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German publisher Topware Interactive's stunning 3D real-time strategy game "Earth 2150 : Escape From The Blue Planet" was only released in the UK earlier this summer, but already a follow-up to the critically acclaimed game is underway. "The Moon Project" is set during the same period as Earth 2150, but as the title suggests the action has been moved to the moon, where the Lunar Corporation is working on a secret research project. Getting wind of it, the United Civilized States decide to gatecrash the party and find out what's going on. Cue ferocious battles above and below the surface of the moon as the two factions fight it out with a range of new units, buildings and technologies. Now you can get a taste of the action by downloading the playable demo, weighing in at around 70Mb...

Recently there has been some controversy over the rules, game settings and tournament structure at pro-gaming events, and CPL-Europe has come up with an interesting solution - ask the gamers to vote on what rules they would like to see used. You can now take part in surveys to determine rules for both the Quake 3 and Counter-Strike competitions which will be held at the CPL-Europe Cologne event later this year. Choices include how the final rounds should be played out (single elimination over three maps, or double elimination on a single map), which maps should be used, how Counter-Strike matches are scored, and the proverbial much more.

StrikeForce v1.50 for Unreal Tournament is now available, with new skins, new sounds, and flash grenades for the popular counter-terrorism mod

It's not a demo, but it's the next best thing for fans of the long-running Mechwarrior series, which puts you in the pilot's seat of a 40 foot high armoured war machine. Microsoft have launched a "multiplayer stress test" for the forthcoming mecha combat game "Mechwarrior 4 : Vengeance", starting tonight and running through until November 7th. The test is open to the public, and you can grab the necessary files from the Mechwarrior 4 website. Included are four fully customisable mechs to pilot and a single multiplayer map to drive them around on, with several game modes to choose from - Attrition, Destruction, King of the Hill, Capture the Flag, and Steal the Beacon, as well as the standard individual and team deathmatch options.

Until now details on the multiplayer features of the Dreamcast version of Half-Life have been rather vague. But now, according to a Havas Interactive representative addressing the topic of there being two releases of the game on Dreamcast, the single player version which we have been hearing so much about (including the new Blue Shift mission) will ship this year, while a seperate multiplayer SKU will also be released, although no concrete details on release date and such were available. At the time of writing though we are told that the disc will include Opposing Force, Team Fortress Classic, and a version of Counter-Strike!

It's a tale of confusion and exaggerated news stories. GameCube movie footage released to the public in Japan is said to have included footage of the Star Wars flight adventure "Rogue Squadron". But Lucas Arts today told the press that this was merely a technology demo, and that the company has not committed itself to the next-generation Nintendo console as yet. But of course this doesn't really wash with us. The company has already shown support for Nintendo with a recent publishing agreement allowing THQ to release certain Star Wars title on the GameBoy Color and Advance, including Obi-Wan's Adventures. This is hardly a statement of purpose, but it's an interesting and previously unheard of practice for Lucas Arts to let go of its tightly grasped Star Wars franchise even lightly. The possibility of GameCube titles being produced by another publisher under a similar contract is of course rather depressing - nobody seems to do it quite like Lucas Arts, and the general public's fastidious tastes when it comes to Star Wars titles are often insatiable. Although their touch has slipped a few times of late, they still produce games of substance and quality like the Monkey Island adventure titles, although Rogue Squadron wasn't as good as we had hoped. Why would Lucas Arts go back to it? So what's the synopsis here? Lucas Arts are planning a deal with a publishing company like THQ, allowing said publisher to release Star Wars titles on the GameCube? Either that or they are telling the truth. But if that's the case, something doesn't quite add up...

Codemasters just sent us their latest release schedule, with both of their flagship titles now due out on December 1st, just in time for the Christmas shopping spree. Rally sim "Colin McRae 2.0" was a big hit on Playstation, and looks set to make a splash on PC as well, while gory third person fantasy action game "Severance : Blade Of Darkness" (formerly known as "Blade") should give Human Head's Unreal-engined "Rune" a run for its money. Codemaster's other PC titles are "Insane" (now due on November 24th) and "World Championship Snooker" (November 3rd).

