Hello, dear readers. I'm in something of a muddle. I just can't comprehend it. It. Doesn't. Make. Sense.

The news has arrived that the PS3 is the fastest selling home console in the UK.

Yeah. Um. WHAT?

Let me see now... No one I know, at all, or have even heard of... Has bought one. All the stores across the country... Are not sold out. The stores around here, in my area, at least, did not recieve massively more stock than the 360 or Wii. We've all seen the pictures, from across the country, empty launch events in Birmingham, Sheffied, Newcastle, London's event being massively dissapointing. The only place where it seemed it sold worse than here was in France, where they had 95% unsold.

And with good reason. We pay the most for it. In the world. And along with the rest of Europe we got the "downgraded" PS3. We aren't usually dumb consumers and from everyones initial reactions, it seemed like we weren't.

Where... the HELL did Sony get all those sales? I mean seriously. It's so difficult to comprehend. Doesn't seem possible. It's like official figures are having a war with my eyes and mind.

Absolutely nuts. Don't get me wrong, I'm not exactly "hating" on Sony here. Good for them. And good for competition therefore... But seriously... How the **** did this happen? Answers on a postcard please.

Another week, another Halo 3 update on Bungie.net, and it sounds like things are going smoothly, at a very fast pace.

Halo 3 stands out in my mind as being one of the games which may well decide this generation of videogames. It's certainely one of the most anticipated games of the generation, and may well simply be the BEST game for the Xbox 360 we ever see.

 Expect Halo 3 fever to kick into the high gear when the beta test opens, and I'll certainely be giving you guys all MY impressions here on my blog.

 

Finishing the fight doesn't seem too far off.

 

I have a decision to make that I hope you guys will help me make.  Coming up I have an Easter Break. This means plenty of time to play games. When Shadowrun and Mass Effect hit, I'm going to trade in Call of Duty 2, GRAW and Oblivion in order to pick them up. What I need to decide is, do I try and give those games a second shot to pick up the achievements I lost? I can't decide. I want the achievements, but at the same time I really don't know if I can be bothered to put hours into doing stuff in Oblivion all over again. Any suggestions?

Well, the UK PS3 launch went down last night, and as I predicted: It wasn't too much of a hit. Most stores seem to still have them in stock today.

 The biggest news from this launch, for me, was the fact that Sony gave away free 46 inch HDTV's... Which is absolutely RIDICULOUS. I mean seriously. Even I would've bought one if that was the deal.

 To put that in perspective, an average decent HDTV with 720p, 26 inches, costs about £500 here.

 People who queued for the PS3 in London last night, paid £425, got a PS3, and a free 46 inch 1080p television. Which would usually cost.... I dunno. A number too big for me and my empty wallet to even imagine.

 

Sony seems to think that a few TV's in London will win Europe over again... Sadly, I think that it just might work, for casual gamers around here...

 

 

An email arrived yesterday from Microsoft. Late Christmas present for me! Apparently, because I signed up for the Xbox Live service on Christmas day, I'm entitled to free 1600 MS points! Which is awesome, and I added to my total already. Which means plenty more arcade games for me. Which is nice seeing as MS is rolling out the big guns in terms of arcade games lately, it seems.

 The NDA on the Shadowrun beta has been lifted at last, so people who're in the beta are talking about it. And it sounds even more awesome to me now. Definitely keen on picking that up.

 

Short update today, but havn't got too much to say. Just been playing a lot of Gears really. Still trying that last challenge on Worms, and I only have two more achievements to pick up in Uno.  

 

Not long now until the PS3 launches in Europe, and, I think it's fair to say, from my honest UK-based opinion that it isn't looking bright.

I popped over to PC World (A technology store, they do PC's, TV's and Videogames) at College today, as it's just across the road. Plastered all over the walls (Outside and in) was the advertisements advertising PS3 pre-orders.

Surely the Pre-orders should've sold out by now? It's out next week. The way I see it there are two outcomes:
1. It sells very poorly.
2. Millions of people are pissed off that stores/Sony lied to them come launch day.

