And The Rest: Friday News Roundup

Sony Online Entertainment has announced another expansion pack for interminably popular MMORPG EverQuest. "Omens of War" raises the player level cap to 70, and introduces new zones, new epic weapons (available on completion of any of 16 "epic quests"), a new task system, and some other tweaks which are covered in some detail on the game's official website. Omens of War should be available via SOE's digital distribution system in July for $30, and we'd imagine Ubisoft will pick it up as they have with previous expansions for publication in Europe. More details no doubt to follow.

Although it was hard to spot amongst all the E3 line-ups and product announcements, this week also saw the unveiling of Majesco's forthcoming Game Boy Advance Wireless Messenger and Wireless Link peripherals. The former will allow players to use their GBAs to send instant text messages, but the latter is the real boon, offering us wireless multiplayer using any game link-compatible multiplayer game. Previously we'd been frothing at the prospect of Nintendo failing to release the official wireless adapter in the West, so it's nice to see somebody else picking up the slack. Although there's no word on a possible European release yet, "pending licensing approval from Nintendo" you should start to see them at your local importer (or your e-local one) later on this year.

We don't know if we'll get the chance to play it next week (we assume so), but if not you can at least download a movie of Sega's Virtua Fighter Cyber Generation (or "Virtua Fighter Quest") title, available in small and large versions from the Sega AM2 website. It gives you an idea of some of the characters and there are glimpses of fighting, but the untranslated trailer is pretty heavy on voiceovers so we feel like we're missing out. Hopefully we'll have more to say about it following E3.

Atari this week announced an agreement with "fashion pioneer" Marc Ecko to create "Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure", which is apparently a game about graffiti and urban culture and... well, we don't really know. Although the press release is very excited about the game (which Ecko claims he pitched to loads of publishers over the last seven years before Atari agreed to play ball), we barely understand the title (although "getting up" apparently refers to getting your graffiti tag out there and visible), let alone what it's about. Still, with The Collective (of the original, good Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame) at the helm, and a full E3 unveiling on the cards, hopefully we'll share their enthusiasm by the end of next week. The game's due out in June 2005.