Things And Stuff: Thursday News Roundup

True Crime developer Luxoflux is looking for a bit of help crafting the game's inevitable sequel, and instead of just culling ideas from rivals and putting some motorbikes in, the developer sent us an email asking if we'd solicit some help from you lot. Which we're only to happy to do. If you played the original True Crime and have any comments about what you felt worked or didn't work in the original game, then you're encouraged to head here and take part in the survey. "No prizes are offered, to help assure objective feedback, but it is a rare chance to have a direct impact on the course of game development!" Couldn't have put it better.

SNK NEOGEO USA has announced that it plans to publish a series of two-game combination packs for PlayStation 2 in the States, spread over the next 12 months or so. Although it's not clear if the company plans to do more than the two packs it announced today, the promise of The King of Fighters 2002 and 2003 in one package this winter followed by Metal Slug 4 and 5 together next spring is still an exciting thing. We'll certainly be keeping an eye on these packs, both of which will retail for $39.99 (i.e. a fraction less than full US retail price). We only hope Samurai Shodown, Fatal Fury and the like won't be far behind.

Mythic Entertainment's "New Frontiers" expansion for its Dark Age of Camelot MMORPG has entered Beta 2 stage, the developublisher announced today. (Well, yesterday, but after we'd gone to bed, the fiends.) New Frontiers reinvents the game's Realm vs. Realm (RvR) combat, as regular readers and followers of the game will already know. What this latest announcement means is that more than 500 people will be playtesting it over the next fortnight or so ahead of a larger, open Beta 3. The pack should be finished and available for free to all subscribers in summer 2004. As you may also recall, Mythic announced the "Catacombs" expansion, which will cost, just the other week.

Britsoft publisher Digital Jesters has announced that critically acclaimed drive-the-tracks-wot-you-made-'em-up TrackMania will be re-released on May 14th priced £19.99 as "TrackMania: Power Up!", incorporating the free "Power Up!" patch/add-on/dealie, which adds a host of new construction blocks for underground tunnels and the like, a new solo survival mode and other things and stuff. Of course, you don't have to pay any attention to this if you already own the game, because you can just download the Power Up bits from the game's official website.

VU Games has reportedly slipped Turbine Entertainment's Tolkien-inspired MMORPG Middle-Earth Online, because the publisher wants to ensure it's as good as humanly possible. It had previously been due out this October. In a statement to the US press, VU Games said "the extra time in development will be used to add more content, more lore, and more nuanced touches to the world, as well as enable us to extend the beta-testing period." A spokesperson denied it had anything to do with competition from Blizzard's World of WarCraft MMORPG, which is currently in beta. Middle-Earth Online is currently not set to appear at E3.

Finally, we don't normally report on game website launches (because they're all boring, Flash based monstrosities that break our faces, generally), but this one for Nintendo's Mario Vs. Donkey Kong on Game Boy Advance appears to be falling over, which is quite amusing. It also has a couple of rather pleasant retro-themed wallpapers, one of which is gracing this reporter's desktop at this very moment. And if it's good enough for us...