Project Gamerz (yes, it’s a terrible, terrible name, but let’s move on) is a project set up by the Metropolitan Police, involving various technology companies including XLEAGUE.TV – where you’ll find a PDF press release you should at least skim-read.

As far as I can gather, it’s basically the police putting on gaming sessions, to get young people to come anywhere near the police, so that the police can talk to young people. Is this sort of thing common? Though it seems incredibly contrived, surely more contact with the police is a good thing.

And it’s probably not costing the police a lot of money. Companies love to look like they’re doing good work in the community, so the likes of Packard Bell (who are involved in this project) are only too keen to contribute to – and more importantly have their brand associated with – such projects. Again, it’s not a bad thing per se, it’s just the way these things work.

But I’m still left feeling that all isn’t right, and this isn’t the relationship that young people should have to the police. Maybe I’m being stupidly old fashioned. I’d be very interested in anyone’s thoughts – the comments section awaits.

How weird is this: there are three games out this week with ‘lost’ in the title. There’s the Ubisoft’s tie-in of the perplexing TV series, the apparently quite good Xbox 360 RPG Lost Odyssey, and an incredibly belated conversion of Lost Planet for the PlayStation 3.

Impressions of Lost seem pretty mixed so far, but early reports suggest that it’s good looking and atmospheric, but easy and rather short at around 5 hours. Some of the voice-acting is approaching comedic too. Probably one for the fans, then.

There are a few other titles out with niche appeal, including Beautiful Katamari for the 360, flashy 2D brawler Guilty Gear Core for Wii, and Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 for PlayStation 2. Reviews suggest that Asterix at the Olympic Games is surprisingly good too. It has got to be better than Spongebob: Atlantis Squarepantis, anyway.

The popularity of the Famicom (the Japanese NES) in the Far East can’t be underestimated. Nintendo themselves only discontinued repair services for the Japanese console last year. The last official release for the system was in 1994 though, in the form of Adventure Island IV, but since then a flow of pirate carts have steadily appeared in various Japanese retailers. Many of these are merely ‘100-in-1’ multi-game carts or hacks of existing games with sprites and names changed.

Recently, however, a rather sophisticated – not to mention unofficial – 2D conversion of Final Fantasy VII has popped up. Shenzhen Nanjing Technology Co, Ltd – a company that now creates MP3 and MP4 players – are responsible and according to Cinnamon Pirate (the source of this article) the developers have managed to pull of several graphics tricks that the NES really shouldn’t be capable off. Some sprites and music have been lifted from Final Fantasy III, but the storyline, most of the characters, locations and even the Materia system are present.

For an unlicensed effort it seems rather professional.

Well, some sections of the BBC News website anyway. Alright, not hardcore sections like Europe, where people even care about stories in non-English speaking countries. But we can at least do better than Also in the news. Though there is a games story on that page today. Damn it all.

In the Business section is the news of EA’s bid for Take-Two. “Take-Two told EA to fuck off,” the BBC certainly didn’t write. There’s also the news of Microsoft’s discontinuation of the HD-DVD player for the Xbox 360, following Toshiba giving up on the format last week.

Technology has the resignation of Phil Harrison, which inevitably UK:R has covered with a little more aplomb. There’s also a bit about a chat which section editor Darren Waters has with that there Peter Molyneux at GDC. I’ve not read it, so please do let me know in the comments if he actually said anything worthwhile. Unlikely, I know.

The story which features in Also in the news comes from Health of all places. It’s about people using the Wii to help with rehabilitation. It’s so interesting, the BBC even wrote another artice discussing other health benefits of playing on the Wii.

So there you have it: the day there were quite a few game-related stories on the BBC News website. It’ll go down in history.

Three new entries in chart land this week – Unreal Tournament III at #9, FIFA Street 3 at #11 and Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity at #37. Sega have been a bit cheeky with Sonic Riders – the PlayStation 2 version is only £19.99 (although it can be found for £14.99 on the internet) but the Wii version is full price. That probably explains the low chart position. Well, that and the fact that it’s meant to be a little bit rubbish.

