for Super Mario Sunshine - as it is evidently to be called in Japan as well as the States - leaked by the Japanese Toys R Us and reposted across the Internet. If you are not prepared to wait until Christmas for the PAL version, you can get your hands on your own Japanese copy of Super Mario Sunshine soon after July 19th with the help of importers. If you have a Japanese Cube, or a US Cube modded to accept Japanese games, then our recommendations are Tronix, National Console Support and Lik-Sang. Those of you willing to wait until August 29th can have it in English courtesy of the US release, but where's the fun in that? Related Feature - Super Mario Sunshine preview

A three-level PC demo of Spider-Man: The Movie has been made available by an Australian file network - AusGamers. The 175Mb demo purportedly found its way onto the net via a magazine coverdisk, and to run it you will need a Pentium III in excess of 500MHz or an Athlon processor, 128Mb of RAM, 350Mb of hard disk space, DirectX 8.1 and a 32Mb video card supporting T&L. Spidey fans eager to see their hero in action could do worse than to give this a go, but you might want to go off and make a cup, no, pot… no, oil tanker's worth of coffee, because if our 1.5Kb/s download rate from the Aussie file source is anything to go by, it's going to take a while. Related Feature - Spider-Man: The Movie Xbox review

Gameforms reports that following the sale of the Ogre Battle series to Squaresoft, former developer Quest has now sold its game development resources to the Japanese gaming giant. Ogre Battle creator Yasumi Matsuno already works for Squaresoft, having left Quest after the release of Tactics Ogre in 1997, and is currently working on the GameBoy Advance remake of Final Fantasy Tactics (another game he is largely responsible for) whilst co-directing Final Fantasy XII. He is tipped to resume development of the Ogre Battle series in the near future, although nothing concrete has been announced to date.

Konami of Europe has confirmed that Silent Hill 2: Inner Fears, formerly subtitled Restless Dreams, an enhanced version of last year's PlayStation 2 survival horror spectacle, will be released on Xbox in October.

Ubi Soft have confirmed that a new game in the popular Settlers series is on the way, with both PC and console versions in the works. Details are scarce at this point and there's still no word on when the game will be released or which of the three major console platforms it will be available for. What we do know is that the developers are aiming to "create a truly innovative leap inside the Settlers' gameplay", with the promise of new strategic elements and 3D graphics. "This new game from the cult series will undoubtedly widen The Settlers' audience", according to Blue Byte's Odile Limpach. "Our production team is currently focusing on innovative 3D-technology and absolutely new game features." No doubt more solid information on what these new game features are will emerge as the sequel gets further into development.

With Neverwinter Nights finally on its way to stores in the US, the game's Canadian developers BioWare have auctioned off two autographed copies of the game for charity. In all some $10,000 was raised for the BioWare Kids' Fund, with the money going to the Children's Mental Health Unit at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton, Alberta. Perhaps appropriate, given that the company's co-founders were originally doctors. BioWare's joint CEO Dr Ray Muzyka is reported to be "incredibly happy with the response this auction has drawn", with the money set to sponsor educational, recreational and sporting events at the unit. Related Feature - A Neverwinter Night's Dream

When Mindfire announced that they were making a movie based on the House Of The Dead series, we were somewhat surprised. After all, their first movie was the hilarious Trekkie send-up Free Enterprise, and it was hard to imagine them doing a horror game adaptation as their next project. "We tried to keep the Mindfire sensibility in developing the property, but things take on a life of their own when you bring in a director and cast", president and writer Mark A. Altman admitted in an interview with HomeLAN Fed. "I think fans of our first two films will really enjoy House of the Dead as well, [but] it's certainly a lot more action-packed than what we've done in the past." Given the history of movies based on video games, from Mario Brothers to Tomb Raider, it's hard to be overly optimistic about the prospects for House of the Dead, but Altman has at least spotted the problem that has afflicted most of these past attempts. "I think that many people don't bother to try and come up with an interesting story. They think that having a video game is enough, or worse think because something is based on a video game the story isn't important. We felt the opposite, we wanted to please the fans of the game as well as those who weren't familiar with the game and wanted it to stand on its own. Being a first person shooter, House Of The Dead is a lot more style than story, but that only made it easier to come up with an original story for the film which incorporated the elements from the game which give it a universal appeal. It's a really fun game and that will, hopefully, translate to film." House of the Dead is currently on track for a May 2003 release. Meanwhile Mindfire are also working on a Dead Or Alive movie for Tecmo, which could prove .. interesting. "I can't wait for DOA Beach Volleyball", Mark revealed. "But don't tell anyone." Related Feature - Trailer Of The Dead

