This Week’s Games

Without a whiff of sarcasm, it’s a good week for new releases. Fable II has been a long time coming but looks like being worth the wait, and both Far Cry 2 and EA’s twisted survival horror romp Dead Space have been getting a lot of positive attention.

Then there’s Midnight Club: Los Angeles - and also the PSP version Midnight Club: LA Remix - while Spider-Man: Web of Shadows has crept out on all formats. Reviews have been mixed to say the least - everything from 51 to 98 percent. Yes, really.

On the DS there’s Transformers: Animated and Atari’s What’s Cooking? Jamie Oliver, which will probably do all right in the charts.

Next week: Fallout 3, the presumably rubbish James Bond 007: Quantum of Solace, Crash Bandicoot: Mind Over Mutant and Manhunt 2.

A medieval variant of Master Chief’s amour and energy sword have been spotted in Fable II. Rumour has it though that you can only unlock “Hal’s armour” - as it’s known in the game - if you’ve pre-ordered the limited edition pack, which has had several items dropped since being first announced. Annoyingly.

Fable II is out today; so far review scores have been glowing including a 10 from Eurogamer and a 9 from EDGE.

UK Chart

Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 has tackled FIFA 09 to take the top spot in the chart. How long for, though, is the question; undoubtedly FIFA will be top dog again sometime in the run up to Christmas.

FIFA 09 drops to #2, with Saints Row 2 in at #3. Bioshock - which was released on PlayStation 3 last week - is the next new entry at #14.

Golden Axe: Beast Rider, which has received some appalling reviews, only manages an appearance in the Xbox 360 chart at a poor #17. What’s the betting that this will be one of the first games reduced in the Christmas sales?

There’s quite a lot of older games, most of which are knocking on for a year old, around the arse end of the chart: Assassin’s Creed, Ratatoulille, Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, Halo 3 and The Simpsons Game to be precise. I’m guessing Halo 3 is being bundled with Xbox 360 consoles, as it has gone from #22 to #16 this week.

Something Awful have knocked up a guide to what was required in order to get the ‘Nintendo Seal of Quality’ stamped on their game, throughout Nintendo’s console history. You can see it by clicking on these words.

Best bit: “Works extra good when blown on.”

The infamous seal was never intended to show consumers that a game was of a decent quality; it was used to prove that it was a legit copy, and not a pirate, and that it would actually work when you plugged it in.

Play-Asia just popped an email in my inbox promoting two new upcoming Dreamcast releases: 2D Shooter DUX and watery puzzler Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles.

Last Hope developer NG:DEV.TEAM is at the helm of DUX. The choice of colour palate is bold (to say the least) but there’s a nice smooth visual style. Wind and Water, on the other hand, started out as a GP32 release, but is being improved with new cut-scenes, extra modes and a new character - Mr. VMU.

As for the GP32 itself, there’s a new one of those on the way too, known as the GP2X Wiz. Don’t expect it to appear on the shelves of Game and Gamestation any time soon.

This Week’s Games

So, Saints Row 2 has turned out to be pretty good. Early previews suggested that the developers had gone down the twisted and brutal path by turning up the violence, but from the looks of things in the last few months of development they’ve had a change of heart and turned it into a crazy fun-fest. A limited edition version is also available which comes with a USB stick shaped like a bullet. Word.

Pro Evo 2009 is also out this week. Review scores have been high, as always, but this year FIFA 09’s have been higher. Bioshock on PlayStation 3 is out as well, which is well worth getting - it’s one of the best FPS games in years - and it also contains a trailer for Bioshock 2: Sea of Dreams. Golden Axe: Beast Rider looks like one to leave though. No reviews means avoid.

On DS there are not one, not four, not seven, but three Littlest Pet Shop games out. I bet they’re all completely different from one another.

Next week: Fable II, Far Cry 2, Dead Space and the mysterious Disaster: Day of Crisis on Wii.

