Latest Articles (Page 3501)

Following a somewhat rocky launch which was plagued with network problems, Square's Final Fantasy XI received its first major patch last weekend, with all the PlayOnline servers taken down for major bug fixes and upgrades and a new version of the game required for players to log on. However, although the patch seems to have fixed many issues, other problems continue to plague the ambitious online RPG. Most embarrassingly for Square - and indeed for Sony - is the revelation that the game is entirely incompatible with certain models of PS2. Some (unspecified) PS2 models allegedly refuse entirely to boot the game, instead displaying an error message and ceasing to function. Sony is thought to be aware of the problem, and players encountering it have been asked to notify the company, although it's not known what kind of fix is planned. Perhaps even more damaging for the commercial success of the game, however, is the situation regarding the PS2 hard drive in Japan. FFXI requires a hard drive to be installed before you can play it, and it appears that poor sales of the game to date (compared with other titles in the Final Fantasy series) are almost entirely attributable to the massive shortages of hard drive stocks. Most consumers are being forced to buy PS2 hard drives as part of an ISP service bundle rather than at retail, effectively squeezing out anyone who already has a broadband connection, and even those lucky enough to be allocated a drive are having to wait up to seven weeks for it to arrive. There are reports of gamers desperate to try the title having to ring around multiple ISPs on a regular basis until they find one who actually has a unit in stock (and is prepared to sell it). Final Fantasy XI is due to be released in North America and Europe in 2003 on PlayStation 2 and PC. Hopefully the lessons learned from the troubled Japanese launch will be applied to releases in other territories, and once the game finally arrives it'll actually be a polished - and working - product.

Last week we spoke to Ed Howson of Masabi about their new hand-held version of the classic BBC Micro platform puzzler Repton. Today we take a wider look at the state of the mobile phone industry, how gaming fits in, and why we should all replace our creaky old handsets with the next generation of Java-compatible phones due out later this year.

Pikmin is now available in the UK. I see you already have a copy there. This is good. But you might not understand quite how far Nintendo is going to promote this peculiar piece of botanical beauty. Enlisting the services of Mother Nature herself, late last year the company renamed an actual flower in commemoration of the Shigeru Miyamoto-designed videogame, and today, what should the postman be hauling up to our door? The very same flower: The Pikmin Flower, née Bacopa Cabana. Described as an agricultural masterpiece by the accompanying literature, we were impressed by how little soil has managed to wriggle free of its potted prison in transit. To be sure, it's not a Donkey Kong Daisy, nor a Mario Marigold - not even a Zelda Azalea - but it's a handy little plant, rugged in all conditions (although a bit needier during hot spells), and it flowers during the spring, summer and autumn. We have no idea where you can buy them, and we reckon you won't, either, but we've got one, and hope to bring you updates on its progress in the garden later in the month. Unfortunately, attempts to make it follow us around and build bridges, break down doors and crush our enemies have so far proved fruitless. Much like the plant itself. Related Feature - Pikmin review

Rage has opened the official website for its "aggressive inline skating" game, Rolling. The Flash site features a brief introduction to the game, equally brief profiles on some of the world's top skaters featured in the game, and the first of a series of developer diaries charting the title's progress towards completion. This opening installment mostly talks about the vast amount of animation involved in bringing all the game's tricks to life, from grinding and shuffling to grabs and jumps. Rolling is due for release in November on PlayStation 2, with GameBoy Advance, GameCube and Xbox versions expected early in 2003. In the meantime, we have four new shots of the game in action to give you a taste of how the game is shaping up. Related Feature - Rolling screenshots (PS2)

Blizzard's latest real-time strategy game Warcraft III : Reign Of Chaos has gone gold, publisher Vivendi Universal confirmed today. Apparently a ludicrous 4.5m copies of the game have already been ordered by anxious retailers, which would make this one of the fastest selling games of all time if it meets expectations. "We're very excited to announce that development of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos has been completed and that gamer and retail demand will make this the largest launch in gaming history", Blizzard's president Mike Morhaime beamed. Warcraft III is expected to appear on shelves across Europe on July 5th. Given the huge number of copies being shipped to retail, it should be hard to miss. Related Feature - Warcraft III - The Story So Far

