Gaming News Round-Up: September 15th, 2004

Today's round-up includes space trading successes, Doom-ed acting choices, some Ninja new content served up via Xbox Live, and a definitely not final spin-off for Final Fantasy. - Icelandic-based MMO developer CCP has announced that its space-based PC online game EVE Online has reached 50,000 active subscribers. Apparently, this translates into a 45% growth since the beginning of the year, reasonable for a game released in May 2003 among a glut of other MMO titles, although far short of the 500,000+ worldwide subscriptions for a title such as Final Fantasy XI. It's also noted that a lack of separate server 'shards' for the game has resulted in "close to 12,000 concurrent players in the same virtual 3D world", as of September, arguably an impressive technical feat. - The Hollywood Reporter relays that Karl Urban, known for his role as Eomer in the Lord Of The Rings film trilogy, will star in Universal Pictures' movie adaptation of id Software's classic FPS Doom. Apparently, Urban will play "John Grimm, the leader of a special ops team... dealing with alien demons" in the movie, which starts shooting in late October, and is due out in summer 2005. - Tecmo has revealed a continuation of the bonus Xbox Live content for its critically acclaimed action title, Ninja Gaiden. This time, Tecmo's Tomonobu Itagaki has announced the Hurricane Pack Vol. 2 add-on, a short, 30-minute standalone game stage which adds all-new monsters and challenges. Like Vol.1, which included many difficulty upgrades and some AI and camera improvements, this Hurricane Pack will be delivered via Xbox Live to your Xbox's hard disc, in a move that Microsoft doubtless hopes will show the advantages of a more structured online service. - The latest issue of Japanese games magazine V-Jump includes the first details on Final Fantasy VII: The Dirge Of Cerberus, a new Square Enix-created PlayStation 2 title featuring Vincent from the ever-popular Final Fantasy VII RPG. The game appears to be an action title, and is one of the continuing titles that officially make up 'Compilation Of Final Fantasy VII', a list also including the mobile title Final Fantasy VII: Before Crisis, and the CG movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.