Atomic's game news roundup -- 12/10/06

The week: the complete Guitar Hero 2 track list, news about Final Fantasy XII and British game appreciation.

The BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) now awards video games, and this week saw Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter win Best Game and Technical Achievement awards. Fight Night 3 took out the Best Sports Game, Tomb Raider: Legend won Best Original Score and Lego Star Wars II picked up the Best Gameplay award. The night was sponsored by Nokia N-Gage (we’re a little mystified too) and should help push gaming into the spotlight. The entire list of winners and nominees here.

Final Fantasy XII will be released on the PS2 in Australia in early 2007. You can now see foes before engaging them, so you won’t get stuck in random battles. When you do see them, there is a chance they may be fighting each other, picking off other, weaker monsters for kicks.

While we’re going on about Final Fantasy, we’ve heard that Dirge of Cerberus -- Final Fantasy VII should be released sometime next month for the PS2. It’s already been released in Japan, but since then Square has made a few enhancements, including making Vincent run 1.2 times faster and more Advent Children style cinematics.

There’s a new trailer available for Rockstar’s ambiguously titled Canis Canem Edit, the game formerly known as Bully. We’re sure we’re somewhere in the queue for one of Jack Thompson’s legal-ish letters now that we’ve mentioned it. Interestingly, it’s been classified M, not MA15+, in Australia.

Neverwinter Nights 2 should now be available for pre-order, and anyone who does will be able to download the mod toolset a month before the game’s launch. Pre-order-ers will also get The Merchant’s Friend, “a special feature enabling players to obtain powerful items crafted especially for each of the 12 classes.”

On following pages, you’ll find all the screenshots we’ve gathered this week, as well as the complete Guitar Hero 2 track list. Incidentally, we also know the RRP of the game: $79.95 or $149.95 for the game and a controller.