Results of last weeks poll are in which asked for your pick of game of the year to this point. Resident Evil 4 won a very close battle against Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. Just don't tell anyone that "bleh so far..." was the overall winner...

Game Reviews 12:30 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: General News (0 comments)

PC

• Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil - Boomtown - 7/10
• Empire Earth II - Gamespy - 4/5
• Psychotoxic - Loaded,Inc. - 4/10

  Xbox
  

• Area 51 - Xbox.IGN - 8/10
• Jade Empire - Firing Squad - 84%
• Psychonauts - Gamesdomain - 9/10
• Psychonauts - Gamespy - 4.5/5
• Psychonauts - Xbox.IGN - 8.7/10
• Raze's Hell - Xbox.IGN - 7/10
• Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory - Armchair Empire - 8.6/10

  PS2
  

• Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition - Armchair Empire - 8.8/10

In Other News... 12:15 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - In-House: In Other News... (0 comments)
Ever have one of those weekends where you need another weekend to recover? :) Had a lot of fun, but man I am beat.

So... whose going to check out Guild Wars this week?

Do you think the game's release will have any impact on World of WarCraft? Guild Wars isn't technically a massively multiplayer game, but hey, most of WoW's player base aren't exactly MMOG gamers either...

PC:

• American Civil War: Gettysburg
• Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars
• Dungeon Lords
• Empire Earth II
• Falcon 4 Gold
• Guild Wars
• Guild Wars Collector's Edition
• Laser Squad Nemesis

Playstation 2:

• Area 51
• Jampack Volume 12
• Predator: Concrete Jungle
• Resident Evil Outbreak: File # 2
• Stella Deus

Playstation Portable:

• FIFA Soccer
• NBA Street Showdown
• Rengoku: The Tower of Purgatory

Xbox:

• Area 51
• Motocross Mania 3
• Predator: Concrete Jungle
• Virtual Pool: Tournament Edition

GameCube:

• No releases

Nintendo DS:

• Pac-Pix
• Puyo Pop Fever

GameBoy Advance:

• No releases

DVD:

• Airline: The Complete Season 1
• Beaches (Special Edition)
• Blade: Trinity (Extended Unrated Platinum Series)
• Blade: Trinity (Rated Platinum Series)
• Cirque du Soleil Solstrom (Superbit, 5 discs)
• Darkness (PG-13)
• Darkness (Unrated)
• Emile
• ER: The Complete Third Season
• Hell's Gate 11:11
• Heroic Duo
• Highway to Heaven: Season One
• Land of the Lost: The Complete Third Season
• Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (Collector's Edition)
• Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (Full Screen)
• Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (Widescreen)
• Leonard Part 6
• Snow White and the Three Stooges
• Soup to Nuts
• Strange Days on Planet Earth
• Survivor: The Australian Outback The Complete Season
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Volume Two
• The Assassination of Richard Nixon
• The Doris Day Collection
• The Nameless
• The Three Stooges in Color
• The Waltons: The Complete Second Season
• Trading Spaces Creative Home Decor with Designer Doug Wilson
• Trading Spaces Great Kitchen Designs and More!
• Undertow
• Wild Things Box Set (Wild Things (Unrated), Wild Things 2, Wild Things: Diamonds in the Rough)
• Wild Things: Diamonds in the Rough
• Wildboyz: The Complete Second Season Uncensored

Movies - Now Showing:

• A Lot Like Love
• Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
• King's Ransom
• Madison
• The Game of Their Lives
• The Interpreter

Movies - Opening Friday April 29th:

• 3-Iron
• Death of a Dynasty
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
• xXx: State of the Union

The PC enjoys the biggest week, although none appeal to me personally. I'm sure Guild Wars will do well, as will Empire Earth II, and Cossaks II will probably give both a run for their money with a huge fan base from the first outing and various expansion packs for it. I think Dungeon Lords may be out this week, but then again, I say that nearly every week, so ring before you rush off to the store.

Everywhere else, including movies & DVDs I see nothing too amazing, although Blade: Trinity was just cool. Oh yeah, screwed up the movie release schedule last week, but this one's right.

What will you be spending your money on in the week ahead?

