The Adventure Company has announced it will be publishing Return to Mysterious Island, as anventure game inspired by the Jules Verne novel of the same name.

Forget fishing. If you really want to find Nemo, embark on an epic adventure with Mina, a strong young woman alone on a round-the-world sailing expedition. Caught in a tremendous storm, she becomes stranded on the shores of a wild and apparently uninhabited island. As she explores her new surroundings, she uncovers artifacts, living spaces and technologies left behind by the people who came before her to this uncharted island.

Creating a new life, Mina builds a home among the ruins of Granite House - the strange ruins with which the island plateau is covered - and uses her survival skills against the wilds of the jungle. She soon becomes aware of a figure in the shadows who, seemingly aware of her troubles, offers her assistance. She eventually identifies this figure as the unsettled ghost of Captain Nemo, whose body is trapped in his ship, the Nautilus, deep below the island shore. Piecing together the hints and clues he provides, Mina must travel to the Nautilus, retrieve Nemo's body and give him a proper burial in order to free his tortured soul.

June 26 marked the first anniversary of Star Wars: Galaxies, the massively multiplayer game set in the Star Wars universe. As a present, veteran players - those who have subscribed for more than 6 consecutive months (me, then, although I no longer subscribe) will receive the deed for a multi-passenger ship, he SoroSuub Personal Luxury Yacht 3000 model once the Jump to Lightspeed expansion launches.

People who've not subscribed for the requisite six months, will automatically receive the gift once they hit the six month mark. If you've not played the game and can bear to subscribe to Fileplanet, you can help yourself to a 14 day trial.

Updated throughout the day...

Reviews

Vivendi have announced the date that signups for the European leg of the World of Warcraft open beat open: July 5th. Which, coincidentally, is one week from today.

In addition to game play and technical compatibility testing, the purpose of the beta test is to validate the distribution and hosting infrastructure in Europe and, in due time, to verify the localization of the game in French and German. This process will allow World of WarcraftTM to reach the high level of quality that has become the signature of every Blizzard product.

In Europe, Blizzard plans to host the game on local servers, with pan-European network management. Additionally, the game will be fully supported by Blizzard's local World of WarcraftTM team, making it the first non-licensed MMORPG in Europe to have a dedicated regional team in place. The local team will be responsible for all aspects of game operation, including localized offline customer support, in-game support through game masters and community management for the game. With this team, Blizzard intends to affirm its commitment to the European game community by delivering an unparalleled massively multiplayer experience.

News0r's parent company AlienPants has launched a white label SMS headlines service for News0r visitors, and is providing the same delivery service for other webmasters to use.

By visiting the AlienPants SMS signup page you can register your mobile phone to receive daily news headline alerts from News0r.

Webmasters of other news websites are also invited to make use of the headline delivery service to send headlines to their own users. More information can be found in the official press release.

Dreamcatcher have announced they will be publishing the first expansion pack for Painkiller in time for Christmas.

Picking up right where the game's story left off, Battle out of Hell includes an additional single-player chapter with 10 levels, as well as new multiplayer modes, maps and models. It will also offer an amplified arsenal of un-deadly weapons, bigger and badder bosses and the map editor Software Development Kit.

A shooter in its purest form, Painkiller boasts truly stunning graphics and some of the most intimidating level bosses ever seen. The game utilizes the impressive Havok 2.0 physics engine, achieving new heights of physics-based gameplay, while the proprietary 3D "PAIN engine" is capable of pumping an unbelievably high polygon count while adding increased texture quality and the latest lighting and shadowing techniques.

Updated throughout the day...

Intereviews

Noritaka Funamizu, the creator of Capcom's legendary 2D fighting series Street Fighter has left Capcom to begin his own games studio. Funamizu's credits also include recent Capcom classics such as Resident Evil Outbreak and Monster Hunter, but it seems that the 2D fighting scene is where he belongs.

Capcom announced that after Capcom Fighting Jam they will not produce any more 2D fighting games, and perhaps it is this which has led for Funamizu to decide to leave. Currently, his new company Craft and Meister have no games in development, and are looking for more recruits. It'll be interesting to see what they produce.

OK, well out yesterday - except of course for DRIV3R which made it in to stores early, ensuring a place in the ELSPA sales charts before it's official release. Will there be controversy? Of course there will. Will there be recriminations against retailers? Of course not - the early release makes sure the game will receive a lot of extra publicity as magazines and websites report on the early release.

After the recent drought of games, it seems a few more have finlly been released. Ground Control 2 makes it's way onto the PC, as does Spellforce: Breath of Winter. Other thant DRIV3ER, the other big consoles releases this week are Champions of Norrath: Realms of EverQuest for the PS2, and Full Spectrum Warrior for the Xbox.

PC

Conspiracies, Gooka: The Mystery of Janatris, Gorky Zero: Beyond Honor, Ground Control 2: Operation Exodus, Spellforce: The Breath of Winter, The West Somerset Railway - Train Sim Pack, Warlords Battlecry III

PS2

Champions of Norrath: Realms of EverQuest, DRIV3R, GT-R 400, IndyCar Series 2005, Risk: Global Domination, Ultimate Mind Games, World Championship Snooker 2004

Xbox

DRIV3R, Full Spectrum Warrior, World Championship Snooker 2004

Game Boy Advance

Crash Bandicoot: Fusion, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy Kong's Quest, Spyro: Fusion

Spore Games have announced that they are working on King Arthur: Pendragon Chronicles, a real-time strategy game for the PC.

Inspiration for this title is apparently drawn from the soon to be released King Arthur film.

The 3D action RTS have some additional RPG elements, and the player`s quest is to unify the British regions which were separated.
The players have to struggle against the Saxons, Picts and some barbarian tribes devastating the British land and some mythical creatures (giants, elementals etc.) with the leadership of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table and with the help of their troops.
The game with a hero-centered approach to King Arthur and his knights guides us through the British regions of the time in an epic storytelling, and fulfilling all the tasks and getting hold of the 13 artifacts of Britannia you become the King of Britain, the King of kings (Highking - King of Kings).

The engine of the game is the highly modified Torque engine (Starsiege Tribes series), which is powered by the new lighting method, by Synopse Gaming, the AI technology is provided by AI-Implant (PSI-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy/Midway), the technology responsible for the marvelous flora is provided by SpeedtreeRT, first appearing in The Dark Age of Camelot: Trial of Atlantis recently.

Ignition Entertainment have announced that they will be bringing us the official European releases of Metal Slug 3 and Metal Slug Advance. The games should be available for Playstation 2/Xbox and GameBoy Advance respectively in October 2004.

"Metal Slug games have garnered a massive following amongst arcade lovers and importers alike. The home versions include all the enjoyment and fast paced action of the arcade original – plus some great additional features," says Peter Rollinson, Product Manager, Ignition Entertainment. "And with the simultaneous release of Metal Slug Advance – which we strongly believe will be one of the greatest games to grace the Nintendo handheld – this is great news for games players. We're all massive fans of the Metal Slug games at Ignition and are excited to have secured these titles. The Metal Slug series has remained the hardcore gamers' best-kept secret. We are looking forward to sharing it with the masses."