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Those of you still haunted by recurring nightmares about random battles can sleep easy with FFXI, because Square have completely vanquished the concept, offering something in-between the classic Final Fantasy gameplay and Diablo II-style fighting. As you wander around the game world you will see a lot of your enemies doing the same - just prowling about the area, spoiling for a fight. Using the target function, players will be able to enter a real-time combat mode with whoever they plan to victimize. After a smooth transition from the gameplay view to the battle view, players will see a colour-coded window detailing attacks and the damage caused, while the player's character will attack in real-time unless ordered to do something else. This approach means that you won't be caught off-guard by a quick-thinking monster. A pop-up menu is available in this mode which lists various combat options, including defensive and offensive magic, special abilities and inventory items. There will also be an option to peg it, if said monster looks a bit too mean for the player's poor, weak-willed character. Whether the game will offer magical abilities in line with Square's previous adventures is unknown. Enormous screen-filling limit break attacks and the like would certainly be nice to see, but whether they would work in real-time is debatable.

Last year's cancellation of Ultima Online 2 was something of a shock for most people, as EA unexpectedly decided to focus on supporting their original four year old online world instead of developing a fully 3D sequel to the game. Rather than waste all of the hard work that had gone into the abortive sequel, including a set of bizarre new monsters created by comic book artist Todd McFarlane, EA have managed to recycle some of the artwork and characters for their new Ultima Online add-on pack, Lord Blackthorn's Revenge. As the pack's website confirms, "we are using some assets that were created previously for [the sequel], but this will not be associated with any of the fiction created in the past for UO2". This means that, for example, the Meer and Juka races which were planned for UO2 and featured in many of the game's early screenshots will now find their way into Ultima Online, but only as non-playable monsters, and with a somewhat reduced polygon count judging from the batch of character renders released by the publisher just before Christmas. EA are quick to point out that this isn't just a rehash of left-overs from the UO2 fiasco though, as "there will also be quite a few additions to the world of Britannia that were created exclusively for this new incarnation of Ultima Online". Perhaps more interesting though is the lengthy product sheet that came with the latest batch of screenshots. Unusually (and quite possibly accidentally) this includes not only the familiar PR spiel and feature lists you would expect to find in a press release, but also frank assessments of the challenges facing EA in marketing an add-on pack for a game which is somewhat past its prime, as well as a brief look at some of the game's main competitors. "In the US [Ultima Online] is a well-known brand and stands for innovation, realism, fantasy roleplay and intriguing adventures", according to the product sheet. "In Europe, it is not as well known for the Ultima brand and much better known as an online game that was surpassed technologically by EverQuest and subsequent online worlds. This needs addressing." EA seem to think that the way to accomplish this is to "focus considerably on the title 'Lord Blackthorn's Revenge' and less on the Ultima Online logo and brand", concentrating on "cool monsters, gameplay features, and gaming experience" instead of letting it be portrayed as an "old timer online world". As EA themselves point out, Ultima Online is "perceived as neither the biggest nor the best" and to correct this "there needs to be a style change in order to provoke more consumer interest". This means attracting new players into the game, which has around 200,000 subscribers at the moment. Younger players in particular "want immediate results" and are "impatient"; they "need persuading that the UO brand is new, exciting, full of potential and [offers] online experiences they don't see in other products". Luckily then Lord Blackthorn's Revenge will add an innovative new Virtue system and a range of features designed to make "joining the world of Britannia .. better, easier and a lot more fun", as well as some odd cyborg creatures that really look out of place amongst the more traditional dragons and trolls of Britannia. Whether this will be enough to revive flagging interest in the game in the face of increasing competition remains to be seen, and interestingly the Blackthorn product sheet includes an overview of some of Ultima Online's rivals. Dark Age of Camelot seems to be a favourite at EA, described as having "lots of advance awareness" here in Europe and "impressive technology support and design". Asheron's Call is "classified as one of the steadiest and [most] 'roleplay friendly'" massively multiplayer games on the market, although it has a relatively small subscriber base. At the other end of the scale, Anarchy Online is blasted for suffering an "outrageously bad launch" which caused "a lot of players [to] leave the game very early on". EA see the game as a triumph of style over substance, saying that it "looks great [and] gained interest for it's style and subject, if not it's design and playability". World War II Online also gets a brief mention, described as having had a "disastrous launch [which] left this product with very little respect in the online gaming internet circles". Finally there's the big one - Evercrack, which currently has twice as many subscribers as Ultima Online. "EQ is very strong", EA admit. "Its players have a reasonably unique tendency to be friends out of game. Common in the UK for EQ players to all drink together and then meet in game once they all get home." So if you see a bunch of elves down the pub drinking lager and lime, they're probably Everquest fans... Related Feature - Blackthorn gets revenge on Ultima Online

