This Week’s Games

Microsoft starts wheeling out their big Christmas games this week, with Forza 3 and Lips: Number One Hits hitting shelves. Forza 3 got a 9 on Eurogamer, even though they said that the difficulty level was a bit bumpy and that the damage modeling looks a bit naff. GamesRadar though seemed to think that it was near perfect, awarding it a 10.

Fans of big sweaty angry men will no doubt want the new WEE, Sorry, WWE game – WWE SmackDown vs Raw 2010. GamesRadar reviewed all three versions, and you should probably take the scores with a pinch of salt – the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 scored 9, the Wii version an 8 and the DS version a 7. Asda are doing the console versions for £25, according to the internet.

Boarderlands, which keeps on being unfairly compared to Fallout 3, has mostly been getting 8s. It has RPG elements, but it’s more of a shooter. I’m willing to bet it’ll sell more copies on Xbox 360 than it does on PlayStation 3. There’s also Pro Evolution Soccer 2010, which isn’t quite as good as FIFA this year. How times have changed. If you still fancy a kick about though, Asda are also doing this one at a reduced price of £27-odd for a limited time.

Another new release bargain is Sony’s EyePet and Camera for £24.99 at HMV. It’s a virtual pet thing, if you hadn’t guessed.

Next week: Tekken 6, Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City, DJ Hero, Wii Fit Plus, Ju-On The Grudge and Agarest: Generations of War.

The ultimate part of Ultimate Fighting Championship rings true – it takes the best parts of wrestling, kickboxing, muay thai and judo and does away with most of their rules. In fact, the only real rule is that you can’t fight like a sissy, punching below the belt, biting, scratching and pulling hair. That’ll be me out of the octagon ring in less than 10 seconds, then.

It’s in a gamer’s nature to skip past tutorials but it’s worth playing through the one that appears at the start. Success depends on knowing how to reverse attacks, get out of grapples and perform takedowns and submissions. Getting out of a submission involves wildly rotating the right analogue stick – I’m sure that a lot of joypads are going to have a few years knocked off their life expectancy because of this.