Square Enix is reportedly taking legal action against a lone French retailer for allegedly selling pirated Square merchandise. la société SAKURA, the retail store, operates in Paris and online, specializing in Anime/Manga/Japanese gaming merch.

This week is like multiplatform game week. Pretty much everything that drops this week for both the handhelds and the home consoles are multiplatform: Wanted: Weapons of Fate, The Wheelman, Legends of WrestleMania... Looks like the only console to get some exclusives this week is the DS. But enough chitchat. Let's get right on to the release schedules!

If you're wondering just what's going down in the upcoming Paris Games Developer Conference this June 23 and 24, then we've got a news update regarding the ever-so-important keynote: LittleBigPlanet creators Mark Healey and Alex Evans will be delivering it. They'll be talking about quite a lot of things (besides their own game). Check out all the details in the full article and see what this means to you.

If you think you've gotten an eyeful from last year's Ubidays event sponsored by French video game company Ubisoft, then make sure to set your calendars this May 28 and 29 when the Ubidays event makes a comeback. Ubidays 2008 will be held in the heart of Paris' world-famous Louvre museum and will feature some of the biggest titles that the company has to offer gamers in the coming year. For more details, check out the full article!

The Rabbids are coming and they are as cute and maniacal as ever. The second installment to the party franchise, Rayman Raving Rabbids 2, will be released this coming November 16 on Nintendo platforms Wii and DS. The development is being handled by Ubisoft's Paris studio.

Now, here are three new gameplay videos for Rabbids 2 that should make fans more excited about the game. For those who are yet to understand the joy of playing with bunnies, this is your chance to get more familiar with Rayman Raving Rabbids 2.

Ubisoft had said before that it is not interested in bringing the franchise to other platforms so Nintendo fans, these are all yours. Enjoy!



See the other videos after the jump!

 

Adding to a starry lineup of game publishers and developers planning to arrive at the big Leipzig bash, Atari and Ubisoft will be tagging along with a good share of games to present at Games Convention (GC) 2007 exhibition. 360-Gamer reports that Paris-based Ubisoft will feature a line of promising games, while Atari will sport a few contenders of its own.

Ubisoft's list includes heavy-hitters Far Cry 2, Haze, and Assassin's Creed, while Atari queues Alone in the Dark 5, The Witcher, Eternal Sonata, and Ace Combat 6 for guests visiting the stand. Also, Atari Germany will have Race 07, a well-known WWTC race PC simulator that may be compared to other racers in various platforms. The lists for both companies are as follows:

Atari

• Alone In The Dark (Eden Studios) - PC, PS3, 360, Wii, PSP, DS, PS2
• The Witcher (CD Projekt) - PC, also on mobile
• Eternal Sonata (tri-Crescendo) - 360
• Ace Combat 6 (Project Aces) - 360
• Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 (unknown) - Wii, PS2
• Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 2 (CyberConnect2) - PS2
• Asterix at the Olympic Games (Atari) - PC, Wii, PS2, DS
• My Horse & Me (W!Games) - PC, Wii
• Race 07 (Atari Germany) - PC

Ubisoft

• Far Cry 2 (Ubisoft Montreal) - PC
• EndWar (Ubisoft Shanghai) - PS3, 360
• Haze (Free Radical Design) - PC, PS3, 360
• Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 (Ubisoft Paris) - Wii, DS
• The Settlers Rise of an Empire (Blue Byte Studios) - PC
• Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway (Gearbox Software) - PC, PS3, 360
• Splinter Cell Conviction (Ubisoft Montreal) - PC, 360
• Assassin's Creed (Ubisoft Montreal) - PC, PS3, 360

It's been several months since we last heard from homebrew developer Christ (Christophe Andreani), and the ever-handy AMAP4DS homebrew he's released for our use.

In the event this is your first time reading up on this application, AMAP4DS is a DS-based map reader for viewing metro and bus maps in its ever-growing database.

