Everybody's favourite Tempest developer Jeff Minter - a man never seen far from a llama (certainly not in rubbish website copy) - is planning to bring space giraffes to Xbox Live Arcade next year.

As in, a game, which he says most people are calling "Space Giraffe" since it features a giraffe-looking fellow. In space. Shooting things. As you can see in the interesting screenshots posted on his LiveJournal.

Minter recently worked on the Neon visualisations that play in the background when you listen to music on Xbox 360, and fans of the developer's distinctive style will probably find the visuals quite exciting - although Minter himself admits "this game is almost a worst case for screenshots since a lot of the structures are defined over time".

It won't cost much though - just 400 Microsoft points, or £3.40 - and you'll also be able to unlock new effects for Neon that support webcam input while you're playing it. "That's to make up for the fact that MS stiffed me on doing a proper new version of Neon to truly support the cam, and instead have done some half-assed thing where they just superimpose some cam effect layers over existing Neon," he says. "I figure that was a bit rude, so I'll put some proper cam-Neon stuff in the new game by way of schooling."

Back in May, Minter was upbeat about how the game was going. "The last couple of weeks I've had a couple of good points of traction. One being feeling something of how I want the control and firing to be, and the other being today, building in a nice p-system generator to use for the explosions and stuff and initial tests of that being really nice," he wrote at the time. He also said he was working with Llamasoft chum Ivan Zorzin, and said that Neon would be distributed on PC soon. ...

News Via Eurogamer

Electronic Arts, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and Bizarre Creations are just some of the companies confirmed for Nottingham’s GameCity event.

With the dust barely settled on both the Leipzig Games Convention and the Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival, Europe will once again be the focus of the games industry when the GameCity event takes place from October 25th - 31st.

Individuals already confirmed for the show include Lorne Lanning, president of Oddworld Inhabitants; Jonathan Smith, development director at TT Games; Jamie Fristrom, technical director of Torpex Games; and musician Richard Jacques and Jim Purbrick of Linden Labs, the studio behind Second Life.

The healthy list of developers confirmed for GameCity includes Blitz, Bizarre Creations, Freestyle Games, Monumental Games, Rare, Introversion and Climax, with more to follow.

Publishers already committed to the festival include THQ, Electronic Arts, SCEE and Take 2, with more names to be announced in the coming weeks.

GameCity’s organisers describe the event as "a street-level cultural celebration of videogames and interactive entertainment, and an opportunity for the games industry an public to meet and explore economic, social and educational opportunities within interactive entertainment".

More details are set to be revealed shortly, including finalised dates and times for conference sessions, workshops, screenings and the premier of a new film, plus news of what the organisers describe as a "big name" who will open the festival.

Wraggys Gonna be there then get drunk ...

He's always highly anticipated, but you never get a clear view of him until he's almost on you. Such is the way with secret agents, and since Sam Fisher's a Black Forest Double Agent Gateau, it's no surprise that we've learnt of his impending arrival just over a month beforehand.

In other, less tiring words, Splinter Cell: Double Agent is due out on Xbox 360 on October 20th, with the PC, Xbox, PS2 and GameCube versions leaping out of the bushes on October 27th.

Then, a month after that, Ubisoft's other new Tom Clancy game, Rainbow Six Vegas, will take up its place on Xbox 360 - on November 17th. That's the date already confirmed for the PC and PlayStation 3 versions of the game - the latter of which is clearly a launch title.

Other updates to Ubisoft's latest release schedule include all of the Wii launch titles it's been banging on about, and recently bought-up Japanese 360 title Import Tuner Challenge, which is down for October 10.

Finally, those of you still coveting Resident Evil 4 on the PC will be pleased to learn that the Ubisoft-published port of the Capcom PS2 and Cube title is due out on December 8th, and should cost absolutely bugger all. ...

