Odds And Ends: Tuesday News Roundup

The newly created European subsidiary of NCsoft, NCsoft Europe, has announced that it will be attending the European Games Network trade show this September and showing off Lineage II, City of Heroes and Guild Wars. The publisher is planning to launch Lineage II and City of Heroes over here by the end of 2004, with Guild Wars due out in 2005; meanwhile its developer Arenanet has announced a global beta event will run from October 29th to 31st. "EGN offers us the facility to firmly establish our presence in the European marketplace. It is a ready-made opportunity for us to present our products to both trade and media while also doing business with our prospective channel partners," NCsoft Europe COO Sebastien Vidal commented.

Actor Sean Astin (he of Lord of the Rings' Samwise Gamgee fame) has signed on to the voice cast for 2015 Inc.'s forthcoming Vietnam first-person shooter Men of Valor, which is now on track for release in Europe on Xbox and PC this October 29th. Astin will take on the role of radioman Pat Hodges, better known as "Mouth", whose orders gamers will have to pay close attention to in order to complete various missions. "It is obvious that the developers spent just as much time researching and developing the script as they did with the awesome graphics," Astin apparently said. We do love these sound bites. In addition to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Astin has also appeared or voiced roles in Adam Sandler's 50 First Dates, Rudy and The Goonies.

EA has announced the soundtrack line-up for Burnout 3: Takedown this week, giving us a chance to digest the tracks that Criterion's Alex Ward told us had "helped really define the personality and attitude of Burnout this time," when we spoke to him about the game recently. Apparently this time the soundtrack will play like a radio station, complete with a DJ voiced by some chap called DJ Stryker, who sounds very hard. We certainly thought what we heard of it all worked really well when we played a finished version of the game recently, but we'll leave you to make your own minds up:

• 1208 - Fall Apart
• Amber Pacific - Always You
• Ash - Orpheus
• Atretyu - Right Side of the Bed
• Autopilot Off - Make a Sound
• Bouncing Souls - Sing Along Forever
• Burning Brides - Heart Full of Black
• Chronic Future - Time and Time Again
• Donots - Saccharine Smile
• Eighteen Visions - I Let Go
• Fall Out Boy - Reinventing the Wheel
• Finger Eleven - Stay in Shadow
• Franz Ferdinand - This Fire
• From First to Last - Populace in Two
• Funeral for a Friend - Rookie of the Year
• Futureheads - Decent Days and Nights
• Go Betty Go - C’mon
• Jimmy Eat World - Just Tonight
• Letter Kills - Radio Up
• Local H - Everyone Alive
• Maxeen - Please
• Midtown - Give It Up
• Moments in Grace - Broken Promises
• Motion City Soundtrack - My Favorite
• Mudmen - Animal
• My Chemical Romance - I’m Not Okay
• New Found Glory - At Least I’m Known
• No Motiv - Independence Day
• Silent Drive - 4-16
• Sugarcult - Memory
• The D4 - Come On!
• The Explosion - Here I Am
• The F-Ups - Lazy Generation
• The Lot Six - Autobrats
• The Matches - Audio Blood
• The Mooney Suzuki - Shake That Bush
• The Ordinary Boys - Over the Counter
• The Von Bondies - C’Mon C’Mon
• Yellowcard - Breathing