Every year we celebrate the New Year by picking out some of the top games we expect to be reviewing over the next twelve months. 2001 proved to be another mighty triumph for our predictive skills; out of our six picks from last year, two of them were disappointing (Black & White and Myst III), two of them weren't even released (Neverwinter Nights and Metal Gear Solid 2) and two of them were actually rather good (Gran Turismo 3 and Phantasy Star Online). So in the hopes of getting a better average this year, here are our picks for 2002.

Joining the likes of Ben Kingsley, Alan Parker and the Bee Gees on the New Years Honours List today is Jeremy San, CEO and founder of Argonaut Games and co-founder of TIGA, the UK's Independent Game Developers Assocation. Jez now becomes an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, having been cited "for services to the computer games industry". Argonaut has been around since 1984, releasing hit games such as Starglider and Starfox, as well as developing the SuperFX chip which powered Starfox's 3D graphics on the SNES. More recently the company worked on the chart-topping Harry Potter game for the PlayStation, and is currently developing Malice and SWAT : Global Strike Team for the Xbox. Congratulations to Jez San OBE. Now, how about a knighthood for David Braben next year?

It's been another exciting year for the gaming industry, with the launch of no less than three new console systems and the coming of age of a fourth. Gamers have never had it so good.

Cult horror director Wes Craven has confirmed that he is still working on the movie adaptation of America McGee's Alice, one of last year's weirder games. Apparently the film will be computer animated rather than live action, although Craven's comment that "everything we can take from the game we will steal" presumably refers to the storyline, characters and visual style rather than actual artwork and models. "It's a little darker, got a lot more edge, so it's kind of like Wonderland seen through the eyes of post-21st-century America", Craven told the Sci Fi Channel, having hopped out of his post-21st-century time machine. The movie is currently targeting a vague 2003 release, so it could be some time before we get to see whether this CGI effort will be a Toy Story style success or a Final Fantasy flop. Being a sceptical lot though, our money is on the latter. Related Feature - Disaster Movies

2001 has been a great year for PS2 owners, and it has seen the introduction of Nintendo's spectacular GameBoy Advance platform. Although Dreamcast manufacturer Sega tailed off production in March, the platform has also seen several important and extremely impressive products in the intervening period. Far from gaming's dead duck, the Dreamcast is still a big success, and this year's wooden spoon has to go to the PC. Although a large number of PC games materialized during 2001, very few truly stood out, and some of the most anticipated fell short of expectation. As is traditional though, each platform gets its moment, so without further ado, we take a look at some of the best games of the year 2001…

The action-strategy genre has had a tough time of it over the years, producing a string of critically acclaimed games that flopped at retail. Even the genre's poster boy Battlezone was only saved from ruin by being bundled with every piece of computer hardware known to man, but this hasn't deterred other companies from attempting to create the perfect blend of fighting and thinking. The latest such effort is Breed from British start-up Brat Designs, due out next summer through German publisher CDV. And not only is it trying to merge action and strategy elements, it's also throwing in vehicles and (probably) a kitchen sink for good measure.