Ok, so in addition the new iMacs Steve is expected to announce on the event-that-may-or-may-not-happen on September 12th, and the updated Nano, the official announcement of movies on iTMS, we can also expect to see a standalone dedicated movie streaming device running an "updated version" of iTunes (not Front Row). Speculated to be a new movie-enhanced version of the Airport Express (or some like device). Kind of reminds us of the iHome rumor, or the Apple HDTVs rumor, but this one somehow seems a little more subtle and plausible. We've doubted their entrance into unexpected types of consumer electronics before (see: Hi-Fi), so who knows, maybe you'll watch iTunes-downloaded movies on your video iPod (or iPod with video) as well as your TV, and without the need for a Mac mini cum media PC we've all been pining after, too. ...

New from Divineo China

Whisper Fan from Talismoon might be the top selling tuning accessories on Xbox 360. Not only it is a great upgrade with higher cooling and noise reduction, but it is also looking damn cool!
So it comes as no surprise that they added a new color, and it is now available in *RED* (Blue and Green still in stock).

...

Racing in late today and rapidly pulling up in one almighty screech of tyres are new screenshots from Forza 2, Xbox 360's circuit burner. We particularly like the shot featuring road, concrete barricades and no cars. Pure genius. All racing games should look like this.

Anyway, Forza 2 should be burning in on a wave of Christmas turkey and stuffing at the end of the year, and features hundreds of customisable motors that you can whip around famous tracks. It's all looking reasonably swish, especially the concrete.

Screens here ...

Following the news that the HDMI-equipped PlayStation 3 will ship without an HDMI cable, it appears that the Xbox 360 - which has no HDMI-out port - is about to acquire an HDMI cable.

How do we know? Well, EB Games in the US is taking orders for just such an object, priced at $99 (which is rather steep for a cable).

Which may sound like another coup for Microsoft at Sony's expense -- but is it? Not necessarily, we'd have to say. For a start, HDMI is an intelligent connection standard -- it auto-senses the maximum resolution at which your TV can run, for example -- and it is highly unlikely that those sort of features would work without an HDMI-out socket.

Indeed, it is questionable whether you would see any benefits in quality over the standard Component Video lead currently included with the Xbox 360. HDMI is, however, physically a smaller and neater format than Component Video, as it encapsulates both video and audio signals.

Still, if you're convinced that buying an HDMI cable for your Xbox 360 will lead to an improvement in the picture and sound you see on your TV, it sounds as if you will be able to do just that in the near future. ...

You may know from times past that Super-Bike Riding Challenge is one of our hot tips for Most Wanted biking game of the year and today we've opened the throttle for another exclusive movie showing from the game.

With the release roaring ever closer - in fact, just 10 days away now on September 15 - this latest trailer showcases the game's fine looking intro movie and should set you up nicely for all the 'two-wheels good' action in prospect.

Popping wheelies, hot overtaking manoeuvres, thrashes, crashes and bashes - it's all there for you to enjoy, and if you need to know more about why we reckon it's so hot, simply slide eyes right and check out our preview and extensive chat with developer Milestone. Then it's back for a full throttle showing of the movie, enjoy!

Movie Here ...

While everyone was over the moon at the announcement of a next-gen 360 exclusive PES 6, and then possibly also sick as a parrot as it wasn't quite so exclusive, it's easy to forget that the game has prospered for many a long year on what many PES aficionados consider its ultimate platform, the PS2.

The reasons are many and varied, but ultimately our footy experts are agreed it's actually all down to the Dual Shock controller, which so far, has provided the ultimate interface for playing Seabass's annual magnum opus. Of course, this may all change in the next-gen incarnation, but we've spent so many halcyon days on the PS2 version of PES, even the prospect of a next-gen version can't deflect us from what we consider its real home platform.

But enough waffling from us, what you really want to see is PES 6 in action on PS2, so here's a fresh array of shots from our recent session with the game, showing amongst other things ex-Man Utd hitman Ruud Van Nistelrooy banging one in for Holland, Italy's World Cup star Luca Toni unleashing a fierce volley against Argentinean opposition and Michael Owen surging through a packed Dutch midfield (good luck with the op this week fella).

Nice, and in case you missed them first time around, you should also direct eyes right to check out our recent exclusive shots of new England skipper John Terry making his debut in the game. Only a month to wait now before PES 6 arrives - and there goes a whole year of lunchtimes all over again.

Screens Here ...