The PC version of Splinter Cell: Double Agent is the latest one (though not the last one) to hit retail this week. The game has already been available on the PS2, Xbox, Xbox 360 and GameCube since October, but has yet to be finished for the Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 3 platforms. Only the Wii version is still expected to be released this year, while the PS3 game will have to wait until Spring 2007. Pretty fair, considering that the console itself will only be out in Europe around that time.

But getting back to the PC version, Ubisoft has already issued a first update for it, and players are advised to aplly it before entering multiplayer. The Double Agent patch v1.01 is available for download locally for just 23 MB, and apparently you have to install it manually, since the auto-install program is not working properly right now - "but will be remedied shortly", says Ubi. Here are the release notes for this update:

- this patch fixes various issues when playing onlinte [sic]. These issues mostly concern invitations and squad features. Some disconnection issues have been treated as well.

- Some minor single-player issues have been addressed as well, especially for the anti-aliasing feature.

Of course, "release-day patches" are never a good thing, and from early gamers' reactions, Splinter Cell: Double Agent makes no exception. People are already pointing out various problems they found in the PC version, most of them targeted at the dubious A.I. But what's even more surprising is that the current-gen version of Double Agent (for the Xbox in particular) is actually regarded better than the "next-gen" Xbox 360 and PC versions. The old gameplay vs. graphics issue redux...

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Ferrari License Signed For 10tacle Racing Games // UPDATE

When was the last time you drove a Ferrari, virtually speaking? Maybe not too long ago, if you often find yourself playing racing games - be they hardcore simulators, or just Sunday driving arcades. But from these, how many were fully dedicated to the Ferrari brand? Not too many, I bet. I believe the latest one may have been Ferrari F355 Challenge on the PlayStation 2 in 2002 (not the brightest example or its kind), and there will supposedly be some sort of Pirelli Maranello Ferrari Challenge at the end of 2006, also on the PS2. Oh, and there was a Ferrari Formula One back in 1989, but that's old history by now...

Anyway, my point is there's plenty of room right now for a great Ferrari game - if only someone capable were to make it. Who? Well, let's see - who has been dominating the simulation sub-genre lately? GTR? 10tacle? Bingo!

The ever-expanding German publisher 10tacle Studios has struck yet another big deal, this time with the Italian sports car manufacturer Ferrari. The licensing agreement between the two companies will allow 10tacle to produce games using the Ferrari product palette (cars, in short) and brand name.

"The expansion of our racing portfolio is an important part of our strategy for growth. Ferrari is synonymous with automotive excellence in both sports and racing cars. A license to use the Ferrari brand name and cars is the best a computer games developer in this field can acquire. We will do our very best to recreate the passionate experience of driving a Ferrari as realistically as possible", explained 10tacle Studios AG chairman Michele Pes.

You're probably wondering right now who will be developing the first Ferrari game for 10tacle. And despite the obvious answer being SimBin, we figured it's actually Blimey! Games. Just a few days ago, Blimey's website was still listing "Falcon (Codename)" as their next project in development for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. Now, however, that name was substituted for the more suggestive "Ferrari Project". They are no longer listing any platforms, but we'll see if we can get a clarification in that regard.

Either way, this is some really great news, since Blimey were also the ones that developed GTR 2 (uder license for SimBin), and the team itself also worked on the first GTR and GT Legends, before splitting from SimBin. Stay tuned for details.

UPDATE: 10tacle Studios returned today with a second press release, confirming that their London-based studio Blimey! Games is doing "concept and realisation" for the still anonymous Ferrari game.

"It is a tremendous opportunity to be able to develop a game under the Ferrari licence, the world's finest car manufacturer! I’m sure that our project will bring home the rich racing heritage and pedigree that has earned them a place in history and our dreams", says Ian Bell, CEO of Blimey! Games. "We will strive hard to create a product that honours the Ferrari brand and image of style, sophistication and raw speed."