If it weren't for 16-bit classics like Smash Tennis and Super Tennis, the average quality of the tennis videogame genre would be surprisingly low. Without Hitmaker's Dreamcast version of Virtua Tennis though, it would probably have sunk right off the bottom of the chart. Virtua Tennis 2 is a highly anticipated game, and it comes at a time that new Dreamcast games are few and far between. If it wants to sell, it has to impress fans of the original game (i.e. a large percentage of Dreamcast owners out there), and with this in mind Hitmaker have brought along improved visuals and a larger selection of players, and they have tweaked the gameplay mechanics too. Will VT2 leave a significant enough impression? The interface and main game options remain pretty much the same, with tournament, exhibition and World Tour modes still providing the bulk of the action. In tournament mode, you have to battle a number of world-class tennis players to claim the crown of world number one, whereas in exhibition mode you can just choose someone to wallop a ball back and forth with in a best-of-three. World Tour has been changed slightly, this time including the option to create your own player. Once you've chosen a suitable appearance and given him some reasonable attributes, you play a selection of mini-games, which improve your player's tennis abilities, and you face increasingly difficult opponents as you fight to break into the world tennis circuit. After a while you can quality for and play in tournaments and grand slams, with huge cash incentives and luxury doubles matches to look forward to. This is all very well, however, but is more or less the same as the original World Tour…

Ecks V Sever is the latest first person shooter to come to the GameBoy Advance, arriving just a couple of weeks after the release of Doom. But while Doom was a decidely old school run and gun experience, Ecks V Sever is attempting to be more of a thinking man's shooter. In a bizarre turn of events, it loosely follows the storyline of a movie which hasn't even begun filming yet. Set in the present day, you play either Ecks (an ex-FBI agent traumatised by the death of his family) or Sever (a Femme Nikita style NSA assassin, trained to be a killer in an agency-run orphanage). Each character has its own twelve mission campaign and the two run parallel to each other, usually showing you different parts of the same levels as Ecks and Sever carry out similar orders. For example, the game starts with the agents trying to access files on each other stored on laptops hidden in a warehouse. Sever then sets a bomb, leaving both characters dashing for the exit against the clock, before indulging in a running battle through the streets outside. Between missions you are treated to the transcript from an inquiry into these events, with the game itself effectively a series of flashbacks. It's a nice idea and the plot is typical Hollywood action movie hocus pocus, but the actual presentation is disappointing, consisting of page after page of repetitive long-winded text, most of it written in short stoccato sentences which make Max Payne's cutscenes look like a work of literary genius. The fact that your character describes the outcome of the mission to the inquiry before you even start playing it also leaves you feeling rather helpless and kills any real sense of suspense.

Mario Kart for the GameCube - or whatever it ends up being called - will be a momentous event in the console's history, for good or for bad. It'll be developed by EAD - creators of Mario Kart 64 - overseen by Shigeru Miyamoto himself no doubt, and graphically at least it's looking seriously mean. In the short demonstration video produced for E3 earlier this year, Mario and Luigi were shown jostling for position on a beautifully bump-mapped road adorned with a Mario Kart logo. A powerful spotlight shone from above and in front, illuminating the pair and the bumpy road on which they fought. As Mario roared into the lead, you could see his little foot frantically pumping the gas and his little fingers - individually modelled - anxiously gripping the wheel, as he leant into every twist and turn. After the enormous success of the GameBoy Advance iteration of the game, Mario Kart on the GameCube is highly anticipated. An unknown number of Nintendo characters will duke it out on-screen in various cartoon environments, with old favourites Mario and Luigi joined by Karting dynamos Donkey Kong, Bowser and others. The early footage of the game aptly demonstrates the wealth of detail afforded to each character, and the GameCube is perfectly capable of allowing for high detail polygonal models and intricately detailed tracks to boot.

Stories have an uneasy role in the game development process, often tacked on at the last minute to satisfy a tick box in the game design document. Graphics - check! Soundtrack - check! Plot - check! It shouldn't be this way...

