The NXE is go and we spent rather a lot of time making some Avatars of the team, and here are the results. (more…)

It seemed like the Xbox Live cull last night largely affected the nicer people of the world, as I encountered a complete bunch of thwunts online last night. Particular praise must go to MAULEDUP, who after taking a 2-1 lead in the first half of a game of FIFA, decided to pass the ball around his back four for the rest of the game, before sending me a message informing me to ’sell your xbox mate’. Lovely.

After trying a bit of ten-on-ten and having to abide a group of laughing chimps who found it funny to play with the offside rule switched off, I was actually hoping for a Live disconnect around my parts. No such luck.

As many of you will no doubt have noticed there have been some issues with Xbox Live over the weekend. I didn’t personally know anything about it until I was unceremoniously booted out of a co-op game of Fable II mid-quest. Then I noticed all the hoo ha online as rather panicked MS reps ran around shouting “don’t panic, don’t panic!” Some have suggested we should be concerned about these events so close to the launch of the NXE. I would hazard to suggest that it’s precisely because of that console altering event that we’re having troubles right now. (more…)

As Tim sits behind me in the 360 pod playing Battle Fantasia, it struck just how little its cartoon animals and hooker-looking femmes fatale appeal to me these days. Perhaps it’s just a case of my tastes changing with age, but I think it might run a little deeper than that. Where once I had considered Japan the mecca of gaming greatness, now I look a little closer to home.

Sometimes I like to put things into lists in my mind, to pass the time. This morning, I decided to list the games that I liked that had been released since September this year. I’m basically a man with the brain of a child, it would seem. Anyway, I started at FIFA, and then it’s Midnight Club, Gears Of War 2, Fable 2, Guitar Hero World Tour, Dead Space and quite possibly Left4Dead, which arrived with us yesterday. Not one from Japan. And while the DNA of some - GH4 in particular - might find its origins in the East, the shift of power in the industry is impossible to ignore.

It’s not a new topic, but one worth discussing nonetheless. It seems crazy to me that I no longer dote on Nintendo and Capcom as I did in my adolescence. I still like the same types of games, after all. Or maybe I don’t. Maybe I only like shooting people in the head. Guess I’ll just have to wait for Resident Evil 5 to find out.

That is all… almost. See it for yourself here.

 So, we in our ever-competitive office, have taken it upon ourselves to prove our manliness with Gears Of War 2’s Horde mode. The premise is simple. Normal difficulty. Blood Drive as the map. Just you, no team-mates. How long can you last?

We cordially invite you to join us. As proof, you’ll need to take a snap shot of the results screen when you finally give up, showing the level, players and score multiplier (as proof of difficulty).  Highest level will get a mention in the mag, and will live forever as the temporary, but much-revered, King of Gears Of War 2.

Let the bloodlust begin!

w00t! PS3 Suxx, LOLz!

Now we have that out of our system  we thought you may be interested to know that Gears Of War 2 beat out LittleBigPlanet in the UK charts last weekend (week ending November 8). Perhaps not the biggest surprise given the huge popularity of the original Gears, the larger install base of the Xbox 360 and the fact that LBP is a new IP that many don’t know quite what to make of.  The Xbox 360 version of Fallout 3 also outsold its PS3 counterpart for a second week after reports of the PlayStation version being somewhat inferior. Both remain in the top 15 across all formats. The Xbox 360 had a total of 11 games in last week’s top 40 compared to 10 for PS3, 5 for Wii and 8 for DS. You can see the full top 40 as well as breakdown’s for each console at ChartTrack.

A.L.I.C.E. is an artificial intelligence program tat can be found at Pandorabots.com and we thought that to usher in the inevitable rise of the AI superpowers we should offer a gaming welcome by interviewing A.L.I.C.E. to find out her views on the Xbox 360. Here’s what we found out. (more…)

Our latest masterpiece reached the shelves of all good newsagents and supermarkets this morning featuring an Exclusive Review of Lara Croft’s latest adventure and many other fine bits and bobs besides. You can see a fuller list of this month’s great features and interviews here. Hope you all enjoy it and please register on the forum or write in if you have any feedback you’d like to give on anything in the mag.

With all the talk of the games industry maturing (a topic I do have a tendency to talk about a lot and that I’m very passionate about) I sometimes forget where I began. Videogames used to be about something other than gripping plots, sophisticated control mechanics, smart AI and political comment. I have Microsoft and its affiliates to thank for reminding of the pure joy of playing games after I played Fable II and Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.

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