While Ubisoft continue to employ increasingly complicated subtitles, Codemasters seem to be keen on simple, four-letter subtitles. First Colin McRae: DiRT, and now Race Driver: GRID. I approve.

Further, I suggest that this pattern should continue. For example, their fancy new license could be used for Formula One: FAST. And everyone except me seems to want him to make a comeback, so how about Dizzy: CUNT?

Just two games of note this week – Race Driver: GRID and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars on both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Looks like the DS version of GRID isn’t out for another month yet. You didn’t know there was a DS version? Oh!

On Wii there are another couple of rubbish budget games from the people behind Ninjabread Man. This time it’s London Taxi: Rush Hour and Kidz Sports International Football. Great. Activision has also slipped out Monster Jam on Wii, DS and Xbox 360, which sadly has nothing to do with fruit preserves.

Next week: Ninja Gaiden II, Lego Indiana Jones, Everybody’s Golf 2 and some Dragon Ball Z thing.

This is a little batshit crazy. Thankfully it seems fairly tongue in cheek, though just the idea of Guitar Hero on the DS with a hand grip add-on sounds hugely embarrassing.

Afrika was one of the first PlayStation 3 games to be shown, and not only is it still yet to be released, but it’s also still not clear what the game entails. It’s fair to say that it’s either going to be about hunting wild animals or taking photos of them though.

Sony has now confirmed that when it is finally finished it won’t be appearing in Europe. Which is a shame as the PlayStation 3 certainly needs more games that are a little bit different to the usual assortment. The delay is a complete mystery as going by this video it doesn’t look like a particularly complex game. Maybe Sony are trying too hard to recreate virtual elephant dung…

Shazam! Wii Fit has vanished completely out of the top 40 chart. Clearly Nintendo are having trouble keeping up with demand, rather than everybody deciding to spend £70 at Burger King instead.

GTA IV continues to hold onto the top spot, PC thing Age of Conan goes in at #2, Haze at #3 and Rock Band at #6. That’s pretty good considering it’s only available on Xbox 360 in Europe and costs the same price – if not more – than the console itself.

No sooner has Boom Blox entered the chart than it’s on its way back out, dropping from #21 to #30. Top Trumps: Doctor Who is also on a downer going from #22 to #28. Sega Tennis Superstars is back on the rise up from #27 to #15, while Iron Man and Call of Duty 4 have both fallen out of the top ten. Poor old Speed Racer, which many reviewers actually liked, fails to shift from the arse end of the chart. What’s the betting that the PlayStation 2 version – not due until the DVD release – gets canned?

Interesting to see that the Game Boy Advance chart is still running, but less interesting that half of the titles are Pokemon related.

Renowned artist Maurits Cornelis Escher died in 1972, so not much, although if he were still breathing he probably wouldn’t be impressed with the artwork Sony has chosen for the European version of Echochrome – a game heavily influenced by Escher’s amazing artworks.

That rainbow is false advertising – judging by the screenshots this innovate puzzler is purely in monochrome. And while the Japanese boxart may have been a little bland but at least it didn’t look like a Tampax advert.

If you’re thinking that a game designed by Steven Spielberg would undoubtedly feature aliens, dinosaurs and robots – or even robotic alien dinosaurs – then you’re completely mistaken. Instead the stars are chunky block-like animals, but all signs suggest that these oddly sinister looking creatures aren’t anything to do with Spielberg as early builds were sans character. It’s probably all down to EA’s marketing men, as in case you’ve forgotten, all Wii games have to feature colourful critters of some description.

Boom Blox is a game that requires both aggression and patience although rarely at the same time. You see, some levels involve knocking over stacks of bloxs with as few throws of a ball possible to send precious gems crashing to the ground; others involve carefully removing blocks, Jenga-style, via a disembodied floating hand. The better you do the shinier the medal you receive.

Along the way you’ll come across bloxs that explode when hit, bloxs that vanish, chemical bloxs that go ‘bang’ when struck together and a range of different balls including bomb balls and bowling balls that cause more damage. The laser weapon is a bit pointless though – merely pointing and clicking is nowhere near as fun as taking a swing with the Wii remote.