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games continues to hold the top spot, followed by Call of Duty 4, Brain Training, Devil May Cry 4 and Wii Play. Midway’s apparently dire Game Party has shot up from #15 to #6, while Cooking Mama 2 is also on the rise, from #33 to #12. Burnout Paradise is already out of the top ten, dropping from #8 to #14.

Over in the single format charts, the lovely looking Patapon enters the PSP chart at #5, while poor movie tie-in Jumper goes in at a lowly #20 in the PlayStation 2 chart. It’s even being outsold by Alvin and the Chipmunks!

Useless videogame accessories have been around for as long as videogames themselves. Who remembers the infamous Game Veil, a piece of black cloth designed for putting over your head while playing handheld games? Or those extra speakers for the original Game Boy, so that everybody in an entire train/bus/school/underground nuclear bunker can have their ears filled with the iconic Tetris music?

The surprise success of the Wii has been something of boon for peripheral makers, with a range of wacky (or should that be tacky?) items to clip, slot and insert your Wii remote into. Things like these:

Inflatable Boxing Gloves

When playing boxing on Wii Sports, physical contact isn’t required – so why would you need padded gloves? My guess is that it’s for people who want to physically punch their opponent in two-player after they give them a hiding. But look: free pump!

Check out: the box-art with Guile on it

Wii Rifle

There are plenty of unofficial Wii light-gun adaptors, but this one caught my attention due to the sheer size of it. Maybe you’re meant to hang it on your wall on a plaque when not using it. This one has a ‘lock and load’ feature which doesn’t actually do anything but does reportedly make a nice clicking sound. It probably goes a bit like this: ‘click!’

Check out: the orange bits

Anti-slip gloves

Sweaty palms? Really cold house? Regular attendee of ’90s rave nights? Then you need these white anti-slip gloves, complete with a suspect unofficial Wii logo.

Check out: the typo on the box

Wii Rod

Not just any old rod, but a premium fishing rod with a separate compartment for a nunchuk. Shame the best fishing game on Wii is still the mini-game in Zelda: Twilight Princess.

Check out: the freaky fish

Sword and Shield sets

Import place Deal Extreme has two different sword and shield combos. The first looks like something you’d find in the toy section of Poundland and lights up like a Star Wars lightsaber. There’s even artwork from Knights of the Old Republic on the cover. Funny thing is, we don’t remember Darth Vader and his cohorts ever taking medieval looking shields into battle.

Set 1: yours for only $20.25

The second set looks much more authentic, but one of the customer comments handily points out that the swords cover up the sensor on top of the remote. It’s probably a good thing that the knifes are made out of foam.

Set 2: not too shabby looking

Air Combat Controller

Are there any realistic fight sims on Wii? Perhaps Pega – the designers of this controller – are just thinking wishfully.

Select quotes from the back of the box:

“Be able to feel conveniently and more sense when you play games.”

“One cupule accompanied, with this you can absorb the controller to the table and teapoy wherever you want.”

Teapoy? We’re guessing that they’re talking about a tray of some kind.

Check out: the control description

Densha de Go! Controller

Train games are popular in Japan, but apart from various realistic PC sims the only one we can recall coming to Europe was Extreme Express on PlayStation 2. Taito’s Densha de Go! series has been running for years, and this accessory was released alongside the early Wii launch title Densha de Go! Shinkansen EX: Sanyou Shinkansen Hen. Hilariously, N Gamer magazine recently tried playing Mario Galaxy with this chunky accessory attached.

Check out: the choo-choo

Sports Gauge Pedometer

Not just any old Pedometer, but a Sports Gauge Pedometer. For reasons unknown to me (and probably the designers) it’s shaped like a bone and has an image of a gorilla on the box. “Can be used both indoors and outdoors,” claims the blurb.

Check out: the sinister gorilla

Cooking Mama Prop Kit

Boxing gloves, shields and aviation controls not weird enough for you? Then how about a plastic frying pan attachment for Cooking Mama? Also comes with “spade”, knife and fork accessories. An official Swiss Army Knife add-on can’t be too far away.