No platforms were specified at this time either. [08.11.2006, 17:53]

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Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess 70+ Hours Long, Plus Extra Levels

I gotta be honest with you here, I'm not too crazy about most Wii games coming out this year. Or the next one. And if it wasn't for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, I'm not sure I would be so eager to get my hands on a Wii. That game alone will be selling a lot of consoles, and even if 70+ hours of Zelda goodness still ain't good enough for you, rest assured it's going to get even better. Or at least bigger.

Indeed, you read that right: over 70 hours of gameplay - that's how long the game is said to be, making it even longer than Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, according to George Harrison (the one from Nintendo, not the dead one who happens to be playing in my Winamp right now).

In a rush transcript of a rushed interview with mr. Harrison, it was also revealed that Twilight Princess will later feature downloadable content, such as additional levels. Unfortunately he didn't go into any details, but it's still great news for fans of the series, or for those who were still having second thoughts about buying a Wii.

Another interesting thing he mentioned was that the main character Link will only be left-handed (like before) in the GameCube version of Twilight Princess - while the Wii version will see Link switching to being right-handed.

"All the fighting and puzzles are reversed because of this", he added, "and the game basically mirrors the Wii version - even the cinemas are flipped."

Other than this (and naturally the huge difference in control schemes), the two versions are basically one and the same. Even the graphics are pretty similar, as indicated by the latest Twilight Princess screenshots we added today for the game's Wii version. Well, as long as it plays great...

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Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 Gold On Wii, Out On PS2

As announced by Atari over the weekend, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 is one of the first games to reach Gold status on the Nintendo Wii (officially, the first one was Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz). The latest title in the DBZ series was developed by Spike, and should be available on the Wii from day one of the console's North American launch, on November 19, while the game's PlayStation 2 version has just been released.

By now, it's a pretty common thing for anime series to be turned into video games - and vice versa - and DBZ is by far one of the best examples of successful games based on a Japanese animation. According to Atari, the immensely popular Dragon Ball Z series is the gold standard of anime-based video games, with more than 25 different games and over 10 million units sold since May 2002.

As for the new Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 (also known as Sparking! NEO), the game is described as taking the acrobatic and intense 3D flying and fighting dynamic made popular in last year's blockbuster, and elevating it to a whole new level with exciting new features - such as a roster of over 120 playable characters, 16 huge, destructible 3D environments, nine single and multi-player game modes, and the ability to trigger transformations taken straight from the DBZ movies and anime TV series.

For more information on Dragon Ball Z video games, fans are advised to visit Atari's official DBZ website.

Christ, those English dubs are absolutely horrendous!

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With less than a week left until Gears of War hits retail on Emergence Day (also known as November 12 to the profane), the devs from Epic Games are already hinting at a sequel. Not much of a surprise, really, but to hear it from Epic president Mike Capps himself that "the [Gears of War] ending cinematic leaves room for a sequel" is even more reassuring. That's not to say they are already working on Gears of War 2; not by a long shot. After all, they do need a break first, after working on the original for... oh, quite a while now. And then wrap up Unreal Tournament 2007 for the PC and PS3.

Mike Capps spoke to CVG in one of their Gears of War launch interviews (the other one being with lead designer Cliff 'CliffyB' Bleszinski), discussing various things about the creation process and his thoughts, now that the game is ready to roll.

The next logical step for them would be to launch additional content over Xbox Live. Although they haven't announced any plans for downloadable content just yet, Capps didn't exclude this possibility, noting that "Epic has earned a very strong reputation in supporting its products post-ship". What's more, he also admits that a few "least-finished" levels were cut from the game during its production, so they might go back and finish them properly.

But finally, the big question, with answers coming from both Capps and CliffyB:

CVG: Does Gears' leave the door open for a sequel? Where would you like to take the series next?

Mike Capps: We've spent time developing a rich universe for Gears, and the story is absolutely larger than the one told in the game. One could even argue that the ending cinematic leaves room for a sequel - but we have no plans as of yet. We have a fair amount of rest and relaxation to worry about first ;)

CliffyB: I'll wait for the gamers out there to play through the game before coming to any conclusions about future products. I love the universe and everything involved in it and if the game does amazingly well I wouldn't rule anything out!