Shenmue 2 is probably the best swansong the Dreamcast could hope for. The eagerly anticipated second chapter to Yu Suzuki's magnum opus pushes Sega's final console to the very brink of its capabilities. The most endearing thing about the Shenmue story, for me at least, is the fact that you're never completely sure of your position in the big picture. The beautifully rendered intro sequence merely hints at the direction of the story, and the sense of being led towards something bigger than what we're immediately presented with is forever there. Yes, Shenmue 2 is extremely impressive, at least technically, but does it live up to the previous instalments ability to fascinate, intrigue, and make off with our breath? The game proper obviously picks up where the predecessor left off, as Ryo arrives in Hong Kong in pursuit of his father's murderer and the truth behind the events that led to his death. Your starting task is to simply locate an address, and so as you begin to wander about the harbour it becomes your primary objective to interrogate as many locals as possible. So far, so familiar, apart from the fact that the dialogue is in Japenese. Having English subtitles and Japenese speech is far preferable to the mediocre job the Western voice actors did in Shenmue, and it lends a tremendous amount to the atmosphere.

The game is enormous, set over 20 centuries and features a total of thirteen playable characters, each equipped with weapons accurate for the time period, and the ability to target individual body parts and other areas of their enemies. Characters are controlled in the third person with a mix of Tomb Raider and Resident Evil-style camera use, in a 3D engine that takes advantage of every trick the ATI R300 can pull, at a 640x480 resolution and a stunning 60 frames per second. Obviously at this point it's impossible to comment on 50 / 60Hz options in European titles, but the version we have seen is definitely running at 60. The story is told through the player's actions on screen and during in-game cutscenes, where detailed facial animation will play a big part. Full-motion video sequences will also be included. Eternal Darkness may be a fantastical adventure, but Silicon Knights are trying to be as historically accurate in their depiction of the various locations as possible, right down to Latin voiceovers in some sections and enemies with authentic domestic fighting styles. Insane? That's not the half of it. The game's prized feature is the insanity meter. As players face more and more bizarre and unbelievable challenges, they have to question what's going on, and like any human exposed to enormous stress, they start to crack. The player's ability to deal with new challenges and experiences is lessened. This can lead to all sorts of effects, from the subtle; opening your inventory of items to find everything missing, to the downright confusing; walking into a room to witness your own, gruesome death, only to be resurrected by a flash of white light a moment later. Your level of sanity will reflect directly on your environment and abilities.

John Carmack has given gamers an early Christmas present by releasing the full source code for Quake 2. As with the release of the Doom and Quake source code in recent years, amateur developers are now free to tinker with the game engine as long as they stick to the terms of the GPL. The game itself remains under copyright though, so if you want to use textures, models and other artwork from Quake 2 in your mod, demo or game your audience will need to have their own legitimate copies. When id Software released the Doom source code it led to a flurry of activity as a variety of "source ports" were hacked together, adding everything from higher resolutions and OpenGL support to proper online multiplayer and capture the flag. Quake also spawned a host of spin-offs, ranging from a DirectX port to bizarre visual tricks such as adding a psychedelic fish-eye lens effect or making Quake look like it was being hand-drawn on your screen using a smudgy pencil. Whether Quake 2 will result in a similar outpouring of weirdness remains to be seen, but if you want to have a look at Carmack's code, you can grab the full source (just 1.4Mb worth) here. Related Feature - Quake suffers acid flashback

After lengthy delays caused by upgrades to the internet backbone of the Novaworld serivce, multiplayer support for Comanche 4 is finally getting off the helipad today. Novalogic's VP of IT John Butrovich explained that "with demand on NovaWorld currently reaching well over 400,000 game joins per day, upgrades were needed in preparation for the launch of Comanche 4". Unfortunately those upgrades weren't actually completed in time for the game's launch, which has left its online support grounded for the last few weeks. John added that "we are happy to announce that the upgrades to this free service is now complete, and I'd like to thank our customers for their patience during this re-vamp". More improvements to the service are being planned for the future apparently, but hopefully they won't prove quite as disruptive. Related Feature - Comanche 4 review