Check out: the “spade”

Wii Kitty sticker

Let’s end on a light note, like they do on the local news. Here’s a lovely sticker of a fluffy kitten that you can stick onto the side of your Wii to make it look less manly. Yours for… just under £8? Jesus, that’s a lot of money. Think of all those starving people in Africa. But then again, look how cute and innocent the kitty is! Ahh!

Check out: the extortion

No FIFA Street 3 for PlayStation 2, PSP or Wii? That doesn’t sound like the EA we know. But given the mixed review scores it’s hardly a blow to any of the systems just mentioned.

The PlayStation 2 actually has the most games released this week – a grand total of five, including yet another Buzz game (Dino Den) along with Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, Godzilla Unleashed and Jumper: Griffin’s Story. The last three are also available on Wii this week, with the Xbox 360 also gets Jumper. It’s based on a movie, if you weren’t aware. (Kermode says it’s rubbish.)

There’s a little treat for PSP owners in the form of Patapon – a game billed as the new Loco Roco. Unreal Tournament III on PlayStation 3 is worth a look too – they’ve even thought to include a story in the single player mode this time round.

GDC 08 is underway in San Francisco, with the most significant piece of news being the announcement of Gear of War 2. The ‘fact sheet’ that Microsoft has issued is almost the opposite, merely pointing out that it’s a 360-exclusive again, uses the Unreal Engine 3 again, and sees Marcus Fenix battling the Locusts again. There’s a little teaser trailer doing the rounds, and it’s down for a November release in both tin and plastic flavours.

There are plenty of other dates doing the rounds too. Ninja Gaiden II has a worldwide release penned in for June, Mario Kart Wii – which now appears to be the official name – is out in Europe 11th April while Wii Fit will join it on the 25th. So where does Super Smash Bros Brawl fit into all this you ask? Well, it doesn’t. Currently Game has it down for 5th May, while Play lists it for the 30th.

Nintendo has also announced that us Europeans will be getting the chance to download Commodore 64 games on Virtual Console. The first two confirmed are Uridum and International Karate, at 500 points (£3.50) a pop. Another WiiWare title has been unveiled – LostWinds from Frontier. From the looks of things the Wii remote is used to control the wind to help character Toku solve puzzles and defeat the evil Balasar. It looks quite swish, actually. Another good idea comes from Fable 2 – you can earn virtual money by playing various Xbox Live Arcade games.

Some awards were handed out at the show as well. Have a look below:

Game of the Year – Portal
Best Game Design – Portal
Best Debut Game – Crackdown
Best Audio – Bioshock
Best Downloadable Game – flow
Best Technology – Crysis
Innovation Award – Portal
Best Visual Arts – Bioshock
Best Handheld Game – Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
Best Writing – Bioshock

What, no Ninja Breadman?

You can’t argue with £18. Not only because it’s a quantity of money, and therefore lacks the ability to formulate – let alone defend – an opinion of any worth. I am funny. But £18 for the Xbox 360 version of Sega Rally wasn’t to be ignored, so it was mine in the winter sale. I don’t know what else to call it – it’s not the January sale, and not even necessarily post-Christmas any more. But I digress. I done buyed it!

It had been a long time since I’d played a Sega Rally game – my last encounter might even have been on the Saturn, as I have a feeling I managed to skip the Dreamcast version. So long that I was surprised that you race other cars around a track. That’s what too much Colin McRae Rally will do to you.

But it wasn’t long before I was power sliding around the place. I remember being pretty awful at the Saturn version, so either this is easier, or I’m better. I’m not better. Though I did buy my Saturn quite late and with quite a few games, so there’s every chance that I just didn’t play it enough to get any good at it. I sold my Saturn for even less though, which turned out to be a stupid decision. I’m sure I only got about thirty quid for it with a load of games. And all to buy a PlayStation. I had Steep Slope Sliders for God’s sake! I loved that.