In a welcome break from tradition, the Xbox port of Lotus Challenge will actually feature a range of improvements compared to its older PlayStation 2 sibling. According to publisher Titus, the physics has been revamped to give punters "more player-friendly arcade handling" and "an incredible impression of speed", graphics have been tweaked to take advantage of the Xbox's hardware, and tracks have been modified. The Xbox version of the game will also sport enhanced stunt challenges, which see you performing spectacular feats for the movie and advertising industries. Otherwise the gameplay of the original is intact, which means racing classic Lotus sports cars around a range of settings, from the streets of Tokyo and London to a Lotus test track and the Arizona Speedway circuit. Vehicles available include everything from the famous Lotus 7 (as driven by Patrick McGoohan in The Prisoner) and Esprit (used by Roger Moore in For Your Eyes Only) to old Lotus Formula One cars. Expect Lotus Challenge to crash on to the Xbox some time in September. Related Feature - Lotus Challenge screenshots (Xbox)

Those of you keeping up with the world's first massively multiplayer console RPG (that's Final Fantasy XI) will be interested to hear what shape the world's first massively multiplayer console RPG patch took. It's pretty boring, actually. Despite the cynical hopes of some, the patch did not take the form of a massive bug fix, instead focusing on gameplay tweaks to help balance out the persistent world of Vana D'iel. Squaresoft is to take down the PlayOnline servers for four hours to perform database maintenance and fix a couple of minor text interface bugs in the actual game code, but apart from that, we can't see anything to get too worried about. In fact, the ruthlessly efficient developer suspended new user registrations and account cancellations for the whole of yesterday to prevent difficulties resulting from additional server load - a bold move, and one that will doubtless annoy some of the citizens of Vana D'iel, but perhaps a logical one. At the moment it seems that players of the game are enjoying themselves. Square has commented on the issue recently, decrying comments made by Nintendo President Satoru Iwata, who made an assertion that FFXI was failing because of its dependence on networked gaming, by highlighting the game's popularity amongst players. At the moment the main problem facing FFXI stems from hardware shortages. Without the hard disk and broadband adapter, players are unable to make their way into the game world, and this has stunted sales, with interest surging sporadically as Sony struggles to keep up with demand. It was always going to be difficult for Squaresoft to pull this off first time, and with more updates and the game's American release still to come, it seems likely that the developer and the platform holder will have learnt from their mistakes, and that if and when it materialises in Europe, it will be an extremely polished product. Related Feature - Final Fantasy XI preview

A number of job losses are rumoured at Infogrames Sheffield House as part of a restructuring of certain operations at the French publisher Infogrames' Sheffield House offices have been targeted for restructuring by the multinational publisher, with rumours circulating on development forums suggesting that a number of layoffs have occurred at the studio as a result. The layoffs are expected to mostly affect a range of services which will now be outsourced to other Infogrames locations, but the number of games in development at the studio will also be reduced to two. No details on the exact numbers of job losses are available as yet, despite significant Internet rumour-mongering surrounding the news, but it is thought that tens of employees have been laid off. Infogrames is reportedly seeking to cut costs across its entire range of operations at the moment. The company is no stranger to aggressive restructuring, with changes affecting every office of the company - including London and corporate headquarters in Lyons - over the past couple of years. Jean-Marcel Nicolai, VP of European internal development studios, emphasised that these changes will result in higher quality product from the studio. According to Nicolai, "Infogrames has changed a lot in the last few years, and as a result has constantly looked at restructuring to make the most of its positions. This goes on all the time and people don't realise it - it's only when it impacts people's jobs that the outside world becomes aware." The Sheffield House studio, which formed the core part of Gremlin prior to its acquisition by Infogrames for £23 million in 1999, has had a somewhat chequered history. Many of its products, including UEFA Striker, Hogs of War and Wacky Races, have been commercial disappointments, and in January this year former Gremlin boss Ian Stewart was linked with a rumoured bid to buy back the studio. Although this never materialised, rumours of a management buy-out attempt at the studio continue to surface with surprising regularity. Related Feature - Superman screenshots (PS2)