Well then, here's hoping that Gears of War does "amazingly well".

P.S. Emergence Day from November 12 is simply the long-advertise release date, the game actually began appearing today in the first US retail outlets.

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The alliance forged between SEGA and The Creative Assembly has declared war on retail stores, as they prepare to invade them in just a few days with their now-gold Medieval II: Total War strategy title. The assault hasn't been prefectly coordinated, however, as the game will begin shipping in Europe this Friday on November 10, but will miss the weekend in North America - where it will only be released on Monday, November 14.

As proud successor of last year's Rome: Total War, the new Medieval II is already receiving some impressive critical response, with early reviews rating the game at over 90% (94% in PC Gamer UK, 91% in Gamestar and PC Zone, and 90% in PC Powerplay). Not bad at all, and it's great to see that the folks from The Creative Assembly are turning this into a habit.

Medieval II: Total War promises to be "one of the most complete strategy experiences available and a benchmark title within PC gaming":

"Turn based management, stunning real time battles, over 200 units, epic religious conflict, the advent of gunpowder and the discovery of South America all combine to make Medieval II: Total War the most eagerly anticipated PC RTS of 2006."

Set in the years 1080-1530 the most turbulent period in European history, the game combines a vast, deep-thinking turn-based strategy campaign with the most cinematic, epic and brutal real-time battles ever seen in the genre. A vastly enhanced version of the Total War engine vividly portrays the pure bloodlust of Medieval warfare with massive battles of more than 10,000 troops splayed across new graphically rich environments. For the first time in the Total War series each troop is an individual, garbed with the rich heraldic colours and glinting arms and armour of the period.

The Medieval 2 grand campaign will hand you the reins of one of an emerging faction as you set about sweeping throughout Europe, conquering all before you. Expand your borders and develop your lands for wealth and prosperity by building cities or swell your army by constructing vast castles to protect your land and keep your rivals quaking with fear.

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In a pretty surprising move (I sure didn't see this one coming!), Austrian publisher JoWooD announced it has entered an agreement to acquire the Canadian publisher DreamCatcher. The deal is still subject to anti-trust approvals, but once it gets the green light, JoWooD will have a pretty solid foothold in the North-American games publishing market. Not to mention the whole DreamCatcher catalogue, which includes titles such as Painkiller, Agatha Cristie and plenty of adventure games.

Here is JoWooD's take on the whole business (we'll skip right past the "PR talk"):

"This acquisition will provide JoWooD with direct access to every major retailer
of PC and video games in North America. In addition, JoWooD will own America's
#1 publisher of Adventure games further underlining JoWooD's commitment to
strengthen and broaden its distribution capacity through a proven and
established network and to deliver compelling PC and video games to consumers
worldwide.

(...)

Under the terms of the agreement, DreamCatcher will become a wholly owned
subsidiary of JoWooD and the company's management team and employees will
continue to operate from their office based in Toronto, Canada."

Having a more direct access to North American retail chains, JoWooD should be able to release games simultaneously across the ocean - unlike what is currently happening with Gothic 3 for instance (Piranha's RPG has yet to be released in the US on November 13, one month later than in Europe). Last but not least, JoWooD will also benefit from DreamCatcher's line-up of console titles - and let's not forget that Painkiller: Hell Wars should also be released this month on the PlayStation 2.

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There have been several "contests" on various websites so far, offering people a chance to get into the World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade beta testing phase. But none has looked so inviting (and so random) as the one that's currently running on WoW Vault. No challenging questions, no restrictions based on location, no artistical skills needed, just a whole bunch of luck. Plus a valid retail World of Warcraft account and in good standing as of October 8, 2006.

If you have that, go right ahead and read WoW Vault's announcement, then fill in the registration form. Note that the e-mail address must match with the one used with your World of Warcraft account, and the rest of the fields are pretty self-explanatory. Good luck submitting it, though, because a friend of mine keeps bugging me that he can't get through the first page (I guess their servers are having a rough time at the moment).

