Latest Articles (Page 3549)

Nintendo has confirmed the contents of its early GameCube bundle packs. The GameCube, which goes on sale in Japan on September 14th and will cost $199 in the West, will include a single controller, an AC adapter and audio/video cables. Upholding a long-standing tradition, a Nintendo press spokesperson added that older A/V cables from the Super NES and Nintendo 64 will also be compatible. Famitsu Weekly is also reporting on the various games we can expect to see at launch. Riding out with the console will be Super Monkey Ball from Sega, Wave Race Blue Storm and Luigi's Mansion from Nintendo, followed by Shigeru Miyamoto's Pikmin on October 26th. Super Smash Brothers Melee, Eternal Darkness and Doubutsu Mori+, all from Nintendo, will join them in November and December, completing the line up for 2001. Related Feature - GameCube will ship 500,000 in Japan

The Japanese Federal Trade Commission have found Sony guilty of unfairly influencing market pricing of PlayStation games. Sony has always made a point of setting the price of its console and games, and has been doing it for so long that people just take it for granted. Not any longer, though, says the FTC. The ruling, which concludes two years' worth of proceedings, is a big slap on the wrist for Sony, and will affect the cost of its games and perhaps hardware in Japan. The FTC also ruled that Sony impaired free distribution by directing wholesalers to sell only to retail outlets and for retailers to only sell to consumers. Despite being found guilty and asked to reform, Sony claims that it would "make sure that [its] policy of not setting resale conditions on wholesalers for PlayStation hardware and software is observed." It strikes us that if they had this policy none of this would have come up in the first place. Either that or it was there for show. The ruling may spur action in North America and Europe. This is the sort of thing, after all, that the American courts thrive on, and Europe is definitely big on commissions. We spoke to the Trading Standards press office here in the UK this morning and although they didn't have a direct response, our correspondent there enthused that they would be looking "very closely" at the ruling from Japan to see whether any action was necessary over here. Sony was unavailable for comment, presumably because everybody there is at the DevStation conference in Brighton.

It's a sign of the times that nowadays if someone mentions wrestling, you automatically think of sweaty Americans in Speedos dancing around pretending to hit one another. Back in the old days (and I mean old - we're talking Romans here), wrestlers were men of honour. Sure, they rolled around on the ground trying to snap one another's limbs, but they did it with dignity. Fire Pro Wrestling from developer Spike and BAM Entertainment harks us back to those cherished days of yore when a grip was hard to get out of, and a choke meant you choked, and also brings us up to date with the latest fighting styles from all over the world. The reason for the weird-sounding name is that the game makes its way from Japan, and brings with it 200 pre-made wrestlers skilled in the arts of Jujitsu, kick boxing, Luchador and all that. A darn sight more entertaining than an American pantomime. Fire Pro is a GBA exclusive, featuring plenty of fighting styles, proper technical wrestling and four person multiplayer. By virtue of its celebrated status as a "proper wrestling" game, Fire Pro also shies away from the button bashing arcade style beat 'em up to the point where you simply cannot do anything meaningful if you resort to slapping this and that. This means that you will have to read the manual to understand what you're meant to be doing.

Codemasters have announced that an "interim upgrade" for their best-selling Cold War combat sim Operation Flashpoint is now available to download from the publisher's official website. Not to be confused with the first free "Content Upgrade Pack", which is due soon and will add new weapons and missions to the game, this patch concentrates on tweaks and tucks rather than new content.

It's been a troubled year for Future Network, the company behind the likes of PC Gamer, Official PlayStation 2 Magazine and Games Radar. Several magazines have been closed down, websites culled, hundreds of staff laid off, and its shares are currently sleeping with the fishes at just 54p. So when a report appeared in the Financial Times this morning saying that the company was "in discussions over a possible sale of the company", it looked like the end of the road for the Bath-based magazine publisher. Indeed, trade magazine MCV this morning reported that "the games magazine giant Future Network is up for sale". Or is it?