Bulgarian developers Black Sea Studios have signed an exclusive four year deal with Germany's Sunflowers Entertainment, creators of the popular medieval strategy game Anno 1602. Founded earlier this year by Vesselin Handjiev, the man behind the amusing (for all the wrong reasons) real-time strategy game Tzar : Burden Of The Crown, Black Sea is already the self-described leading game developer in Bulgaria (certainly it's the only one we've ever heard of) and is aiming to become a center of excellence for south-eastern Europe. Amazingly enough their first project with Sunflowers will be another real-time strategy game, and we are already quivering with anticipation. Well, maybe not. In one of the three press releases we've received about the partnership so far, Gerhard Schanz of Schanz Consultants (the company which brokered the deal, in case you were wondering) announced in a wonderful piece of bungled translation that he is "confident that Black Sea Studios will deliver games to the industry that are path-braking blockbusters". We think the words he was looking for were probably "ground breaking". Or maybe "path finding". But certainly not "path braking". Meanwhile Sunflowers boss Jürgen Reusswig decreed that "providing an incredible level of fun and long-term motivation in a both technically and graphically high-quality environment is priority number one for the Bulgarian team". We can only hope that Black Sea will live up to these aspirations and produce something more impressive than their founder's last project... Related Features - Tzar review

CDV and Russian developers Fireglow have announced that they are working on a sequel to their hit real-time strategy game Sudden Strike, imaginatively titled Sudden Strike 2. The follow-up looks suspiciously like the original game, but this time round the British, German, Russian and American armies will have some new neighbours as the Japanese launch a sneak attack on gamers around the world, while the French have apparently surrendered their place in the sequel in the face of this oriental onslaught. Quelle surprise. The sequel's battles and campaigns are expected to have a firmer basis in historical fact, and a more realistic damage model is also being promised, along with a range of other tweaks and tucks to the gameplay. With a spring release on the cards, we should know soon whether this is a true sequel or a mission pack with delusions of grandeur.

The fourth and final upgrade for Operation Flashpoint is now online, offering a new multiplayer paintball map, improved net code and other fixes and optimisations. It's only about 6Mb, and you can download it from the Codemasters website. Meanwhile those of you who haven't already bought the Operation Flashpoint Gold Upgrade add-on can now download it for a mere £4.99. This gives you a massive new twenty mission single player campaign showing the conflict from the Soviet side, along with a 64 page .pdf format Operation Flashpoint strategy guide from Prima. Finally, those of you who have yet to discover the joys of Operation Flashpoint can download a new multiplayer demo. Weighing in at 49Mb, it includes two capture the flag maps for you to play online or over a network, with support for two to eight players. Well worth a look if you missed the game the first time round. Related Feature - Operation Flashpoint review

Techland have announced Pet Racer, the latest attempt to bring the anarchic cartoon racing genre to the PC. Featuring over thirty tracks spread across five settings, including the inevitable forest, desert and arctic environments, the developers are promising "hilarious characters and great playability". The game also comes with a selection of bizarre power-ups, from your standard speed boost to a "tomato launcher" and "wasp hive". The mind boggles. If you live in Techland's native Poland you can bring this boggling to an abrupt end tomorrow morning when the game arrives on store shelves, but the rest of us will have to wait until Techland can find an overseas publisher for the game. In the meantime, you can scour these screenshots for clues... Related Feature - Pet Racer screenshots

In a move which is sure to shock absolutely nobody given Red Storm's habit of milking a franchise 'till it bleeds, a mission pack has been announced for their recently released tactical action game Ghost Recon. Due for release as early as March, the add-on will transplant the action to the deserts of Africa as war breaks out between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Along with the new sun-soaked environments and eight new single player missions, the game will also add a few new weapons, vehicles and enemies into the mix. Interestingly, while the add-on hasn't even been officially named yet, the press release describes it as "the first mission pack" for the game. So no doubt we can expect a string of follow-ups, spin-offs and sequels over the next few years in true Rainbow Six fashion. Related Feature - Ghost Recon review