WoW Vault says they will "most likely pull 10 names every few days and announce them to keep this thing going for at least 2 weeks (with 90 chances to win this round!)", so you should have at least some chance of getting in. But believe me when I say this: it's well worth a shot!

In the meantime, the beta moves on, and so does my anorectic blood elf. I still haven't taken her on a tour through the Outlands, I'm affraid those beasts would rip what little flesh she has on her fragile bones in a matter of seconds. But I'm definitely looking forward to getting one of 'em "chocobos" this week!

Oh and a word of advice for all ye epix grinders: don't bother. There are lv. 61 blue items better than those purple things you have to grind for months at a time.

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Killzone: Liberation Liberated, Killzone 2 Still M.I.A.

Guerilla's Killzone: Liberation for the PlayStation Portable is now available worldwide, as Sony announced over the weekend that the game has also been released in North America. Early reviews are rating the portable version even higher than the original Killzone for PS2, hopefully making this one of the better PSP games to look after this time of the year.

Killzone: Liberation has been designed specifically for the PSP system, creating a third-person shooter that puts the players into 16 intense missions to rescue hostages from the evil Helghast. The game follows two months after the events in Killzone (released on the PlayStation 2 a couple of years ago), and brings several new features for PSP - both offline and online. Among them are multiplayer wi-fi functions (including a gameshare mode where players can share demo levels of the game with other PSP owners), and a "Tactical Command System" that allows players to give orders to an AI buddy during intense combat. Here are some more details about the online and multiplayer features, taken from Sony's press release:

"The multiplayer functionality in Killzone: Liberation includes both ad-hoc and infrastructure mode, taking full advantage of the wireless capabilities of the PSP hardware. There are two distinct styles of gameplay offering the diversity that Killzone and PSP fans are expecting: 1) Two player cooperative gameplay in the single player mission 2) One to six player games over six multiplayer maps including Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Assault and Capture the Flag. The infrastructure mode will be available after the game's launch as a free download at Killzone.com and will allow players to take on competitors from around the globe. Two new multiplayer maps will also be available with this mode."

Well, all seems fine and dandy with Killzone: Liberation. But what about Killzone 2? Guerilla showed off an impressive (albeit pre-rendered) trailer at E3 2005, but has kept quiet ever since. Considering that this was one of the games used to unveil the PlayStation 3 back then, and Sony's next-gen console is just about ready to launch this month, isn't it a wii-bit suspicious that Killzone 2 is still missing in action?

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Neverwitner Nights 2 Review Pulled From 1UP And GFW

Getting bad comments for a review isn't that drastic as over-hyped fans usually make it sound, especially when the reviewer actually had the guts to take a stand (as opposed to just wiing in the wind). What's worse is when there are no comments whatsoever, leaving you to guess whether you did good or bad - and usually never find out. But ultimately, the only time you really know for sure you screwed up, is when the review in question gets pulled from publication (been there, done that, learned my lesson... or so I say).

One such article was 1UP's review of Neverwinter Nights 2, authored by one Matt Peckham and officially retracted a few days ago. As a result, the review will not appear in the January issue of Games For Windows: The Official Magazine either, so another author will have to take on the job of thouroughly testing Obsidian's latest role-playing game. Here's what 1UP had to say about this nasty issue:

"Upon further review of the author's text, listening to the feedback from our community and others, and after internal discussion between the 1UP and GFW editors, we have determined that the text of the review did not live up to our editorial standards. We respect the opinions of Mr. Peckham and all of our writers, but we felt that this particular review of Neverwinter Nights 2 did a disservice to fans of the RPG genre."

Just how bad was it, that they had to pull it? Well, you can supposedly see for yourself on Joystiq, where the alleged original article has been re-posted in full length. We're not going to do that all over again, but we'll just leave you to ponder over the final score of that NWN 2 review: 5 out of 10.

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