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Gamespot is reporting that Sony Online is going to be adding content to Everquest II in the form of adventure packs, essentially mini-expansions. From the article: "The first part of the adventure pack will come as a free download. All of the game's subscribers will be able to sink their swords into a new zone, fight new enemies, and so on. There will also be some new quests in this area for all players. [...] If players want to continue down this story path, they will have to pay what's been described as a "small fee" to download the rest of the adventure pack's content and continue on." Basically they're going to be following the City of Heroes model, but making players pay for part of it.

captain writes "According to PSP411, Sony C.E. President and CEO Ken Kutaragi announced today at CES 2005 that the PSP will have a North American launch in March, followed by Europe around the same time. In Japan, the near-PS2 quality portable gaming device sold only about 500k units on account of GPU shortages. While the price and exact date aren't entirely clear, the USD equivalent of the Japanese sale price is a little under $200USD. Some are speculating that the price could be even lower to contest Nintendo DS's long-held portable gaming throne even further." Some good writeups about the announcement at Gamespot and 1up.com.

JonLatane writes "It seems that nVidia is going to allow Infinium to demonstrate their Phantom "game service" at their CES booth. Since its inception, Infinium has proven to be rather belligerent about its product and will probably stay in court for a long time."

Gamespot is reporting that Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has spoken out against EA's "hostile action". From the article: "Considering the industry practice of communicating informally about such decisions, we were disappointed, to say the very least, that EA chose not to inform us of their specific plans beforehand." Further, Voodoo Extreme is reporting that a financial report may suggest the French government is going to assist Ubisoft in staying out from under EA's thumb.

Gamespot's annual awards have drawn to a close, with the Reader's choice awards finishing up tomorrow. Announced on Wednesday, Gamespot's Game of the Year for 2004 is World of Warcraft. Relatedly, there is an interview with the WoW composer at World of Warcraft Guru, and a piece on Wired.com about Virtual Trade and Blizzard's efforts to combat the trend. Finally, Blizzard's annual holiday festivities have resulted in a hilarious holiday mp3 being made available on the official World of Warcraft site.

The erm....unique style of the WarioWare games has always led to odd experiences, but Gamespot is reporting a strange bug that essentially means certain Warioware DS mini-games are uncompletable if you attempt to play the game on a DS from a specific batch of handhelds. Most DSs are unaffected. From the article: "Ma-me Denkyuu (Miniature Light Bulb) - The player is supposed to draw cords to connect a light bulb to a battery, but the cords can't be drawn. Douka-sen (Fuse) - The player is supposed to draw a fuse between a bomb to a fire source, but the fuse can't be drawn. Kurai Heya (Dark Room) - The player is supposed to find a man hiding in a dark room by shining him with a flashlight for a certain amount of time, but the flashlight keeps blinking and the game can't be completed. "

An anonymous reader writes "CNN/Money's Game Over column looks at some of the gaming trends of 2004, including the prevalence of sex and sequels. Writer Chris Morris provides some follow-up as well, discussing the sad, sad sales numbers of "Singles," "The Guy Game" and "Leisure Suit Larry"; the odds of another Playboy magazine video game girls layout and whatever happened to the ApeXtreme." Gamespot has a nice Year in Review piece as well, and we've already previously mentioned Grimwell.com's MMORPG Year in Review.

Several readers have written in to report on Tuesday's lawsuit regarding 'The Guy Game'. The PC/console offering, which strings a weak trivia game around footage of naked college age girls, has come under fire after the revelation that a woman featured prominently in the game was under the age of 18 at the time the footage was taken. The lawsuit names Sony (PS2), Microsoft (Xbox), Take-Two Interactive (Publisher), and Top Heavy Studios (Developer) as defendants. Commentary available on GamesIndustry.biz.

Headcase88 writes "Gamespot has confirmed a rumour in which if you twist a PSP in the right (wrong?) way, the UMD will go flying out of the portable. To quote the article: "...we were brave enough to use one of our precious PSP units to test the theory. Amazingly, with just the right touch, out it popped". I guess you could do this on purpose and pull off some pretty unexpected pranks."

