Texas Hold 'Em will be making an appearance on Xbox Live Arcade next month after all, Microsoft's confirmed.

The game wasn't included in the line-up of titles that make up Microsoft's current "Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays" promotion, which sees a game released every Wednesday until August 9th. That led most of us to believe we wouldn't see it for a while afterward.

But now it sounds like Microsoft was simply hedging its bets - the US arm of the company has now confirmed a release date of August 23rd for the poker derivative, in development at TikGames.

You won't be able to make actual money playing Texas Hold 'Em, however many Microsoft Points it ends up costing - but then that's fairly realistic, isn't it?

What you will get is three game modes - standard, tournament, scenario - and dozens of variations, along with the option to make custom multiplayer ones for up to eight players.

The game will also support 1080i progressive-scan resolutions, apparently, although we can't imagine that'll make much difference to anything.

The other games due out on Live Arcade before the end of August include Cloning Clyde (this Wednesday, July 19th), Galaga (July 26), Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting (August 2) and Pac-Man (August 9).

Now all we need is a surprise Lumines Live announcement and our summer's complete. Come on Microsoft, get on with it. ...

Remember parents that Xmas is coming in 5 months, dont buy your kid a PSP just because it says it on the screen, be sure to do a check on it or you could end up with one of these:



Anyone spot any more fakes, then let us know. ...

News from Divineo USA

We were recently happy to hear from the G6 team that the G6 Lite will be shipping within approx 2 weeks time, we hope to fulfill all pre-orders as soon as stock arrives and would like to confirm that we are only stocking the English version.

Heres more info about the G6Lite:



The G6 Lite fit into the GBA cartridge slot of the DS Lite without any extending.
Compatible with all GBA , DS and DS Lite.
Support all DS software, GBA software , Media, Music, Photo, eBook, etc ...

Last week Microsoft put some order into Live Arcade by announcing Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays, a new promotion which - funnily enough - sees Live Arcade receiving new titles on Wednesdays. Things jumped into action with Frogger appearing on Arcade on July 12, and so far it's been announced that Frogger will be followed by Cloning Clyde, Galaga, Street Fighter II' Hyper Fighting and Pac-Man.

But naturally the Wednesday Live Arcade fun won't end there and according to Xbox Live Arcade group manager Greg Canessa Microsoft is targeting 30 Arcade titles "by the end of summer" and 50 "by the end of the calendar year."

Speaking to Microsoft's Major Nelson, Canessa explained that Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays is an initiative that's been done "in direct response to [the Xbox Live] community".

"We've been working pretty much in secret for a number of months on Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays - we did go dark for a little bit", he revealed, adding: "That's part of the reason why we've had a little bit of a drought over the last couple of months on Xbox Live Arcade."

According to Canessa, Live Arcade games will be entirely constrained to Wednesdays from now on and will be released at 8:00am GMT. However, Canessa noted that he cannot guarantee that a new title will hit every week: "..there may be a week that we skip and then a week where we release two titles," he said.

More new Live Arcade titles are set to be announced before the last of the initial five, Pac-Man, hits on August 9. We'll let you know when more Arcade games crop up. ...

Wiimote camera functionality further hinted at in official documentation for Nintendo's forthcoming console

Since Nintendo's unveiling of the Wiimote microphone for its forthcoming console, rumours of camera functionality have been persistantly whizzing around the internet. Now, further fuel has been poured onto the flames of speculation in an official developer document for the Wii.

According to the document, obtained by IGN, the Wiimote is apparently capable of 'viewing' a one megapixel 'image', measuring X axis coordinates of 0-1023 and 0-767 on the Y axis. It's unclear whether this information can be interpreted into an actual visual form, but its interesting nontheless.

On top of that, there's a bunch of other tidbits about the console in the documentation. For starters, the Wiimote will be powered by two AA-sized batteries, which can apparently last for up to 30 hours when pointer functionality is enabled on the controller, and 60 hours with just the accelerometer features in use. It seems the controller's rumble can also be turned on or off, presumably extending the battery life that little bit further.

Interestingly, the Wii's sensor bar contains four LEDs, serving a number of features. As well as indicating which player is interacting with the console at a given moment, they also show how much battery power remains in the controllers at the console's start up. 75% and upwards, four LEDs will illuminated, 50%-75%, three will light, while 25%-50% is indicated by two and one LED represents anything below that.

There's also a bit more information regarding the synchronisation routine necessary for the console to interact with the Wiimote. Under the front flap on the Wii, you'll find a 'SYNCHRO' button - simply press that then hit the 'SYNCHRO' button inside the battery flap. Each controller is then assigned a unique ID number. It seems that you'll also be able to hold down the '1' and '2' buttons to perform the same task, reducing the need to fumble round the back of the controller.

Rounding up the Wii info shower, it seems the Wiimote contains 6kb of memory, which could be related to the speaker or might even be used to store personal data - as has been suggested repeatedly on the 'net - for that extra dollop of Wii personalisation.

With plenty more apparently to be revealed about Wii, we're getting anxious for Nintendo's planned September meeting where, hopefully, all our questions will be answered. ...

Electronic Arts will bring the next blockbuster instalment in the Half-Life series to next-generation consoles and PC simultaneously, and also has a new role-playing game based on The Lord of the Rings in development.

During a press-packed summer showcase in San Francisco last week, Valve Software - for which EA distributes product - revealed that Half-Life 2: Episode 2 would launch on PS2, Xbox 360 and PC this Christmas.

Meanwhile, the game previously known as Project Gray Company was confirmed as The Lord of the Rings: The White Council - an action RPG due out on next-gen formats in autumn 2007.