Squaresoft began testing the PC version of Final Fantasy XI yesterday in Japan, according to various sources. With the exception of basic services (chat, messenger, email and the Tetra Master card battle game), the Windows-based beta test is taking place on a dedicated server away from PS2 clients, although in the full release version players from both versions will be able to mingle happily. The PC game is due for release before the end of Square's current fiscal year (March 2003), and the developer has released detailed computer requirements, and they are pitched quite high (PIII-800, 128Mb RAM, GeForce 3 recommended, 4.5Gb HDD space). Thanks to the low spec of the average Japanese system (dating sims don't need a GeForce 3, see), these specs will probably alienate a number of its potential domestic users, but by the time Final Fantasy XI arrives in Europe they certainly won't be too far wrong. Related Feature - More woes for Final Fantasy online

Codemasters have confirmed that IGI 2 : Covert Strike will feature multiplayer support, with the first solid details of the online mode emerging today. In a nod to the likes of Counter-Strike, the game will pit IGI operatives against terrorists in a variety of objective-based teamplay maps, with support for up to eight players on each side of the conflict. Missions vary from blowing up oil refineries to hacking satellite uplinks and escorting convoys, and maps will include surveillance cameras, sentry guns and remote control doors and shutters for teams to gain access to. As in Counter-Strike, players will be able to purchase a wide range of realistic weaponry and equipment, but in a novel move you will also have to pay to get back into the game after you've been killed. The longer you're willing to wait before respawning, the cheaper it becomes, until eventually you can get back in for free and spend all your spare cash on buying bigger and better guns. It should be interesting to see how this works in practice, and with a September release currently on the cards we should know soon. In the meantime we have the first batch of screenshots of the game's multiplayer mode in action for your visual gratification. Related Feature - IGI 2 screenshots

The Sold Out budget label received another boost today with the news of six new titles for July, including Tomb Raider 3 and Thief 2. Joining the illustrious ranks of the £4.99 budget label - currently swollen by the likes of Worms 2 and Homeworld - are three games each from publishing giants Codemasters and Eidos, and there's not a duffer among 'em. Leading the way are TOCA 2 (soon to be sequestered from full-price sale anyway by its long-awaited sequel) and Tomb Raider 3 (to put it into the perspective the series has lost, that's the middle title of five currently on the market) - both excellent games, and both more than deserving of your five-pounds-minus-one-pence. Elsewhere, Codemasters also contributes the underrated Severance: Blades of Darkness and online driving doobrie 1nsane, but the real gems come on Eidos' side, with Championship Manager 99/00 joining the £4.99 array along with Thief 2. Now shipping in conventional DVD cases, these titles - available from July - will slot nicely into the gaps in your collection. If we didn't already own them, we'd be tempted to buy more than one. Related Feature - Interview with Garry Williams, MD of Sold Out

Spider-Man used to do whatever a spider can, but if Treyarch's hotly anticipated Spider-Man: The Movie is anything to go by, our old pal Spidey has opted to spend his latter days performing tedious fighting moves on large groups of disorganised thugs in warehouses, whilst one or two of them stand at the back taking pot shots with a collection of pistols and machine guns. For those of you with the film already behind them, Spider-Man: The Movie is a journey packed with all of the nomenclature and none of the spirit.

