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Crawfish is a company with a lot of GameBoy Color games under its belt, and a history of good ones too. We've reviewed a few, including Street Fighter Alpha, and the company has worked on ports of Driver and others. Nowadays though, the company has designs on the GameBoy Advance, and with the Japanese unit due to launch next week, it seemed like a good time to collar them for a few moments and have a chat.

Developed by a Russian company and making its debut as the first game to be distributed in the UK by German publisher CDV, Sudden Strike was a truly European effort. Now the popular World War II strategy game is getting a make-over with a planned May release for Sudden Strike Forever, an expansion pack described by its developers as "version 1.5 rather than simply an add-on pack". Amongst the new features are three new mission for each of the three campaigns in the original game, as well as four new single missions with new settings and seasons, including the game's first desert battles.

The G800 is like one of those legendary Greek heroes you tell your children about, and it seems that Matrox, a privately owned company and thus not one that needs to report to shareholders, has adopted a fitting pseudo-marketing campaign for the project, where they release no public information and leak nuggets of information all over the place, spreading them through Chinese whispers on obscure forums and hoping the big news oracles will pick up on them. Well FullOn3D.com has. According to this rather odd thread on "MURC forums", the G800 may even be called the Matrox Condor II. Although that's fairly inconclusive, According to MatroxUsers.com, something interesting happens if you do a "View Source" on the as-yet unreleased G800.com. A secret message hidden in the HTML, reads "Whose word are you going to take? There's ours -- or the 28 million triangles knocking on your door." When we loaded up the page this morning though, all we got was "Spooky, isn't it?". Ho-hum. G800.com itself does offer a clue though. Firstly, a pop-up appears with a "Coming Soon" emblem. The title tags of the HTML in the pop-up have not been correctly defined though, and the URL reveals itself as "http://www.g800.com/condor.html". Condor again. The visible message to visitors is that "Yes, we know. We're way behind on this page. There's been nothing sitting on this server for over a year and a half now. Rest assured, however, that the wait is almost over and the delay in unveiling will be well worth any inconvenience. :)" Judging by the information at hand and the conclusions drawn by FullOn3D.com, we should expect to hear more about Matrox' G800 in the very near future.

We're not sure who the voluptuous young lady on Unreal2.com is, but she does a good job of selling the game. The new website, launched just recently by Legend, showcases the successor to the familiar Unreal organ. Unreal II, for those who don't know, follows on not from the multiplayer digression, but the original Unreal, taking place in the same fictitious universe as the original, albeit with different main player characters and locations. Instead of taking on the guise of a stranded prisoner, this time you're the lone representative of the Law in a distant sector of space, piloting a small ship called the Atlantis with the aid of three; Ne'Ban is your trusty alien pilot, Isaak is an engineer who keeps the ship running, and Aida acts as your Intelligence officer. Things are fairly normal until interstellar war breaks out, and you are caught in the middle of the fighting, and must balance your responsibility to protect the colonists, archaeologists, miners, and other civilians in your sector... with the duty to discover the source of the conflict and put an end to the war. This is presumably where the "Unreal Warfare" rumours came from, unless Epic is working on something else. [They are - Ed] The single player game takes the form of a series of missions linked by the narrative framework of the game's story. Missions may take place in the dense jungle of a tropical planet, in the ancient ruins of an alien city, deep underground in a warren of tunnels, on the molten surface of a hellish volcanic world, in the bowels of an alien industrial facility, in the endless oceans of a water-bound world, or on board an enemy starship. There are more than ten unique settings, each with its own distinct look and production design. More information can be found on the website, which makes interesting reading. The website also features a gallery of screenshots, including a couple of comparatives, which show how early design sketches were translated to code. It also features a FAQ, several wallpaper downloads (so far) and a Community Forum, which is already buzzing with anticipation.