Take Two interactive is riding high this week, as Gamespot reports a sharp increase in their profits and reveals that GTA: San Andreas will be coming to the Xbox. During their profit earnings report, it was also revealed that they're purchasing the remains of Microsoft's sports studio, former makers of Amped and Links. From the article: "During today's call, Take-Two president Paul Eibeler confirmed that sometime during the August-September quarter, it purchased the Utah studio from Microsoft. He referred to the studio by its current name, Indie Built, and did not mention which of Take-Two's three subsidiaries--Rockstar Games, Gathering, or Global Star--would manage the studio."

Take Two interactive is riding high this week, as Gamespot reports a sharp increase in their profits and reveals that GTA: San Andreas will be coming to the Xbox. During their profit earnings report, it was also revealed that they're purchasing the remains of Microsoft's sports studio, former makers of Amped and Links. From the article: "During today's call, Take-Two president Paul Eibeler confirmed that sometime during the August-September quarter, it purchased the Utah studio from Microsoft. He referred to the studio by its current name, Indie Built, and did not mention which of Take-Two's three subsidiaries--Rockstar Games, Gathering, or Global Star--would manage the studio."

docdude316 writes "Gamespot is reporting that Nintendo has just announced a new media player add-on which is compatible with the Game Boy Advance SP and the Nintendo DS. The media player will let both the GBA SP and the DS play MPEG-4 and MP3 files off of a SD card. It will retail for 5,000 yen ($48 US), and will only be available off of Nintendo's website. There are currently no plans for a North American or European release."

Grub writes "EA has signed a 5-year agreement with the NFL that gives them exclusive rights to use NFL players, teams, and stadiums in their products. CEO Larry Probst, 'The five-year agreement will usher NFL fans through the console technology transition with new ideas and innovative game play experiences.' This is a crushing blow to competitors and an enormous victory for EA, who will undoubtably make sure everyone knows that only they have NFL players and teams come next year's football game advertising bonanza."

_xeno_ writes "LEGO, everyone's favorite plastic building block company, is creating a Star Wars video game. Yes, that's right. A video game based on the LEGO Star Wars sets, which are of course based on Star Wars. GameSpot has a preview of the game. It covers the three prequel movies, allowing you to play through levels containing LEGO friends and allies. At first you can only play with characters appropriate for the level, but you can unlock other characters to swap in as you play through the game. Because the world is based on LEGO blocks, there are puzzles that involve the creation of LEGO structures to bridge gaps. It's scheduled for an April release, just before "Revenge of the Sith" opens." I guess this would be an...ahem...puzzle game.

The sequel to the hit console/PC game Knights of the Old Republic shipped to retailers on Tuesday. KOTOR II: The Sith Lords has been surrounded by trepidation as original developer Bioware was replaced by relative newcomer, Obsidian Entertainment. Gamespot has a review available. From the review: "you might have a much tougher time settling into The Sith Lords, since chances are you'll feel like you've played this game before, only you'll swear it looked better the first time. But, on the other hand, so what? It's just as important to note that no other game since Knights of the Old Republic has managed to deliver this excellent style of role-playing. If you're a Knights of the Old Republic fan, then you should find a certain satisfaction in knowing almost exactly what you're in for going into The Sith Lords."

The second game in the revival of the Prince of Persia series has made it to store shelves. Gamespot has a review available on the recently released hack and slash puzzle game. From the article: "while Warrior Within's new combat and satisfyingly long campaign improve on last year's game, the now darker tone falls somewhat flat compared to the storybook atmosphere in The Sands of Time."

Gamespot has details on the re-release of Final Fantasy I and II (that's II Japanese, not American) for the Game Boy Advance. "The two games were previously re-released for the PlayStation as Final Fantasy Origins in 2003, and the GBA editions games sport improved graphics, enhanced sound, and new dungeons to explore." These particular releases in the GBA format seems somehow incredibly appropriate. The original Final Fantasy had a big impact on my life, and it's great to see it get such treatment here.

jZnat writes "Gamespot reports that Sony has made an official announcement warning gamers that the Holiday 2004 Demo disk, which includes the Viewtiful Joe 2 demo, will erase all memory cards in the system at that time. This was originally publicized by Playstation Underground, and now Sony has bit the bullet and confirmed it." Update: 11/27 22:38 GMT by T : Curt Feldman of Gamespot pointed out that his site's name had been garbled as "Gamepost"; no longer.