We're really not sure who thought up the name .hack//sign (pronounced "dot hack slash sign", by the way), or for that matter what drugs they were on at the time, but whoever it was that dreamt up the title of what is now one of the hottest anime properties on Japanese television certainly has a knack for the unusual and the downright weird. Set in an online game - an MMORPG played in an environment called The World - .hack//sign is perhaps best described as Phantasy Star Online The TV Series. The character and environment designs are superficially similar to Sega's seminal online RPG, and the constant references to standard RPG conventions and quirky mentions of internet concepts such as server administrations, log files and characters disappearing from the story occasionally because they have to deal with some "real life stuff" only serve to enforce that feeling. However, there's a lot more to .hack//sign than that. In fact, it's simply one part of a much broader cross-media 'experience' which centres on a PS2 game called .hack - a highly unconventional single player RPG, set within the world of an online game. It's the kind of bizarre and self-referential concept that could only come out of Japan, and which is already a media phenomenon there before it's even released. (And remember, that's "dot hack"… yeah, you get the idea. I'm just terrified of letting that one slip ever since being subjected to an American who insisted on pronouncing it "period hack" the whole way through a conversation…) Of course, some of the big names involved haven't hurt .hack's prospects at all. .hack//sign, the TV series which is based on the game, was created by the director and some of the team behind one of last year's huge hits, Noir - which may not mean much to you, but to the Japanese game-buying and anime-watching public, that's a pretty big deal. An even bigger deal is the involvement of a studio called Gainax, who created a short (and again separate) animated .hack series which will be bundled with the .hack PS2 game as a second DVD. Gainax are the people behind Neon Genesis Evangelion, the angsty-teenager-and-a-robot series with a difference which arguably revitalised the anime market in the mid-nineties, and was partially responsible for the massive boom in the genre in the USA and more recently in Europe. A new Gainax series is big news both in Japan and in Western fandom, and recent reports that the anime DVD will also be bundled with .hack when it's released in the USA is good news indeed. Whether we'll see the whole media circus being brought to Europe at any point is as yet unclear - but given the growing popularity of both RPGs and anime in this territory, it doesn't seem in the slightest bit unlikely. Media circus, by the way, is no exaggeration - so far there's a TV series, an OVA series (that's "Original Video Animation", indicating a short series, usually with very high production values, which is released gradually on DVD or video rather than being broadcast on TV), console games and sundry other bits of merchandise and media. Besides the growing popularity of RPGs and anime though, there is of course the outstanding example of Pokemon, which enjoyed roaring cross-media success over here. Whether the same can be true of the much more mature and thoughtful .hack phenomenon will be very interesting to see.

Yesterday we learnt of Hong Kong based developer Enlight and their publishing deal with Phantagram to release Restaurant Tycoon in the West. However, whilst most of the Western world was scratching its head and asking whether or not a restaurant management game was taking the whole Tycoon thing a little too far, the vast minority of importers, anime fans and Japanese wannabes were tutting and running back to screenshots of Xbox oddity Bistro Cupid. In Japan, the notion of a restaurant management game is only daft if not accompanied by some sort of hunting RPG love story focus, and that's where Bistro Cupid comes in. As the game literature says, "To improve a skill of cooking, adventure out to forest and desert. Win the battle with an enemy, you can get new recipes. Make your restaurant famous by learning many different dishes!" And who can say fairer than that? But wait, there's more. "You can manage 12 different types of restaurant including the main character." Yes, thank you Babelfish. "It depends on you if your restaurant becomes popular. Twelve heroines support the main character." Excellent call. "You can learn cooking and manage a restaurant together with them or you can go on a date on holidays. Aim for an happy ending by improving your impression." So you see, Restaurant Tycoon is nowhere near as confusing or peculiar as you thought it was. This, on the other hand, is. Related Feature - Do you want Tycoons with that?

