The London Games Festival, the week long cultural and business celebration of computer and video games that will take place throughout London from Monday 2nd October, has recently unveiled the panelists for the inaugural “Lizards’ Lair” pitching event. The confirmed “lizards” are Peter Molyneux, head of Lionhead Studios, Miles Jacobson, studio director at Sports Interactive and Ian Livingstone, creative director of Eidos.

Held on October 3rd, the “Lizard’s Lair” will see would-be developers pitch
their game concepts to the “lizards” for a chance to win great prizes, including one week’s work experience and possibly, the chance to see their gaming ideas come to life. The event will be held at Visit London’s headquarters and it will be presided by Paul Durrant, director of Dare to be Digital, the premier games creation competition in the UK.

The London Games Festival is the brainchild of publishers association ELSPA and independent developers association TIGA, and is created in partnership with LDA (London Development Agency) and BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts).

“London Games Festival will be an exciting week of activity that will become a focus for the International reputation of the UK. The alliance between ELSPA, TIGA, the LDA and BAFTA provides the games industry with a perfect opportunity to build substantial trade and consumer activity that will firmly establish games as the entertainment phenomenon of the 21st century,” said Roger Bennett, director general of ELSPA.
Source: softpedia.com

Features:

Microgames magnified! All the madness of the classic microgames is intensified as you and your friends compete to beat one another in all-new party games!

More players than you can shake a stick at! Play with up to four players in most party-game modes, or share a Controller among 16 players for some of the craziest gaming you?ve seen!

Wario’s friends and fellow game developers from the Game Boy Advance game are back in action: Dr. Crygor, Dribble & Spitz, Jimmy and the rest of the crew are ready to party!

Tons to unlock! Play through the single player mode to unlock over 200 minigames and more than a dozen additional features, including bonus game modes, movies, music videos, and more.

WarioWare is definitely not your typical party game. All of the game’s multiplayer modes center around the hilarious microgames which were originally introduced in the Game Boy Advance version of WarioWare, but each mode has a zany twist which adds a whole new level of fun and unpredictability.

In Jimmy’s Survival Fever, you’ll strut your stuff on the disco floor between microgames. Falter in the games, and you’ll lose your fans out on the floor. When you’re boogying solo, you lose! In Wario’s Outta My Way, you have to complete microgames as your opponents move their characters around on the screen to get in your way. It’s harder than it sounds to finish a game with Wario’s big melon taking up half the screen!

All of Wario’s fellow game developers get in on the action with their own twists on the GBA classics. In Mona’s game, you actually have to perform stunts like playing a game while yawning or while looking away from the screen. Since your opponents will rate your performance when you’re done, there’s no cheating! And this is just the beginning — there are a dozen multiplayer modes to turn your micro party into a mega party.

Note: Source:Nintendo

Preview:
Game designer Archer Maclean has been in the business since the early 1980?s, single-handedly designing classic games for the Atari 800 and Commodore 64 machines of days gone by. More recently, Maclean has focused on making billiard simulations for the PC and consoles, several featuring popular UK pro pool player Jimmy White. From the looks of the preview disc we received for Pool Paradise ? Maclean?s upcoming billiards games ? he and his team at Awesome Studios are putting together the most graphically rich, realistic, and fun billiards simulation yet.

Pool Paradise is set on a lovely laid-back tropical island, its sole purpose to provide a venue for billiard games and other entertaining mini-games for the player. Starting with a small amount of cash lent by a literal loan shark, players can practice or compete in 11 different types of billiards, from the familiar US 8 ball to the intense Killer. Each competition game is played for a cash stake, and players compete against 31 different off-the-wall characters (among them, a Monkey Mage and an O.J. Simpson caricature) to win cash and advance to the number one ranking, occupied by Jimmy White.

Every part of the game shows off a stellar graphic quality; the island itself reminded me of such graphically intensive games as Morrowind ? something definitely not expected in a billiards simulation. The heart of the graphic quality rests in the tables and billiard balls themselves. All tables are in 3D, with eight different camera angle settings with adjustable views, allowing any type of look the player needs for making a shot. The balls cast shadows and have reflective surfaces. Not just a graphical gimmick, the opponent?s animated disembodied hands support the cue and strike so realistically as to add to the realism; I found myself mentally noting the angles taken and strikes made by the game?s Jimmy White to improve my own skills. The AI plays a strong game throughout, with the difficulty tuned so early opponents make their share of mistakes.

Pool Paradise features a masterful control scheme that allows the player to easily set up their shot. Everything from cue elevation to striking power to setting English is accomplished with the mouse, which also seamlessly controls the 3D view. For players who aren?t keen on using the mouse to strike, keyboard controls can set the striking power to nine different levels. The game seems to have covered every contingency of player preference with its control setup. The physics recreate the roll and spin of the balls realistically, and trick shots such as the masse and jump can be executed the same way they are in real life.

