I'm Really Suprised No One Has Beaten Me To This Yet....

But Sonic is confirmed for Super Smash Bros. Brawl on the Wii!

I guess it was kind of inevitable after the whole Mario vs Sonic at the Olympics stuff.

Official confirmation along with a pretty video can be found here.

In other news the Japanese release has been pushed back to January, most likely meaning we'll see it around summer time if it's anything like the Nintendo of late.

And If You Really Must Still Play Tetris...

Do it here where it's free for gods sake!

Free Tetris

Just re-enforcing Matt's point here.

Xbox Live Arcade Wednesday, 3-10-07

If you buy Tetris, you're a twat. That's about it really. Tetris came free with Gameboys in 1989 and EVERYONE had it. So if you choose to pay for it EIGHTEEN YEARS after that, you need shooting. I don't care if this one has a fucking screensaver aquarium or is in HD. They also tried to make you buy Tetris on the 360 as a full game, a while back. DID YOU BUY IT? I hope not.

To make this sound slightly like a real review, here's some constructive criticism. Everyone's played Tetris to death, so knows exactly how it FEELS. Tetris Splash feels wrong. When the blocks land, they take too long to 'stick'. That may sound fucking stupid if you've never played Tetris, but if you've never played Tetris, you're a cunt.

Poor.

Tetris Splash is available now on the Xbox 360 Live Marketplace priced 800 Microsoft points (about £6.00).

Do You Like Shitting Your Pants?

Master Chief shitting himself after playing Bioshock

Ok, I'm not going to review Halo 3. Everyone already has, who cares? Needless to say, it's amazing.

Last night my good chum Jamie came over and we played Xbox 360 all night. Jamie is in the world of PS2 still and so has missed out on some of the amazing new stuff that's been coming out over the last few months. Also, myself, Jamie and Steve (from my band) have spent plenty of studio hours on Pro Evo 6 and I wanted him to play the PES2008 demo.

So, we played nuff demos (Stranglehold, PES2008, Lost Planet, Skate, etc, etc) and then got stuck into a couple of full games. Namely, two of this years biggest releases - Bioshock and Halo3. We played for a few hours on both and I have to say they are two of the best, most involving games I think I've ever played (along with Gears Of War).

My conundrum for the day comes from playing these two games.

Playing Bioshock I was scared. I was scared, on edge and to be honest, uncomfortable. Don't get me wrong, it's an experience that I 'enjoyed' but in the same way I enjoy watching a really dark film.
A friend of mine has been complaining lately that most of the new games coming out are really too grim for him and I can kind of see his point. Playing Halo3 afterwards was such an antidote! It's lighthearted, it's fun and it doesn't feel like hard work (although we aren't playing on legendary yet).
I'm torn. Should gaming be an entirely lighthearted experience like it used to be (back when the graphics limited the fear)? Or should we be pushing the experience like we do with films depicting graphic, stomach turning violence?

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Anyone else had the same thing with any other games (Condemned anyone?)?

One thing I do know, I'm asking myself these questions and I'm damned if I want games to be censored. My point is that I'm thinking about these choices for myself, if I don't want to play a game, I won't. Give me back my damned Manhunt 2!

40GB Playstation 3 For Europe But Can Fuck Off

Sony are bringing another Playstation 3 model to our little PAL shores and gamers with little money will be a bit happier.

The 40GB version of the PS3 will launch on October 10th, priced at £299. That's EXACTLY the same price point as the Xbox 360 Elite, fact fans.

HOWEVER, the new model features no backwards compatibility at all. WHAT?! Seeing as the BC on the 80GB model is software emulation, this is hugely confusing. When I read the price, I decided to buy one. When I read THAT I changed my mind again.
After Christmas comes the 20GB model that doesn't feature a console.

The Princess Bride Videogame... Inconceivable!

Worldwide Biggies (who!?) will be developing a game based on possibly the best film ever, The Princess Bride.

True Love and High Adventure -- The Official Princess Bride Game will be arriving next spring. However, no plans are being made for a physical release, opting instead for a digital download. While I'd normally celebrate modern technology and downloadable games, this just stinks of shit. It IS going to be crap, mark my words.

Still, I can't bloody wait.

Why The Orange Box Will Not Be Coming To Mac OS X

With The Orange Box launching very, very soon on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3, Valve co-founder Gabe Newell has revealed why we will NOT be seeing any of the Half-Life iterations on lovely Mac OS X anytime soon.

"...we have this pattern with Apple, where we meet with them, people there go "wow, gaming is incredibly important, we should do something with gaming". And then we'll say, "OK, here are three things you could do to make that better", and then they say OK, and then we never see them again."

Despite EA's current support for the Apple operating system, it seems that Valve are running into some problems when it comes to porting their games across. It' a shame really.

IGN Prooves That Halo DS WAS Real

IGN has sensationally proven the reality of Halo DS with a realtime gameplay footage video from their Nintendo expert, Matt Casamassina. Halo DS has been famously rumoured for a long time and this proof finally lays rest to the speculation. It looks AWESOME, but will unfortunately never see release as it was apparently scrapped.

The Beta copy shows a multiplayer game on the Zanzibar level (named Last Resort in Halo 3) and shows the games similarity with it's Xbox counterpart, even with the inclusion of the Warthog.

The video does not say who was developing the game, possibly suggesting that Bungie weren't behind the Beta copy seen in the demonstration.

Damn shame, that.

Gaming Podcasts with Edgar, Chuck and Guy

I bloody like gaming podcasts, these are the three I listen to but I'm sure I'm missing some good'uns

1. Nerd Blurb - Best. Presented by Edgar Furse and Steve Dupuy, brilliant.
2. Game On - with Shawn Sines and Chuck Nelson. Chuck's an ex Marine (he sure likes to tell you he's an ex Marine...cun...)
3. GamesSpot UK - with Guy and some girl co-presenting...I bet she's got a disgusting face...
Wouldn't mind a decent UK one other than GamesSpot any suggestions?

Grand Theft Anime: San Andreas

Forget Manhunt 2 and Postal, THIS is possibly the most disturbing thing I've ever seen in videogames. A PC mod for GTA San Andreas unlocks anime characters from Lucky Star, Pokemon and Doraemon in cell-shaded style to run over, shoot and... whatever else you can do in GTA. It doesn't sound too bad in writing, but watch the video and cringe at the happy anime music and overly cheerful Japanese dialogue.

Argh.

Chintendo Vii Sets Its Sights On China

Sure, China is well known for it's ludicrous games piracy, but this just takes the biscuit. The Chintendo Vii looks BRILLIANT. I can't read Chinese, but I can see a game called MOTO SEA that apparently has an inflatable jet ski for promotion. I guess it's all NES roms, but I can't be sure.

Oh, here's another picture, because it's so amazing.

Far Cry Movie Screenshots

IGN has lots of new screenshots from the upcoming Far Cry movie. STOP MAKING RUBBISH MOVIES OF GAMES. It'll undoubtedly be shit.

Here are my top five games I want films of...

• NiGHTS into Dreams (Pixar could do some magic with this)
  
• Excite Truck (it'd be Duel with turbo boosts)
• Crackdown (Demolition Man meets Spiderman)
• The Ninja (it'd only be ten minutes long, because he'd just die on the first level)
• Goldeneye (wouldn't it make a great film?)