Granted it’s an incredibly simple game at heart but one that’s perfect for the Wii and has several streaks of genius. The physics for starters are brilliant – often you’ll be waiting with baited breath to see if the last few bloxs will eventually topple over – while stray airborne bloxs have a habit of crashing into spectators. Scouring for weak spots is another joy, as is looking for ways to start a chain reaction. The controls work perfectly taking in both speed and power of your swings and pulls. Later levels throw new ideas into the mix, such as time limits and having to remove blox without causing characters to topple from the top of the pile.

Bad stuff? Well, the presentation isn’t up to the usual EA standard – the menus aren’t anything special and the music sounds like it has been taken directly from MySims. However, on the plus side you can make your own puzzles in the easy to use create mode and host them on WiiConnect24. There’s also an adventure mode with a loose story attached and a wealth of multi-player modes such as co-op. If your friends and family are still to be convinced by the Wii, then there is no better game than this to change their perspectives.

Thought £69.99 for Wii Fit was steep? EA’s Rock Band costs twice as much, although you do get drums, guitar and a mic. Game said they had trouble getting enough stock for pre-orders which goes to show that there’s demand despite the high price tag. It’s an Xbox 360-exclusive in Europe, at least for a while, but if you own a PlayStation 3 you could always import. Probably would turn out cheaper too.

Talking of cheaper, Battle of the Bands is out on Wii this week at a somewhat more affordable £24.99. Or £12.99 from Play’s bank holiday sale. Reviews haven’t been too shabby. Unlike Haze, which has had some very critical reviews. Like a 4.5 from IGN, who felt the need to point out that all the vehicles have the same horn noise. Eurogamer didn’t like it either, giving it a poor 4. Ouch.

Next week: Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, GRID and some budget muck for Wii.

The first batch of reviews for the oft-delayed Haze are in. Sadly, so far signs suggest that the delay hasn’t done the game any favours with a current average review score of 55% on GameRankings. This includes a poor 4.5 from IGN who claim that the story is weak, the AI poor and the visuals are hampered by glitches. They take particular dislike to the flamethrower, which apparently emits flames resembling those found in first person shooters from around 10 years ago. It’s like Lair all over again!

Japanese magazine Famitsu gave it a glowing review though, as did an Italian PlayStation Magazine. One of those “exclusive” reviews, no doubt. Free Radical’s Rob Yescombe remains positive: “Haze has had mixed reviews, but even GoldenEye got a 4/10 when it first came out”.

I don’t recall GoldenEye ever getting a 4/10.

Greenpeace have again been shouting at format holders for not making games consoles environmentally friendly enough. Digital Spy’s headline? Consoles ‘contain hazardous chemicals’. My advice: don’t eat them.

The BBC’s story is less retarded. And Greenpeace do have a point: Nintendo are known to be bloody rubbish when it comes to environmental concerns, Sony don’t seem to be applying the same standards to the PlayStation 3 as they do Vaio laptops, and Microsoft are obviously evil. Probably.

Brash Entertainment are yet to present the population with a decent video game, their previous efforts including the dismal Jumper and Alvin and the Chipmunks. It looks like their next game Space Chimps is going to be a real black banana too.

How many clichés did you manage to spot? I counted 14, not including the fact that turning an animated movie into a platformer is a cliché in itself. And Brash have the license for Saw, you say? Can’t wait.

Hooray – Boom Blox has entered the chart on its second week of release at a not too shabby #21. Top Trumps: Doctor Who goes in at #22 and Speed Racer all the way down at #37. That’s a little bit of a shame as it’s the first decent movie license of the year. All of these games, though, have been outsold by High School Musical 2: Work it Out which goes in at #14.

Grand Theft Auto IV remains at #1, followed by a slew of Nintendo titles – Wii Fit, Mario Kart Wii, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games and Wii Play. Iron Man has fallen two places, down from #5 to #7.

Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity and Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 are doing well off the back of being bundled with Wii consoles, currently at #16 and #12 respectively. High street retailers are quite clever when it comes to getting rid of unsold titles. Especially when the hardware is as desirable as the Wii is.