The last major MMOG launch of the year hits retail stores today. World of Warcraft finally goes live after years of debate, development, and a more than six month Beta test. The usual suspects have details on the game, with Gamespot already having details on upcoming content and Gamespy laying out personal experiences from the test and interviews with the developers.

The DS system has launched today, allowing everyone with a interest in dual screen action to get their fill. Gamespy has a Beginner's Guide to the system available, while Gamespot has a detailed page reviewing the system and some of the first games available. Bionic_Baboon wrote in with a press release about the sale of the system at EB Games on Businesswire.

still_sick writes "Although it was reported last week that Gran Turismo 4 had Gone Gold, the long awaited title will again be delayed. "Natural challenges with finalizing all the key features and localization issues across worldwide territories have led to the difficult choice of pushing back the release date in order to ensure that Gran Turismo 4 lives up to the exacting standards of the 36 million-plus fans worldwide that have purchased previous versions""

Thomas Scovell writes "After over half a decade of development, stolen source code debacle, a promised deadline that was missed by a year, and a feud between the developer and the publisher that is still in court, Half-Life 2 has finally started to activate for those who have purchased online via Steam online or who grabbed the boxed version at the retailers that let it slip early. Go play!" Reviews are available via Gamespot, Gamespy, HomeLAN Fed, and IGN.

The sequel to Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes has been released to consumers. Details on the sequel can be found via a Gamespy hands on look or a Gamespot review. A snip from the review: "If you've played Metroid Prime, you've essentially played Metroid Prime 2. Retro hasn't mucked with the original, winning formula, so veterans of the first game will feel quite at home resuming their position behind Samus' computer-enhanced visor."

Following last month's State of Play Conference, Gamespot has a good discussion of some issues brought up at the conference, as well as some analysis by Cory Ondrejka of Linden Labs. From the Article: "There is no spoon ... is a tempting shorthand, made all the more powerful by its association with the Matrix. It is also clearly wrong. There is a spoon, just not one that you can eat with. Digital worlds are very real places." Relatedly, Cory Doctorow has up today a short story on Salon.com (registration required) that takes place inside a MMOG.

IvyMike writes "Gamespot just published a 25-page article titled The Final Hours of Half-Life 2. It has inside details of the missed September 30th, 2003 ship date, the source-code leak, and hints at future projects from Valve." Relatedly, kraemer writes "Valve has said publicly they would unlock Half Life2 before the November 16th street date if stores start selling it early. Well, Stores are selling it early. In an attempt to show Valve whats going on Shacknews is having a contest to come up with verifiable proof."

As a follow-up to yesterday's story about a frustrated EA employee's spouse, several readers wrote in to report that EA is now facing a possible class action lawsuit from disgruntled employees. Besides the Gamespot coverage, Kotaku has a discussion of it as well. To add to the "frustrated EA worker" momentum, a former employee named Joe Straitiff has posted about his experiences as well. From his post: "So I'm posting under my real name -- you have to stand up to this type of thing or it will continue. And every company will become EA so that can compete... Remember, you can't spell ExploitAtion without EA."

ViperG writes "Gran Turismo series producer and Polyphony Digital president Kazunori Yamauchi announced the completion of Gran Turismo 4's development at a special party dedicated to the game yesterday. During the party, Yamauchi took to the podium to make a number of comments on the game, and also mention a few things about the future of the racing series.

Gamespot has the story that after months in limbo, Warren Spector has left his role as Studio Director at Ion Storm. Despite his disconnection from Ion Storm, he will apparently still have ties to Eidos. From the Article: "Warren has chosen to pursue personal interests outside the company, but he will continue to work for Eidos as an IP consultant."

