It'll be nice to soon be online elsewhere in a place where myself and my gaming colleagues can be trusted to express ourselves like adults, y'know like we were doing all along for the last 5+ years.

If only communication was forthcoming from the off, rather than just diving in and banning people with no explanation. Maybe this whole mess wouldn't have escalated and we wouldn't be leaving. Still, we'll happily spend our Gamespot subscription fees elsewhere. We'll also gladly not earn you any cash by not looking at your advertising while we're at it too.

You have yourselves a nice day now.

A few weeks ago I bought the excellent game Blur. I bought it from Play.com, it cost me £24.99. That doesn't sound weird does it? Well it does if you consider the fact that the game had only been out two weeks at most and already it was retailing at almost half it's recommended retail price. The same goes for the similar Split Second, less than 6 weeks after release and it's already pimping itself like a scraggly hooker "Please buy me, take me home, pleeeeease".

Borderlands, Batman : Arkham Asylum, even the latest Splinter Cell game, these are retailing brand new at sub £20 prices and it's not even been a year since release. Poor old DJ Hero is selling brand new, complete with turntable, for £40 in some places. Even the mighty Call of Duty series, previously impervious to price drops, is having to cut it's price these days. It took CoD4 almost two years to drop in price, MW2 is already hitting the skids. Just about the only game bucking the trend is L4D2 (barely though).

So, R.R.P., what's the point? More worryingly, if you're not making a AAA title that'll shift 3 million copies on release are you going to turn a profit? Is this the slippery slope? Is this going to damage game production?

Oh hey, it's you! I'm glad you've dropped by, you're just in time, hang around a sec while I blah blah on about something. Welcome to Part 1 of a never to be continued series of posts about surprisingly awesome cutscenes.

Today's game in question is Sonic Unleashed.

I was given this as a surprise Father's Day gift, it wasn't a game I had particularly thought of getting, mainly because the reviews for it were scathing. Take Yahtzee's review for example. Still, it was a gift so I was more than happy to give it a spin for a few hours armed with low expectations.

To put it simply, Sonic Unleashed has a superb intro cutscene. The world of Sonic is beautifully realised, it's quick-paced, it sounds great, there's big explosions, bad robots, even the voice acting cuts the mustard. It made me want to watch a feature length Sonic animation that looked just like this.

Are there are other cases of crummy game / awesome intro syndrome out there? I'm sure there are, let me know in the comments if you like.

This - looks - bloody - ace! Inventive gaming at its most inventive.

[video=6211489]

As far as DLC goes Burnout Paradise has had some great free content, some would say better than the actual chargeable content for the game. It looks like the best is yet to come in the form of Big Surf Island, a whole island dedicated to arsenuts stunt driving. I am sooo getting this (when I get some more M$ points, obviously).

[video=6210281]

So with any luck today is the day my 360 will be back from Bill Gates magical repair factory in Frankfurt. From the moment the console left my hands the process has so far taken 9 days. Not bad I suppose, plus I was still covered under the RRoD warranty.

The question is whether I will get a replacement console that's been modded to prevent RRoD from happening again. Going by this article I still had one of the faulty boards (that itself was a replacement for a previous RRoD), it ran at 16 amps rather than the 14 for the Falcon motherboard or 12 for the Jasper. Fingers crossed I'll get at least a 14 amp-er today.

Hell, that's if it even turns up today, otherwise I'm blah blahing away on here for nothing.

Hello there, welcome along. It's part 3 of this ramshackle series of nostalgia based musical nonsense. Today let's enjoy the awesomeness of....

Bubble Bobble

For sheer catchiness I can't think of a another tune more effective then the Bubble Bobble music. It perfectly matches the type of game that it's made for. A few years after it's release I remember hearing it in a DJ's rave set, that's how much it permeated pop culture. Having recently spent the last few days recounting old arcade game music I've even caught myself inadvertently whistling it out loud from time to time. Bubble Bobble music, I salute you!

Have a listen here.

See you next time, mind how you go. :)

Welcome to part 2 of an irregular series of posts about awesome Arcade Game music that I grew up with. Today it's...

Paperboy

Paperboy was a big deal when I was a kid, it had an original concept, a unique control system (handlebars on the arcade console) even people who didn't like video games (ie. my big sister) were into it. Most importantly it had ace music, not just music but a soundtrack that changed as you progressed through each stage. Those funky synth beats that start the track are unmistakable, then in comes that funky bass and away we go. It was so much more than other games of the time that only hadrepetitive round & round ditties, here was a funky jazzy synth workout complete with organ solo a few minutes in.

Once you reached the training track that all changed though, the funk was dropped and in came the adrenalized, action paced rawk tune, well, as rawk as synthesized arcade music can get. Great stuff! Have a listen here.

Almost as exciting as the arcade game itself was the opportunity to play it at home via our ZX Spectrum. A long, long time ago, this was the zenith of home entertainment in ours and many other people's houses. Brings a tear to the eye.

See you next time.

I thought I might try and make some irregular blogs based on Arcade Game music from my youth. In the good ol' days, nothing made a great game more memorable than a great soundtrack to go with the on screen action.

Welcome to the Fantasy Zone, GET READY!

Over the years Sega have made some brilliant in-game music (more of which I'm sure I'll cover) but this was the first soundtrack they made that really stuck in my head.

I must've been about 9 or 10 when I first saw Space Harrier in all it's massive sit down cabinet glory. As well as the awesome graphics, fast paced gameplay and huuuuge moving cabinet I absolutely loved the music. During my holidays at Butlins I would hum the tune all day long, waiting until later in the day when I could go and play it in the arcades. I could never get past the 4th level which meant I would struggle to hear the whole theme, once a lousy gamer always a lousy gamer I suppose.

Have a listen here.

What are the three best comebacks ever? I tell you, in reverse order.

3. Take That - I'm not a fan but I say fair play to 'em for making a succesful return and sackloads of money in the process.

2. John Travolta - Came blazing back via Pulp Fiction, hasn't stopped working since.

1. Jesus - He singled handedly invented the Easter comeback special.

Well now you can add Star Trek to that list. After the limp failure of Nemesis (I was miserable for weeks after seeing that) and the cancellation of the TV show Enterprise, Star Trek was dead in the water.

It turns out that all it needed to be saved was a few years to be ignored, JJ Abrahms and a truckload of cash. Star Trek is saved and how! Action, jokes, amazing visuals, great pacing, it's all here and it's a blast to watch. The casting is great, Chris Pine makes for a great Kirk his cockiness is fun to watch, Quinto is solid as Spock. My personal favourite was Karl Urban as Bones.

There is the odd niggle, Kirk's ice planet excursion is too coincidental to swallow and engineering looks like a bottle factory. That's small fry though, I was beaming from ear to ear watching this, sure you could pick apart some of the science or the plot holes but then again it's a film about spaceships and lightspeed so bollocks to it, just enjoy it.

Thank you J.J. for bringing back Star Trek, please stick around to direct the sequel.

Fun fact : Greg Grunberg (Matt Parkman from Heroes) is bezzie mates with director JJ, he is the voice of Kirk's stepfather when young Kirk is driving the antique car.