Latest Articles (Page 3598)

Next Friday will see the launch of UbiSoft's latest game, but this one is something a little different... Described as an "e-mail detective game", all you need to play "Myster-E" is a computer with a net connection - simply sign up for the game and you will receive the first of a string of e-mails, setting up the mystery which you are to solve.

The World Cyber Games Challenge taking place in Korea at the moment is one of the biggest pro-gaming events ever held, with $300,000 in cash prizes up for grabs, and well over a hundred players from around the world competing in a whole range of games including Quake 3, Starcraft, Age of Empires II and FIFA 2000. The stories that are emerging so far from the tournament as it enters its second day of play range from the amusing to the downright bizarre though...

When Sierra dropped the innovative space combat sim "Babylon 5 : Into The Fire" it looked like the end for the project. As part of the deal under which Sierra had been footing the development bill, the work which Sector 14 had done on the game up to that point belonged to their former publisher. But despite this the developers struggled on for several months, with Sierra expected to sell the code, artwork and cinematics that had already been done back to the company. Then, earlier this week, came the shocking news that the game had been cancelled after Sierra apparently changed their minds...

I first saw Severance at the ECTS trade show in London back in 1998. At the time it was called Blade, and due to be published by Gremlin. Since then Gremlin have come and gone, swallowed by the behemoth Infogrames, and Spanish developers Rebel Act Studios have honed away at the gameplay of their 3D meisterwerk, eventually signing a deal with Codemasters over the summer.

With the weekend upon us and the weather (here in the UK at least) enough to drive you indoors to the soft welcoming glow of your PC monitor, no doubt you are looking for something to keep you busy until Monday morning comes around. Luckily the last week has seen a whole plethora of game demos being unleashed on the internet, so whatever your tastes there's sure to be something to keep you amused...

For many years "Master of Orion" was one of my favourite games, a fiendishly addictive strategy game set in deep space which featured wonderful 320x200 resolution VGA graphics and support for those new fangled Sound Blaster soundcards! With a third game in the classic series currently under development, you can now see where it all began by downloading "Star Lords", the early demo version which the developers of the original "Master of Orion" used to secure themselves a publishing deal with Microprose some time back in the Dark Ages. It weighs in at just 3 Mb (ah, those were the days), and the copy protection system has been disabled to allow you to play the game - just hit return when the "authenticator codes" box pops up.

Over the past three months a total of 64 clans from around the UK and Europe have been battling it out in the PC Gamer Counter-Strike Championships, a massive online league for the ever-popular Half-Life mod, organised by EuroGamer and the OGA and sponsored by the gaming portal formerly known as WON.net. In the end it was a pair of Swedish clans, "Ninjas in Pyjamas" (NiP) and "United Section" (USEC), who faced off in a tense final on cs_miltia, which ended with the two teams in a dead heat with 7 points a piece! A decider was played out on Dust, with NiP managing to pull well ahead this time to take the victory. Congratulations to both clans, as well as semi-finalists Team Fortuna and Menace 2 Society.

Over the last few years a new art-form called "machinima" has emerged on the internet, born from the computer games community and rapidly evolving from its humble beginnings, as a legion of enthusiasts around the world tried to do something more creative with games such as "Quake" than just slaughtering their opponents.

- ASUSPrice - £125

The latest release schedule from Take 2 Europe has just arrived, with a few noteworthy changes to their Winter 2000 line-up. Offroad racer "4x4 Evolution", which we were expecting to be released last week, is now due on October 27th, which is looking like a busy day for Take 2 with no less than seven games due out, including the second Blair Witch title, "The Legend of Coffin Rock", and Viking action game "Rune". One casualty of the October rush though is "Jetfighter 4", which has been delayed a month to November 24th.

Electronic Arts have updated their release schedule with a few minor changes to their plans for the UK. The promising and downright bizarre looking third person action-adventure game "Alice" has been put back a couple of weeks to December 8th, but most of the changes are amongst the EA Sports titles. "F1 Manager", which was originally due out today, has been pushed back a week to Friday 13th October (unlucky for some), while the inevitable soccer game "FIFA 2001" has also slipped a week, to November 10th. Meanwhile two new titles have popped up - "Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2001" due for release on November 17th, and an "F1 Championship Season 2000" update on November 24th.