SilentChris writes "As of 3 PM EST, major websites were finally 'permitted' to release their reviews of Halo 2. The verdict: near perfect scores. Check out reviews by Gamespot, IGN, and GameSpy. Bungie has done it again!"

Thanks to c0nrad, who alerted us to a Gamespot article stating that Halo 2's launch date has been broken by a Midwestern store. From the article: "Several reports on the Gaming Age forums--which included photos of the limited edition of the game--said that several individual Meijer stores, a self-described grocery and general merchandise retailer that operates in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky, were selling the game early. However, calls made by GameSpot to several Meijer outlets made it sound like the franchise was sticking to the deadline." The reader continues: "Despite that, Ebay auctions have already gone up, with one having already reached $265!"

The website for the 2005 Game Developer's Conference has gone live. Next year's GDC will be held between March 7 - 11, and will feature panels, roundtable discussions, the annual Game Developer's Choice Awards, and tutorials on various game production components. Gamespot has a short piece on this as well.

GamesIndustry.biz has the story that major retailers Gamestop and EBGames are likely going to stop DS Preorders because they're coming so fast that they won't be able to meet demand when the system launches. From the article: "It appears that six games will be available on day one - Nintendo's Super Mario 64 DS, Sega's Feel The Magic XY/XX, Activision's Spider-Man 2, Ubisoft's Asphalt Urban GT and two from EA - Madden NFL 2005 and The Urbz: Sims in the City." Gamespot also has details on the handheld shortage.

grag writes "People may recall that earlier this year, Wideload Games licensed the Halo engine for a project. Recently they announced the plot line of the game, a reversal of the roles in the zombie shooting game. According to the article, you play a zombie named Stubbs, working your way through the game eating brains and wreaking havoc in a comical 1950's inspired game setting."

FreyarHunter writes "According to Gamespot, Nobuo Uematsu and Square will be separating. Nobuo was the person responsible for the mostly awe-inspiring music for the Final Fantasy games. The report indicates that he will be moving to a company called "Smile Please". While this was first thought to be a rumor it was later announced on Uematsu 's fansite that it is true. He states that it isn't "quitting", but more of a graduation. There are hints in this article saying he will still do work for Square, but at his own pace. The good news is that he still plans to write more music for video games, perform more concerts, and produce the second Black Mages Album."

Gamespot has a piece discussing the signing of the original Matrix cast members for voice roles in the MMOG. Actors returning to their trilogy roles include Lawrence Fishburne, Monica Bellucci, Mary Alice, Lambert Wilson, Harold Perrineau Jr., Harry Lennix, Nona Gaye, Collin Chou, and Tanveer Atwal.

slumpy writes "An article Gamespot is running states that Resident Evil 4, the highly anticipated exclusive from Capcom, will no longer be for Gamecube only, breaking the deal they had with Nintendo. Does this show Nintendo's third-party support dwindling even more?"

If you already play the Massively Multiplayer Game Star Wars Galaxies, you're undoubtedly already aware that the Jump to Lightspeed space expansion officially launched today. For the rest of us, there are some details on the developer side regarding the ramp up to release available on the official site. Details on the experience of the new expansion is available at Gamespot and PC.IGN. More ... colourful analysis can be found on Grimwell's boards, and N3rfed has a post discussing the fact that the rest of the world has to wait until November 5th for their space-goodies.

GimpyMcJackass writes "Bioware will be opening a new store for digital content starting November 10. Currently slated for sale will be a few modules for Neverwinter Nights, at fairly reasonable prices ($5 - $8 USD). Nice addition to the business model. Gamespot also has an interview with the usual Bioware suspects about it."

GimpyMcJackass writes "Bioware will be opening a new store for digital content starting November 10. Currently slated for sale will be a few modules for Neverwinter Nights, at fairly reasonable prices ($5 - $8 USD). Nice addition to the business model. Gamespot also has an interview with the usual Bioware suspects about it."

