Frogster Interactive announced that their Speedball 2 remake is due this Summer, following up on last year’s acquisition of rights to the Bitmap Brothers classic.

Set for release during the third quarter of this year, Speedball 2 will offer international leagues, a large-scale ranking system and a virtual marketplace, placing emphasis on multiplayer action. It will also offer fully customizable characters ranging from cyborgs to amazons, and more.

Not content with releasing it on last-gen consoles, Vivendi Games sends word that it is bringing Scarface: The World is Yours to the Wii. A what-if sequel to the classic 1983 movie, The World is Yours on the Wii will include graphics and gameplay optimizations, an all-new control scheme that takes advantage of the console’s unique motion-sensitive remote and nunchuk controller design, as well as other alterations for the Wii audience.

“Bringing Scarface: The World Is Yours to Wii is an exciting opportunity to take an already amazing game and add an incredible twist, thanks to the Wii console’s unique Remote controller abilities,” said Cindy Cook, chief strategy and marketing officer for Vivendi Games. “Adding motion-sensitive elements to a game that already includes an incredible celebrity cast, Hollywood production values and non-stop action, delivers a gaming experience unlike any other, truly bringing the world of Tony Montana to vivid life.”

Tony Montana’s cussing will be heard on the Wii this Summer.

Dtp Entertainment has announced So Blonde, an adventure game modeled after a rich, spoiled American teenage girl. Scoop:

She is young, she is pretty and she comes from rich parents: Sunny Blonde has little to worry about in her life. Especially not today: the 17-year-old American beauty is on a luxurious Atlantic cruise with her parents, celebrating their wedding anniversary. But it’s not really a party after Sunny’s taste - she’d rather be getting down with her friends. That’s why she uses every chance she gets to get away from her parents and explore the ship. Just when the ship passes by the Bermuda Islands, the inevitable occurs: a heavy thunderstorm rolls in, the cruise ship is overwhelmed by the sea. Sunny passes out and is transported into one of the vessel’s lifeboats…

Sunny comes to on a gorgeous sandy beach on an island covered with palm trees. She can barely recall what happened. Still slightly dazed, she does register that there are no other passengers anywhere near - she seems to be stranded on the island all by herself.

But an involuntary stay on a completely unfamiliar island, with no way of knowing how she will ever leave it, is one thing. More severe for Sunny is that all of a sudden she will have to make do without all her luxurious accessories: her cell phone gets no coverage, her make-up is all messed up, and there doesn’t appear to be a shopping mall in walking distance. And her troubles are only getting started: through some freak of time and space, she seems to have been transported several centuries back and landed in the middle of an age ruled by pirates and buccaneers.

Quite a problem for Sunny Blonde - and it’s up to PC gamers to solve it in the crazy adventure game So Blonde, which dtp entertainment unveiled today. Renowned adventure game writer Steve Ince (”Broken Sword”) is responsible for the game’s unusual story. Gamers will not only be faced with adventure and puzzling riddles but will see the protagonist grow from rich, spoiled luxury girl to a courageous survivor.

The game is being developed by French team Wizarbox for release later this year.

THQ has announced that it has entered into an exclusive agreement with Games Workshop for the Warhammer 40,000 franchise. This licensing agreement sees THQ getting worldwide publishing rights to the franchise through 2013.

The publisher also announced that a MMO based on the Warhammer 40,000 franchise is in development at its Austin, Texas based studio, Vigil Games. THQ wouldn’t offer any further details.

Namco Bandai has announced Smash Court Tennis 3, the latest installment in its popular franchise, for the PSP. Set for release this Summer, the game will allow players to compete as or against 16 of their favorite Pro-Tennis stars including Federer, Rafael Nadal and Justine Henin.

Smash Court Tennis 3 will focus on customization, letting players dress their characters out of a range of sportswear and racquets. There will be various gameplay modes including Arcade, Exhibition and Pro Tour mode; mini-games will also make their appearance. Gamers will also be able to share their game, going head-to-head using just one UMD copy of the game. There will also be wireless multiplayer through ad-hoc mode.

Though Call of Juarez has been out in Europe for some time now, North America is yet to experience the Western shooter. Ubisoft is changing that: it has announced that the Techland-developed FPS will be released in the region on PC and, previously unannounced, Xbox 360. Both versions will be released simultaneously this Summer.

The silence has finally been broken: an official website for Grand Theft Auto 4 has gone up, teasing us about the trailer. A countdown on the site indicates that the first look at the game will be released on March 29.

Grand Theft Auto IV is scheduled for release this October on both PS3 and Xbox 360. Nothing more is known about the game.