After months of uncertainty over when we could expect Commandos 2 to be released, publisher Eidos has today announced that one of the most eagerly anticipated sequels of the year will be in stores on September 21st. Following on from the three year old million-selling original, Commandos 2 : Men of Courage promises improvements to both gameplay and graphics, as well as a range of new characters and locations, driveable vehicles and multiplayer support.

French publisher UbiSoft has continued the recent run of good news in the gaming industry, announcing that their sales in the three months to June 30th have grown to €60m (over $50m), rising by a staggering 162% compared to the same period last year. This rapid expansion can mostly be put down to the success of just two games - Myst III and Rayman Advance.

Eidos have announced that they will be releasing four new titles in their Premier Collection Series this October, with budget re-releases on the cards for Tomb Raider Chronicles, Chicken Run, Three Kingdoms : Fate of the Dragon and (perhaps most importantly) Ion Storm Austin's award-winning action role-playing game Deus Ex. Although it was something of a flop in its native America, here in Europe Deus Ex topped the charts when it was finally released in August last year, and picked up numerous "game of the year" awards from magazines and websites around the world.

Life has never been better for fans of the role-playing strategy genre. The Heroes of Might & Magic series is looking to end its run of second-rate cash-ins with a true sequel featuring improved graphics and gameplay tweaks, and a second Age of Wonders is in the works over at the Gathering of Developers.

The interminable Bleem team have finally unveiled the next conversion in their series of Bleemcast discs. After the peculiar success of the Gran Turismo 2 emulation disc and the excitement surrounding the forthcoming Metal Gear Solid release, the guys at Bleem.com decided to post some screenshots of their other project, Tekken 3. A classic beat 'em up and no mistake, Tekken 3 was one of those killer app beat 'em ups that caught the attention of an entire generation of fighting fans and sucked them in with three times the fury of the previous incarnations. The Bleemcast disc for T3 will be released soon, and will allow buyers not only to enjoy the game on their Dreamcasts, but with souped up visuals thanks to some clever filtration and anti-aliasing to remove the blockyness. As people pointed out with Gran Turismo 2, the graphical overhaul really does help breathe more life into the game. You only have to take a look at the comparison screenshots at Bleem.com to get the picture. Related Feature - The bleem! Team

I'm regretting that upgrade now. It looks like I chose just the wrong time to do it. Over the last few days, Intel, AMD and Maxtor have spoken in public about emerging technologies that could change the heart of the PC as we know it, and the average punter is cursing into his wallet once again. To start with Maxtor have announced the forthcoming ATA/133 next generation hard disk interface. Transferring data at 133Mbps (another third great than ATA/100 which has only recently come into its own), the standard will soon be integrated on motherboards and into new hard drives from Maxtor and licensed partners. The press release claims that "widespread PC adoption is expected in 2002." If you want to stay at the forefront of storage technology, that'll be a few hundred smackers for a new motherboard or adapter card, and some extra for the new hard disk too. Following on breathlessly from that announcement, us consumers took another blow in the wallet, this time from the industry group in charge of the PCI standard. Most cards in the average PC are PCI-based, from modems to network cards to sound cards to anything. The only exceptions generally are video cards. Updating the present PCI standard has been ruled "prohibitively expensive", and so rival bids from AMD (HyperTransport) and Intel (Arapahoe) are being taken into consideration. Although Intel seem to have the upper hand with Arapahoe, which offers "speed, cost and longevity benefits over the current PCI while using the same control commands," meaning that the current PCI software won't need to be re-written to support it, AMD have formed a consortium of bigwigs to try and stave this off. The consortium, made up of AMD, API Networks, Apple, Cisco, NVIDIA, PMC-Sierra, Sun Microsystems and Transmeta, will aim to drive development and manage the HyperTransport technology. So even if it doesn't replace PCI, it will make up a key part of the next generation of computer hardware. Applications in networking equipment, video cards and processor chipsets are already being mooted. Technology is always moving forward, but sometimes we wish there was a bit of warning. People who have picked up PCs in the recent price drops now have the opportunity once again to feel pretty ripped off.