Microsoft this morning announced that it will be cutting Xbox software prices as part of a summer promotion to "bring even more value to gamers". The bad news is that only five Microsoft published games are included in the promotion at this point, and although it's nice to see the ever popular Dead Or Alive 3 and Project Gotham Racing reduced to £39.99 / €59.99, the other three games being discounted are somewhat less inspiring. Both Azurik and Nightcaster have received mixed reviews and failed to set the charts on fire, while NBA Inside Drive 2002 is likely to prove less popular in Europe than in basketball-mad America. "These titles have done very well for us, and all have appeared in and around the top-ten Xbox sales charts", Xbox Europe VP Sandy Duncan pronounced, before stretching his credibility somewhat by claiming that "we have also received an overwhelming response to these games through reviews and awards, proving that both the industry and consumers love Xbox and its games portfolio." Whether this heralds a rethink on Xbox software pricing remains to be seen, but it certainly wouldn't hurt to bring the cost of Xbox games in line with the competition. Microsoft expects more than 150 games to be available for the Xbox in Europe by Christmas, but as many of those will be available more or less simultaneously on all three console formats, it seems a bit much to expect punters to fork out an extra £5 for the Xbox version. Related Feature - Xbox price cut buoys sales

Capcom has unveiled its latest Xbox project - Shinji Mikami's Dino Crisis 3. Apparently an Xbox exclusive, this latest instalment of the popular series sees a team of intergalactic Marines trapped onboard a Colony Spaceship infested with cold-blooded beasts. This latest addition to Capcom's stable of survival horror games is already taking shape and two visually impressive screenshots accompanied the Japanese announcement. A very major new addition to the game is jet propulsion packs, and what with jetpacks and only vaguely dino-related alien badguys, the game seems to be shaping up in a similar way to Sega's Gun Valkyrie. Except that it will be frightening in the traditional sense, and not frighteningly difficult instead. Capcom's mastery of the "alone and scared" genre is unrivalled, but Dino Crisis 3 will see players fighting as a team to survive. Whether this will stretch to multiplayer modes is difficult to say, but with Resident Evil Online already threatening to do that on PlayStation 2, it wouldn't surprise us. Related Feature - Dino Crisis 3 screenshots

The five of you out there who actually play games on your Macintoshes will be glad to hear that Neverwinter Nights is being brought to Apple's translucent computer for people with more money than sense. Infogrames' MacSoft label will be handling the title, which is expected to arrive on shelves a couple of months after the recently completed PC original. Players on both formats should be able to play online together and exchange home-made campaigns and maps. "Neverwinter Nights will provide limitless adventure and Macintosh gamers will have unprecedented game play options as they join the existing Neverwinter Nights community", enthusiastic Neverwinter Nights producer Trent Oster proclaimed. Or they could just buy a real computer and get the game two months earlier... Related Feature - A Neverwinter Night's Dream

In reverse order of excitement, ARC System Works' Guilty Gear X is currently set for release on the GameBoy Advance in September 2002, and the appallingly named Marvelous Entertainment's appallingly named King of Fighter EX : Neo Blood is due in August. Of course, it's a good thing it's not "King of Fighters EX", because you'd look pretty stupid asking for that in a shop. Go on, say it out loud. Anyway, the recurrent 2D beat 'em up staggers ever onward on multiple platforms, but GGX and KOF on the GBA are perhaps forgivably 2D. And was there ever anything strictly wrong with 2D beat 'em ups anyway? No, not really. So get excited, because Guilty Gear X is a 2D beat 'em up the way 2D beat 'em ups should be done, and King of Fighter EX is an update to the excellent Neo Geo Pocket Color games of a similar name. To begin with, they both have a stupid, completely irrelevant plot, which could easily be spun into a daft film with a plot even less relevant, and in turn not even strictly relevant to the game it started life as. No doubt starring Kylie and Van Damme. GGX has a lot of different play modes, from the standard arcade, training and versus modes to the more intriguing three-on-three link cable and tug modes, developed exclusively for the GBA, and an aptly named mode from the Dreamcast version - Survival. King of Fighter EX isn't looking that bad in the modes department either, with a story-driven team play mode (which is actually single player), team versus team (which is actually two-player), single play mode and survival mode. Players of GGX also have the option to pick from 14 characters with a handful of others waiting to be unlocked throughout the game, and finally the game will let players create their own characters to throw into the mix, which should be an interesting task to say the least. Hopefully the excellent character balance from the PlayStation 2 version will also make the transition. There, individual strengths complement and defeat one another demanding a truly strategic approach to battling.

