Your weekly roundup of everything Gamecube.

Hello once again, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to another edition of the Digest, C-E's weekly (not to mention exclusive) news round up. Since last week's edition, there hasn't been a great deal of news- but we'll bring you what we've got, all the same. Topping the bill this week has to be an update on Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, the sequel to last year's extraordinary smash hit. Nintendo has let slip some fascinating new info on the game. Here goes...

Samus lands on a mysterious planet (as yet unknown) to investigate it, but ends up in a world split between light and dark. Samus must travel between the light and dark areas of the world. Apparently, the gameplay will also change between the areas. If it's anything like the frankly genius light/dark world system from Zelda: A Link to the Past, then we are in for something very special indeed.

During the game Samus will be hunted by an evil enemy, who could well be the suspicious Samus-like figure we've seen in some of last week's screenshots. (What are the odds that it's Samus' evil genetic clone or something?) The long-awaited multiplayer will allow four players to compete in death match scenarios. The multiplayer will feature weapon upgrades, lock-on mechanics and the Morph Ball (How will it work? We'll know soon enough). The levels will also be large and feature many shortcuts and intricate details.

More details will be known after E3 in less then two weeks time. Less than two weeks!

More news surfaced on the GameCube version of Paper Mario. This time around, Nintendo will be focusing strongly on Mario's wafer-thin properties. During the game you will slip through gaps, cracks, roll into tubes and even fold yourself into a paper airplane.

The game will still focus on walking through towns and castles and battling foes with "Timing Action Commands" which sound like the real-time button commands last seen in the GBA's excellent Mario and Luigi. Expect more information including a deluge of screens during- guess when- E3.

Free Radical Design has partially unveiled their next title in the TimeSplitters franchise. Called TimeSplitters: Future Perfect (not too dissimilar to a particular N64 FPS) the game will be released on, er, March 31st 2005. A bunch of tasty-looking screenshots were shown, too- check the news section for the link.

Electronics Arts have recently reported their results for the fiscal year of 2004. Not for the first time, it has been a good year for the company, with increasing sales. More interestingly, they also announced support for the PSP and DS. CEO Larry Probst said "We think that the PSP can be a very significant platform, arguably as big as the Game Boy business at some point in the future. He also confirmed support for the DS but did not comment any further. They also stated that they are continuing support for the GameCube, with 19 titles in production at present. It's something of a relief to see EA supporting the DS. However, EA be warned- If it's FIFA 2005 with a scoreboard on one screen and the game on the other, then we're not interested. We need some inn-o-vat-ion. Takeshi Koizumi, co-director of Super Mario Sunshine, is working on a new game.

He will give full details to the press at E3. The full unveiling will be on May 11th to the press. Unfortunately, that's all we know. But given Koizuimi's track record, it's something to look forward to.

Thankfully, that press conference will be good enough to wipe away the painful memories of last year's...and I don't doubt Nintendo for a second.

And finally this week- you might recall that last week we held a competition to win a copy of World Racing- we asked you to describe what World Racing meant to you- an impossible task if ever there was one. We didn't exactly get a bucketful of entries (so enter next time!) but after plenty of chuckling at some of the answers, the winner was a clear one- congrats go to James Pike of Nottingham. We'll contact you as soon as possible, James.

That's about all there is to report on, then. Next week's edition will revert back to the usual timeslot of Sunday evening. See you all then!

Mark Cullinane
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