On this game play foundation, Awesome Studios has piled on a heap of entertaining mini-games and unlockables the player can acquire with the cash they win from competing. These include one of Archer Maclean?s previous non-billiards games, Dropzone (which plays kind of like the classic Defender coin-op). There?s also darts, skeeball, and a game that resembles bowling except you use a cannon. For more variety to the actual ball-potting, the game also has a number of differently shaped ?Crazy Tables? to play.

About the only things missing from Pool Paradise is a billiards tutorial for those who don?t know the game?s finer points. Other than that, it?s in shape to be an ideal simulation of the ivory sport that doesn?t forget to mix fun in with its impeccable realism. It?s hard to believe that a game with this many features and this much polish is going to sell for under $10, but that?s how it?s going to be for the PC version of Pool Paradise (GameCube version is set to retail for about $20). Pool Paradise is currently set for release in April 2004 for the PC and GameCube, with an ESRB rating of E. A PS2 and XBox version of the game has also been announced, but currently only for European release.

Note: Source: Gmainf Illustrated

At a New York City analyst briefing on April 1, 2004, Nintendo provided an update on some of the new and exciting products on tap for 2004, including new accessories and content for the best-selling Game Boy Advance and Nintendo GameCube

The Game Boy Advance Wireless Adapter, which allows players to compete head-to-head without the use of cords, will be packaged with the September release of Pok?mon Fire Red and Pok?mon Leaf Green. In Japan, more than 2 million copies of Pok?mon Fire Red and Pok?mon Leaf Green featuring the Game Boy Advance Wireless Adapter have been sold since their launch at the end of January. The June 28 release of Mario Golf: Advance Tour for Game Boy Advance also will make use of the adapter, which will be sold separately.

Game Boy Advance Video, remarkable new video paks that allow two cartoon episodes to be played on the Game Boy Advance, will be available in June.

Upcoming games for Nintendo GameCube include the release of WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Game$ on April 5; Custom Robo on May 10; The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures on June 7; Pikmin 2 in August; Donkey Konga in September; and Paper Mario 2, Geist, Metroid Prime 2, Star Fox 2, Mario Tennis and Mario Party 6 in the fourth quarter. Nintendo also announced the upcoming release of the higher-capacity Memory Card 1019 for Nintendo GameCube.

Game Boy Advance will see the release of the Classic NES Series on June 7. Eight retro games from the 1980s make a comeback in a hand-held version at an MSRP of $19.99 each. More than 900,000 of these classic games sold in four weeks in Japan.

Other upcoming Game Boy Advance titles include Mario vs. Donkey Kong on May 24; Hamtaro 4 in July; F-Zero 2 in September; and Mario Pinball, Donkey Kong Country 2, Mario Tennis, a new Kirby game and a hand-held Mario Party title in the fourth quarter.

Note: Source: Nintendo

Me, I’m perfectly happy with my GBA SP…well, except for the part where there don’t seem to be any GBA SP games coming out anymore. That’s still a raging bummer.

While one of my all-time favorite baseball games has to be Nintendo’s Ken Griffey, Jr. MLB for the Super Nintendo, I can’t say that I expected Nintendo to be getting back into the baseball business. Sports publishing has rapidly spun off into this crazy universe of its own, where you have teams of people that do nothing but develop sports games and scheme on ways it can make the competing games look foolish. But Nintendo’s jumping back in with Pennant Chase Baseball for the GameCube. Considering that Take-Two’s clamping down on third-party baseball, this certainly seems like good timing on Nintendo’s part. The first screenshots of the game have been released, including one that looks like it’s some sort of LAN mode for multi-Cube action. Crazy.
From the looks of things, the next two Nintendo DS games will be out in a couple of weeks. Yoshi’s Touch & Go and Pokemon Dash are both on for the 14th. I must say, I expected a slightly steadier stream of releases from the DS. Considering that both of these games are already out in Japan, it seems weird that it’s taken so long for them to make it over here. Third-party DS support will also pick up a bit on the back end of the month, as it seems that Atari has its retro arcade pack and Ubisoft has some Rayman.

Note: Source: gamespot

With the game’s powerful, innovative customization, you can construct your robot from the ground up using an enormous arsenal of over 200 parts and weapons, from guns to bombs, robo models and homing pods. Many weapons are freely available on the market, but some — deadly and highly illegal — can only be acquired in secret robo gambling rooms and from the hands of crime syndicates.

Key Features:

Role-playing Tutorial: Join the Steel Hearts bounty hunter squad, fight criminals, unlock powerful new parts and learn all the tips and tricks to becoming the Robo Commander to beat

Near-limitless Customization: With over 50 guns, 30 bombs, 30 homing pods, and 30 robo models, you can build a robo that fits your style and strategy

Holosseums: These digital domains are home to more than pretty scenery. Watch out for lava pits, conveyor belts, and ice

Real-time Combat: No turn-based action here. Robo battles are not for the faint of heart.

Bottom Line

With countless weapons combinations and dozens of holosseum environments, Custom Robo pulls the trigger on traditional platformers to bring players a dynamic, heart-pumping action title that’s never the same game twice.

Note: Source: Nintendo

See some Screen Shots HERE