Either way isn't fantastic. We'll see how it goes, I guess. On secondary note: I don't know anyone at all who is going to buy one. Not one. That itself also says something.

Castlevania is out this Wednesday on Xbox Live Arcade, and I have chosen not to purchase it. Purely and simply, I wont find time to play it in the massive piles of other things I have to play. Here's how my current gaming breaks down:

1. Play Gears of War multiplayer. Despite annoyances of that bloody melee.
2. Play Worms multiplayer.
3. Worms Singleplayer (On Challenge 20 now!!)
4. Gears of War singleplayer (I need those achievements back.)
5. Uno multiplayer (Still need a few achievements here, still enjoy the game)
6. Crackdown. Still have plenty of bosses to kill.
7. I could still do with playing through Oblivion again. But I dunno if I can find the motivation.

Added to that, the Halo 3 beta is coming soon and I'm still looking forward to Shadowrun and Mass Effect (If I can afford them both. May have to skip one).

Also announced was the American price for the Halo 3 Legendary Edition: $130. Now. Those of you fellow brits who did a conversion and are rubbing your hands with glee at the prospect of only paying £67 or so for your Halo 3 Legendary Edition, you need to rethink.

The problem is, we don't do straight conversions in terms of videogame price. You have to do it in proportion. American games typically cost $50-$60. To get to $130 they double their average game price and even add a bit more.

So the same goes for us. Take the £40-£50 game price, and double it.... Add a bit more. I think we're looking at £120, or that region.

That's a LOT of money... And something I probably can't afford. Which saddens me. :( Oh well.

That's all for now.

Nab's thought: E3 is on the horizon now, in my mind. Here's what I'm hoping for:
Halo 3 Gameplay (Looking AWESOME)
Ninja Gaiden 2 official announcement, trailer.... With online co-op!?
KOTOR 3 maybe? A new Crimson Skies? (Can I ask again for MDK on Xbox Live Arcade somehow? :P)

Should be good. Looking forward to it.

I talked not long ago about the "Top Secret" project, announced by David Perry. For those who missed that particular blog post, it's an ambitious scheme to have a massive group of gamers from across the world create a game over the internet. Sharing ideas, art, and all the other things needed for a game via a big internet forum. I signed up.

Today I got the first email back from Mr Perry, so I thought I'd keep all of you updated, for those who didn't recieve the email. I'm going to spoil some of the secretness.... Gasp!

So. Yeah. First, a little bit on why I decided to sign up. If you ask just about anyone these days, "What do you think of David Perry", the first thing they'll say is "Enter the Matrix" followed by a loud and long "Eurrrghhh...". But, to ignore what David Perry has directed in the past would be foolish. Infact, he was the director on one of my favourite games of all time, MDK (A game that broke many boundaries in terms of how games were made at the time).

By settling for doing movie tie-ins, he was limiting himself, in my opinion. He is a creative mind and he likes to do and try new things. Some of those don't go so well. But when they do he has a fantastic gaming experience on his hands. This [The Top Secret game] is undoubtably a totally crazy idea, but with a lot of potential. And that is why I signed up. Because it's so intruiging, interesting, and something I thought "That would be cool to be a part of, even if it goes totally wrong.".

There's probably not a lot I can add, but still.

SO! Onto the email I recieved (And I plan to continually tell you how this is going).

The game is to be an MMO. I think everyone already knew this. But, strangely, the game is to have a more obscure MMO Genre: Racing. Which is strange but should prompt some fantastic ideas, in my opinion. David Perry has also outlined some basic concepts, or "goals" for the game, one of which is "Gamers should always feel 100% to blame when things go wrong, not blame the game design", and numerous others things which actually make a lot of sense and speak for many gamers in terms of what bugs people about games these days.

So. Looking forward to seeing how this turns out... It's going to be interesting if nothing else.

GDC is starting to draw to a close, so I thought I'd do a little blog post about my personal highlights and things that've made this GDC a surely memorable one.