Our more .. um .. mature gamers will no doubt go misty-eyed at the mention of "Xenon 2" - a stunning arcade-style scrolling shooter which featured stunning organic graphics and music by dance outfit "Bomb The Bass" of all people, not to mention an array of over-the-top weapons and power-ups. Our personal favourite has to be the slightly ridiculous "Super Nashwan Power", which temporarily gave you a vast array of bolt-on weapons which made your ship stretch across half the screen...

The latest release schedule from French publisher Cryo Interactive just arrived, with a host of new UK release information on their titles. Their third person action-adventure game "Hellboy", in which you play the eponymous demonic looking hero, is currently set for release on November 3rd. Meanwhile the bizarre looking "Gift" is now due on November 10th, along with "Arthur's Knights", an adventure game inspired by the legends of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, which mixes lush painted backdrops with real-time 3D characters.

Long before Unreal Tournament and Quake 3 Arena were more than a twinkle in the milk man's eye, Dynamix released the popular teamplay focused first person shooter "Starsiege Tribes". Although the game proved a hit with the hardcore online gaming community, the total lack of any single player game left it with a somewhat limited audience. Now the company is putting the finishing touches to a sequel, and along with vastly improved graphics and new weapons and vehicles, "Tribes 2" also adds single player to the mixture. But just how much of it is there?

One of the big new releases last Friday in the UK was "Heavy Metal : FAKK2", a Quake 3 engined third person action-adventure game from Ritual and the Gathering of Developers. But although it's a good enough game in its own right, there was something else about it which made it stand out from the crowd. We're talking of course about the way it was packaged...

With the underwater action-strategy game Deep Fighter due for release in the UK this week, publisher UbiSoft is offering you the chance to win a Canon IXUS1 water-proof camera, a selection of UbiSoft games, and a scuba diving course courtesy of the Professional Association of Diving Instructors. This involves a CD-Rom "study pack" to learn the basics, followed by a series of personal training sessions at a local swimming pool, and ending with an open water trial to put your skills to the test. Runners-up will win copies of Deep Fighter for Dreamcast and PC.

What do you get when you combine the weird world of sci-fi comic book Heavy Metal and the warped imagination of Kevin Eastman, creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? The answer is "Heavy Metal : FAKK2", a straight-to-video animated movie. The good news is that the game of the same name has little in common with the rather disappointing movie, apart from its bizarre imagery and the amply imbued heroine Julie. FAKK2 the game takes place thirty years after the movie, but luckily for us the planet Eden, on which Julie has settled with the other survivors of the film, is home to the fountain of eternal youth. After all, a third person action game in which your character is a saggy middle-aged woman would be something of a let down... Being a woman of action though, Julie finds all this sitting around drinking mineral water and staying forever youthful rather dull. Unluckily for her (but luckily for us) Eden's peaceful existence is about to be rudely interrupted by an evil demi-god by the name of Gith. The first part of the game consists of exploring Julie's settlement on Eden, and chatting with all the people you will see getting brutally slaughtered a few hours later. You will also find your way to the training area, where you will be guided through a fairly comprehensive tutorial which shows you how to select and use your various weapons and equipment, and how to control Julie. As in any good third person game your character has a plentiful supply of moves, with Julie climbing up, down and along ropes, dangling from monkey bars, edging her way along narrow ledges, and ducking and crawling her way under low obstructions, a move which seems to exist purely as an excuse for the developers to give you an extreme close-up of Julie's butt. The controls are very easy to get to grips with, and the moves are achieved using a simple combination of the various movement keys. Walking up to a low ledge and holding down the forwards key will make Julie clamber up on to it, while climbing along a horizontal rope or pipe is simply a case of jumping up to grab hold of it and then moving backwards or forwards, using the jump key a second time to lift your legs up over the rope, or the duck key to let go and drop to the ground. This is about as simple and responsive as third person gaming gets.

