This And That: Wednesday News Roundup

Metal Gear Solid designer Yoji Shinkawa has been hired to lend his design talents to the movie Godzilla: Final War movie. The reputed designer will work on the monster makoever design, as well as general assorted costumes and gadgets, and will also be working with fellow designers Katsuya Terada, Shinji Nishikawa and Yasushi Nirasawa. The official MGS website quotes Shinkawa-san as saying: "I never thought I would participate in the making of one of the Godzilla movies, which I have admired since my childhood. There's nothing more satisfying for a Japanese man than that!" Well, quite.

Nevrax's multi genre MMORPG The Saga of Ryzom has been delayed to September "to give players a better experience". The game went into Beta in April, and was scheduled for release this month, but has now gone back for 'further testing' - as a result the beta will be closing on June 7th, with a 'Final' Beta forthcoming. "In the past, due to financial and marketing reasons, many online games have shipped when they would actually have been better off staying in development for a few more months. Fortunately, we here at Nevrax are supported by visionary investors and trusted partners who are enabling us take the right steps for our game," said David Cohen-Corval, the CEO of Nevrax and lead designer of Saga of Ryzom rather graciously.

Jesper Kyd's celebrated Hitman Contracts soundtrack is now available via Nile Rodgers' Sumthing Else Musicworks label, and can be ordered direct off the Sumthing website, as well as via major retailers including Amazon, Virgin, HMV and CDNow. If the game's anything to go by, it's a mean and moody little number.

A double pack of Creatures and Creatures 2 entitled 'Creatures: The Albian Years' is to be released across Europe on July 16th on PC via Fusion Labs. The bundle is lilkely to retail for around the £12.99 mark.