The last time someone made a game about the Manx TT, it was Sega. And it was crap. I'll give you a few seconds so you can fully absorb that fact. Are you finished? Right. Actually, if you like bikes floating several feet above the track and sub-Sega Rally graphics, incredibly you can still download a demo of the PC version of the game in some places and see what I mean. Here, for instance. But you really shouldn't. Instead, TT fans, you should look ahead to Jester Interactive's official Isle of Man T.T. title for PlayStation 2, due out in 2003, presumably in time for the famous race itself. Jester has been laying the groundwork for the title, sending three of its company directors to the island on Jubilee weekend to capture footage of the 38 mile-long course, and to take measurements and make notes to help make the game as authentic as possible. And, amazingly, they actually rode it. This reconnaissance mission hasn't anything to do their desire to see the TT or get a nice paid holiday, surely? "We are all big motorbike fans at Jester," says Tim Wright, Creative Director of the company. "To truly appreciate every nuance of the circuit you need to ride some of it at race speeds. We went to the Island to do just that, and the lessons we've learned and the footage we've captured will be invaluable." I suppose that's reasonable. The game is already causing a stir on the quiet little island, and we understand that the government has given the team at Jester full access to the course. After the unlikely success of Super Trucks, which was surprisingly good and extremely detailed by all accounts, perhaps this title, with its thorough research and widespread backing, could become the first great game about the TT to appear.

Eric Bana's cinematic portrayal of Marvel Comics' The Incredible Hulk has so far been advertised with a simple, casual trailer of the brutish oaf's emergence and demolition of a poor, defenceless bungalow washbasin. With slightly less onomatopoeic unpredictability, Universal Interactive (a Vivendi studio) chose Monday to announce details of its game of the movie, which will appear alongside the Ang Lee-directed film in June of 2003. In what is becoming a bit of a tradition, for better or worse, movie-based videogames are appearing to coincide with theatrical debuts instead of appearing months or years later, sometimes even alongside a tedious sequel. The other half of this particular trend is simultaneous all formats releases, something of which Electronic Arts is traditionally the master, and UI's Incredible Hulk game is no exception to that rule either. Cube, Xbox, PS2 and GBA versions will all appear in June. Although we know little about the game besides its now-confirmed portrayal of events in the movie, it's probably quite safe to say that big-screen actors Eric Bana (Bruce Banner/Hulky), Nick Nolte (Dad of Hulk) and Jennifer Connelly (bird of Hulk) will have a sum total of nothing to do with the game, except perhaps being imitated badly by semi-reasonable voice actors. Of course, if they did, it would be a tremendous coup for the developer (and a financial drain on the publisher). As would be the involvement of Industrial Light and Magic, who will be providing CG effects for the movie, so it's probably safe to count them out. Hopefully before long we'll know how likely UI is to do Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's Marvel comic book hero justice. And in turn, how you will be able to go about dishing out justice yourself. Stay tuned.