A piece of RPG history is coming to the GameBoy Advance by way of Capcom. Nintendo's official GBA gameslist has included a "Breath of Fire" entry for quite some time, but it wasn't expected that we would have much more to report until the Tokyo Game Show at the end of this March. Instead, details have emerged early, that the game will be a like-for-like conversion of the original Breath of Fire to the system, albeit with a couple of upgrades. According to RPG gurus The GIA, who broke the original story, "the game will now support saving at any time and Capcom is going to take advantage of the GBA's link feature to enable item swapping between players." It is thought that Capcom will alter the visuals slightly in places so that they fit the GBA more appropriately. The Breath of Fire series is a long-running one, spanning several volumes, and each of them has met with critical acclaim, be they on SNES, PlayStation, or wherever. Are time-consuming RPGs like Breath of Fire to become the perfect antidote to long car and train journeys? Perhaps Squaresoft could re-establish their bond with Nintendo and start producing 16-bit class RPGs again. The world is certainly crying out for a mobile Chrono Trigger, for instance. According to The GIA, the Japanese release of Breath of Fire on the GBA will occur in July. We expect to hear more at the Tokyo Game Show.

Nintendo may find themselves the biggest home video-game maker soon, instead of the second biggest with the release of both the GameBoy Advance and the GameCube in Japan shortly. The GameBoy Advance, set to launch next Wednesday, is now to be sold in a volume of nearly 1.1 million units, up from the single million quoted previously. Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi also told Reuters in an interview that plans to release GameCube are on track. Although their is widespread confusion as the European release date of the GameCube has been shunted back to Spring 2002, the company's share price rose yesterday in Japan according to Bloomberg, against a weak Yen. The shares surged 5.5% to 21,100 yen, and some 934,000 shares traded. The reason, according to the analysts, is that Nintendo generates more than 70 percent of its sales abroad, and the yen's recent decline against the dollar boosts the value of overseas sales when converted to the weaker Japanese currency. News leaked out a couple of weeks ago that GameCube guru and industry legend Shigeru Miyamoto had seen the latest first party build of Metroid for the 'Cube and wasn't impressed. Despite this, and the associated sackings at Retro Studios, the company can do no wrong. Nintendo aim to ship more than 100 million GameBoy Advances throughout the world within the next few years. With an installed base rivalling that for the original GameBoy, it could very well be within their grasp. Related Feature - Advance Progression?

Sony's acclaimed SCE Studio Cambridge is working on what could be the company's final PS One title, to be published by SCE and released in time for Easter. "C-12: Final Resistance", is described as a blockbuster action title, and with the Cambridge group considered one of the only developers left that can really push the PS One, it should be quite an experience. The framerate is said to be constant, despite the high-resolution graphics and detailed textures. Large, animated on-screen characters cause no slowdown, and judging from the screenshots, look even more impressive than their counterparts in other PS One-stretching games like Resident Evil 3. The game's producer John Meegan doesn't even think that PS One has reached the outer bounds of its capabilities. "We've definitely pushed the machine to its current limits" says Meegan, "but I'd be delighted if somebody surpasses what we've achieved. It'd give us something higher to aim for in the future". We first saw C-12 in very early form at ECTS, but it was in such a dogged state that we hardly found anything to obsess about. Since then though, the game has matured greatly and established an eager fanbase of gamers who drool over every morsel of information and every screenshot. Sony's SCE Studio Cambridge is a 55-man operation now, and C-12: Final Resistance could just be their finest hour. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe will publish C-12: Final Resistance for PS one on April 13th. Until then, enjoy the few shots and renders we have on display in our screenshots area. Related Feature - C12: Final Resistance Screenshots

SETI (The Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) @Home has long been resident on many expensive PCs, run by gamers and hardware freaks to show off their PC's oomph to anyone who cared to look or listen. Similar projects have emerged, including one to crack a useless form of encryption amongst other things. However, Stanford University in the USA has now started its own project, and it's gathering speed. The project is called Folding @Home. "Folding" is about trying to understand how proteins self-assemble (protein-folding). As the website says, it's the "holy grail of modern molecular biophysics." The challenge is to computationally simulate protein folding, something that would require more CPU power than the whole of the world put together. Or at least, that's the plan! The Folding group has developed a new way to simulate protein folding ("distributed dynamics") which should remove the previous barriers to simulating protein folding. "We have already demonstrated that our distributed dynamics technique can fold small protein fragments and protein-like synthetic polymers. The next step is to apply these methods to larger, considerably more important and complicated proteins. Unfortunately, larger proteins fold slower and thus we need more computers to simulate their folding. While the alpha helix folds in 100 nanoseconds, proteins just a little larger fold 100x slower (10 microseconds). Thus, while 10-100 processors were enough to simulate the helix, we will need many more to simulate these larger, more interesting proteins. "To achieve a significant speedup, we need lots of processors in a given run. Also, since a single run does not tell us much, we need to simulate several runs (10 runs would be a good start) per protein. Thus, we need lots of processors. By running our client that uses the Mithral CS-SDK, you can lend us your machine for as long as you like. The client allows you to run for as little or as long as you like. Even a single day's worth of running is helpful to us." The Science behind it all is very complex, but understanding what you could help achieve by taking part is not. The discovery of how proteins self-assemble could lead to more advanced research into Mad Cow, Altzheimer's and more diseases, it could help man build nanomachines and more. The benefits of finding out how Folding works far outweigh the benefits of discovering whether amoeba on Saturn can run traceroute! You can discover more about Folding @Home on its homepage at Stanford University, and download the client for any flavour of Windows, Linux or Solaris. If you generally leave your PC on through the night doing nothing much, would it hurt to contribute?