The latest case of games-are-bad-for-you is a survey that suggests that gamers are more likely to drive faster on roads than non-gamers. The survey was conducted by BSM on a thousand drivers also concluded that 27% of motorists under 24 admitted more risk-taking on the road after a gaming session.

The survey also found that many people find games to improve their real-life driving ability; it also revealed that just over half of frequent game-player pass their driving test the first time, compared with 45% of those who play infrequently.

US-based game designer David Perry has rejected these findings. He states that driving behavior is affected by how the driver feels behind the wheel, instead of what he has “played an hour ago.”

Let’s keep it short and sweet: BIOSHOCK IS BEING RELEASED ON AUGUST 21. There you have it.

Speculation holds that Sony Computer Entertainment had removed the rumble function from the PS3 controller due to its legal tussle with Immersion, who apparently holds the patent to the technology. According to a recent announcement, the two companies have kissed and made up and revealed that they will work together on integrating the rumble feature to the “PlayStation family” though no specifics were mentioned.

“We are pleased to have put this litigation behind us,” said Victor Viegas, Immersion’s CEO. “Our new business agreement with Sony Computer Entertainment is specifically intended to enable advanced vibration capability for the benefit of the PlayStation gaming community. We are happy to provide our technology in this regard and hope to make technical proposals very soon with respect to use of our technology in the PlayStation products.”

Neither company disclosed financial terms of the agreement.

Hi-Rez Studios, an independent developer from Atlanta, Georgia, has announced Global Agenda, their mission-based action MMORPG powered by Unreal Engine 3. Set in a future world of espionage and tactical covert operations, the game has been in development for over two years and will feature fast-paced close combat, RPG-style character progression, solo or cooperative missions and competitive play on a massive scale between player-created agencies.

A departure from the traditional online settings of high fantasy, outer space, or military, Global Agenda is set on 22nd century Earth. An invisible war is fought not with armies, but with elite teams of highly trained and well-equipped special agents, where technology is a race, knowledge is power, and everyone has an agenda.

Key Planned Features

• Create, extensively customize, and develop an agent character that is unique within the world. Protect your secret identity through covert activity while increasing your skills and influence.

• Join a player-created agency, compete in a technology race for advanced weaponry, and advance your own agenda.

• Engage in solo, co-op, and team objective-based missions against non-player and other player-created agencies.

• Experience a dynamic world of espionage and intrigue, where in-game events and locations are influenced by the actions of players and agencies.

The developer is attending GDC and will be showing off an in-game video at its booth. A preview of the game can be seen on its website.

Vicious Cycle Software has announced that the Vicious Engine, its middleware solution for cross-platform development, has joined Nintendo’s Wii Third Party Tools program.

“Wii is a remarkable platform with boundless potential,” said Eric Peterson, president of Vicious Cycle. “As a Wii middleware solution, the Vicious Engine will provide developers with a practical approach to exploring the unique and creative possibilities of Wii. Our technology allows developers to focus on what makes Wii special-fun gameplay and innovative peripheral integration.”

The Vicious Engine provides an easy-acess suite of development tools that are accessible to all members of a game development team, helping them meet the demands of short development cycles and tighter budgets.

It seems that Warner Bros. and Microsoft weren’t the only ones getting into music: gaming behemoth EA has announced that music from its best-selling games is now available for purchase from the iTunes store. From Madden to Burnout to Need for Speed, every song heard in the publisher’s games can be purchased including exclusive mixes, non-album cuts and previously unavailable international tracks.

EA plans on adding more songs, scores, themes, beats and ringtones from past and present franchises including Command & Conquer, Medal of Honor, SSX, Battlefield and more.

In more development news, Geometrics has revealed that it has completed work on their Enlighten software for the Xbox 360. It is technology software that “dramatically” enhances the quality of lighting in games, providing physics-based realistic lighting with dynamic lights in real-time.

The company is showcasing the technology on Xbox 360 at GDC. More details can be found on their website.

SpirOps has announced the release of two new components for its AI software: SpirOps Graph Generator and SpirOps Crowd. These two new components enhance the SpirOps AI, allowing it to handle crowds which can range from a few people to several thousands.

SpirOps Graph Generator analyzes in a few seconds any 3D environment and places collision information and paths, so that an AI driven character can find his way. The 3D environment can be several kilometers wide, and can have several levels. With SpirOps Graph Generator, each AI driven character knows exactly, from any position, where he can go, and how to go there.

SpirOps Crowd offers ” brains ” libraries managing basic behaviors of a neutral character within a crowd. These brains contain all major mathematic calculations needed to handle a crowd, from a few people to several thousands of them. Each character of this crowd can move avoiding obstacles and other moving characters. The ” brains ” libraries of SpirOps Crowd can be used as a main ingredient to create any kind of sophisticated behavior of a character in a crowd.