Affect will release Seven Lithographs in Shining Island for PlayStation in October, but don't expect to see it outside Japan. To succeed in this 3D adventure you'll need to have all your puzzle-solving wits about you, as well as some agile fingers for the action elements. You control three different characters in an attempt to solve a mysterious murder. Each character has a selection of unique abilities - one has a grasp of ancient languages (to read the lithographs), another is a dab hand at magic spell attacks, etc. The game features over 40 locations, including ancient ruins, a palace, the graveyard and a glut of dungeons.

Fixygarden is yet another breeding simulation set to take Japan by storm. The basic premise is that you are the pioneer of a newly discovered planet and you need to make it suitable for human population. But how do you do that? Fairies, of course! Oh yes, you can breed four different types of fairy to help you with the task at hand. Each fairy is linked to one of the elements (earth, wind, fire or water) and will thus affect the environment around them. You'll need to maintain a subtle balance between these elements in order to avoid forest fires, tornadoes and the like.

In what must be a first for console games, Namco will begin releasing regular updates on their Soul Calibur website, as of September 10. At the moment, we know that they'll offer a new fighting arena and some alternative title screens, but what next? Here's hoping for some extra characters and fancy new moves.

A couple of cracking demos snuck up and slapped us in the face this week, like Freespace 2 - where did that cheeky monkey spring up from? We played it and loved it (even though our humble PCs struggled with the fancy graphics). Midtown Madness finally put in an appearance in demo form and it's also well worth the download time. The other big demo this week is Abomination: The Nemesis Project from Eidos. Click here for all your demo, patch and upgrade needs.