Unreal Tournament on the Dreamcast seems to go some way to comparing the Dreamcast to a poor man's PC, but when you think about just what's going to be included it's astonishing how close the action is to its roots (especially when considering the incredible system requirements on the PC). The game will include Deathmatch and Capture The Flag modes according to Peter, so that's no Assault and no Domination modes. What's slightly concerning is how he addresses the question of how long the game's been in development. "We started right after E3, so it's been about four months." The game is expected to ship for thanksgiving in the States, so it will have had approximately five months from start to finish.. But it's not all bad. The control system will be right on - playing on a DC controller is difficult but you can use the Dreamcast keyboard and mouse if you choose (making the experience almost identical to that on the PC). The question of interaction with the PC version (ala Q3A DC) is a hazy one, as Clark states that since there's no storage device provided capable of applying upgrade patches, the game will ship as is and stay that way, so any subsequent changes to the code by Tim Sweeney and co. at Epic could cripple anybody's intentions to play online. As UT is a multiplayer game first and foremost this may be of some considerable concern! Undoubtedly gamers who own the DC version will be able to play against one another over SegaNet. Sadly of course the Dreamcast's 56k modem means that pings are in the region of 200+. Oh but hang on, in Europe and the UK the modem is a 33.6kbps version. To be honest this doesn't bode well for gamers trying to avoid an epensive PC upgrade to play it. Clark does state in the interview however that UT DC will include lots of new maps and other extras, and full scene anti-aliasing, a big buzz-phrase in the industry at the moment. Meanwhile, Quake III Arena DC is set for an October 10th release in the States.

IGN have been on hand in Tokyo having a poke around the various wares on display. The event comes merely days after Microsoft's announcement of yet more development support for the Xbox, and Nintendo's GameCube and GameBoy Advance are still garnering press support, with even Sega grabbing some of the attention.. it seems like the only console not surrounded by furour leading up to the PlayStation 2 release is the PlayStation 2. But despite the Tokyo Game Show taking place thousands of miles away from potential Western customers, the press will be whetting the appetites of everyone, and with titles like Metal Gear Solid 2, Silent Hill 2 and others keeping attendees entertained. As it happens the most popular title of the show came from Konami but wasn't actually MGS2. Z.O.E. is a mech-based 3D action game with adventure elements rather akin to Sega's Virtual On. Reducing journalists into gibbering wrecks, the enormous interest encapsulating the title meant that gamers were allowed a pitiful 30 seconds before security removed them (bodily in some cases) from the units. Definitely one to watch. Other titles that we've been looking forward to include the PS2 version of Operation : Winback and Gran Turismo 2000, but of course the real reason for attendance (for these journos anyway, they are not kidding anyone) is the Booth Babes.

id Software are still putting the finishing touches to their Quake 3 add-on pack "Quake 3 : Team Arena", while lead programmer John Carmack prepares the first stages of their next project - "Doom 3". The decision to build a new Doom only came after a heated argument amongst the design team though, with the infamously abrasive modeller Paul Steed paying the price when he was fired by two of the company's co-owners for voting the "wrong" way. In an interview with Voodoo Extreme, John Carmack talks about some of the other (far more interesting) concepts that he came up with before the decision was made to go with a third Doom game, including an idea he's mentioned several times before recently - creating cyberspace, as envisioned by the likes of William Gibson and Neal Stephenson.