1. The Announcement of Playstation: Home.
SURPRISE! I've converted! I love PS3!

... Just kidding. This announcement doesn't have me all excited or anything, but it DID make waves, give us all something to talk about and make this GDC stick out in memory as a big milestone in this generation of consoles. Phantasy Star Universe without combat and quests, here we come! ;)

2. More on Fable 2.
While Fable 1 is a game I never got into too much, I always loved hearing about it. Hearing Peter Molyneux talk about his visions and dreams for videogames is always fascinating to me, even if we don't think he'll pull them off.

3. The On the Spot special
I very much enjoyed this, most notably all the cool XBLA games on the horizon. I'm going to need some more MS points.... Mmm. Castle Crashers...

4. The news that Mass Effect is coming along nicely!
Nuff' said. Totally looking forward to this, have high hopes.

5. Like number 4, but about another game... Portal!

6. The awards ceremony. A guy proposed. I thought that was cool.

That's pretty much it! Here's looking forward to E3...

Nab's thought: I'm still loving Worms.

Here it is:

http://uk.gamespot.com/xbox360/strategy/worms/player_review.html?id=430636 


If the link isn't fitting on your screen entirely, wait until it shows up in "Newnab's contributions".

Worms has been released, I just played it for 5 hours or so, and my review will hopefully either be done today or tomorrow. It's a very awesome game for any Worms fan, but also great for Worms virgins. I'll save the rest of my impressions for the review.

GDC (Or the Game Developers Conference is finally underway). We've heard more about Mass Effect, Lost Oddesey, Blue Dragon, Forza, Warhawk, and all sorts of other games topping peoples most wanted lists in the coming months. GDC isn't a show I like all THAT much, but it does have some interesting developments.

Once more, along to spoil the awesome, is Sony with their.... (Psst.. Anyone got a Synonym for Copying that doesn't sound offensive?) of Microsoft and Nintendo in regards to the way they reward gamers and let them create identities. As far as I'm concerned, that's quite underhanded, but I'm sure you're all going to hear LOADS about it from everyone else, so I won't say too much on the matter.

Lastly, to end on the same note we came in on (The note of awesome), there is a new Hotspot out, Indie-velopment starts tonight, and there's a special On the Spot tomorrow. So, enjoy, and watch out for my Worms review (Though I'm sure I'll notify you when it's up)

Nab's thought: Happy Worms day, readers.

As the "Next-gen" has dawned on us in the form of the three new-ish consoles, peoples expectations have been raised. People are demanding better graphics, better online capabilities, and in many cases... More realism to games.

We've also heard a lot from developers on the subject of realism. As an example, I'll use "Cliffy B" of Epic Games and Gears of War fame. Now, as I'm sure most of you know, Cliffy B was the project lead for Gears of War, and as such, became a popular spokesperson for the game, and he frequently spoke of the realism. He detailed to us how we would be finding ourselves with guns jammed, "roadie-run" across distances to keep low and out of enemy fire, and to take cover. Fantastic.

Gears of War was released to critical acclaim from almost all journalism outlets (And a 9.6 from Gamespot here). Yes, it had all the realism, but, something that I believe Epic Games realised in part was, that they couldn't go entirely for realism. So they included such things as the now notorious Chainsaw.

My issue is, that it's not consistant. Not consistant enough, anyway. The melee in Gears of War is a PRIME example, perfect for what I am trying to express. That melee, is too powerful. The fact that you recoil when you use it makes it totally overpowered, in that even when you've outplanned, outsmarted and outgunned an opponent, all they have to do is press B and they'll still beat you by knocking you down in two easy hits.

"But!" I hear you cry, "It's about REALISM! Imagine someone hitting you in the face, you'd recoil, yes?"

To which I say "Yes. But by that logic, I'd expect my character to recoil every time he gets shot anywhere on the body, especially machine gun bullets to the face."

To try and sum up my point.... Developers... Stop sacrificing fun in the name of realism. Videogames are about letting us experience an other world as such, and having fun. Make a fun game. Or, if you really want to, make a completely realistic game. Just never fall foul of the many voices thinking we need realism in order for our games to be great (People don't always know what they really want) and make great games. I think that's something most of us can now appreciate and hope for as we keep our fingers crossed that the games on our most wanted lists are looming.