The original Aerowings was a bit of a non-starter. I'm not even sure it was released over here. It was low on action, despite selling itself as a dogfighting flight sim, and its sales suffered heavily as a result. Aerowings 2 makes up for this by focusing almost entirely on dogfighting, filling the skies with enemy jets and creating a profound and embracing game to wrap it up in. Even for the lowly newcomer, like me! I'll let you in on a little secret - flight sims aren't really my bag. Never have been. But Aerowings 2, through its softly-gently training and tutorial modes, has taught me everything I need to know about throwing a £2 million fighter plane into a barrel roll and coming out of it on the tail of my nemesis. The game is quite complex, but it's equally rewarding. There are lots of techniques to get to grips with, and the training scheme is very thorough. Of course, experienced pilots rejoining the series after the first encounter may find the early sections rather boring, or at least, less interesting than sharing a wartime story with some pals in the mess hall. That said, despite forcing the player to take part in the training regardless of their experience, it will offer a good grounding for the controls, and as the game wears on, more and more challenging and complicated missions unveil themselves, making up for the lack thereof earlier on. I'm certain that the later missions will give even the most practised baron of the skies a run for his money.

After the impressive release of Counter-Strike 1.1 a day earlier, Valve Software and Sierra released the Half-Life 1.1.0.6 patch last night, in packages to upgrade new installations as well as those running 1.1.0.4. Another patch, for the Opposing Force mission pack, was released at the same time. The patch addresses a lot of issues, including some in the game's in-built team game, Team Fortress Classic. The retail Counter-Strike update was also released. The deal is, that if you want to play any of the games online, you must upgrade to 1.1.0.6. You can download the new patches from the following URLs:-

Connectix' long-running battle against Sony to market its Virtual Game Station software has finally come to an end, with Sony buying the company. Speculation of the company's future now falls neatly into two columns; one where Sony kills it off and hides the body, and the other where Sony uses it to encourage legal emulation on the PC, something which both Connectix and Bleem have been trying to get the company to allow them to do for quite some time. According to The Register, the release following the move talks about defining "a series of development initiatives in the area of advanced emulation solutions", which could mean Sony wants to use Connectix to its benefit, or it could just mean it wants to hide the corpse behind some fictitious R&D. Ultimately, the fact of the matter is that it was cheaper for Sony to buy the company than pursue the case, so the purchase has nothing to do with a business strategy on Sony's part, other than to protect its assets. Whether VGS is put to use by Sony will be an afterthought. As with the suit against Bleem, whom we interviewed last year, VGS is accused of violating copyright and encouraging piracy through its support of copied PlayStation games. Sony even won a temporary injunction against the company, but that was overturned on appeal. Another suit, this time based on patent infringement was filed, after the Appeal Court said that it would probably have upheld the ban had Sony sued on those grounds originally. VGS will continue to be sold until June 30th, when Sony take over. From then on, it's completely up to them, and what will become of Connectix is largely unknown. Update - "Sony did not buy Connectix", or so says CEO Roy McDonald. "We continue to sell and support CVGS as well as our many other products including our flagship product VitrtualPC. The agreement opens the way for cooperative development of Sony and Conenctix in a wide range of advanced emulations solutions in and out of the gaming industry. For more information about our company see our website at www.connectix.com." Thanks for clearing that up, Roy! Related Feature - The bleem! Team

