Jake Because it’s nearly Christmas, let’s stop messing around and descend into open criticism of another website. It’s what Jesus would have wanted. MCV is a respected UK trade publication, but this news item about Sony expecting to sell 1 million PSPs really is quite a piece of work. The fact is that the PSP has …
The delayed Forecast Channel is now – NOW! – available on British Wiis. And quite possibly elsewhere, I’m not sure. It’s got forecasts for a decent selection of towns and cities. By which I mean it’s got Swindon and Reading, which were all I looked for. But that’s not very interesting, is it? What is …
This week’s achievements in the field of selling an article in a few words. » PS3 problems resolved – Sony A bold claim indeed. But Eurogamer’s headline doesn’t tell quite the whole story: it’s the manufacturing problems which have been resolved. So not the chronic lack of interesting games, the ludicrous price, the stupid Spider-Man …
Are Rare shit now? Kameo was alright, but didn’t really hold our attention as it should have. Well good news, Warwickshire-based developer fans, Viva Piñata is cute, bright, fun, addictive and full of ridiculous regional accents. Yes, it’s a proper Rare game. At last. The only grumble in stylistic terms is that it isn’t particularly …
Sega are trying to confuse everybody. It’s the only explanation. Yesterday they announced that they’ve got the Alien license, and have at least an FPS and an RPG in development for release no earlier than 2009. Then today they’ve announced that an update of old Sega IP Alien Syndrome is in development, for the intriguing …
No surprises there. If Wii had been released at another time of year, then maybe Zelda would have taken the chart top spot. But as it is, #5 is what it gets, with FIFA 07 hanging on at #1. The best placed Xbox 360 title in launch week, almost exactly a year ago, was Perfect …
A lot of toss passes for game-related news. We throw stones in the glass house atop our ivory tower. » The games industry is absolutely desperate to find someone with a personality. David Jaffe is that person, apparently, because he got a bit drunk and rambled on in front of a camera. Quite a few …
There must have been up to sixteen people loitering outside my local Gamestation just before midnight, all mildly anticipating the midnight launch of Wii in the UK. The atmosphere was literally cold. I’m justifying picking up my Wii at midnight on the grounds of practicality: it’s easier to get it then than during the day. …
I’ve got fond memories of the Fighting Fantasy ‘make your own adventure’ books. But oddly, it’s fond memories of owning them, rather than playing with them. They were just good things. Apparently they’ve recently been re-launched, and now a game is on the way to Nintendo DS and PSP. Well, they’ve not got a developer …
Idiots. There were two Xbox 360-exclusives released last week, and it’s Rainbow Six: Vegas which takes the highest new entry at #10. The charming, wonderful and joyous Viva Pinata hasn’t made it that high in the Xbox 360 chart – it’s at #11. Xbox 360 owners may be the worst people in the history of …
‘Sports entertainment’ is a big daft panto of a thing, so why are its games always so infuriatingly complicated? Because its fans are obsessive idiots. That’s our theory, anyway. But what it means is that, unlike almost any other sports game, it’s all but impossible to recommend to anyone other than fans. Which is a …
Criticising a budget game is a lot like telling a six year old boy to draw a lady then shouting at him to the point that he cries because he failed to equal the subtlety of the Mona Lisa. By that we mean that criticising a budget game is a lot like this: fun. A …
We infrequently have high expectations of cartoon licenses, but with SpongeBob we’re always a little more optimistic. Not much, but we harbour the hope of at least being made to chuckle. And we’re always disappointed. It seems like an attempt has been made to capture the spirit of the show, as the game has a …
Soundvoyager is the only game we can think of that’s vastly improved by lying down and closing your eyes to play it. That’s because it is, essentially, an entirely audio game. So it’s instantly an interesting curiosity, and the most unique of Nintendo’s bit Generation series of accessible Game Boy Advance titles. But it doesn’t …
Japanese RPGs do, of course, have a place in this world – and that place doesn’t have to be just Japan. But there are certain unbecoming characteristics which too many have: stories told through overlong cut scenes and random battles being two fine examples. Enchanted Arms, delightfully, has both. The action-based cut scenes are tolerable, …