Publisher Infogrames last night announced that Bioware's long awaited role-playing opus Neverwinter Nights has finally gone gold. The game is expected to start appearing on shelves in the USA as early as Monday, and this morning Infogrames PR reps in the UK dragged themselves away from the football long enough to confirm to us that it's still on track for a June 28th release on this side of the pond. Just nice time to polish your shields of spouse avoidance +5 and move that fridge to within easy reach of your PC. With the promise of a vast single player campaign, extensive multiplayer options including the ability to act as the Dungeon Master for your friends, and an easy to use toolset allowing players to design their own adventures and campaign settings, Neverwinter Nights is one of the most eagerly anticipated role-playing games ever to hit the PC. It's been five long years in the making, but if it can live up to its potential it will have been well worth the wait. Keep your fingers crossed. Related Feature - Neverwinter Nights preview

Canadian developers Black Box Games have been bought by Electronic Arts, it was revealed today. The company has worked on a number of sports games since its founding four years ago, including Sega Soccer Slam for the GameCube, extreme ice hockey game NHL Hitz 20-02 and a pair of NASCAR sims for EA Sports. Black Box are currently working on Need For Speed : Hot Pursuit 2 for EA, and today's deal brings them in-house for an undisclosed quantity of cash. "Black Box Games is a studio full of highly-talented and creative people", EA's vice president for Tuesday afternoon coffee breaks Paul Lee asserted. "They have an impressive track record for developing multiple titles across several platforms. This acquisition brings us a powerhouse team to work on future titles for the Sony PlayStation 2 console, Nintendo GameCube and Xbox system from Microsoft." Related Feature - Need For Speed : Hot Pursuit 2 screenshots

Way back in the mists of time, before Lara Croft became a cover girl and movie star, the arrival of a new Tomb Raider game was actually cause for celebration. It may be hard to believe, but once these games were quite groundbreaking. And maybe they could be again, because Eidos have just announced that the original Tomb Raider is being brought to the Pocket PC in what looks set to be one of the first fully 3D games for the handheld format. Due for release some time in July through online publisher Handango, it promises to be a faithful adaptation of the first game in the multi-million selling series, following Lara as she seeks to recover an ancient artifact called the Scion. Cue myriad levels of running, jumping, shooting and swimming. "This represents an exciting opportunity for Eidos to bring one of the most popular games of all time to a whole new audience", Eidos technical director Simon Protheroe is quoted as saying. "The Pocket PC version of Tomb Raider has got to be seen to be believed, it is identical to the original game." If you want to judge for yourself, a free single level demo of the game should already be available from Tomb Raider To Go, although at the time of writing the site appeared to be down. In the meantime you can enjoy some rather nifty little screenshots of the PDA version of the game in action. Related Feature - Tomb Raider screenshots

PDA publisher Infinite Ventures has released its latest creation for the Pocket PC, in the form of Battle Dwarves. The game bears a striking resemblance to the likes of Worms and Scorched Earth, but features bearded people of diminutive stature rather than tanks or spineless creatures. Naturally you still have access to a wide variety of destructive weaponry, including old favourites such as bazookas, grenades and napalm, and there's four way multiplayer support if you need to settle some scores. At $20 it's not exactly cheap, but a free trial version is available at the company's website PortableGames.com to give you a taster.

Way of the Samurai, published in the States by BAM! (always a great name to break up the flow of a sentence), doesn't take the same approach as the Tenchu games. For a start, you're not actually a ninja, you are ronin, a wandering samurai without a master, and the game charts your three days in the area of Rokkotsu Pass, beginning with a chance encounter on a bridge outside town.

Climax's Brighton office has unveiled its latest cross-platform game engine for the PC, PlayStation 2, GameCube and Xbox. Amusingly dubbed "Blimey", the engine also comes with a set of tools including something called Super Ted. The mind boggles, but we guess it has nothing to do with the bizarre 1980's cartoon series of the same name, unless it's the bump-mapping util. Bump-mapping? Spotty? Get it? Oh, never mind. Weird names aside, the engine is intended to speed up development for multiple platforms by "maintaining a complete layer of abstraction between the main game and console dependant code", meaning that once you've got a game running on one platform it should take little effort to get it running on the other three. The early tech demo screenshots we've seen show some quietly impressive Grand Theft Auto-ish scenes of a police car driving around a nicely detailed cityscape, although the abandoned streets make it look like something out of The Omega Man. Still, it's a promising start, and with the company's DYNE vehicle dynamics system built-in the engine should be perfectly suited for this kind of auto-motive mayhem as well as more conventional motor racing games such as Climax's recently released Moto GP. Related Feature - Climax Motor Sports interview