Laptops are not built for gaming, but NVIDIA want to change that with their new GeForce GO! graphics chipset. AMD also have aspirations for high performance laptops capable of gaming and other desktop-class tasks, and it seems that they are very close to realising their aim. Ace's Hardware is reporting by way of News.com that AMD's mobile Palominos (the next incarnation of Athlon) are only days away, but that thanks to a shortage of components for the mobile Athlon platform, actual laptops built on the processor could be months away. The article on News.com, Ace's say, indicates that major OEMs such as Compaq and HP have pushed back their schedules to June or July as a result of this lack of infrastructure. Mobile chipsets are apparently to blame. Solutions from VIA and ALi are apparently a quarter away from high volume production, scheduled to ship nearer the middle of the year. AMD's aggressive scheduling has put them way ahead of their market partners, and it could hurt them in the long run. "We plan to have production shipments this quarter in volume," AMD spokesman Ward Tisdale said, but the official announcement of the product won't come until at least one top tier PC manufacturer (e.g. Compaq) is ready to release a laptop based on it. The new mobile Palomino format will debut at speeds of 900MHz, and uses PowerNow! to conserve energy and increase battery life, making it the perfect mobile format. The mobile Palomino is based on the same core that AMD claim will do 1.7GHz in a desktop machine by the end of the year. HP, Compaq and others are thought to be working on laptop designs, but thanks to the shortages announcements could be as much as several months off. The mobile Athlon's little brother, the mobile Duron, is due to be introduced at speeds of 600MHz and 700MHz, but it is unknown how its development progresses. One would assume it does so in parallel. The chip will use a 1.4v core on a 0.18 micron fabrication process, and PowerNow! to help conserve energy. Related Feature - KT133E

SCE have admitted that they have no plans to develop their own games-orientated mobile phone devices. Despite a wide range of popular mobiles produced by mother company Sony, SCE will instead develop and target games at a preinstalled base of mobile phone users, thanks to its strategic alliances with NTT DoCoMo and Vodafone. To Develop portable gaming devices, according to one of SCE's senior directors Kenichi Fukunaga, would be a "costly enterprise that made little sense". "Making portable devices would mean having to compete directly with mobile phones," he said, before claiming that "We couldn't offer devices with the same capabilities and price." Obviously Mr. Fukunaga doesn't want to concede that Nintendo utterly dominates the gaming portables market for fear of looking bad, but we're pretty sure that's the message. Really though, if Sony really wanted to distribute a viable mobile phone gaming platform, they could do several things. Firstly, they could license Videologic's new PowerVR MBX, which does all sorts of graphics magic on mobile and 3G platforms. Then they could use their own mobile phone division to develop a phone of the perfect size, weight and performance. Then they could use their established brands to market it and sell millions. There's all sorts of possibilities to wrongfoot Nintendo on this one, but SCE have no intention of trying to do so. Instead of dropping millions on R&D for such a device, they would presumably rather focus on other more pressing matters. Why? Because like so many of their competitors, they are strung up on promises which they made at the beginning of the year, of features they are now forced to develop, like the PlayStation 2's high-speed Internet connectivity, and the PlayStation 3's chip design. Development elsewhere and huge competition from Nintendo are of course perfectly valid reasons not to waste time on the development of a mobile gaming platform, but if they aren't going to do it, the least they could do is give us the real reasons why not! Related Feature - Sony's plans made public

Former Ren and Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi has been working hard on his new animated TV series, "The Ripping Friends", which is set to debut Saturday mornings on Fox Kids later this year. Obviously a hot property, THQ have latched onto this and scored an exclusive contract to develop games based on the show. The Ripping Friends features the humorous exploits of the world's most manly men, four superheroes on their quest to make the earth a safer place to be more manly. The first game is due for the end of this year, to coincide with the show's launch. Ren and Stimpy is classic comedy, and Fox Kids' President Maureen Smith believes that Kricfalusi's next project is likely to plug the holes in their programming strategy. THQ's VP of product development Michael Rubinelli points out that the show actually invites the viewer to take part in the action, to do something instead of sitting there on the couch festering. "We think this type of involvement --that actually brings kids into the action -- is an ideal springboard for developing interactive games." From the press release... The Ripping Friends superheroes, Crag, Rip, Slab and Chunk, are the four manliest men in the world and live and train for their next mission in a super industrialized complex futuristic city called R.I.P.C.O.T. ("Really Impressive Prototype City of Next Tuesday"…but the 'n' is silent). While they live just slightly ahead of the rest of the planet, in the world of next Tuesday, one of their enemies manages to stay just out of reach in the world of next Thursday. Uhm, that pretty much says it all.

