And The Rest: Friday News Roundup

Football shirts. Perhaps you buy one every season. This reporter does (it's what pays Michael Owen's wages), and there are many more like us. Well, perhaps it's time to give some of them up. Browsing around today, we discovered Radio 5 Live's "shirt amnesty" initiative. What you do is round up your old shirts (the ones at the bottom of the drawer, or that earmarked for the gardening you never do - whatever) and send them off to Shirt Amnesty, who will transport them to areas in Africa where they can't afford to buy them. It's not exactly game-related, but if it's any consolation we did find it on the website of Football Manager 2005 developer Sports Interactive, and it's a nice way to make a difference for somebody who can't afford to sling £40 at a game and then moan about it on a forum at work all day. More details can be found here.

Basingstoke's finest, Deep Silver, has announced an add-on for Singles: Flirt Up Your Life, currently in development under the working title of Singles: Threesomes and due out in April 2005. For those who enjoyed the original game (which was recently made available for under £20 online as part of an Eidos/Deep Silver online distribution agreement), the prospect of taking the Singles out of the flat and visiting other locations will doubtless prove titillating, and we're also promised more (and more diverse) characters, improved animation, hundreds of new objects and a varied wardrobe for each Single. And apparently it's "more sexy and flirtatious than an E3 Bunny Girl booth babe after several vodkas" and "enhances the original game like a well-fitted Wonder Bra". Come back Will Wright, all is forgiven!

Having let those of us with subscription accounts try the game for 14 days recently, FilePlanet and LucasArts/Sony Online Entertainment have finally opened up the Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided 14-day free trial to the average nobody. So, having made space for the 1915.5MB download (yeeowch), proceed to this page to get your Jedi on. May the high speed internet connection be with you...

Eidos has announced the line-up of artists for its Vietnam-themed war-is-hell-'em-up ShellShock: Nam '67, currently in development for PS2, Xbox and PC at Dutch Killzone developing types Guerrilla Games. The line-up consists of Percy Sledge, Sonny and Cher, Roy Orbison, The Monkees, The Small Faces, John Lee Hooker, The Troggs and others, and Eidos' brand manager reckons that this fits in with ShellShock's goal of delivering "as realistic [an] interpretation of the Vietnam War as possible." Previously titles like Battlefield Vietnam have done much the same thing - with authentic music blaring out of stereos on helicopters in that title amongst other things. ShellShock, meanwhile, is due out in June. Which is this month, isn't it?