Sega has announced a collection of four arcade classics to be delivered as one GameBoy Advance cartridge, and the firm plans to stake them with the name of Virtua Fighter creator and general genius Yu Suzuki. The Yu Suzuki Collection, as it's being called by hacks everywhere, contains Outrun, After Burner, Space Harrier and Super Hang On, some truly defining games for a lot people who are slightly older than me. As Spong.com points out, Sega is already developing a Sega Smash Pack for the GBA comprising Mega Drive versions of Super Shinobi and Golden Axe amongst others, suggesting perhaps that the above will be direct ports. In related news, The Magic Box reports that Sega is working on Outrun 2 for the arcade, although details on this are being kept understandably quiet.

When we first got our hands on the GeForce4 Ti4600, we were somewhat excited, until we realised that we actually had nothing worth playing on it. But hang on a tick, what's all this? Morrowind, you say? Grand Theft Auto? Jedi Knight II? Doom III? Just as I think I'm shot of this staggeringly unkempt platform I have to find something new to drive it. Fortunately, NVIDIA has leapt to the front of the market again, replacing the soothing images of the budget Radeon 8500LE at the top of the thrifty pile with its own GeForce4 Ti4200. If ever there were a card to go in my own PC, this is it. Memories of the poorly performing GeForce4 MX are quickly forgotten. Here we have a proper hotrod of a 'budget' card, boasting the whole GeForce4 feature set with a 250MHz GPU (compared to 300MHz in the Ti4600), 64Mb of 250MHz DDR SDRAM (compared to 128Mb of 375MHz DDR SDRAM), and, depending on which manufacturer you go with, a price tag of roughly £150 (compared with the asking price of two houses, a yacht, and a golf club membership). Not bad at all. If you need a quick recap of what makes a GeForce 4 tick, it's best you give our previous feature a quick going over, but when it comes to the new kid, you're probably wondering how it copes with some of the most recent PC releases. In a word, economically; it pipped the Radeon 8500LE to the post in virtually every test we threw at it. Jedi Knight II gave us a few more frames at higher resolutions, and with Serious Sam 2 there was virtually no contest. Although the most recent Radeon drivers at the time of writing are an improvement, the current official NVIDIA driver release, version 28.32, gave our 32-bit colour Windows XP system an advantage of nearly 40 frames per second in 800x600, and more than 20 in 1024x768. Return to Castle Wolfenstein was a closer run thing, but there was still only one winner, and it was the card with the sillier name - an equally close run thing. And although we can't benchmark it, Morrowind performance was virtually the same on both cards, as it was with Grand Theft Auto. Both games ran with virtually no slowdown in their default display modes, and cranking up the detail didn't seem to do any harm. Whether or not NVIDIA's GeForce4 Ti4200 will be able to cope with Doom III late next year is difficult to say. But it's a fast card which does everything its bigger and more expensive siblings can do for the (relatively) trifling matter of £150. More expensive alternatives - not yet on the market - will include extras like DVI (digital video interface) output and video out, as our reference board did, adding to the impressive array of features already on offer. If you've been putting off that graphics card upgrade, now might be the time to do it. Various GeForce4 Ti4200 cards are now available in the UK from e-tailers Scan and Dabs amongst others, with prices ranging from £135 on up. Related Feature - GeForce4 Ti4600 review

With the Nintendo WaveBird now on sale in the US, and a handsome pre-order well on its way to being fulfilled if my importer is to be believed, PS2 owners, including myself, might well be wondering whether or not this particular (r)evolution is on its way to their console at any point in the future. Although Sony hasn't said anything, Texas Instruments has announced that they have licensed their Bluetooth wireless tech to peripheral powerhouse Logitech for use in a PlayStation 2 gamepad, which, PlanetPS2 is reporting, will be on display at the Bluetooth Congress in Amsterdam between the 12th and 14th of June. Logitech's Ted Hoff, vice president and general manager of the Interactive Entertainment Business Unit, cited the company's previous success with Bluetooth and game controllers on the PC as the reasoning behind the move. "It was logical to build on our partnership," he was quoted as saying. Nintendo's WaveBird controller uses wireless radio technology to communicate with the GameCube, and Nintendo estimates that 16 of the controllers could be used in close proximity on different radio frequencies without interference. Early reports from pundits lucky enough to walk away with one at this year's E3 in Los Angeles have been resoundingly positive, with the units swapping hands on eBay for exorbitant amounts. Related Feature - WaveBird details emerge