The PlayStation 2 has thus far been rather short on hit games, certainly on this side of the Atlantic, with titles like SSX and Timesplitters dominating the top spaces in the PS2 charts ever since their release last November. Now the third person action-adventure game Oni is apparently joining the rather short list of PlayStation 2 games to reach the top, with publisher Take 2 announcing that the game debuted at the top of the UK charts for the week ending March 10th, having already made it to number two in the PS2 charts on the other side of the Atlantic.

Before Duke Nukem was even a twinkle in a game developers eye, Bruce Campbell immortalised the phrase "hail to the king" as Ash in the Evil Dead trilogy. It's been a long time coming, but now a computer game based on the cult movies is finally nearing completion, and with the release date set for May more information and screenshots are starting to leak out from publisher THQ.

Eurofighter Typhoon is a flight simulator designed to appeal to the Tomb Raider generation - attractive, simple and compelling. It is intended to bring a whole new audience into military flight simulation, while allowing the hardcore crowd to enjoy a day off from complex radar modes and weapon profiles.

Yesterday we reported that French developer Kalisto (responsible for the Nightmare Creatures series and currently working on several projects including a massively multiplayer game based on the Highlander franchise) had announced catastrophic results for the year 2000, with revenues almost 90% lower than forecast, resulting in a $25m loss over the year. Today we have received an update on the situation from Kalisto, including a copy of the letter sent out to shareholders on Monday in which CEO Nicolas Gaume explains what lies behind the losses.

"The Gathering". Not some overrated Poker substitute, but the moniker NVIDIA coined for their 2001 developers' conference, held in the glitzy confines of the Hilton Hotel at Heathrow's Terminal 4. A cacophony of booze and bitmaps, the conference was opened to the press last Thursday evening, and EuroGamer journos, never ones to turn down a free pint, trooped along to check out the NVIDIA's codename NV20 product, the GeForce 3, and meet some of the people developing next generation software using the platform. We ran into all sorts. Although the conference was mostly held during the day, the hardcore and those who had flown in for the event hung around to make our acquaintance. Adrian Thompson, our man in the trenches at NVIDIA (and possessor of the purse strings when it comes to taxi jaunts home) was very eager to talk to us about GeForce 3. A lot of websites, Adrian told us, have seen tech briefings, but nobody has yet been provided retail drivers, so anything you may have read on the Internet thus far has been largely academic. How does the GeForce 3 compare to its competitors? At the moment, its specifications are far beyond anything you will find on chipsets and graphics cards from NVIDIA's rivals. Even NVIDIA's own market-leading GeForce 2 Ultra pales in comparison, thanks to the GeForce 3's four texture units per pass, multiple textures units per cycle and breathtaking new pixel and vertex shading technologies. Another thing we got to ask Adrian related to the Xbox. After hearing from several sources (including Scottish developers who had gorged themselves on the GeForce Juice Hilton staff were handing out) about NVIDIA's role in the Xbox, we wanted clarification. Is the NV20 appearing in Xbox? "The technology you are seeing here" Adrian said gesticulating wildly at the monitor array we had just walked away from, "will appear in Xbox. Does it really matter what the chip is called?" He's right of course; be it NV20 or NV25, the fact of the matter is that the GeForce 3 will be in Xbox, be it in its current form or in a souped up, overclocked, feature-saturated version eight months down the line. During the next few days we hope to bring you preview coverage of a couple of "launch titles", games used to demonstrate the GeForce 3's capabilities. Aquanox, German developer Massive's contribution, is an RPG come action game set in a post-nuclear underwater world. The sequel to Archimedean Dynasty, which was released by Massive in 1996, the game uses the GeForce 3 to full effect, taking advantage of pixel and vertex shading, the new programmable GPU and the rest of the kaboodle. Pixel and vertex shading are dramatic new technological breakthroughs for this industry. They help the GeForce 3, already the fastest graphics chip on the planet, breathe life into every scene with intricately detailed textures, scope for full facial animation and more. The nfiniteFX (Infinite Effects) GPU enables programmers to create their own sumptuously detailed palettes and stylised visual effects. One of the criticisms, Adrian told us, that people have levelled at the GeForce family in the past is that developers have had to stick with roughly similar palettes and visual effects. Not any more - if they can code it, they can use it. Ballistics, the other title that was on display, is a futuristic evolution of Formula 1, developed by GRIN, where you control vehicles that travel at exceptional speeds (with no real speed ceiling hard-coded into the game) through tunnel-based levels. It's a fine balance of speed, acceleration and thermal-management, and it shoves textures up the GeForce 3's pipelines like nothing else on the planet. Both of the titles we were shown comfortably pushed the GeForce 3, and both looked and performed admirably. One of the key problems that NVIDIA face when it comes to marketing the GeForce 3 is software ready to take advantage of the new technologies. The good news is that not only is performance in classic applications like Quake III industry-leading, but that in time games which make use of pixel and vertex shading predominantly will emerge, angling the GeForce 3 as a hell of an investment for future gaming bliss. We are even more eager to get hold of a board for testing now than we were before! Thanks to NVIDIA for inviting us down to "The Gathering", and thanks to various people for entertaining us, including Bo Anderson at GRIN, Alexander Jorias from Massive Development, gracious sponsors ELSA, AMD and Vector, and our friends Adrian Thompson, Kevin Strange and Chris Donahue from NVIDIA! Here's to the next one! Related Feature - GeForce 3 Preview

