Seems so. Fantastic news, now they just need to release a Starforce removal patch for Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. Please?

Any Amiga owner knows the names Sensible Software and The Bitmap Brothers. The Amiga was their time of glory; Sensible Soccer, Cannon Fodder, Chaos Engine, Speed Ball 2, all rightfully revered classics. So where are they now? I found out in the latest Edge - the head honchos from both companies are now together at Tower Studios directing development on mobile phone ports like Sensible Soccer, plus there’s the Sensi 3D remake they’re doing with Kuju and Codies. How about a quality Speed Ball remake next lads? That’d be superb.

Given the continuing hype for Oblivion it’s easy to forget its roots. Daggerfall was absolutely immense (if buggy), much bigger than Oblivion, though it needs a DOS emulator to run and is visually dated. Interkarma is looking to fix that. The lengths to which some fans go to resurrect their favourites classics never ceases to amaze me, such dedication.

I think the Bioware guys really like using exclamation marks! There’s a nice interview with the guys on Firing Squad that reveals a few worthwhile details on Mass Effect (details that I hadn’t heard before at least), their MMO (seems it’ll be announced soon) and it seems there’ll be new Bioware game announcements at E3. Joy! I’d skip the first page though since most of the answers there are pretty much detail-free.

If you’re as hooked on Oblivion as I am you may not have ventured out onto the internet to seek some of the excellent mods for the PC version. And if you’re running the 360 version, well, the rest of this post won’t interest you much. Here are some of the best ones I’ve found (or you can browse here and here for others to your liking):

BTMod - Essential. Worth it for the expanded map view area alone, though it also shows you more from your inventory and quest list at once too. Suddenly it doesn’t feel like a console port (though to be fair, Oblivion is hardly the worst offender when it comes to that kind of thing).

Ultimate Archer - Don’t let the name fool you, this really does make playing an archer fair and fun. Whereas before you had to kite enemies endlessly and were constantly buying arrows, now it feels like a much more balanced affair while still presenting a challenge.

White Glass - Green glass looks silly. White glass looks lovely. Yes.

Landscape LOD Normal Map Replacement - Makes distant terrain look much nicer.

Dark UI 2.0 - Sounds lame, but it in fact replaces the interface with a dark red stitched leather look - very nice!

I also noticed on ShackNews that you can put your own face into the game. I might just have to do that on my inevitable second play through. I think, between this game and Guitar Hero, I may never have a spare moment ever again.

Bonus Link: Young Chuck Norris in Oblivion video. Very silly, likely to raise a grin rather than a chuckle though.

This was announced Friday but I had to put something about it here since I’ve long had a soft spot for Headfirst. As a studio (formerly called Adventuresoft) they seemed to be in eternal publisher hell. After the delightful 2D adventure games Simon the Sorcerer and sequel sold well, the planned pre-rendered sequel proved impossible to sign and was eventually dropped (presumably along with the expensive SGI machines they bought to make it with).

Eventually they released Simon the Sorcerer 3D which was a huge disappointment in pretty much all regards - gameplay, visuals, (lack of) humour and sales. I remember PC Zone reviewing code around 6 months before it was out so goodness knows what the story was there.
They seemed set to bounce back with Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth but it took forever to come out and changed publisher hands a few times. Having played a few hours so far, it’s a quality game that really can scare the pants off you at times so I’ll certainly be finishing that particular swan song. At some point they even licensed Battle of the Planets but who knows what the idea was there.

Given what seemed like endless troubles for Headfirst I’m surprised they continued this long, but it’s still very sad to see them go. How much of it was their fault and that of their publishers hardly seems to matter - Britsoft just lost another stalwart. I also only just found out Amiga legends The Bitmap Brothers closed a few years back too, though given their lack of noteworthy output since Z:Steel Soldiers it’s hardly surprising.

This is far cooler than robot wars simply because they’re humanoid robots with their own special moves and the ability to stand up again unaided. Needless to say this is from the Japanese who are plainly robot crazy. (Thanks pinkoboe!)

That’s Nintendo of Europe. This site names and shames the Nintendo releases that take far, far too long to get released over here. Sony deserve a kick for letting God of War and Shadow of the Colossus take months to get here, but Nintendo have long been the worst at this kind of thing, the very reason I bought a US GameCube. Yes yes, you need to localise for the European market - does that really take so long?

It’s about damn time! While not quite the ideal of a universal clan system (imagine entering just one clan name to add all your gaming friends) this should still be pretty damn handy. Now I just need a 360.

You can play Savage 2 solo and on a LAN for free, however online play and persistent stats will require a fee. Very cool idea and just another sign of how small developers are trying new revenue models to compete with the big boys. I really hope it works for them. (via Blue)

This is always one of the most fun things to come out of the GDC and this year was no exception. The challege this time was to create a game that could win the Nobel Peace Prize. Harvey Smith’s idea of using the DS to co-ordinate peaceful flashmobs is particularly clever. I know the guy got a lot of flak over Deus Ex: Invisible War but I still think he’s got what it takes to lead some great games in the future. Mistakes are there to be learnt from and all that.

Those clever coder types, they’ve done it again! No sound yet, but it runs in 480p and works through Windows MCE of all things - very cunning.