If Trade Empires is to be believed, the development of civilization is defined not by wars and diplomacy but by trade. Instead of conquering new territory by invading neighbouring countries, you spread your influence by setting up markets and supplying them with the goods they require, hopefully at a hefty mark-up. It might not sound tremendously exciting, but the result is a surprisingly deep and addictive experience. Over the course of sixteen scenarios the game covers four thousand years of history and four continents, taking in the birth of Egypt, Sumeria and China, the rise of Greece, Phoenicia and Rome, the colonisation of America and the industrial revolution in Europe amongst other topics. In each mission you will start out with a small amount of cash and be set a target score to achieve by a certain year. Sometimes winning is simply a case of earning lots of money, while in other scenarios you will get bonus points for building up the population of cities or importing specific goods. At first sight the whole thing can look rather bewildering, and while the interface is neatly laid out and fairly logical, it does require a lot of mouse clicking to actually get anywhere. Luckily then there is a helpful tutorial mission to ease you into the game and introduce you to the basic concepts, from setting up your first markets to trading different goods between them. And this is essentially all that you will be doing for the rest of the game.

Although you may realise that Sony's PlayStation 2 can output glorious Dolby Digital surround sound, you may not be aware that Electronic Arts is now offering DTS compatible videogames, the first of which are NHL 2002 and SSX Tricky. The former features full 5.1 channel DTS surround sound, while Tricky had 4.0 channel DTS. As IGN put it, "With the DTS sound, gamers were given a level of high fidelity sound that isn't common in most videogames and true separation with the surround speakers at a quality that you simply can't get with matrixed surround sound techniques like Dolby Pro Logic." EA has now made the decision to stick with DTS for its forthcoming PS2 releases. It makes it all the more worthwhile if you have a killer hi-fi in your living room.

Sony is making its boldest move yet into broadband content and gaming services. In addition to the company's previously announced alliance with NTT in Japan, reporters have been told today that Sony will also ally with Yahoo Japan and Softbank. Yahoo Japan and Softbank recently launched a cut price ADSL service in Japan, which is presently lashing the broadband market from a new angle in the Far East. Sony hopes that by building a rich network of content and fast access in Japan, it will set another enviable example for players like Microsoft and Nintendo, and attract new customers to its stunningly popular PlayStation 2 platform. Still the market leader the world over in spite of its competition, Sony's console will be the first to provide a range of digital content to the consumers, with music, games and video. The network that Yahoo Japan and Softbank help to create will also include auctions and financial services, according to Sony's announcement. There were about 350,000 ADSL lines in use in Japan at the beginning of September, and by the time Sony launches that number could more than double.

Nomads is one of the most spectacular looking PC games currently in the pipeline, set in a shattered world of precarious rocky islands floating amongst the clouds. Falling somewhere between Jules Verne and Laputa, it's certainly an eye-catching setting. But what about the game behind those gorgeous visuals?

Inspired by the critically acclaimed PlayStation title, EA Sports BIG has confirmed that it is developing Sled Storm 2 for PlayStation 2. BIG promises visually stunning high-impact sled racing with treacherous environments and no rules. The usual collection of shortcuts and big-air jumps will litter the courses. Motored sleds are extremely powerful, yet delicate, and EA Sports BIG hopes to capture the feel of the sport like never before. Their significant experience with extreme sports titles should give Sled Storm 2 an advantage before the snow even comes into it. EA have already published a selection of screenshots and a detailed press release. Along with the previously announced FreekStyle, BIG plan to release the game in March of 2002. Related Feature - Sled Storm 2 screenshots

