Yu-Gi-Oh! goes online

Konami is planning to take its card-battling Yu-Gi-Oh! series online worldwide next spring, the publisher revealed this week, giving fans of the firm's multimedia property the chance to take one another on and swap cards over the Internet.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Online for the PC aims to recreate the one-on-one card battling on the net, featuring single play, match, auto duel and even spectating options, with online chat and card trading facilities also part of the plan. FullStory

Yu-Gi-Oh collectors beware of counterfeits

A NewsChannel 4 investigation into one of the hottest toys this holiday season reveals counterfeiters are trying to capitalize on the popularity of Yu-Gi-Oh cards. And, small children are getting ripped off for big bucks this Christmas. FullStory

New Dragonshard trailer and screenshots

"Dragonshard" will be the first game set in the exciting new D&D campaign setting.

Worlds which are alive generally have issues. You never come across living worlds that are just happy, you know, and want everyone to get along. Eberron, for example, which is the setting for Liquid Entertainment's forthcoming PC RTS Dragonshard, has some serious demons stuffed under the carpet. FullStory

DUEL MASTERS: SHOWDOWN

The next wave of exciting new Duel Masters interactive entertainment is on its way as Atari and Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro Inc, today announced Duel Masters: Showdown will find a home on Nintendo's Game Boy® Advance in March 2005. Duel Masters: Showdown, the highly anticipated sequel to Duel Masters: Sempai Legends, which shipped for Game Boy Advance in October 2004, reunites fans with their favourite characters from the TV show as they battle in tournaments and embark on a mysterious mission in which the fate of the world is in jeopardy. FullStory

Holy stocking stuffer! These are perfect!

Want to impress the comic book lover in your life on Christmas Day? Put the first four issues of ``Batman'' under the tree. Those bright babies, originally published in 1940, cost a trifling $166,000 for near-mint copies, according to ``The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide.''  FullStory

USA BASEBALL OFFERS PERSONALIZED TRADING CARDS

Unique Collectible an Extension of Upper Deck's Personalized Trading Card Program

USA Baseball and Upper Deck announced today the release of USA Baseball-themed personalized trading card templates to be offered as part of the growing Upper Deck Personalized Card Program. FullStory

Upper Deck 'Rewards' Consumers With New Program Designed To Bring Pro Athletes Closer To Fans

Collect Points and Bid On Once In a Lifetime Opportunities To Hang Out With Sports Heroes Or Other Prizes.

Getting a chance to shoot hoops with LeBron James, barbecue with Priest Holmes, chill with Derek Jeter, or hang out with another one of Upper Deck's premier exclusive spokesmen has never been easier. The Upper Deck Company today announced the worldwide launch of its new Upper Deck Rewards Program whereby collectors and sports fan can bid on once in a lifetime opportunities to hang with their favorite sports stars or choose from a collection of cool prizes.  FullStory

NFL Street 2
How does the sequel stack up against the original powerhouse?

Often times when writing about a sequel, a preview might begin like this: "Last year, EA surprised everyone with the release of NFL Street." This preview can't begin that way, because it wasn't last year that EA dazzles us as with its Street version of pro football. Nope, it was this year. That's right, NFL Street 2 is one of the rare sequels that's coming out in the same calendar year. Though this meant a truncated development time, after playing a few hours of NFL Street 2, I'm pretty impressed by the polish and added game modes. Fans of the original can get a second scoop of the NFL arcade-style in just a couple of weeks.  FullStory

CALL OF DUTY: FINEST HOUR — PS2, Xbox, GameCube, PC Raises the bar

There hasn't been many good first person shooting games for a long time, but this game sure raises the bar in one-on-one war combat for gamers everywhere.
In this installment of famous WWII battles you can play as part of an elite US, Russian, or British unit fighting the Nazis at the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium, or at the epic contest at Stalingrad or across North Africa. FullStory

EDGE announce their gaming awards of 2004 (PC, PS2, Xbox, GC)

Notoriously harsh and unremitting, the publication has attracted as many detractors as it has plaudits over the years. However, love or hate them, EDGE's 2004 awards will be of interest to many, either as discussion or ammunition. FullStory

JAPANESE ANIMATION HAS PROVED TO BE A HUGE INDUSTRY IN THE U.S.

Animation in America once meant Mickey Mouse, Snow White and Winnie the Pooh. These days, it's just as likely to mean Japanese fighting cyborgs, doe-eyed schoolgirls and sinister monsters - thanks in large part to people such as John Ledford.

Ledford, who's so busy his dubbing studio in Houston runs 24 hours a day, says the key to the success of Japanese manga and anime in the United States is their widely varied, cutting-edge subject matter. FullStory

Pokemon GC Revealed

Check out the first screenshots from the forthcoming role-playing game. FullStory

Nintendo Unveils MP3/MPEG4 Player For GBA
New multimedia capabilities on a tiny cartridge.

Hot on the heels of the PSP's Japanese launch, Nintendo has announced a device that adds limited multimedia capabilities to the Game Boy Advance SP. Set for release in Japan in February of 2005 is the tentatively named "Play-chan," an MP3 and MPEG-4 compatible playback device that accepts SD cards.

Play-chan looks like a large Game Boy Advance cartridge. It has a slot that accepts SD cards and includes a built-in Broadcom VC01PXX-ES2 hardware decoder. The presence of the hardware decoder sets this apart from similar movie devices that have appeared for the GBA, all of which have made use of the GBA hardware for playback at the expense of video quality. Play-chan also has its own audio-out port, allowing users to attach headphones directly to the unit. FullStory