BritSoft developers Rebellion are probably best known for their hit first person shooter "Aliens vs Predator", but all that should change later this year with the release of Gunlok. Set in a desolate future world where mankind has been largely annihilated by intelligent robots, you play the eponymous hero, one of the few human survivors of the war, as he struggles to overthrow the AI corporations which rule the ruined Earth. The game is due for release at the end of November, but now you can get a taste of the action with the 90Mb playable demo, available from the following sites -

sent along word of another big name sponsor for their "Frag 4" event, taking place next week in Dallas and hosting their largest Quake 3 teamplay tournament to date as well as one of the first for-cash female only Quake 3 tournaments. Microsoft will be at the event, showcasing their SideWinder Game Voice and Sidewinder Strategic Commander products along with the new Age of Empires II add-on, "The Conquerors". The Game Voice is a voice command and communications system, while the Strategic Commander is a new controller designed specifically with real-time strategy games in mind. Meanwhile, in other Frag 4 news, the CPL have announced that they will be using Quake 3 v1.17 in their Quake 3 tournaments at the event, not the controversial new v1.25 patch, which changes the game's physics code and fixes a "bug" (which until recently was described by developers id Software as an intentional design feature) which allows players to cause damage with blast-effect weapons through some thin walls and floors. The changes in the new patch are drastic to say the least, and the CPL has decided it is best to stick with what the players know rather than use the latest version in this case. A decision on which version to use for December's Babbages-CPL event will be made soon.

Midtown Madness was one of the only games of recent years that actually kept me up well into the early hours on several occasions. Normally I exhibit enough restraint to avoid mammoth 24 hour gaming sessions, but through its unique mix of challenge, playability and finesse Midtown Madness kept me coming back time after time, and often kept me plugging away at the same level for many hours in order to progress.

- LogitechPrice - £32.99

While we normally attempt to supress outright joy or indignation and remain impartial, it's a little hard not to get excited about the prospect of a well-executed Daytona game, and it looks as though we may finally have one. These shots at SegaWeb are infinitesimally superior to the original Saturn version and may well present Sega with another killer app upon which to base their Dreamcast sales campaign with the PS2 in the offing. Milking Sega's arcade heritage for all its worth, Daytona USA : Network Racing should go far to injecting the dull NASCAR genre with some much needed speed and variation. As you can see from the graphics the original tracks are in, as are the tracks and cars from Daytona 2 and Daytona CCE. As hinted at in the title, online play will be the order of the day, although it's not known whether this will be reliant on Sega's high speed cable modems that are yet to be implemented or whether modem play will be an option.

The demo for the eagerly awaited "Hitman : Codename 47", which sees you taking on the role of the eponymous hitman and whacking people with a variety of weapons from a sniper rifle to the rather more personal length of piano wire, is now available, weighing in at around 45Mb. There has been some confusion surrounding the demo though, with the US office of publisher Eidos apparently disowning the demo despite a generally positive reaction from the many gamers who have already downloaded it.

In the early hours of this morning our beloved Id Software saw fit to bestow upon us another Quake III Arena point release, this one numbered 1.25. Somewhat worryingly Graeme Devine labelled it as a beta, and barely minutes later Robert Duffy updated his .plan with the other half of the problem.. "Mods for Quake 3 Arena will require a recompile for use with 1.25". According to Dave Angus at BarrysWorld their leagues will not be upgrading to the 1.25 patch "due to id software being stupid w*****s" (Censored to protect your cherub-like ears -Ed). Their server chap DrChris was a little more collected.. "We will *not* be upgrading to the new point release of Q3 just yet. It's officially a beta, breaks all existing mods and, since it uses a different protocol from the previous release, clients can not easily mix versions either. We will be waiting until the source code has been released and the major mods have been updated to support it." Of course, the mods of the moment are Rocket Arena 3 and Quake 3 Fortress. An apologetic update from RA3's creator David "CRT" Wright said that "RA3 players are advised NOT to upgrade to 1.25 for the time being, as my initial testing seems to indicate it breaks RA3 in several ways. Hopefully id will release the updated game source so that I can update RA3 soon," while Q3F's Locki sent out a net-wide news broadcast to say that "All Q3F players and server administrators are advised to hold off from upgrading until the Q3F Beta 1F update is ready." If you made the mistake of installing the 17Mb file (which can be found on on Id Software's FTP) then you can either wait around for a bit (Locki does point out that he'll have a beta of a 125-compatible version available within days) or go with his unofficial removal tip. Apparently you can roll back by deleting pak4.pk3 from your "quake3/baseq3" directory and then reinstall the 1.17 patch (which is also still on Id Software's FTP). Still, there's nothing to stop you upgrading if you really want to, but you may have trouble finding willing servers. Vanilla Duel and FFA servers will upgrade in spats, with some operators unwilling while others perfectly happy to sort it out. If you're interested in what this patch adds (and it's quite a bountiful list), then take a peak at Graeme Devine's .plan.