Friday is release day for computer games in the UK, and this week has seen a bumper harvest of new titles appearing on shelves across the country. Terminal Reality's spooky action-adventure game "Blair Witch : The Rustin Parr Investigation" manifested itself in stores today, while Ubisoft's sub-aquatic action game "Deep Fighter" was also in evidence. Probably the biggest new release of the week though was Microsoft's urban racer "Midtown Madness 2", while Mattel surprised us all by releasing "Panzer General 3 : Scorched Earth" a week ahead of schedule. Now there's something you don't see very often...

Firstly if you're a GameBoy owner, unless the idea of Pokemon Pinball excites you I suggest you stay inside this morning. It's a bit chilly out anyway, and there's nothing in store to keep your fingers warm this week. For Dreamcast and PlayStation owners though, it's another weekend to prepare the wallet for. F1 World Grand Prix 2 DC faces off against Formula 1 2000 PSX, with Dreamcast owners also able to pick up Space Channel 5 and Urban Chaos to boot. PlayStation buyers have the relative luxury of NHL 2001, the only other option being Frogger 2. Even N64 owners can find some sustinance in today's releases with International Superstar Soccer 2000 and Hercules finally seeing the light of day. Once again though we have to look ahead to next week and even the week after before the pre-Christmas (and pre-PlayStation 2) pace picks up properly. Next week should see the release of Rogue Spear and Rainbow Six on the PlayStation and Timestalkers on the Dreamcast, but the subsequent Friday should prove even more encapsulating with titles like Ferrari F355 and MS-R being released.

Industry journal MCV today brings news that games publisher Take Two Interactive has announced a $50m investment deal with Gameplay, giving them a 19.5% stake in the company in exchange for its Pixel Broadband Studios subsidiary. Gameplay has also apparently posted sales of £23.2m and a loss of £22.8m, with chairman Mark Strachan stating that acquisition activity would slow down from next year. On a related note, Gameplay also seem to have some PlayStation 2 pre-order forms left, so if you're still trying to get your grubby mits on one, do your utmost to get in touch with them today!

Seems that not a month goes by without Disney Pictures swamping us with yet another animated movie masterpiece. Personally I really dig the animation, but rarely enjoy the stories, particularly the musicals that only serve to set my teeth on edge! However, their latest venture "Dinosaur" is intriguing, using the finest computer animation money can buy and digitally enhanced photography, to create a veritable feast for the eyes. As is the trend these days, a computer game is being developed based on the film, and I took a ganders at what it has to offer.

Midtown Madness was truly the epitome of class within the driving genre for last year. Far more than the transient glare I thought it was when I first played it, it took some weeks before I removed the CD from the drive tray and played something else. Yet for some reason I find myself looking upon its sequel disparagingly. After all, the concept of racing around a city with so-called "absolute freedom" is now nothing to get particularly excited about. Far from providing denouement, Midtown 2 is dispassionate on the whole, but momentarily fulfilling. Is it a worthy sequel to Midtown Madness? And moreover, is it worthy of you £30? On balance I'd say yes, you should buy this game. After so many serious driving titles in the offing and on our plates already this year, a bit of town-hopping furore is precisely what's needed! Unfortunately Midtown 2 isn't going to light your fire quite like its predecessor did. In terms of sheer excitement and intensity it will; every bump and turn is enough to get your juices flowing, but sadly there was never going to be anything that could be done to equal the impact of Midtown, so instead of reinventing the wheel, Microsoft and Angel Studios have chosen to reinvigorate it, with two new locations and a whole host of new challenges. But thankfully, by retaining its feel and composure, this sequel does enough to keep even the most diehard fan happy.

Announced this morning, the Codemasters Multiplayer Network (CMN) will allow owners of PC titles to play against their console counterparts, with future support planned for the Xbox, PlayStation 2, as well as WAP and other wireless services. CMN goes live on November 24th. Presumably it's no coincidence that the network shares its launch date with the PS2 in this country and across Europe, but also available on that day is the Codemasters' 4x4 off-road racing title "Insane". Other titles such as Colin McCrae Rally 2 will also take advantage of the network. Also included in the operation will be a perpetual gaming ladder for gamers to compete against one another in, and specific software for gamers to access the network with be bundled with Insane. Of course, success breeds enemies, and you'll notice that the Dreamcast was not included in that lineup. Who knows why.

