Mahjong madness

This Week’s Games Sega’s Yakuza 2 on PlayStation 2 could very well end up being the last decent PlayStation 2 exclusive. Sure, there are plenty of games still on the way for the aging format, but most are toned-down conversions. If you liked Shenmue then buy it – it has lots in common with Sega’s …

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Pixel perfect

Retro box art can be a great source of amusement, as proved by the artwork for the first ever Mega Man game. The wags over at The Minus World have decided to go one step further and knock up some retro-style artwork for current releases including Bioshock, No More Heroes and Portal. The result? Like …

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Ecolis: Save the Forest

Imagine if every time you wanted to boil the kettle you had to push six or seven buttons, set a timer and then choose a temperature instead of just flicking a switch to set the water boiling. That would be pretty annoying, right? This quirky Pikmin-alike RTS also suffers from being too convolved for its own good.

As the title suggests, Ecolis has an anti-pollution vibe, with idea being to save a forest from destruction by ordering around armies of squirrels and beavers. But whereas Pikmin and Command & Conquer were blessed with simple and effective control systems, Ecolis has been lumbered with a painfully cumbersome way of doing things.

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More reasons to shop at Morrisons

UK Chart Remember when the chart was full of £1 PC games that Asda was flogging? Something similar has happened. See, Morrisons had quite a good deal on last week – selected new Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 games were £25, Wii games £15 and DS games £12. This seems to have had a knock …

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Rocking all the way to the bank

This Week’s Games The credit crunch seems to have rubbed off on the gaming world. Supreme Commander is out on Xbox 360 this week for a hefty £29.99. The PC version, which came out over a year and a half ago, can easily be found for around a fiver. Then there’s a belated appearance for …

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Mario’s a family guy

Family Guy and American Dad creator Seth McFarlane is branching out into animated shorts, with the first an amusing little parody of Super Mario. Sponsored by Burger King! This about a dog on a gameshow is better still.

Dead system, new game

I’ve just found out that – for some bizarre reason – EA released Madden NFL 09 on the original Xbox last month. It’s the first game to be released on the deceased system for over a year – the last game was Madden NFL 08 on precisely 14th August 2007. The last PAL release, if …

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World hold on

UK Chart The top three games in the chart this week are all published by EA – Mercenaries 2: World in Flames at #1, Tiger Woods 09 at #2 and Spore at #3 – but it’s not all good news for the company, with Facebreaker failing to break into the top 40 at all. It’s …

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A pocket full of critters

This Week’s Games I made a mistake in last week’s new game round up by claiming that Fable II is Microsoft’s next big first party Xbox 360 game. It isn’t, but don’t blame me – Viva Pinata 2: Trouble in Paradise has appeared out of almost nowhere. It’s meant to be good though, as is …

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Fuck you, WWE!

Apologies for the harsh language there, but you may (or may not) have noticed that Games Asylum’s YouTube page has been permanently disabled. Occasionally we’d get the odd e-mail from EA and other publishers via YouTube claiming copyright on videos that we uploaded, but they didn’t mind us uploading them. And why would they? We’re …

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Too: Many: Colons

While the PSP is currently surviving on slim pickings, the PlayStation 2 continues to fade out gracefully with news that Rebellion are working on Call of Duty: World at War: Final Fronts for the system. It’s not a conversion of either the upcoming Wii or PlayStation 3 versions of World of War, but a new …

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Tiger on top

UK Chart Too Human manages to get to #1, but only in the Xbox 360 chart. Over in the all formats chart it makes its appearance at #8, with Tiger Woods 09 taking the top spot followed by Mario Kart Wii, Wii Fit, Carnival: Funfair Games and Wii Play. Bejing 2009 has started to fall …

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Achievement article unlocked

Now this is a nice little idea. After registering and inputting your Xbox 360 Gamertag on True Achievements you see what your real Gamerscore is, based on how rare your unlocked achievements are and how hard they actually are to obtain. Have a read of the about page – it’s quite funny. Turns out my …

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When’s a game not a game?

The DS is turning into quite a versatile format for ‘non-games’. Already the honourable handheld has seen brain training programs, interactive cook books, various language teaching guides, driving test quizzes and a guide to quitting smoking. So what’s next? How about Sommelier – a wine tasting guide, in which you can read about thousands of …

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Retrobating – not as dirty as it sounds

Retro Gamer Magazine has updated their website, but instead of a just giving it a coat of new pixel paint they’ve given it a jolly good overhaul including the ability to become a ‘Retrobater’. Stop laughing at the back there. Once a profile has been created you’re then able to upload profiles of classic (and …

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