Everybody loves that speedy blue hedgehog. He sells in huge quantities, even if the games he features in are largely rubbish! In fact, it could be said that he adds a redeeming feature to any game he stars in, unless of course the discussion turns to Sonic Shuffle… But exorcise that horrific game from your collective mind - it looks like Sonic Team will reveal a new game for its long-running figurehead at the World Hobby Fair in Japan this July 13th and 14th. Although publisher Sega hasn't discussed platforms, details or anything else about the game other than its proposed unveiling, we've seen Microsoft's Xbox associated with the title prominently in other sections of the press. I guess we'll have to wait and see on that one. Sega is also promising to show off Super Monkey Ball 2 at the booth in playable form. Oh what we wouldn't give to be in Japan this year…

The long-awaited Cube release of the Phantasy Star Online twins has been set for August 8th in Japan. Episodes I and II, detailed elsewhere, will be accompanied to market by the GameCube dial-up adapter, which will retail at 3,800 yen (€32.15 / £20.55). Nintendo has yet to announce when the broadband adapter is likely to make it to market, but pricing is believed to be the same as the dial-up, based on previously released information. Both Nintendo and game developer Sega will be hoping to avoid the pitfalls of hardware shortages and technical outages that have plagued Square's PS2 online epic Final Fantasy XI, but comparisons are difficult to draw. Technically speaking, PSO is a much smaller scale game than FFXI, with no fiddly hard disks, patches or microcosmic tendencies, and one expects it to make it out unscathed. Related Feature - Phantasy Star Online Episodes I and II preview

Konami Tokyo are celebrating after their latest football game, Winning Eleven 6, hit the million sales mark in their native Japan. Having comprehensively beaten EA's lacklustre 2002 FIFA World Cup at home, Konami are now hoping to repeat that performance to produce a solid result in the away leg. Pro Evolution Soccer 2, the European equivalent of Winning Eleven 6, is currently being refined by the company ready for an early November release, with improvements to the control system and new player kits and team rosters amongst the changes being made to the game for its arrival in the west. "We are delighted that Winning Eleven 6 has been so well received in Japan", Konami Europe president Kunio Neo beamed. "It represents the absolute pinnacle of football games, [and] with the refinements Konami TYO is currently putting in place for its European release as Pro Evolution Soccer 2, we are also very confident the game will enjoy equal success all across our European territories." Related Feature - Winning Eleven 6 / Pro Evolution Soccer 2 preview

One announcement that we missed during the media scrum of E3 last month was TimeGate's unveiling of a sequel to their award-winning real-time strategy game Kohan : Immortal Soverigns. The original game brought a rare spark of originality to this stalest of genres, offering an experience that was closer to a real-time Heroes Of Might & Magic than your traditional Command & Conquer clone. Now the imaginatively titled sequel Kohan II will build on that novel gameplay, while replacing the rather primitive isometric 2D graphics of the original with state-of-the-art 3D rendering, allowing over a hundred units on screen at once and featuring all the latest buzz words, such as bump mapping and vertex and pixel shader support. Add to that dozens of new hero units to develop and the promise of "a never before seen mode of online play", and TimeGate could be on to another winner. Our only hope is that this time it doesn't take over six months to bring the game to Europe... Related Feature - Kohan review