Unfortunately for Dreamcast owners in New Zealand, Ozisoft have canceled the console's online facility SegaNet, one of the key selling points of the unit. Sega are compensating owners with a consilatory letter of apology and a free game of their choice, so it's not all bad. And lets face it, the facility is really only good for Chu Chu Rocket, and it's not that great in any case. The pitiful 33.6Kbps modem given to non-Americans hasn't helped the matter. At least in Japan it looks like fans should get something resembling broadband multiplayer action, but for New Zealanders it's a good one pace forward and two steps back. Meanwhile the Dreamcast price drop to $149 Stateside and £149 here has led to a resurgence in the console's popularity with new releases like Virtua Tennis and Dead or Alive 2 shifting units by the thousand.`

According to our chums at Daily Radar, Activision have now announced six titles for the burgeoning colour handheld. The Advance was probably one of the most-used devices at ECTS and of course Space World last month, and everybody wants to get in on the act. As such, the company is working on the releases of six titles based on established brands, including Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Spider-Man, the X-Men, Shaun Palmer and Matt Hoffman. It's not yet known how far into development (if at all) these titles are, but it's thought at least half of them should be available for the console's Western launch.

The promising space combat sim "Babylon 5 : Into the Fire" has finally been cancelled, about a year after publisher Sierra announced that they were no longer funding the project. Since then the developers, Sector 14 Studios, have continued working on the game in their spare time, trying to find another publisher to take up the project, but it seems that Sierra have now killed the project permanently. "It is not due to problems with Sector 14 Studios, nor is it due to lack of interest by publishers, or lack of funding, but rather the current holder of the materials recently informed us they were no longer interested in selling the game assets", Sector 14 CEO Richard G. Brewer explained in a message on fan site First Ones, going on to talk about his disappointment at their failure to complete the game.

After the release of their "realistic" first person shooter "Soldier of Fortune", which put players in the role of a mercenary and allowed them to blast arms, legs and heads off their opponents in a spray of blood and gibs, Wisconsin based developers Raven Software had acquired something of a reputation for ultra-violence. Their latest game, the Quake 3 engined "Star Trek Voyager : Elite Force", is a very different beast though, with gorgeous graphics but little in the way of spraying claret.

The latest UK release information just arrived from Eidos, with a few noteworthy changes. For a start off, both "Age of Empires" style real time strategy game "Three Kingdoms" and the new third person action game from "Tomb Raider" creators Core Design, "Project Eden", have been pushed back to next year and will now side-step the rush over the festive season. Isometric tactical combat game "Commandos 2" is another Christmas casualty, also delayed until next year. On the bright side though, bizarre looking space station management game "Startopia" is now confirmed for a November release - start practicing your whistled rendition of "The Blue Danube"...

Upon loading Action Bass, I was introduced the title screen via dodgy arcade-style music, which assured me that this hopefully wasn't going to the mind-numbing snore-a-thon I had previously anticipated. Two gameplay options awaited me, Challenge or Free mode. I assumed that Challenge mode was to be just that, a challenge, and so I headed for the Free fishing mode in order to ease myself into the game. I was then given a choice of four fictitious fishing areas with some cute names (Jungle Bass brought a smile to my face… do you see? Jungle? Bass? Arf!), but each area had no discernible difference as to how the game is played, except for changes in scenery (muddy banks or reeds? Ohhh… I just don't know!). So, after I chose my locale, I faced the literally life-or-death decision of which lure I wanted to use. None of the lures had any statistics in order to help newcomers to the sport decipher which was the most appropriate to the their situation, so after deliberating for several tense seconds, I chose the pretty orange one. Now here's where the exciting stuff really started to happen. Presented with a nicely modelled fella standing in his boat holding his rod aloft, I could rotate his field of vision, which was focussed on a small pointer, around the lake. The snag was that I could only rotate the casting angle left and right, and not nearer or farther. What this meant was that I could only cast as far as my rod would allow, and not choose precisely where in the lake I wanted to fish. This surely wouldn't have been a hard thing to implement, and although not exactly a reputation-shattering omission, it's something that I felt was missing that clearly shouldn't have been.