The first of this year's AAA titles has launched, and the first reviews are in. Gamespot, IGN, and OPM all have looks at the game, and it sounds great. If you want to keep track of the pool-shooting race track driving everything-under-one-roof extravaganza, the GameRankings page is available as well. When you play the game this week make sure and tune in to WCTR News to catch Anchorman Richard Burns, TV's Wil Wheaton. More seriously, reviews aren't the only thing the developers are looking for. Commentary regarding Take Two Interactive's slipping stock is available on CNN Money's Game Over.

b0r1s writes "Gamespot was among the dozens of gaming news sites to point readers to the arrival of the first of Nintendo's apparent marketing sites for Metroid Prime 2 Echoes. Having started the trend with Datadyne prior to the launch of Perfect Dark, Nintendo apparently pokes fun at ilovebees.com with several different fake domains. Also included are links to government contractors sites. It seems like Channel 51 and Orbis Labs will both be updated in the weeks prior to the release of Metroid Prime 2. Channel 51 seems to have new stories every week, and Orbis Labs promises that test videos of the Battle Sphere are coming soon. In addition, there is a name and password login on the Orbis site, which we expect will be leaked--or even "hacked"--later on."

In the wake of a new body in the Chinese government set to determine the healthiness of video games, China has pledged to invest 240 million dollars in healthier online games. The "PCBang" phenomenon so popular in South Korea is spreading into China as well, making this a big industry for the government to be subsidizing. Commentary on the social implications of online games is available at TerraNova as well.

Anonymous Coward cuts-and-pastes: "Less than a week after a pirated version of Halo 2 began appearing on the Web, another of the year's most sought after games has been stolen. Ironically, it also happens to be a game titled after a larcenous act itself. That's right. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has become the latest victim of piracy, with illegal copies of the game, its manual, and its cover appearing on various Web sites." Update: 10/21 13:54 GMT by Z : Rockstar adds some details to what we know about the crime in a press release covered by CVG.

Thanks to Gamespot for the heads up on the newly released San Andreas trailer. It features, among other things, landmarks, dialogue, combat, and a new game feature: parachuting. The trailer is set to a song with explicit lyrics, so viewer discretion is yadda yadda...

Thanks to Gamespot for the heads up on the newly released San Andreas trailer. It features, among other things, landmarks, dialogue, combat, and a new game feature: parachuting. The trailer is set to a song with explicit lyrics, so viewer discretion is yadda yadda...

News regarding two new expansions to Massively Multiplayer Games today. Thanks to Gamespot for the fascinating news that Asheron's Call 2 will roll out a new expansion sometime in the future. This announcement was anticipated after Turbine's purchase of Asheron's Call 1 and 2 from Microsoft, but no firm details had yet to be announced. Meanwhile, Yahoo has the press release on Planetside: Aftershock's release today. The waning FPS massive game has finally been reduced to the reasonable price of $20. The new offering includes the core game, the first expansion, and a new expansion that incorporates mechs into the game.

Anonymous Gamer writes "GameSpot has a new hands-on preview of Sony's redesigned PlayStation 2 system. It's one-fourth the size of the old PS2 and only weighs two pounds. It looks like Sony's new system will be the iPod of game consoles this holiday season."

bippy writes "Analyst PJ McNealy predicts that EA will announce Tuesday a 20 percent drop in sales for Madden and a 50 percent drop in sales for NHL 2005, partly due to the success of ESPN's low-price, high-content games. McNealy says this likely won't have a huge financial impact on the game developer, but it will affect them psychologically. I'm just surprised that ESPN's price cut worked. It seems that when Madden came out everyone was saying that the price cut wouldn't help ESPN or hurt EA."

bippy writes "Analyst PJ McNealy predicts that EA will announce Tuesday a 20 percent drop in sales for Madden and a 50 percent drop in sales for NHL 2005, partly due to the success of ESPN's low-price, high-content games. McNealy says this likely won't have a huge financial impact on the game developer, but it will affect them psychologically. I'm just surprised that ESPN's price cut worked. It seems that when Madden came out everyone was saying that the price cut wouldn't help ESPN or hurt EA."

An anonymous reader writes "Worthplaying has the scoop on the official going gold of Half-life 2. According to their information it has a confirmed ship/store date of November 16!" Gamespot has details on the ship date as well.