Y'know something? There are few things more annoying than trying to come up with a weekly-write up (like this one) when not a lot of interest happens in the intervening seven days. But hey, I've got to give it a try. Watch me go�

As if you didn't know, The Tokyo Games Show took place during the week, in Tokyo (gasp!) . Ninty have traditionally taken quite a low profile at the event, but that was primarily due to the fact that the company had their own trade show, Spaceworld, in August. And with that show seemingly out the window, Nintendo haven't exactly used the TGS to show off their upcoming wares. Still, that didn't deter Capcom though from showing off two of their most anticipated games- Resident Evil 4 and the game that's become something of a cult hit long before its release, the radiant Killer7. Resi 4 is alas, still in trailer form. That said, the game oozes class- and as the first properly 3D Resident Evil game, is going to attract plenty of attention from those who disliked the others in the series. Killer7 was properly unveiled as an FPS, with some of the most distinctive visuals yet seen in gaming. The shading, use of tone, and particularly the dominant colour of black, contrasted with the gallons of blood, really makes for a unique look. Combine that with razor-sharp graphics (albeit textureless!) and we've something of a technical marvel on our hands. Actual gameplay is still shrouded in secrecy, but Capcom have proved, with Viewtiful Joe (out in Europe on October 31 by the way) that style and substance can be married to wonderful effect. There is no reason to suggest that the same can't be achieved here. Start getting excited about this one, friends. This year's round of aggressive price cuts has begun!

Nintendo of America announced during the week a new retail price of $99.99 for the Nintendo GameCube in the United States. Microsoft promptly responded by denying that they would follow with a similar move. The ball is now firmly in Sony's court. What will they do? The suspense is killing me (ahem) . In Europe a firm price-drop announcement will now probably follow soon. We will keep you updated, of course. Our good friend George Harrison was quickly on hand with some choice quotes from the random PR generating machine- "So far in 2003, Nintendo GameCube is the only home console showing an increase in unit sales compared to 2002," says George Harrison, senior vice president, marketing and corporate communications, Nintendo of America. "Every time a generation of technology has moved into the true mass market, Nintendo has prospered. This incredible new price and our great software offers are designed to accelerate that trend like never before." Too right, George.

Yet more GameCube cancellations are on the way. Those kind people at Atari have just ceased production on the Cube versions of Terminator 3 (no great loss, presumably) and (here's the biggie) Driver 3- which is a great loss, I'm afraid. The reason why? Well, as Atari so eloquently put it to us, Terminator 3 'needs to launch with the DVD' (an honourable cause if ever there was one) and as the GC version wasn't quite such a high priority, it got canned. For Driver 3, the Cube version was jettisoned because�. Well, because they want the game to be the 'highest quality possible'. Logic would suggest that they drop the PS2 version, but presumably what they are trying to say is that they'd rather only have to work on two versions rather than three. Still, Atari have told us that many of their games (including Mission Impossible: Operation Surma and the rather good XGRA are still on for the Gamecube, which is good news. ) The not so good news is other games which haven't been canned are the sequel to Dragonball Z: Budokai, The Powerpuff Girls, Beyblade, Dexter's Laboratory, Carmen San Diego, Kero Kero King, and Digimon Rumble Arena 2. None of which, in all likelihood, are going to be on your shopping list. We'll keep an open mind, though.

Grab a Kleenex, folks- the next piece isn't a good one. Ben Havercroft, one of our top writers on the Cube-Europe staff, has left the site to pursue other interests. He was the man behind such columns as 'Bitchzone' 'Level Up' and a regular contributor to the news on C-E. He will be missed. All of us wish Ben well, and thank him for his huge contribution to Cube-Europe's success.

Namco recently announced that Miyamoto's new Pac-Man title (you may remember this from E3), which is known as Pac-Man Vs., will be packed in on one disc with Pac-Man World 2 and sold on GameCube this Winter for $19.99 in America. Not only that, but anyone who pre-orders I-Ninja for Nintendo GameCube will receive a bonus disc that includes a complete version of Pac-Man Vs. Unfortunately, I-Ninja is a PS2 exclusive in Europe. So that leaves us European types in a wee sticky situation. Nintendo of Europe, get on the case immediately. Just as good is the news that anyone who buys or pre-orders the GameCube version of R: Racing Revolution will get the same Pac-Man Vs. bonus disc in America. Nintendo are releasing a different kind of console for China called the iQue. The new iQue console is set for China and will feature some hefty anti-piracy features. It is the first console to be released in China and will be called the "Nintendo Compact" elsewhere. The console will use a special memory card that can be used to download games from terminals, at a fee. The memory card will be special for each console and games can not be traded. The console and memory card will cost 498 Yuan (about �52/�36) and each game will be priced at 48 Yuan (�5/�3.5).Nintendo hopes that this approach will stop piracy, which is rampant in China. They hope to launch 10 games when the console launches in mid-October. These games include Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu games and a Chinese version of Super Mario Bros. The Chinese market is potentially massively lucrative- games companies have traditionally stayed well away. It remains to be seen whether Nintendo can succeed where others have failed- but this is a small side-venture for the company, and not hugely significant in itself. We will, as always, keep half an eye on its progress.

Motorola and Nintendo this week anounced a new accessory for the GBA and GBA SP. Motorola will supply Nintendo with high-speed, low-power chipsets to enable an advanced wireless adapter accessory for use with the handhelds. This technology enables a 'revolutionary' portable gaming experience for users. The 2.4GHz radio frequency (RF) chipset enables up to five players to play each other wirelessly, allowing for flexible, mobile game playing.

The wireless adapter with the new Game Boy Advance software "Pokemon FireRed" and "Pokemon LeafGreen" will be launched in Japan first half of 2004. Seems like a nod to the wireless capabilities of Nokia's N-Gage to me. Good news though.

Well, ladies and gents, we'll leave it there. Stop by next Sunday for another instalment. Emails can be sent to [email protected]

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Mark Cullinane