We've yet to hear when Xbox Live will launch here in Europe, but today Japan discovered that it will be following America's lead this autumn, with the release of the Live starter pack for about $54.50. "We bet on online gaming from the beginning, and our guess has been correct", Microsoft Japan's Xbox supremo Hirohisa Ohura declared, perhaps somewhat prematurely given that the service has yet to go .. well, live. "Japan has seen the fastest growth in broadband internet connection services", he added, with Microsoft claiming that half of the Xbox owners in Japan have a broadband connection. Which would be great, except that the Xbox has thus far shifted less than 250,000 units in the land of the rising sun, meaning that if Microsoft's statistics are correct, only about 120,000 people are capable of using Xbox Live in Japan at the moment. By comparison, Final Fantasy XI for the PS2's online service has shifted about 90,000 copies so far, seen as a major flop by Square standards. Maybe Japan just isn't interested in online gaming? Merrill Lynch's Ken Uryu was somewhat less optimistic than Microsoft about Xbox Live's chances, telling Reuters that "I don't see [how] this would make a significant contribution to Microsoft" or Xbox sales. Other analysts are also apparently skeptical about whether enough gamers will pay to play online to make the service a success. As are we. Still, if online gaming is your cup of tea then Microsoft throwing huge sums of cash at the subject can't hurt, in the short term at least. Meanwhile news has emerged of one of the first Japanese developed Xbox Live titles, with Sega revealing that they have Amusement Visions working on an Xbox Live version of an arcade game we've never heard of. The sequel is going by the name of Spike Out X-treme [oh dear], and judging from the arcade original screenshots we've managed to track down, it's some kind of street brawling game where a bunch of guys wander around beating each other up. Oh the excitement. Related Feature - Xbox Live De-Modulated

EuroGamer is proud to announce the launch of its new sister site - GamesIndustry.biz, helmed by CTW veteran Rob "Shinji" Fahey. Dedicated to covering the latest stories from the interactive entertainment industry (that's games to you and me), the trade-oriented site sports a mixture of news and features, with a launch line-up including a look at some of this summer's big PlayStation 2 releases and a profile on Nintendo's new headman, Satoru Iwata. The site also features the latest UK charts and a database of contact details for games-related companies, and over the next few weeks we'll be adding a share watch feature for all you stock market fanatics, as well as a recruitment section for those of you in search of a better job. "Our aim with is to provide people working in the industry with an entertaining and informative daily update on all the news which is relevant to their work", Rob explained. "I hope that people outside the industry - be they investors, mainstream media, research groups or simply interested members of the public - will also find that we're creating a comprehensive and easy to use resource for information on this exciting industry of ours." Excited yet? Head over to GamesIndustry.biz to find out more.

It's a case of "good news, bad news" for those of you awaiting the arrival of Barbarian on the GameBoy Advance. First the bad news - the game has slipped another month, this time to October. Now the good news - the game will include a cheat mode allowing you to slice your opponent's head clean off. Fans of the old 8-bit sword fighting game of the same name will no doubt be pleased, but of course the real question is whether the famous goblin will be putting in a guest appearance to clear away the severed head in his own individual manner when this happens. We can but hope. Related Feature - Barbarian GBA screenshots

Back at the end of last year EA revealed that they were porting their PlayStation 2 hit Agent Under Fire to the GameCube and Xbox, bringing James Bond to the very latest gadgets. Q would be proud. Today the first screenshots of the game in action have revealed that EA's amazing cross-platform technology has delivered once again, with the new versions looking absolutely indistinguishable from the PS2 original. Ok, that's not entirely fair - the GameCube shots are more washed-out and have big ugly borders on all sides, thanks to the way the screens were captured rather than any shortcoming in the porting process at a rough guess. Helpfully EA have even released screenshots taken from identical points in the in-game cutscenes on both consoles. See if you can spot ten differences between the two shots below. Or any at all, for that matter.

