I've always had a bit of a love/hate relationship with the band 'Oasis.' However, there's no denying the fact that Noel Gallagher has a great ear for a tune and that his various solo outings puts most other bands' output to shame. It, therefore, comes as a rather pleasant surprise to hear that The Sunday Times will be giving away a full album of his solo stuff with this Sunday's paper for the grand price of FREEEEEEEE! If you get the chance I would encourage anyone to pick up a copy, not least because it's for a good cause :)

Yesterday I made a brief reference to the Superman villain, 'Doomsday.' Then today, to my utter dismay, I discovered that Factor 5 had been working on a new Superman title for the 360 and PS3 which was to feature the aforementioned villain looking truly awesome:

If you're reading this Mr Hollywood-Producer-Man, I really think this look could work as a potential movie villain :D

It's been pretty quiet on the gaming front for me lately as I've been busy filling out forms and attending interviews for my recent career change. However, today I picked up a couple of cracking deals; Soul Calibur 4 for the PS3 and Frequency on the PS2. The first needs no introduction (although I am looking forward to pitting Vader against Doomsday in 2-player!!!). Frequency, however, is a fairly low key game by the makers of Rock Band. Since I didn't really know much else about it, I decided to see if there was a video review of it on GameSpot. Whatever happened to this guy? ;)

www.thebeatlesrockband.com

'Til all are one!

Last year I wrote about how overrated I thought Halo 3 was after completing the campaign. However, I recently upgraded my Xbox Live Silver account to a Gold one and decided to try out the on-line component of many of my 360 games, including Halo 3. Wow! What a difference. I now understand what all the fuss was about. This is a quantum leap over anything Halo 2 had to offer on the original Xbox and the seamless integration with Bungie's website makes this the most compelling online shooter I have ever experienced, even pipping my all-time favourite, Quake 2, on the PC. If you're addicted to stats, points or achievements then this will do nothing to cure you're addiction. In fact, it will only feed it even further. I didn't think I would be interested in levelling up a character from a first person shooter but I am determined to make my Spartan a Sergeant even if it kills me! It's not just bragging rights that keeps me going back to Halo's multiplayer, the game is genuinely fun to play with a group of people on-line, even if I'm the one doing most of the dying! I don't know if I've just been lucky but it seems the vast majority of people I've met in games are interested in having fun and not racking up an insane amount of kills in the space of 10 minutes.

The ability to watch movies, take screen-shots and generally get into the nitty gritty of this game means I can easily forgive the convoluted and lacklustre plot of the main story. It's just as well since the forthcoming release of Halo 3: ODST means that Halo-fever will be with us all over again this year and this time I'll be glad to be one of the infected!

By way of an apology to Bungie and co., here's a video! Enjoy!

At 6pm today the BBC announced who the new Doctor would be. Meet the new Last of The Timelords...Matt Smith! Congratulations, Sir!

Happy New Year, fellow Gamespotters!

I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday and for those of you returning to work or school today, my sympathies :)

I had a couple of friends over to usher in 2009 and we played a hella lot of games (Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero: World Tour, Age of Booty and Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action). I'm afraid my PS3 was poorly neglected by me over the holidays. As for the Wii...what was I thinking when I got it?!

It occurred to me as we were playing Rock Band, however, how kind of dull it is. Don't get me wrong, the song selection is great and so far the downloadable content beats the competition hands down. It's just that the Guitar Hero games in general have a much greater sense of humour about them that really shines through when you have a bunch of people in the same room. Everything from the look of the characters to the snarky comments in the load screens as well as the gig venues themselves all have a light heartedness about them that puts you in a great frame of mind when it comes to rocking out. Rock Band just kind of gives you the song to play and that's about it.

In Harmonix's defence, however, I would say that Rock Band is the better single player experience as the presentation of Guitar Hero can get on your nerves if you're playing on your own for a significant length of time. When I finished GH:WT I was almost glad as I wouldn't have to sit through it all again.

I guess what I'm saying is that the two games are very different after all and that it is unfair to say that Activision are ripping off Harmonix outright. No-one should go out and buy both drum kits as a result and even if you don't own both disks that isn't the end of the world. It's just something I noticed and I am grateful to have even one of the two games, let alone both.

Well, my search for gainful employment continues so I shall wish you all a safe and happy 2009! Bye for now!

Based on this article I'm more than happy to revise my game of the year choice for 2009; assuming this ever gets released, of course :) The competition, however, won't be easy...

1. Grand Theft Hyrule: Join Link as he attempts to escape a life of tree-hugging by jacking ponies, stealing chickens and dealing in illicit loot.

2. Mortal Kombat vs Mushroom Kingdom: A freak accident has fused Shao Khan with Bowser. Now only the combined might of Earthrealm and the Mushroom Kingdom can defeat...Shao Bow!

3. Gears of Warcraft: Join Delta Squad as they attempt to sink Azeroth...because they can!

Happy first of the month everyone. It is now officially Christmastime! I sincerely hope no more great games come out for a while...my poor wallet can't handle the stress! Especially now that I have resigned from my job as of today. I'm leaving the weird and wonderful world of physics to become a teacher (hopefully)!

To celebrate, here's a video.

P.S. I like the song!

P.P.S. Don't judge me!