The silicon battle is far from over, but Intel and AMD have been surprisingly quiet lately. All of a sudden though, last week word got out about a flurry of new Pentium 4 price cuts, and reviews of the new Pentium III, Tualatin revision 1.2GHz chip burst onto the Internet. Earlier this month market observer The Inquirer caught wind of a new Intel pricing scheme which would reduce the price of Celeron and Pentium III processors by some margin, 14% on the high-end Celerons at 800-900MHz, and as much as 37% on the 900-1000MHz Pentium IIIs. Intel also let slip that it would reduce the Pentium 4 range to keep the pressure on AMD, creating a low price rung of $294 for the 1.6GHz chip and later introducing the 1.9 and 2.0GHz chips at $455 and $562 respectively. Meanwhile, AMD chips were also reduced, with a 1.4GHz processor going for a song and the 1.5GHz chip supposedly only a few weeks away, but the company was feeling the pain. The share price slumped after some dodgy financial results were released, highlighting the company's burden in the price war and the weak demand for flash memory, one of its other big businesses. Good news for AMD came though in the early spat of Tualatin reviews, which showed the chip's weakness in a large number of benchmarks. With Intel chips selling clock-for-clock as much as $150 more than their AMD competitors, the market wasn't going to put up with a poor performance to boot, and sales will no doubt suffer. Tualatin was always going to be a last gasp process for Intel - a way of satisfying the corporate and desktop markets who weren't so eager to overhaul for Pentium 4, so it will sell, but a question mark remains over the quantity. Analysts reckon Pentium 4 chips will come into their own with the introduction of the 2GHz chip. Those same analysts are also telling people to buy AMD while the prices are still in their favour though. Personally, I can't see a 2GHz Pentium 4 - arguably the first in the line to compete properly with the 1.4GHz Athlon - retailing for less than its main competitor. Related Feature - Pentium 4 Review

Wireless networking is a bit of a dream for me. Ever since the various creatures that infest my home demanded I share my MP3s, broadband Internet connection and other bits and bobs with them, I've had to fight my way through a jungle of cables just to get from my study to the lounge. It's a mess, frankly, and given that none of us have an ounce of DIY in us, the best we've managed is to tack the really dangerous bits to the skirting board.

Sega's president and chief operating officer Peter Moore has spoken frankly about rumours of his company's collaboration with Nintendo. Speaking about the rumoured company crossover RPG, he said "I think that's just wishful thinking," but followed that up by saying that "if I got a phone call at four o'clock this afternoon from Japan that said they were doing it, it wouldn't surprise me in the least." Moore went on to describe Sega's relationship with Nintendo as "great", "all the way to Yamauchi-san, who has great regard for Sega and what we've done over the years." He spoke of a mutual respect between the two companies, even when they were in heated competition with one another at the peak of the 16-bit console era. "Have we done anything? No. Are they talking about it, I'm sure. Have we announced anything? No. Might we? I bet you that we do." Since Sega gave up the job of creating new console technology, they have boarded a financial rollercoaster, announced extensive software lineups for Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo consoles and kept the Dreamcast end up with some fine new releases to boot. Peter Moore is right, any collaboration between Sega and Nintendo is mostly speculation at the moment, but apparently they're as eager as we are to take things a bit further. Related Feature - GameCube will ship 500,000 in Japan

Famitsu is reporting that Nintendo has plans to ship 500,000 GameCubes for the Japanese launch of the console on September 14th. Most of these will probably go to pre-orders, but thousands will pack into the centre of Tokyo's Akihabara district in time-honoured tradition to pick up their consoles. The console will only be available in violet for launch, matching the various shots that have been spread all over the Net since Spaceworld 2000. Nintendo intends to ship a further 400,000 units before the end of the year in Japan though, and the secondary run will include alternative colour schemes. Bizarrely, Nintendo of America intends to ship approximately 1.1 million GameCubes within November, with 900,000 units of Luigi's Mansion expected to be sold alongside the console by Christmas. By March 2002, the total number of GameCube units shipped will exceed 4 million, the company says. Currently there are no estimates for the European launch, but we reckon it will be somewhere between the Japanese and American figures. Don't forget to pre-order when the time comes, because if the Game Boy Advance's launch is anything to go by, you may need to. Related Feature - GameCube: The Science Bit