Last week, Square and publisher Enterbrain announced a three disc DVD collection for Japan, comprising information and background on every Final Fantasy game to date, with the exception of Final Fantasy Tactics. Before you ask, there are no plans to release this in the States or Europe at the moment, but avid importers, to whom the 13,000 yen (approx. £71 / €110) asking price is not one step beyond, might well enjoy things like an interactive guide to the world of Vana'diel, in which online adventure Final Fantasy XI takes place, and a dramatic overview of the entire series, when the set is released on 25th July in Japan. Speculation is rife about exactly what we'll see in the set other than documentaries, but concept art, research type data and character and monster indexes are at the top of Gameforms' wishlist. It's obviously going to be a bit difficult to comprehend for the most part, but Final Fantasy: The Adventure Bible does sound like a nice gimmick, obviously aimed at recouping a few of Square's losses in an easy-to-produce-and-sell manner, a bit like those Rikku and Yuna FFX spin-offs. Related Feature - Final Fantasy XI preview

While Hideo Kojima monkeys around in Japan adding Tony Hawks style skateboarding into Metal Gear Solid 2 and presumably recording more mind-numbingly boring cutscenes, a Spanish team led by veterans of the Commandos series is working on a game that may just take stealth combat to the next level. Let me introduce you to the world of Duality.

When Electronic Arts nabbed the Buffy license, I must confess to having been somewhat miffed. After all, when I initially heard about a Simpsons videogame from EA, I had envisaged a beautifully realised interactive version of Springfield, like a lost episode of the most recent series, with all of my favourite characters properly voiced by the original actors and a serious plot - like the episode when Homer accidentally commits 'gatorcide and has to flee Florida (America's wang) and make end's meet as a waiter - intertwined with irreverent and completely insane dialogue and sub-plots. And while what we got, Simpsons Road Rage, wasn't a bad game per se, it still felt like a quick-fingered lift of my wallet while I scrimmaged on a bus to boredom. Fortunately, for whatever reason, the same couldn't be farther from the truth with Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Once it was declared Xbox-exclusive, it became rather obvious that things were happening with the project, and the constant slippage (current estimate: 2nd August) betrayed the possibility that people were actually working to complete a game this time, and not working to fulfil a quota. And then it all started coming together. This is meant to be a lost episode of the third series, and it will have all my favourite characters - Buffy, Xander, Willow, Giles, Cordelia, Spike and Angel - allegedly voiced by their small-screen counterparts. Furthermore, with the help of Chris Golden and Tom Sniegoski (of Buffy novels and comic books fame), the plot and dialogue should be as snappy and authentic as any fan could hope for. "In keeping with the context of the show we firmly conformed to the 'happenings' of [the third] series of episodes," a spokesperson for the developer told Computer & VideoGames on Friday, before going on to cite the game's pick-up-and-play accessibility along with its surprising authenticity as its main selling points. Apart from the fact that it actually bothers to live up to our expectations - at least in promise - it also seems as though elements of combat will balance the story-driven experience admirably. Buffy can pull off lightning fast kicks, punches and throws of the kind witnessed on the show, but as far as weapons go, "there are stakes, crossbows, holy water, hellfire, shovels, sledgehammers, a water gun, the reaper blade and others," and not content with that, a degree of improvisation. Not sure what to do? "How about you grab them and throw them at that shard of wood protruding from the wall? Or why not throw them onto that flaming oil barrel?" We're not so naïve as to assume that the final product will automatically turn out to be exactly what we want, but if the above isn't much to go by, the developer's enthusiasm for the game and its subject matter, not to mention all the various affiliations with the show - right down to the involvement of Joss Whedon - certainly are. The 2nd of August, you say? That's about 51 and a half days… Related Feature - Buffy The Vampire Slayer screenshots