It's hardly surprising to see console hardware releases staggered across the globe these days, and so the latest news, that Nintendo will be holding off on the European launch of the GameCube until Spring 2002, should come as no surprise. Comments made in Japan last week on the subject look to have been confirmed, as the machine will now debut in Japan in July of this year, while the USA date has been confirmed as October 2001.

Obviously in an attempt to scrounge yet more coverage from us, our friends at Eidos have let us know about Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen II, another title in the Kain series, which is due out on PlayStation 2 towards the end of the year. The player will be part of a story line that continues and expands the myths of Kain, the Soul Reaver and the Vampires of Nosgoth. "After being defeated in single combat by the Seraphan Lord and losing the Soul Reaver, Kain slips into a deep sleep to rejuvenate. Finally awakening 200 years later in the capitol city of Nosgoth, Meridian, Kain finds his world dominated by the old Seraphan Order, a group of vampire hunters he defeated long ago. Traveling through the city using stealth, smarts, and reflexes Kain continues his struggle for the Soul Reaver and dominance over Nosgoth." You can take a look at the initial batch of screenshots here. The eventual release will feature immense levels made up of medieval steam-age urban architecture apparently, with dynamic lighting and particle effects to stretch the Emotion Engine, over 100 characters and enemies, a fluid combat system that matches Hong Kong action flicks and new magic and "Dark Gift" abilities. Related Feature - Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen II Screenshots

The LAN party scene here in the UK has really boomed over the last couple of years, with bigger, better and more frequent events, and 2001 is already looking like being another great year for gamers wanting some low ping action whilst quaffing copious amounts of booze and caffeine and screaming abuse at each other across a packed room.

Self-described "pioneering on-line game publisher" Garage Games has announced a licensing deal with Sierra which will see them producing a stripped-down version of the Tribes 2 engine for use by independent game developers. This should come as no great surprise, as Garage Games was founded by members of the Tribes 2 development team, and is therefore familiar with the technology and the people behind it.

Apart from what little we could glean from the mirky demonstration of the game's graphics engine at the recent MacWorld show in Tokyo, details of id Software's new Doom game are few and far between. What we do know though is that id appear determined to make this their best game ever, and to once again push the boundaries on the single player element of the game rather than just producing light weight fluff which is held up by multiplayer support and mod makers. "The story in this game dwarfs anything in previous id games, which admittedly isn't too hard", confirmed programmer Jim Dosé in a recent interview.