UK Chart

Last week not one but two NBA games were released. It’s slightly interesting to see that in the Xbox 360 chart Take 2’s NBA 2K9 has outsold EA’s NBA Live 09, whereas in the PlayStation 3 chart it’s the other way around. And by the word interesting, I mean not very interesting. At all.

You might be surprised though to learn that the PlayStation 2 version of Lego Batman has outsold the Wii one. It’s the Xbox 360 version that’s the most popular, however, and only in the DS chart does it manage to outsell FIFA 09 - which is still this week’s #1. Batman has to settle for #2, while Fracture fails to enter the top 40 at all.

Grand Theft Auto IV is back on the rise, up from #25 to #14, while Pure has fallen from #9 to #23. The arrival of Lego Batman has also had an effect on Lego Indiana Jones, which drops from #15 to #24.

Does Bomberman ever have trouble getting through airport security?

This Week’s Games

Lego Batman is this week’s big game, available on all formats. Game are giving away a free keyring (a Lego Batman, unsurprisingly), with the PSP and PlayStation 2 versions available for a nice £19.99 each. Anybody want to guess what the next Lego game will be? I would say Harry Potter or Spiderman but other publishers already own those rights. Lego Transformers would be very cool…

There isn’t a great deal else out. Fracture has been getting some very mixed reviews, while Korg: DS-10 isn’t an actual game as such - it’s a music making thing. NBA Live 09 and NBA 2K9 are both out though, thus proving that publishers are idiots. Then again, there’s nothing like a bit of friendly competition.

Next week: Pro Evo Soccer 2009, Saints Row 2, Golden Axe: Beast Riders and a late appearance for Bioshock on PlayStation 3.

You may have heard that Sainsbury’s cut the price of Xbox 360 and Wii consoles this week by £30 a piece. But if you’re struggling to find one, then don’t blame Sainsbury’s staff for snapping them up - Game, GameStation and other high street stores have confessed that they sent out store managers to pick up a few to supplement their own stocks. Which is out of order, and greedy, really.

Keep trying though - Sainsburys have hinted that more price cuts may be available soon.

UK Chart

FIFA 09 plays a good game of football, so it can only be a good thing that it has become the fastest selling FIFA so far. Furthermore, it has become the 3rd fastest selling game on Xbox 360 (behind Halo 3 and GTA IV), with 42% of sales being for Microsoft’s box. The PlayStation 3 version was the second best selling at 40%, followed by 11% PlayStation 2, and 3% PSP. The most surprisingly thing though is that the Wii version - which has extra modes - is currently the least popular.

Despite being out for over two weeks, Samba de Amigo, Sonic Chronicle, Wario Land and DeBlob have only just made their top 40 appearances - Samba at #18, Sonic at #31, Wario at #36 and DeBlob at #38. Super Mario Galaxy is back at #21, suggesting that somewhere is flogging it off cheap.

The DS chart continues to be a source of amusement with My Secret World in at #24 and Hell’s Kitchen at #49. Zubo doesn’t enter, because it would seem that EA forgot to tell the world that it exists.

Are you a PC MMO player that can’t be bothered to pop down to Tesco for food supplies for your 48 hour intense leveling-up sessions? Well here’s news for you, lardy - you’re going to die a sad and lonely life. But you probably knew this already, so here’s some real news - Biosilo Foods are about to launch Gamer Grub, a range of snacks pots that you can devour without making your fingers and keyboard messy.

Although the snacks contain a boat load of vitamins, the contents don’t sound particularly healthy. The Sports PB&J pot, for instance, contains peanuts, peanut butter chips, strawberry jelly chips and bread cubes. Ideal for a sugar rush, maybe, but not as a meal replacement. The Racing Wasabi pot sounds a tad more healthy - wasabi soy almonds and peanuts, wasabi peas, honey mustard sesame sticks and pita chips. The other two are Action Pizza and Strategy Chocolate. Which contains loads of chocolate.

Obesity beckons.