Over the years there has been a veritable flood of business management sims with the words Giant and/or Tycoon in the title, varying from the addictive (Rollercoaster Tycoon) to the superfluous (Oil Tycoon). The latest such game to pop up is Restaurant Tycoon, the brainchild of Trevor Chan and his team at Enlight. The Hong Kong based developer is something of a veteran of the genre, with the hit Capitalism series amongst their back catalogue, and another sim (the JoWooD published Hotel Giant) currently in the works. Indeed, a quick comparison of the screenshots of Hotel Giant and Restaurant Tycoon reveals a certain family resemblance. As the title suggests, the company's latest project puts you in charge of a restaurant, with responsibility for hiring, firing and training waiters, cleaners and cooks, decorating the premises, stocking ingredients, and of course spying on customers to see their reactions to your culinary creations. To add a soupçon of excitement, you'll also be able to prepare special meals for celebrity guests and take part in international contests to show off your cooking skills. Or you can just cheat by slipping cockroaches into your rivals' creations, amongst a range of dirty tricks on offer to less scrupulous chefs. Eugh. With settings ranging from Paris and New York to the Middle East, three different types of cuisine to master and a host of management options to fine tune, Enlight are hoping that Restaurant Tycoon will follow in the footsteps of their successful Capitalism series. Will it be another five star production or the gaming equivalent of an M1 service station? You'll have to wait and see, because Restaurant Tycoon is going to be in the oven for the best part of a year, with a spring 2003 release on the cards for Europe, courtesy of Korean publisher Phantagram. In the meantime you'll just have to whet your appetite on a banquet-sized portion of screenshots of the game. Related Feature - Restaurant Tycoon screenshots

With the World Cup already in full swing and their home team fortunately still in the tournament, German developer Handy Games has unveiled its latest J2ME-based game for the latest generation of mobile phone handsets. Titled Fussball Fun, it pits you against the CPU in a three-a-side mobile football match. And if tapping away on your handset is too much like hard work, you can sit back and watch a pair of AI-controlled teams battling it out instead. The game is available for T-Mobile subscribers in Germany to download from the company's online portal, and is tailored to work on the Siemens MT50 and SL45i phones, while on the new Samsung SGH-S100 you'll get colour graphics and proper sound effects. Ooh. Related Feature - Java In Your Hands

Just when you thought it was safe to assume E3 was over and the industry was back to normal, we've unearthed a tantalising titbit of Nintendosity from the latest NGC Magazine that seemingly has yet to penetrate the ether(net). Probing the dark recesses of Nintendo's E3 stand this year, the NGC team uncovered a peculiarity: Donkey Kong on the GameCube. From a developer other than Rare. But instead of slotting neatly into the Donkey Kong series as a 3D platform adventure, this "Create-a-Kong" game sees players build up vintage Donkey Kong levels of their own design and then transfer them to the GBA where they can be played, and the cycle repeated ad nauseum. NGC speculates that there must be more to come from the title, stating that it seemed as though the whole thing could be done on the GBA without the help of the Cube. Meditate on this, we will.

Scoring top marks for topicality, Soldier Of Fortune II sees the world being threatened by the menace of a terrorist group armed with lethal biological agents. Naturally it's up to you, occupying the jack boots of all-American gun fetishist and mustachioed mercenary John Mullins, to put an end to this.

Long-time fans of the Final Fantasy series will know that with the advent of each new platform Squaresoft adopts, enormous leaps are taken in new directions. Final Fantasy II introduced SNES owners to the glory of 16-bit graphics and Cecil's carefully woven story of intrigue showed gamers that Square could do more than just paint and program. Later on, Final Fantasy VII on Sony's fledgling PlayStation ushered in a new era of jaw-dropping CG and polygonal characters fighting in front of beautiful pre-rendered backdrops.

Eidos has announced that its second GameCube release in Europe will be Ace Golf, known to our cousins across the pond in America as Swingerz Golf for some reason. Thankfully the dubious title and extraneous "z" are both being dropped for the European release. Developed in Japan by Telenet, the game features a mixture of serious ball physics and not-so-serious characters. Fourteen "offbeat" cartoon golfers will be available, ranging from a female soldier to a leather clad biker, each with their own unique abilities and personalities. You'll also have a choice of six caddies to lug your clubs around for you, with half a dozen golf courses available for them to roam across, including everything from a traditional English course to a cactus studded desert. If that's not enough for you, how about four gameplay modes - from full tournament to short course - and support for up to four players to tear up the turf together? We should know whether Eidos have landed a hole-in-one or dropped it in the rough when the game appears on European shelves some time in the autumn. For now you'll have to content yourself with a batch of early screenshots though. Related Feature - Ace Golf screenshots