Hello again, folks, and welcome to this week's edition of the Weekly Digest. Christmas is fast approaching- there are only 3 and a half weeks to the big day now. And, as per usual for this time of year, there have been a veritable slew of games- good, bad and indifferent coming on the market. Since the beginning of November we've had Viewtiful Joe and F-Zero GX, 1080 Avalanche, Mario Kart, and Mario Party 5 (out next week though), Rebel Strike, Tony Hawk's Underground, XIII and a whole load of EA games like Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup, FIFA 2004, Need For Speed and Medal Of Honor, to name but a few.

The GBA has also had a busy month with Final Fantasy: Tactics and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga also hitting the shops. I actually picked this up when I was in Dublin yesterday- after all, it's not every day you see an original Mario title on the Game Boy Advance, is it? And what a great game it is- as you may know, the character control system is really the game's 'big innovation'. You control Mario and Luigi at once, using the A and B button to make each one jump. It's an action-RPG very much in the mould of Paper Mario and Mario RPG. The graphics are excellent and very stylised; the voice samples are great- and the oddball sense of humour that pervades the plot isn't something you often see in a Mario game; and is great to see. The turn-based battle system incorporates many real-time elements like dodging attacks and 'Bros. Attacks'- Mario and Luigi working in tandem by different button combinations to inflict extra damage on the enemies. A couple of hours into the game and I very impressed- finally, the GBA has a Mario game it can call its own.

Not too much other news this week- and you're going to find that the games industry is going to creep into its annual hibernation very soon- last year, news was more thin on the ground than snow in Co. Meath (believe me, that's not saying a lot) and I was forced to come up with some different editorials and stories to fill the digest. I'll start preparing some material then eh? The show must go on, news or no news!

Atari has announced the development of a second game based on the summer movie hit Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. The game will be set in the post-apocalyptic universe of the film. Oh, the originality of it all. It is said to feature character and vehicle based combat reminiscent of the movie series. We noted with dissapointment a few months ago the cancellation of the current T3 game which was released on the other consoles recently- you'll be pleased to know you're not missing anything. The game is drivel. My word, another film-license converting to a useless game? Who'd have thought it? Even though Arnold "The Governator" Schwarzenegger swore he wouldn't make any more movies during his tenure as governor, he will however be voicing his in-game character. The game is scheduled for a summer/autumn release 2004.

Handheld developer Virtual Spaghetti recently announced details on its forthcoming GBA game "Blue Angelo". The game, currently scheduled for a 2004 release is said to be a side-scrolling RPG with a combat levelling-up system. In the game you control genetically enhanced organisms called "Angels from the Shrine". It is their job to defend humanity from the demons of this world. Including multiple selectable characters and four non-linear worlds, lets just hope that Virtual Spaghetti doesn't serve up a meatball in handheld form. Ho, ho.

In another move which brings EA closer to their eventual goal of taking over the known universe, Electronics Arts have annouced that they will publish Namco's next Ridge Racer game across PAL regions. Here's what they think about it: "R: Racing is an extraordinary action-racing experience, from the creators of the Ridge Racer games, featuring authentic licensed cars and challenging, real-world tracks. Combining jaw-dropping graphical quality and high performance driving physics with a spectacular story line, R: Racing chronicles the intense competition and deep rivalries found only within the professional racing circuit." R: Racing also is due to be released across all PAL territories in March 2004, and will be fully localised into English, French, German, Spanish and Italian.

Finally, Mario Kart online is here! If you've got the equipment, that is. The Warp Pipe team have launched the beta version of their Warp Pipe program. The program allows people to connect their GameCube to the internet for online gaming using LAN games. It was reported earlier in the week that Warp Pipe beta would allow users to play the retail version of Mario Kart: Double Dash!! It has since been launched. To find out more about Warp Pipe check the official website for all the details.

Shigeru Miyamoto has this year been inducted into the Golden Joystick Awards "Industry Personality Of The Year Hall Of Fame". It is the first time that such an award has been given out at the well-known annual event, and an honour for Miyamoto. On receiving the award, the man we call Shigsy had the following to say: "I'm honoured to become the first recipient of the Golden Joystick Hall of Fame award, I would like to thank all of the game fans and game media in Europe who are helping to energize the video game industry. For more than 20 years I have been fortunate enough to work with very talented people with amazing foresight from the early Donkey Kong days to our most recent, Mario Kart: Double Dash!! I really have enjoyed every minute. It's an amazing industry to work in." I wonder who'll win it next year- the game industry really is seriously short of real personalities; Miyamoto, though, was the clear choice. And well done to him and the best of luck to him in the future.

Well we'll wrap it up there. Comments to [email protected] as usual.

See you all next week.
Mark Cullinane