Innerloop's "Project IGI" (or "I'm Going In" as it's known to the Americans) is a tactical first person shooter, which features such brain candy as picking locks, hacking computer terminals and avoiding security cameras, as well as blasting every man, woman and child who crosses your path from the face of the Earth. In an interview with Clan-Zone, programmer Anders Dybdahl explained how the enemy reacts to you if you're spotted, and why it's better to stay under cover...

The PlayStation and Nintendo 64 versions of EA's mega-license "The World is Not Enough" will be released this month, but they have slipped a few days to October 17th. There's no word of any related slippage on the Quake III engine-based PS2 or PC versions, although they had already slipped to early 2001 a few months ago, after word leaked out that EA Europe had already dispatched some of its best men to help pull the team together Stateside. Perhaps this latest slip is indicative of what a gargantuan task that was to be. TWINE is the first in a series of titles courtesy of EA's multi-million dollar exclusivity deal with MGM Interactive last year. "007 Racing", a PSX title is also in development.

According to a release received this morning, Eidos Interactive have the honour of being nominated for four of the gaming Baftas this year, but once again the integrity of the nomination process comes under fire. The games Eidos are looking to win prizes with are Deus Ex for the PC Games Award, Thief 2 : The Metal Age for the Sound award, Sydney 2000 for the Sports Award, and TimeSplitters for the Console Games Award. This may sound all well and good, but TimeSplitters is actually a PlayStation 2 launch title.. in other words it hasn't been released and won't even see the light of day over here until November 24th and as such it won't actually have been played by anyone in this country when the time comes to hand out the award. John Davies, Eidos' Marketing Director described TimeSplitters as "one of the most anticipated titles in a new era of computer gaming", and we couldn't agree with him more, but surely that doesn't necessitate this absurd showpiece of an award. Is someone getting a drink here? Seemingly TimeSplitters isn't the only farcical entrant. In the same category we have Ready 2 Rumble Boxing 2, also for the PlayStation 2. Thankfully the games in 90% of the other categories have at least been released, but this doesn't bode well for the credibility of the awards' organisers. I should have thought it was obvious that you do not award prizes to products that aren't available to the public yet. For example, you wouldn't give an actor an award based on a trailer for his new film, would you? Similarly you wouldn't award a musician anything for an unreleased album. It's common sense, and dithering from this rule of thumb simply shoots you in the foot. The full list of nominees in the Interactive Arts category can be found here. Related Feature - TimeSplitters preview

What has got no arms, no legs, a big nose and wears white gloves? Give up? Doh, it's Rayman of course, and the little guy is back in an all new 3D adventure. It is nearly a year since the PC release of Rayman 2, and I was beginning to jut my lower lip in depression at the prospect of it never hitting the PlayStation.

French publisher Kalisto have announced a deal with Fox Kids Europe, which will see the companies working together to "create new and original interactive entertainment properties for the 6-12 year old children's market". That's children's computer games to you and me. According to the press release, these games will appear on "all interactive platforms, including next-generation game consoles, PC, Internet, interactive television and mobile phones", and apparently a dozen games and three new TV series to tie in with them have already been planned out as part of the agreement.

For some time now people have been dying to know exactly which illegal narcotics former id Software designer American McGee was imbibing, inhaling or ingesting when he came up with the idea of making a Quake 3 engined third person action-adventure game based on Lewis Caroll's classic children's stories about a rather befuddled young girl called Alice, who falls down a rabbit hole and finds herself in "Wonderland", later passing "Through The Looking Glass". And now we finally know...

Microsoft, every geek's favourite monopoly, have announced that they are giving gamers an early Christmas present by slashing the prices of several of their recent releases this month. Included in the offer are space combat sim "Starlancer", which drops from £30 to £20, and several titles now going for a song at just £15 - urban racer "Midtown Madness", the imaginatively titled World War II flight sim "Combat Flight Simulator", addictive massively multiplayer RPG "Asheron's Call", and online action-strategy game "Allegiance".