The long-awaited Deus Ex SDK is now available for people wanting to make add-ons for the hit action-RPG

Some of the most impressive games at the ECTS trade show in London were to be found on NVIDIA's stand, running on their latest GeForce 2 Ultra and GeForce 2 MX graphics cards. Codemasters dropped by with Colin McRae Rally 2.0, Peter Molyneux stopped off to demonstrate Black & White, and Giants was running on a widescreen TV throughout the show. And amongst all these top titles was a tech demo designed by a small German company called Crytek Studios, showing off the capabilities of the GeForce 2 by rendering a vast island with a T-Rex wandering amongst its trees. Crytek are now using the CryEngine which powered that tech demo to develop two new games, and we caught up with them to find out more...

3dfx recently put a smile on Apple fans' faces by releasing a version of their Voodoo 5 5500 PCI graphics card for the Mac, and now they have announced that they will also be releasing the AGP version of the card for the Mac, apparently because of "strong demand for an AGP version of 3dfx's award-winning Voodoo5 5500 PCI product for Macintosh". No news yet on price or availability, but no doubt all will become clear soon. In the meantime, Mac owners will no doubt be queueing up to burn their old ATI Rage graphics cards... With the Voodoo 5 5500 PCI already available for Mac, the AGP version coming soon, and rivals NVIDIA ready to ship a Mac version of the GeForce 2 MX as soon as Apple clear it, the future is looking brighter for Mac loving gamers.

Sierra fired off the latest news on the "Dark Conspiracy" expansion pack for the 3D real-time strategy game "Ground Control", confirming that the pack (which features an entire new faction to control, 15 single player missions, and new multiplayer maps and modes) will be released in the UK this November. For the full scoop, read the press release. Sierra also sent over a bandwidth sapping selection of new high resolution screenshots taken from the expansion pack, so go ahead and feast your eyes on these!

We claimed earlier this week that Microsoft would soon have the full support of development companies from both East and West, and judging by today's announcement from Konami, we weren't far off the mark. At the moment the only major names not developing for the Xbox are Square and Electronic Arts. Both are expected to make their own announcements soon. Konami's lineup for the Xbox will include Crash Bandicoot X, Jurassic Park X, Silent Hill X and Metal Gear Solid .. wait for it .. X. Yes that ferociously original naming convention exclusive (apologies) to next generation consoles has returned. Remember the N64's first spat of titles? It was This 64 and That X and so-on and so-forth. Hopefully the content of said games will go some way to improving the situation. Multi-million selling titles like Silent Hill and MGS will have gamers scrambling for units when the machine hits late next year. Meanwhile the PlayStation 2's Metal Gear Solid 2 will hit this year, and may well steal some of the thunder from this announcement. As far as Konami must be concerned though, it's all good.

ELSA have announced that instead of simply bundling some tired old games with their 3D graphics cards, from now on they will be giving customers the option of adding a bundle of their choice of three top titles for just £12.95 with any of their NVIDIA based graphics cards. The games on offer include everything from "MDK2" and "Evolva" to "F/A-18E Super Hornet" and "Super 1 Karting". For the full details of the offer, read the press release.

Friday is release day for computer games in the UK, and there's a good selection of new and re-released titles on offer this week. Top of the list is "Heavy Metal : FAKK2", the third person sci-fi action-adventure game from Ritual and the Gathering of Developers which has been available in the US for some time now, and has finally arrived in Europe. This week's other new releases are "Wizards & Warriors" and "Golf 2001".