First Serious Sam 2 Screenshot 04:51 pm - Andrew Burnes - Games: Action (6 comments)
Seriously! sent over a link to the first confirmed in-game screenshot of Serious Sam 2.

Check it out here.

Mod Happenings 04:44 pm - Andrew Burnes - Games: Action (0 comments)
Here's a couple of cool happenings from the mod world:

• The Sven Co-op website has been updated with in-game screenshots of their latest Sven-Co-op 2 accomplishments, and a report on development progress:

  Please note that, while all of the shots below were taken in-game (including the black-background shots), the features themselves have not yet been implemented and WILL NOT be included with the first released version of SC2. Our current plan is to release a beta version of the mod as soon as we have the HL2 single-player storyline working well co-operatively... giving you all something to play (and the mapping community something to work with) while we work on more advanced features.

  Note also, however, that what you see below isn't all we've been working on over the past few months -- Expect another media release in the not-too-distant future. As for the mod's current status: Due to Nev's efforts and Zhyla's, we presently have a majority of the HL2 storyline in a playable state (complete with equipment being carried between levels, etc)... but there are still plenty of bugs to be fixed and problems to be solved before we're done with it.

• Meanwhile, over on the UT engine, Free Monkey Interactive sends word to tell us that their public beta 2 release of UT XMP is nearing completion, with many new features highlighted in this swanky teaser trailer.

Radha Mitchell To Star In Silent Hill The Film 12:40 am - Andrew Burnes - Games: General News (3 comments)
Coming by the way of the Hollywood Reporter is news that Finding Neverland actress Radha Mitchell will be the lead female in the film adaptation of Silent Hill, presently scheduled for a 2006 release:

Principal photography is due to begin Monday in Toronto on the suspense horror feature and will run through July 22. The movie, directed by French filmmaker Christophe Gans ("Brotherhood of the Wolf"), is budgeted at $45 million-$50 million, with additional casting not yet final.

The production team includes cinematographer Dan Laustsen ("The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen"); editors David Wu and Sebastien Prangere, who both worked on "Brotherhood of the Wolf" (also produced by Davis); costume designer Wendy Partridge; production designer Carol Spier; and creature design by Patrick Tatopoulos ("I, Robot").

Madden NFL 2006 TV Ad 12:39 am - Andrew Burnes - Consoles: Xbox Next (5 comments)
Over on TeamXbox you can check out the advert for Madden NFL 2006 that was aired during NFL Draft.

Just remember, it's not in-game.

In Other News... 12:38 am - Andrew Burnes - Games: General News (21 comments)
So I'm pretty much at the conclusion of Psychonauts, but I don't want it to end. It's a masterpiece of pick up and play gaming with a tonne of laugh out loud moments, non-annoying platforming, and a mountain of pick ups, in addition to incredibly imaginative levels that are genius in their construction. Microsoft were short sighted in dumping this, although it's certainly to Majesco's gain - I just hope it doesn't take another 5 years to produce a sequel.

Started Stronghold 2, which appears entertaining, but I'm only a couple of levels in - graphics are less than I expected, but I like the continuation of the levels, which allows you to keep your previously built infrastructure; far too many games strip you of your nicely built base each level (give me a sequel to Warzone 2100 Eidos!).

Midnight Club 3 give me a tension headache from the damn stressful races that often see you losing by the slightest of margins, although I'm glad the rival cars don't have elastic 'NFSU' AI. My car looks like a piece of crap, but I'd rather put earned cash into the performance than some stupid hydraulics to make it bounce up and down for the few brief seconds before a race.

I feel that I need an extra pair of hands to play Unreal Championship 2, plus the overall structure of the game (weapon changes and such) don't agree with me - sorry Epic, this one gets a thumbs down from my camp.

Destineer's Close Combat: First To Fight is a horrid horrid experience on the PC in pretty much every respect (it's so bad it crashes when I attempt to assign a command to mouse 4 or 5); long since uninstalled.

I'm looking for people interested in SWAT 4 co-op for regular games. If you want to join in the fun, drop me an email, but please only if you're serious about it.

What do you think of the Xbox 360 images?