The news drove the absence of Medal of Honor: Airborne from EA's 2006 schedule - a recent sore spot - completely off the agenda, while the summer showcase also gave the publisher the opportunity to show off its latest sports games, film licences and next-generation visions of the Battlefield and Need For Speed franchises.

Half-Life 2: Episode 2 is the second episode in Valve's trilogy of Half-Life 2 expansions - once dubbed "Half-Life 3" by the developer - and EA had been expected to distribute it.

However, the decision to release to console consumers in addition to its PC base has the potential to add significantly to EA's side of the deal.

The publisher had traditionally lost out on sales of the PC versions of Half-Life 2 games due to their availability through Valve's Steam digital distribution system. Valve compiles stats based on the service's use that have currently logged more than 1.6 million game sessions for Episode 1 alone.

Whether or not the title is released through next-gen console digital distribution models - and there's no indication either way - it will certainly be greeted as good news for EA by analysts.

This is not least because the console packages will be more complete than their PC counterparts - as well as Episode 2, consumers will receive Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode 1 in the same bundle, along with much-delayed multiplayer shooter Team Fortress 2 and a new spin-off title, Portal.

Elsewhere, EA's interest in The Lord of the Rings shows no signs of abating - if The White Council ships on time, 2007 will be the sixth consecutive year that EA has produced at least one game based on the film franchise.

EA also confirmed that many of the usual suspects would make up its autumn/Christmas line-up, including Madden, NASCAR, NBA Live, NCAA Football, NFL Street, NHL, Tiger Woods and FIFA.

Xbox 360 and PSP SKUs of The Godfather are due out in September, while Need For Speed Carbon - an easy tip for the Christmas number one, going on previous years, will arrive in autumn along with Battlefield 2142 and Superman Returns.

EA also has an online MMORPG based on Warhammer in development, courtesy of recently acquired Mythic, along with co-op shooter Army of Two, Medal of Honor: Airborne, and titles based on The Sims.

Other highlights of the schedule, though they played less of a part in EA's summer showcase, include Crysis - from the developers of PC shooter Far Cry - and Will Wright's highly anticipated Spore. ...

THQ president and CEO Brian Farrell has offered a ringing endorsement of Nintendo's next-generation Wii console, commending the Japanese giant's back-to-basics approach to "fun" gaming as a welcome tonic in an industry which "takes itself too seriously".

Speaking in an exclusive interview with our sister site Eurogamer TV, the US publisher boss revealed his company's enthusiasm for the system, which it intends to support heavily from day one with its biggest properties.

"We love the Wii - it's all about having fun, right? Games are about having fun and sometimes this industry takes itself a bit too seriously," Farrell said. "If you watch people with that Wii controller, it's just fun to play with.

"A lot of our properties, like Cars and Spongebob and others, really map well... Potentially even wrestling - I can think of a lot of great things to do with the controller for that product as well," he added.

Nintendo's positioning of Wii, as well as Sony's inclusion of motion-sensing as standard in the PS3 pad, presents an interesting series of challenges to a multi-format publisher like THQ, used to releasing the same content across a number of systems.

Farrell welcomed the strategies of all the format holders and while refusing to rule out platform exclusives, admitted that unique features rather than unique titles would be the focus.

"It's all about competition between the platform holders and we love that actually," he insisted. "Their job is to drive hardware into the market - for a software publisher, that's nirvana. The more hardware, the more intense the battle to drive hardware into homes, the better the addressable market for companies like THQ.

"Because of high development costs it's going to be harder and more costly for someone to do an exclusive title," Farrell continued. "We've done exclusive titles in the past; we're always open to having those discussions. I think what you'll see with the Nintendo Wii, though, because it is a unique platform, you'll see unique if not exclusive titles."

Elsewhere in the interview, with key titles like Company of Heroes, Saint's Row and S.T.A.L.K.E.R on the horizon, plus the expectations for current Pixar blockbuster tie-in Cars, Farrell was bullish in his outlook for the year ahead and on his firm's ability to close the gap on arch-rivals Activision and EA.

"Our goal at E3 was to put a flag in the ground as a true next-generation games company, and I think we've done that," Farrell claimed. "He who has the best games wins - that's what's great about this industry. We've built out our global infrastructure, we have a world class development organisation, we understand what gamers want. So once you have that infrastructure and that know-how in place, it's all about the games." ...

Microsoft has confirmed the latest figures denoting the continued success of its Xbox Live service, citing an attach rate of 60 per cent as the company strives to add further functionality and user benefits.

Significantly outperforming the service offerings on the original Xbox console, which only managed approximately a 10 per cent attach rate amongst console owners, the next-gen machine is drawing in serious crowds.

The company attributes the growth to a combination of offering free "Silver Level' access to all Xbox 360 owners and its comprehensive Marketplace and Live Arcade services.

According to Microsoft, the Live service has hosted over two billion hours of gaming, including over 500 million games of Halo 2. It' also handled over 900,000 voice and text messages per day, and now that the Xbox 360 is readily available at retail, the numbers are only expected to grow.

The Xbox 360 was recently given its biannual service upgrade, offering much requested functionality to the Live service such as background downloads and a better organised interface.

Marketplace content, such as game expansions, demos, game and movie trailers etc have been key drivers to the success of the service, as have the casual games available through Xbox Live Arcade.

The Arcade service is set to expand rapidly over the coming months, Microsoft announcing Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays earlier this week, which will provide five new games in as many weeks and could help to increase the free-download to paid purchase content conversion rates, currently at around 21 per cent.

As part of Microsoft's ongoing commitment to the online community, the Live service is set for further expansions in terms of both functionality and available content, pushing the firm rapidly towards its projected target of six million Live accounts by 2007 and opening up immense potential for additional revenues through the now Microsoft owned in-game advertising specialist, Massive Inc. ...

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