European developer Zuxxez has released a demo of its latest real-time strategy game, World War III : Black Gold. Created by the brains behind Earth 2150 and the Moon Project and powered by what looks suspiciously like an updated version of the same impressive 3D graphics engine used by those games, World War III is set in a near future where oil reserves are running perilously low. The result is a global conflict between America, Russia and the Middle East as everyone fights over the remaining oil to keep their economy afloat.

Space-bound real-time strategy game Conquest : Frontier Wars started out as one of four projects underway at Digital Anvil, but with the game falling behind schedule Microsoft decided to pull the plug late last year, saying that the project "did not progress as we had hoped it would". Soon afterwards Digital Anvil was bought out by the Washington-based publisher as cash ran short, and a new studio called Fever Pitch was set up to finish Conquest, eventually securing a publishing deal with the rapidly growing French company UbiSoft in May.

Piggyback Interactive, the company behind the massive 164 page official Gran Turismo 3 strategy guide, have launched a new Europe-wide league for owners of the PAL version of the game. Running for the next six months, players will have the opportunity to report their fastest lap and race times over a series of challenges, with a "superb yet secret prize" on offer for the best overall performance across the entire series.

Texas patch masters Id Software have released Quake III version 1.29g for Windows and Linux. The patch weighs in at an inordinate 26Mb and "should upgrade any previous release of Quake 3 or Team Arena". Thankfully, for those who downloaded the 1.29f release, the AutoUpdater tool can be used to upgrade to the latest version, resulting in a much smaller transfer. According to the official website, a number of small changes have taken place. The website lists these problems as "what has changed since the last release," but we're guessing they mean these problems have been fixed!

Multi-platform developer Capcom has announced plans to bundle a plug and play modem with its next big PlayStation 2 beat 'em up, Capcom Vs. SNK 2. The inclusion of the USB-based modem, called PS2-Gate, will allow players to enjoy the same level of online functionality as Dreamcast owners have enjoyed so far in the series, and even battle against them head-to-head. Players must subscribe to Capcom's KDD online service. The bundle will retail for 9800 yen and Capcom plan to arrange similar deals with future fighting games on the PS2. It's not yet known whether PS2-Gate will be available separately. Related Feature - Capcom Vs. SNK Dreamcast Review

As one of the first movies to extensively use computer graphics, Tron has become something of a classic since it's release in 1982, with a bizarre plot involving a man stranded inside a computer. The effects were incredibly primitive by today's standards but stylish all the same, full of garish wireframe and flat-shaded graphics with live actors working against the digital backdrops. With the 20th anniversary of the movie coming next year a DVD re-release is on the cards, and the movie's director is currently scripting a sequel which will feature a mixture of digital and real actors.

The PlayStation 2 has had a lot of outspoken critics, but even they would have difficulty finding fault with Gran Turismo 3. It's a visual tour de force, an auditory delight, and a game that will suck more hours out of your life than smoking fifty a day. It has so much to offer, it does it with style and finesse, and boasts an unparalleled reward structure to keep you coming. Can you tell that we like it yet? It's not entirely without its problems. Without further ado, let me introduce you to the AI, an acronym which any cinema-goer who didn't already know can now tell you stands for "Artificial Intelligence". It might as well mean "Artificial Incompetence" where Gran Turismo 3 is concerned though. Even as a humble greenhorn, yours truly was able to take a few championships simply by lining up cars attempting to pass in the mirror so that they bounced harmlessly off the rear bumper. The computer controlled cars bash into walls, they bash into each other, and they show absolutely no stealth or cunning in overtaking you; they are not artificially intelligent. Overtaking manoeuvres really get the blood pumping, but if developer Polyphony had managed to instil some logic into the minds of the other drivers the game would be even more exciting. Fending off a Dodge Viper with your Corvette's rear bumper is an unlikely scenario for a game that prides itself on its realism, and any game that allows you to lean on that Dodge Viper to get round a corner when you haven't braked hard enough is just taking the Mickey. Furthermore, you cannot tell me that in a vaguely competitive field of drivers the human player should always win, despite having a technically inferior vehicle. Where's the logic in that? But it happens. You can blow away rival drivers by taking the corners with an ounce of bounce, or simply making sure they can't get up the inside of you. They only ever use the racing line, so it's not too difficult to avoid that. Breezing through later championships with a car that isn't even on the same page as the other five runners is pretty upsetting, especially when you've invested so much time in the game.

