Incase you are mistakenly directed towards here, I am now posting my game related blog at the following address; http://pawsoffury.blogspot.com/ I hope you enjoy my opinions and reviews and feel free to comment and subscribe via your RSS feeds! -Mitzy

So there's been alot of uproar about the announced (EU) price of Rock Band recently. As it currently stands the official RRP stands at 130 pounds for the instrument pack (with no game) and 50 pounds for the game itself. While the instrument pack not including the game is both attrocious and ridiculous in equal amounts, the price for the game itself is the same as any other 'Grade A+' title released on the 360. That means that while it will hold an RRP at 50 pounds, the on shelf price will be considerably cheaper. An example being that even COD4 was selling at 37 pounds the first fortnight of release and Assassins Creed dropping down to the high 20's at one point. Play.com are offering the instrument pack at 100 pounds and the game at 40. That's already 40 pounds cheaper combined then the RRP amount that's being toted around as 'unacceptable'. If you really wanted to get the game cheap as possible, Play-Asia the equipment and purchase the game using many of the discount schemes available in stores (E.g. use a student friend to get a 10% discount). So in summing up, yes the RRP is high and despicable etc. but the reality is you'll probably be paying 150 pounds max anyway and alot less than that if you're smart about it. It shouldn't be this much of a hassle but if you live in the UK/Europe you should expect such things by now anyway.

So as everyone's trying their hardest to squeese out pre-orders at the moment with a variety of special offers, I decided to jump on the proverbial bandwagon and reserve my own copy. 20% off and a 3 month XBL gold subscription isn't a bad tempter, although I think HMV offering 1000 free gamer points is a better deal (despite being cheaper as it's more versatile). No thank-you online special edition, I neither need a bag or a lockbox.

For a 360 owner like me who's spent ridiculous amounts of money (and time) buying 90+ games and finishing them all to completion. The news that Microsoft has started nerfing accounts of gamesave cheaters is about the best news ever in my opinion. They really should have implemented this from the start, but still better late than never I say! I guess Stripclub & Sufoor etc. getting to 100,000 doesn't look so impressive now they have a big fat cheater sign on their profile.

So today Rainbow 6 got released (here being the UK incase you haven't realised from my info yet). My store practically sold out out the 360 version, which for a store the size of a shoebox is quite a considerable amount. As for the PS3s copies, not a single one left their home on the ever more neglected dusty shelf. This pointed out to me that maybe the average Joe public aren't beyond stupid (despite loving such trash as Carnival minigames) as to which platform is better for their multiplayer orientated games. Of course, this being said I have no doubt GTA4 will still sell better on the PS3 without downloadable content or not. Mainly just on the basis that the owners of a PS3 need /something/ to play on there until Metal Gear's released (which I actually doubt the majority of PS3 owners will care about). But it seems especially for FPS's the 360 version will always outsell the Playstation.

Yesterday, after many many days and hours of frustration I managed to complete COD4 on veteran. As with COD2 (and a lesser extent COD3) the sense of achievement is astounding. Most the time 'achievement hunting' in 360 games feels rather fruitless and is just an excercise in patience rather than skill. But, the Call Of Duty games really make you /work/ for those points and the end result is that you really do -achieve- them. Even my friends on XBL, some of whom are upto level 52-53 on the MP mode haven't managed to complete veteran and in a rather perverse way that makes me feel vastly superior to them XD. In the end though, it's all about having fun. You don't need to give yourself a brain ulcer completing things on the toughest difficulty to do so, but the end reward is immense satisfaction ;) Now onwards to completing my second playthrough of mass effect! :p

As it seems beyond reasonable doubt that Jeff won't be returning. I just wanted to pay my own tribute and thanks to him for answering my E-mail during an episode of 'Hot-Spot' earlier this year. Before that event I didn't really rate him in particulary high regard fair to say but over time he made himself my favourite editor on staff by sharing his vast knowledge of gaming along with those just as passionate as him. I also became hooked on his point-report videos and in a rather bizarre voyeuristic fashion found myself hanging on every off topic subject he'd bring up along with Ryan to talk about. As with Justin & Carrie (two editors who've taken time to reply to comments I've written on the site) he was first class back of the net. Characters like him are why the GamespotUK product is still way behind what there is in the US.

I've put alot of my time into following this website and the staff behind it the last 3/4 years. But the situation with Jeff & Tim is ridiculous. Alot of the staff that made this place special have already jumped the boat and I imagine that even if CNET do see the error of their ways and reinstate the two that they would most likely probably refuse on the principle of the matter. Even though following the gaming exploits of Alex, Ryan, Justin, Brad, Brian, Ricardo, Jason & Aaron and the news team has always been a joy, I feel sorry for them having to make the choice between their integrity as writers and their own livelyhood. Until the matter is resolved, I am cancelling my total access subscription in support of the staff involved. Good luck guys and I look forward to seeing what you produce in the future!

My GH2 360 X-Plorer does not work with GH3 very well at all, infact it's near unplayable. If you only strum one direction then it works fairly competently, yet if you double strum up and down 1/5 times it won't register. Very, very annoying. Looks like i'll have to spend another £30 on the Les Paul version (which I read has plenty of it's own share of problems).

In my company there's a useful tool available for us managers which we can use to find out the exact quantity of SKU's sold that week. Out of interest as to why Eternal Sonata didn't get placed into the chart this week (considering everyone seems to be going on about it online) I decided to use this tool on the above SKU. So far in the space of a week (accounting for my company alone), Eternal Sonata sold a grand total of 4 copies. That's in over 120 stores. 4 copies! I checked it wasn't a mistake and indeed the figure was correct. 2 copies sold in Central London (Piccadilly Circus to be exact), one in Dartford and one in Birmingham. While I can appreciate that other companies may well have sold some too, if they had anything like similar figures to our company did. Even Fatal Inertia (about 20) would have sold more than units than this game. Releasing at the same time as Orange Box and around the corner from Pro Evo isn't the smartest idea. But still are JRPG's really that unpopular? I actually feel sorry that due to this chances are their won't be many JRPG's to come.