Given that it's been a while, the site's just updated with several new maps for v3.1 (the latest version release), some of which were credited to contributors willing to help this app along:

• Chile (credits go to Rai Jin)
• AMAP4DS-Santiago-Metro v3.1: Santiago metro map.
• France:
• AMAP4DS-Paris-Noctilien v3.1: Paris Noctilien (night bus) map.
• Germany
• AMAP4DS-Hannover-Tram v3.1: Hannover Tram map.
• AMAP4DS-Kassel-KPlus-Schema v3.1: Kassel KPlus schematic map (Thanks to Georgios Sykomanis)
• AMAP4DS-Kassel-KPlus-Topo v3.1: Kassel KPlus topographic map. (Thanks to Georgios Sykomanis.)
• Greece (credits go to Georgios Sykomanis)
• AMAP4DS-Athena-Metro v3.1: Athena metro (Greek) map.
• AMAP4DS-Athens-Metro v3.1: Athens metro (English) map.
• AMAP4DS-Thessaloniki-OASTH v3.1: Thessaloniki-OASTH (Greek) map.

The maps should be available at Christ's site via the source link below. For the benefit of the DS owners who'd like to try this app out, we've also attached a download link below for AMAP4DS v3.1. Enjoy the application and its subsequent maps!

Download: AMAP4DS v3.1

We really don't know what to make of this. This was found by zomBdog at the Virgin Megastore in Paris, France.

Nintendo's poster boy Link is been surrounded by Sony products. PS2s are on his feet, and PSPs hang on his sword. There are DS games at his feet but this weird store centerpiece is a bit confused. Maybe this is a bit of stocking mistake or maybe a bit of Feng Shui on the store's part.

Anyway, let us know what you think.

Christ, whom we might say is a savior of sorts for literally lost souls, has released AMAP4DS v.3.1. This nifty homebrew app turns the mighty DS into a global compass - a simple, fast and easy way to locate a spot from any of the included maps.

The main changes in AMAP4DS v3.1 are:

• AMAP4DS logo now appears in the linker menus (DS-Extrem, etc.)
• Correct AMAP4DS map name, author name and website name appear in the linker menus (DS-Extrem, etc.)

Meanwhile a new map has been added to its growing list references: AMAP4DS-Paris-Streets AMAP4DS Due to the large size of the map, it has been sectioned in four quarters. You need to copy the 4 files (corresponding to your linker) to your DS. To go from one quarter to another, you need to switch off the DS first and then turn it on again.

If you are nowhere near Paris, you can browse through the rest of the updated maps to suit your geographical position from the link below.

If your locale isn't included and you want to add it download the updated AMAP4DS-Open-Source package. Unzip it to read the "AMAP4DS-Open-Source-Tutorial.txt" tutorial file. Adding a map requires some computer science knowledge as well graphic design skills. But thank heavens Christ has prepared a tutorial file (included in the download package) to help you get started.

Download: [AMAP4DS V3.1 Source Code]

Christophe Andreani dishes out another update for AMAP4DS v2.0. This time around, it comes with major updates that include larger maps, one more zoom level using "thumbnail", centered zooms, variable speed scrolling, and economy mode allowing to close the DS without switching it off. Christ has included a map of the Paris metro, among others, in the past version. But today, AMAP4DS v2.0 includes four new maps for Tokyo Metro (2), Toronto Subway, and Beijing Subway, which you can download here.

AMAP4DS v2.0 also includes new changes on other aspects:

• The debug-mode has been removed for better reliablility
• The unused PA_OutputText() functions have been removed
• The "A" button does a Zoom "+", the "Y" button does a Zoom "-"

For the meantime, due to DS technical limitations, it is not possible to load your own maps into AMAP4DS. We've heard that some of you guys are actually wondering if some maps can be incorporated by Christ in his future updates. Sho'nuff, Christ accepts your suggestions, just e-mail him at christophe@andreani.net.

Download: [AMAP4DS v2.1]