This And That: Wednesday News Roundup

Broken games rejoice, for today appears to be the day of patching. Doom III has hit version 1.1 officially (download link, list of changes), following successful testing of the beta version of the same patch over recent weeks. Star Wars: Battlefront has been upgraded to version 1.00a just days after release (download, changes) in order to improve its networking, and likewise Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War hasn't got too far out of the blocks ahead of this 1.01 patch (download, changes), which "merely prevents the English edition from playing the non-English editions". We're not sure how that's beneficial. Finally, Codemasters has patched Colin McRae Rally 2005 to version 1.1 (download, changes), ironing out a few creases in McRae's otherwise immaculate (albeit slightly dated) threads. There we go - all fixed.

It might sound like an odd way to promote your game, but Australian developer Irrational Games was advising gamers not to download the latest demo of Tribes: Vengeance this week, after a bug-ridden version was apparently uploaded to a couple of mirrors in error. "While attempts have been made to contact everyone who received the file, we are concerned that the demo will be made available anyway," the developer said in a statement. "Thus we are taking the added step of sending out a consumer alert to make sure that nobody downloads the Tribes: Vengeance demo on Tuesday, September 28th." That must be embarrassing. Oh, it is: "The team at Irrational Games and Vivendi Universal Games are working diligently to prepare a new version of the demo and anticipate it being ready very shortly. While embarrassing, we realise that an alert like this is a better alternative than putting out a buggy demo. Our sincerest apologies." Promising FPS Tribes: Vengeance will hopefully recover soon, and we'll let you know about the demo.

Although we hadn't really noticed the Crystal Xbox the first time around anyway, Microsoft nevertheless trumpeted the translucent console's return to Europe this week. To be honest, we were going to ignore it, but since it's the shopping season we thought we'd echo the software behemoth's sentiments in case anyone's after one. The Crystal Xbox will apparently make its re-debut across Europe this October 8th, and should cost the same as a normal Xbox - £99 or €149 depending on where you're from. Perhaps more exciting for the rest of us, Microsoft is also making available additional crystal controllers for £24.99 / €39.99, giving us the chance to add some sparkle to an otherwise black and gunmetal grey lounge console arrangement. Ah.

According to the Official US PlayStation Magazine, Psychonauts, the mildly deranged and inventive action-adventure spawned in the minds of Tim Schafer's Double Fine Productions devco, is on its way to PlayStation 2. That's in addition to the previously announced Xbox and PC versions. Although the game had been Xbox-exclusive on console, it seems that Majesco's decision to publish it (in the first half of next year) has given Double Fine licence to explore other avenues, and the PS2 is certainly a good one to explore. Speaking of exploration, those oblivious to Psychonauts' charms would do well to absorb this one-line description that we'll borrow from its official website: "A psychic odyssey through the minds of misfits, monsters and madmen." A bit like Eurogamer, then.

Electronic Arts (who?!) have entered into a co-publishing agreement with 10tacle Studios (ooh that's clever) to release GTR - FIA GT Racing Simulation in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The game, developed by a company called SimBin, aims to appeal to experienced PC racers and newcomers alike with its mix of Simulation and Arcade modes, and apparently the Swedish dev team "has put particular emphasis on a degree of reality not attained heretofore". Indubitably, judging by the screenshots on the official website. And actually it's not that spectacular; we just wanted to carry on the spirit of 'heretofore' with another silly word. Nice, woody word, that.