When you put Microsoft into a room with three hundred Wall Street analysts, the last thing you expect to see is a flatulent green ogre. But according to a report from Reuters, Xbox exclusive game-of-the-movie Shrek stole the limelight at the normally serious annual business meeting yesterday. After a lengthy discussion of the ins and outs of the Windows XP launch and Microsoft's financial prospects for the next year, the audience was treated to a demonstration of several Xbox titles by Microsoft gaming envangelist Seamus Blackley.

Nvidia is banking on sales of its nForce AMD Athlon-oriented chipset to provide a significant boost to its bottom line - the company reckons nForce sales will account of ten per cent of its revenues next year. Indeed, Nvidia doesn't appear to believe nForce will really take off until 2002, if comments made by the company's VP of investor relations, Michael Hara, interviewed by EBN, are anything to go by. Certainly Hara notes that full-scale nForce production won't happen until early 2002 - deliveries of the chipset are only just beginning and aren't expected to begin ramping up until mid-August.

Sony shocked investors today by reporting group operating profits of just £17m for the three months ended June 30th, 90% down compared to this time last year and far below market expectations. This doesn't include the effects of a costly recall of faulty Sony mobile phones by Japanese telecoms company NTT DoCoMo and KDDI either, and shares in the company have dropped as much as 5%.

While most motor racing sims struggle to bring you the latest team data every season, there are only so many times that you can drive the same cars around the same tracks before you start to get bored. You only have to look at the horde of Formula 1 games released every year, most of which end up retiring on the formation lap, to see that having the latest data isn't always the route to success.

Black Isle Studios, best known for the Fallout series and their contributions to the Baldur's Gate franchise, have cancelled their Lithtech powered role-playing game Torn. Intended to be the start of a new home-brewed series for the company, and promising to "set the precedent for fantasy and adventure games to come", it appears that the ambitious game may have fallen short of expectations. A source within the company told news site Voodoo Extreme that the game is now "on hiatus" and that a number of staff had been laid off as a result. Our understanding is that the game is unlikely to be resumed in its current form, with Torn's lead designer and producer apparently both amongst the staff leaving the company.

Eidos have today announced that Soul Reaver 2, the sequel to the million selling action-adventure game Legacy of Kain : Soul Reaver, will now be released on PC as well as PlayStation 2. Developed by Crystal Dynamics, the sequel continues the story of Raziel, who was last seen heading through a time portal in his pursuit of Kain. As well as the old plane-shifting abilities which allowed you to switch between the material and spectral planes, you will now find yourself travelling through time as well. A new range of weapons and spells is being promised, along with more complex and interesting puzzles, new locations and a greater variety of enemies.

JoWood have officially unveiled their isometric action-adventure game Zax - The Alien Hunter. As the game starts the eponymous adventurer has been shot down and stranded on an uncharted planet which is about to be turned into a haze of sub-atomic particles by a supernova. Now it's up to you to help him repair his ship, getting tangled up in a dispute between the natives and an angry god in the process. Sounds like it's going to be one of those days...

Codemasters have announced that a new installment in their multi-million selling TOCA Touring Car series of motor racing games is in the works, TOCA Race Driver. In keeping with the name, Codemasters are promising a more plot-driven game this time round, with more focus on the drivers themselves than usual. Exactly how this will work in practice isn't entirely clear, but it's being hyped as "a true convergence of racing gaming and cinematic experience".