The CSFB has finally produced independent sales estimates, which give a good picture of the console industry in the United States since the launch of Microsoft's Xbox and Nintendo's GameCube. According to the report, Sony leads console sales by a hair's breadth, having sold 962,000 PlayStation 2 consoles between November 11 and December 8. Meanwhile, Microsoft have sold 934,000 Xbox consoles since November 15th, and GameCube may only have sold 602,000 since its launch date the 18th. In a separate release, Sony claims to have sold a staggering 1.5 million PlayStation 2 units since Thanksgiving week, giving them a total of 6.5 million since the launch of the console in October 2000. Nintendo on the other hand claimed sales of over 800,000 units, and said it would "ship 1.3 million units by Christmas," as it continues to restock retailers at the rate of 100,000 units a week. Microsoft took over where the others left off, with spokesman David Hufford's rather embarrassing "Xbox has caught fire since launch," leading to all sorts of amusing quips about campfires in the new housing extension and covering of ventilation holes. Microsoft has invested $500 million in advertising the Xbox. Presumably they have no money left to vet their press comments for this sort of thing. Related Feature - Everyone's A Winner

IGN is reporting that Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto and Satoru Iwata will speak at the 2002 D.I.C.E. (Design, Innovate, Create and Entertain) Summit, the first of what the organisers hope will become an annual event. Hosted at The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, it will take place at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas on February 28 - March 1 of 2002. Iwata, former president of HAL Laboratory and now Director and General Manager of the Corporate Planning Division at Nintendo, met with a warm reception at the recent Nintendo Show in London's Westminster. Shigeru Miyamoto has not notably spoken on game design since the 1999 Game Developer's Conference, where he received a standing ovation. Now that he is lead director on all Nintendo projects his speech will be even more interesting, and with games like Mario Sunshine and Legend of Zelda quietly evolving under his watchful eye we can expect his address to focus on how to innovate within a franchise amongst other topics. Expect full coverage from virtually every corner of the web come the D.I.C.E. Summit. Related Feature - The Nintendo Show

Nintendo of Japan has plans to use the GameBoy Advance as a 'digital broadcasting remote control', the company revealed yesterday. Collaborating with Nippon Broadcasting Corporation, Nintendo plans to run quiz shows where GBA owners will be able to respond to questions from home and have their answers delivered to the programme's producers over the Internet. A special cartridge with software to drive the client-side interface will be produced. The company declined to comment any further, and it seems unlikely that this idea will get further than Japan unless Chris Tarrant spots it. Whether the GameCube will be used at all is also unknown, although we fear that the GBA <> GameCube cable could become a new linchpin for the likes of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, which Eidos will be looking to reinvent after the second game in the series flopped so dramatically. Related Feature - Nobody wants to be a Millionaire

With Peter Jackson's big budget take on The Fellowship Of The Ring hitting cinemas this week, attention has once again been focused on the inevitable video game tie-ins. Electronic Arts today reiterated the fact that it has "an exclusive deal with New Line Cinema to create games based on the upcoming The Lord Of The Rings movies". Unfortunately this exclusive deal isn't quite as exclusive as EA might have liked, as just last week it was Vivendi Universal reminding us that they had the exclusive rights to publish games based on the Lord Of The Rings. Of course, the truth is that both companies have an exclusive license - Electronic Arts will be developing games based on the sure-fire hit movies, while Vivendi Universal went straight to the Shires and got rights to the original novels from Tokein's estate. Given that relations between the movie makers and Tolkein's heirs have been somewhat strained, this is perhaps not too surprising. As a result both companies are now planning to release Lord of the Rings games for a variety of platforms, although neither of them had a game ready in time for the Fellowship's cinematic release. Instead EA are hoping to cash in next autumn, when the Fellowship will no doubt be released on DVD and interest will be rising again in anticipation of The Two Towers arriving in cinemas, while Vivendi have yet to confirm their release plans. Whichever interpretation of The Ring comes out on top, gamers can at least look forward to an entertaining battle between the two licensees, and hopefully the result of this competition will be better games from both sides.