Microsoft have unveiled their new Xbox.com website, which includes information on officially confirmed release titles, publishers and developers signed up to the console, GameStock 2001 information and an Xbox news subscription service. Also included on the website is a call out to Seattle-based gamers looking for some pro bono Xbox playtesting work. GameStock 2001, which kicked off on Monday, brought games developers from all over the world to scrutinize the Xbox. New titles and developers have been confirmed, as reported on the website, with newcomers like Bizarre Creations' codename "Gotham", Argonaut's "Malice" and Blitz Games' "Fusion Frenzy". The full list of confirmed titles and publishers can be seen on the new games page. The latest from GameStock 2001 are some new Halo screenshots, which really are of an exceptional visual quality. Overall, we reckon the new Xbox.com is worth a few minutes of your time while surfing the web today.

MadOnion's 3D Mark 2000 has long been the staple diet for benchmark junkies eager to have something to show for their elaborate PC setups. The new version, 3D Mark 2001, combines DirectX8 support with the latest in 3D graphics and through its objective measurements gives users advice on how effectively their PC runs 3D graphics applications. Furthermore, it shows users benchmark results that allow them to make informed hardware assessments and upgrades. After feedback from gamers who have used 3D Mark in the last year, the "Professional Edition", for which you must cough up either $24.95 for an upgrade or $39.95 for the full version, allows you to actually play the exquisitely detailed opening scenes of the program's testing demo. You can hand over your money at MadOnion.com. Speaking in the official release, Marketing VP Nathan Harley said that the company has been "continually striving" to improve its benchmark facilities since 1998, so that "gamers from around the world maximize their experiences and PC performance". The company, he says, has achieved this goal with 3D Mark 2001, "by supporting DirectX8 and providing detailed 3D performance measurements for existing systems and developing challenging, new tests for current, cutting-edge hardware, as well as technologies yet to be released." The important new featureset that 3D Mark 2001 ships with includes support for Microsoft's DirectX8, three new game tests, plus a fourth game test using DirectX8 hardware. Other items on the menu are support for various DX8 display modes, FSAA, texture compression, and all sorts of other technologies past and present. You can get the whole lowdown from the official press release. Although the MadOnion website is under pretty heavy load at the moment, you should be able to download the benchmark application sometime today. In the meantime, check out some of the ongoing discussions about the new release.

It's widespread knowledge that Valve are on the verge of releasing Half-Life version 1.0.0.6, and getting in just before the act with their own updated release is the Counter-Strike team. There are all sorts of changes to this version that will have Counter-Strike addicts reeling and roaring in unison, so lets address them one by one:

HiTech Creations sent us word today that they have just released a new version (1.06 if you're counting) of their massively multiplayer World War II flight combat sim Aces High. Amongst the new features added in the patch are new cloud patterns, improved night time lighting effects, and another eight new planes to pilot, taking the total up to a staggering 42. The latest additions to the game's arsenal include obscure rarities such as the Tempest V (a British plane used for chasing down V1 missiles) and the Ar 234B (a jet-propelled German bomber), as well as better known planes such as the American P-51B and two more variations on the classic German FW190 fighter.

We have it on good authority that Future Publishing is about to lay off 75% of its Daily Radar content operation as part of "Internet restructuring". Eight people including the editor are believed to be on the way to a P45, although it is presently unknown why Future are scaling back the portal operation quite so dramatically. Future declined to comment when we spoke to them this lunchtime, but admitted that editor Andy Smith wasn't in the office today. Unlucky staff are thought to be making arrangements this afternoon amidst uncertainty over their future at the company. The infamous Daily Radar has risen to the position of the United Kingdom's biggest leisure and gaming website after an enormously successful push in the USA. There is no word on the operation overseas, but the redundancies are presently thought to centre on the UK operation.

Bordeaux based computer game developer Kalisto is the latest company to announce poorer than expected results as the gaming and internet industries continue to slump. No great surprise there perhaps, as most games companies have done badly in the last year, but this case is rather drastic, with Kalisto reporting revenues of just Fr 19m (about $2.7m) during the year 2000, compared to the Fr 170m that had been forecasted last year. This has resulted in an incredible Fr 175m loss for the year (roughly $25m), or almost ten times their total revenues. Put another way, that's going on for $1m for every one of the company's 300 employees.