The ‘thing’ about the game is the mentally deforming terrain. Ruts on the scale of small mountain ranges form on loose surface tracks within a lap, and though ridiculous, it’s good fun trying to keep your car under control. It’s a bit like Wave Race. Asphalt tracks, meanwhile, gain tyre marks like tar spills, which noticeably improve grip around corners. It’s all jolly good fun.

All change in the top ten: Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games is #1 again, shoving Devil May Cry 4 to #2. FIFA 08 has risen from #10 to #6, while Burnout Paradise is already on the fall, down four places to #8. The Club meanwhile manages to hold on at #10.

Both Maths Training and Sight Training are on the rise, but last week’s surprise entry PDC World Champ Darts has fallen all the way from #6 to #23. Conflict: Denied Ops is still riding high at #12 despite being a bit rubbish, but on the plus side Donkey Kong Jet Race has dropped out of the top 40.

There’s a few new entries too. Midway’s Game Party proves that people love Wii mini-game collections, going in at #15, and Cooking Mama 2 on DS goes in at #33. If you buy it from GameStation you get Cookies and Cream (aka Kuri Kuri Mix) for free, which isn’t a bad deal.

Ubisoft aren’t as chummy with Nintendo in the way that Capcom or Sega are, but they did help bolster the Wii’s western launch with a large number of titles and continue to heavily support the system. With this in mind, quite a few people asked why Nintendo didn’t lend them the Excitebike name for this muddy racer developed by Left Field – the guys behind, funnily enough, the super slick Excitebike 64. But even without the renowned name attached you might say that they’ve still got a lot of live up to.

Rather than offering a number of control systems each as fiddly as the last, NitroBike has just one – holding the remote on its side like a handlebar. The buttons are used for acceleration, nitros and stunts, whilst turning the remote steers, naturally. Pulling off stunts builds up your nitro bar – letting rip with a burst of speed sends your biker flying through the air at a catastrophic speed and often to the front of the close-knit racing pack. The tricky part of the control system is also what separates the men from the boys: while airborne the pad has to be tilted so that you land at the right angle. Although you don’t come to a stand still if you crash down to Earth it’s not exactly a clever thing to do.

Initially the tracks appear quite typical (snowy mountain, forest, beach, etc) but it doesn’t take long for the more interesting ones to show up such as an urban construction site and a desert-based airplane graveyard. Most have damageable objects but don’t expect physics in the same league as Motorstorm. The opposite in fact – they’re almost laughably unrealistic. The bikes do explode if pushed too hard though, and emit a nice explosion effect when doing so. Sadly the rest of the visuals are a bit rough and ready – there were probably prettier racers on the GameCube.

If there’s one thing NitroBike needs, it’s a personality injection. You can pick and unlock a range of wacky characters – including a punk with purple hair – and some of the bikes are a bit crazy looking but during the races everybody looks almost identical. There’s no speech or commentary either, and the generic rock soundtrack hardly does any favours for the earlobes.

One surprising inclusion, and not to mention the sole saving grace, is online play. You can play against random people or people on your friend’s list, but there’s no way to communicate with one another so it does feel a little soulless. On the plus side there’s no lag and we managed to find a game pretty easily. In a couple of months time though? Well, that’s impossible to say unless somebody has a time machine to lend us.

No, that’s not a late Christmas greeting – Telly Addicts is out on Wii this week. Obviously that’s not the biggest game out – that’s a combination of Battalion Wars 2, Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings and Cooking Mama 2. Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles on PSP is bound to be worth getting your teeth into too.

Also on Wii this week is Midway’s Crusin’ and Game Party. When the first shots of Crusin’ appeared, the internet went into giggle-mode, pointing out the hilariously sub-Dreamcast graphics. Word has it that they’ve used the same set of shots on the back of the box. The original Crusin’ USA did well on the N64 so there’s a chance that it could make it into the charts on name alone.

Just one game each for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 owners – NBA and Dark Messiah: Might and Magic Elements, respectively. There’s also a couple for anime fans, in the forms of Naruto Ninja Destiny on DS and Dragonball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3 on Wii.