Its been a fairly quite E3 thus far by Ubisoft's standards, perhaps because they announced such a veritable selection of new products in the run up to the show, but one newcomer that has lifted its head above the thronging masses from Ubi is Notorious: Die to Drive, an 'urban-style' combat game. Rap and street chic will pervade the new racer, which will be literally dripping in 'bling' and 'gangsta' attitude, we're reliably informed.

The aim of the game will be to cruise and race around the city streets, shooting rival gangs, racing enemies and building piles of dirty money. A console release at the beginning of 2005 is scheduled, and the game is being developed in-house. More on this title will be shown at the expo. The game will offer a varied and immersive reward system where a player can move up in reputation, wealth and power, bringing the finest bling and millionaire cribs to the notorious few who can survive this dangerous game. How delightful.

West coast 'hoods will provide the setting, and thirty cars will be available to choose from, whilst twenty weapons can be wielded. Seven game modes are promised, alongside 45 stages through which to prove that you rule the streets.

"Ubisoft has a long history of making great racing games and we wanted to capitalize on that by bringing something unique to the genre, which accounts for nearly 20% of the U.S. console market," mused Tony Kee, Vice President of Marketing. "The killer soundtrack and mature theme gives Notorious: Die to Drive the kind of edge that arcade fans are looking for."

In other, less information-rich news, Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow will be out on the come June 11th, and on the come July 1st in Europe. New content available on both new formats includes a new Jungle mission, post mission scoring and stats, new pathways through old missions, and a new bomb disarming gameplay feature which will work similarly to the lockpick system.

Exclusively to the PS2 will be in-mission updates delivered through the USB headset and new dynamic lighting; the first such game on the PS2. The GameCube version meanwhile will be utilising the GBA system link feature delivering new missions to the GBA edition, and providing an alternative control method. More on this soon.

By Luke Guttridge