Odds And Ends: Tuesday News Roundup

Although when we first heard about it we envisaged something a lot stickier and picnic-oriented, Capcom Fighting Jam is apparently a new 2D beat-'em-up for PS2 starring characters from a number of Capcom fighting games. According to reports it lets you pick two characters and then choose one to fight with prior to each bout, and maintain the fighting styles (and indeed sometimes the same sprites) from previous titles with a six-button setup any SFII fan ought to be able to handle. Characters we've seen mentioned so far include Ryu and Guile from Street Fighter II, Demitri and Felicia from Darkstalkers, Guy and Sakura from Street Fighter Alpha, Leo and Hauser from Red Earth, and Yun and Chun Li from Street Fighter III. Chunners obviously appears in other SF titles, but apparently she's in the SFIII camp in this instance.

Death, Jr., the PSP game shown off earlier this year to the massed ranks of the Game Developers Conference, is reaching beyond the boundaries of Sony's forthcoming handheld and scything its way through the movie and comic book markets according to Sony-based production/management company Circle of Confusion and developer Backbone Entertainment. A Death, Jr. movie concept is currently being developed as a potential directing vehicle for Larry Guterman (Cats & Dogs, Son of the Mask), with Ted Naifeh (artwork) and Gary Whitta (story) working on a comic book. For those who missed it, the game tells the tale of a sword-wielding son of the Grim Reaper and friend of Pandora, having begun life as a character/world to show off Backbone's cross-platform 3D tech.

Ubisoft has patched the PC version of Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow to version 1.2, aiming "to reduce the amount of time spent in the menus" and minimise connection issues. A number of useful additions like ban lists have made it in, and you can now do things like join servers directly by IP address, which is surely a must for all PC multiplayer titles. Speaking of which, the handling of shared NAT-based connections ought to improve now, too. You can download the patch here, and despite some earlier confusion this really is the final patch code, and not some dodgy version that snuck out unexpectedly.

Codemasters' chart-topping TOCA Race Driver 2 has been patched to version 1.1, invalidating older save files but adding all manner of new features including replay-saving, the ability to look left and right in bonnet, bumper and in-car camera modes and a number of bug fixes. A full list of changes and download links can be found at 3D Gamers.