1. Tony's wife; Lizz Atkins AKA Lyra Silver
2. Our long-time Xbox Live friend Natalie Edwards AKA Ace Star
3. Commander Tim's main squeeze Carolyn Sonnek AKA Blogkitten
4. One of my work colleagues: Karen Webb AKA Show_Girl
5. Regular website contributor Steven Jones' other half Linda Thomsen AKA Penguingirl
6. And my wife, Sharon Shaw AKA Cai Boxer

So we decided to go back and take a look at some films that made us love cinema in the first place. Weâre holding off Star Wars, The Matrix and the other big franchises (at least for now) in favor of slightly more esoteric, unusual and challenging films. It also allows us to share some of the great pictures that may have passed by our audience over the years. Weâre treating it like a club. Weâll give you all a heads up as to what film weâre doing next and youâll have three weeks to get hold of and see it. Borrow it, rent it, buy it, but SEE it, because weâre going deep on these films and each show will be a spoiler-filled discussion. Sometime in the future we may do a film that absolutely sucks, but is such a train-wreck that itâs worth seeing, and sometimes we may have totally polarized viewpoints on a film.

Here are the eight rules of Film Club.

1. You do talk about Film Club
2. You DO talk about film Club
3. Everyone on the show has to see the film just beforehand
4. One show every three weeks
5. One film per show, gentlemen
   
6. No going âErâ I donât remember that bitâ
   
7. Shows go on as long as they have to
   
8. If you have an opinion on Film Clubâ you have to voice it

This is going to be great. Our first film is Fight Club and you should see it before Tuesday August 4th

Itâs hard to recall but this was one of the big PS3 releases, drumming up massive E3 excitement over the rolling demo several years ago. On first glance itâs just Godess of War, twin blades twirling, quicktime eventful and featuring an epic, mature, Conan-style fantasy storyline. To be absolutely honest, the first impressions arenât too far off. This is every bit as action-packed as Kratosâ journeys, if considerably less gruesome. What sets HS apart is the level of elegance, both in the games heroine, and the design and flow of the game itself. Rather than just mashing the buttons and flailing the blades of Chaos, thereâs a little more Ninja Gaiden-style switching of stances and timing of blows. Hammering square will get you blocked and killed fast. You have to time and counter. Nariko arcs about the screen, a lady-shaped death-machine, but each button-press has to be managed. Thereâs no hand-holding here. You have to earn your awesomeness.

The reason this game stands out in the mind, and why when youâve finished it, it will stay with you and leave you wondering why other games donât do it that way is the performances turned in by the mo-cap and voiceover actors. Gollum himself; Andy Serkis plays Bohan the tyrannical and brawny villain, injecting every line with easy, almost likable, poisonous charisma. Heâs not some gloating D-lister with pretensions on being Emperor Palpatine, this is an award-winning actor at home in a digital role. Heâs more like the terrifying man you meet in the pub and pray youâll get away from before he snaps and you get a pool cue in the eye. The man who would be Kong also took up the role of dramatic director for the rest of the cast, and it shows. Every line is comitted to, every emotion feels true. If every voice director in gaming took this much time and effort to get his crew emoting then games would honestly be further down the road to being taken as seriously as films. Nariko, Bohan, Kai, Shen are all excellent characters, none of them stereotyped, all of them interesting, with strengths and frailties making them far more human than weâre used to in this medium.

Looking back on the game, itâs really a pretty slick but standard slasher. Golden Axe brought right up to date (and not like the atocity that was Beast Rider) but the reason to find this game again is that if you own a PS3 and if youâre looking forward to God of War III for reasons of story and character as well as action then you owe it to yourself to get this played in the meantime. It has some annoying sections involving crossbows and catapaults and the sixaxis controls, but a little perseverence, aiming first and keeping a cool head will get these completed. Criminally overlooked on release and not likely to see the sequel it probably doesnât need, this stands alone as a time when Ninja Theory (They of Kung Fu Chaos) truly excelled and made an action game with a bit of heart and soul for a change.

If you recently sold your DS Lite and bought a DSi, sorry pal, youâre a sucker!

Donât get mad at me, get mad at Nintendo. They promised you an upgrade. The ability to buy brand new mini games and a sleek form-factor with a slightly bigger screen. All they took was that useless old GBA slot that was taking up so much room. Unfortunately for you, that means you traded the best SNES games and frankly some of the best handheld games for Mario Clock, Mario Calculator and the ability to buy small, or âexpressâ portions of other games. On consoles we call these demos and donât pay for them (Yetâ God I hope I didnât jinx us) It was, in effect, a downgrade.

Tell me, with your hand on your heart that DSiware is what you hoped it would be right now. Obviously itâs early days, thereâs so much Nintendo could do with this new market. But if you look at their track record for the past year of WiiWare, theyâve yet to even approach the signpost for the parking lot to the ball-park of quality that some of the titles you lose in this transaction equate to.
Hereâs just the briefest of lists of games you can buy as GBA carts cheaply on eBay.

Super Mario Brothers 1,2,3, World and Yoshiâs Island (Advance)

Zelda: A Link to the Past and Four Swords and The Minish Cap

Metroid Fusion and Zero Mission

Golden Sun 1 & 2

Final Fight

Street Fighter Alpha 3

Warioware Twisted

PoKeMoN Ruby and Saphire

Fire Emblem

Final Fantasy VI and Tactics

Mario Golf

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

PLUS Guitar Hero on the DS

By all means add your own in the comments section. You may not want to buy games second-hand. If so, Nintendo loves you and you will probably be able to buy all the above again legitimately. You may also still have a GBA,  I have a GBA SP for when my wifeâs using the DS, but the screen isnât as bright. You may simply not care about these games. If thatâs true of all the above, why do you own a handheld at all? Now in a yearâs time, look back on this article and it may be that Iâm dead wrong. Iâm sure a few good games could come out. Nintendo could even pull some classics out of their magic hat to rival even A Link to the Past, and the others from both the shining days of the SNES and the quirkier inventive streak that the GBA development cycle represented, but letâs face it, itâs not likely.

Whatever your feelings on the demise of the king of pop, if youâre in your mid-twenties or older youâll remember this game. Moonwalker was based on the movie, itself a collection of music videos and montages culminating in a lengthy,  naive adventure- tale involving Mike trying to save three kids from the evil, drug-dealing Mr Big, played by Joe Pesci. The centrepiece of this is the fairly spectacular video for Smooth Criminal. This imagery formed the backbone of the Sega arcade game and shortly afterward; the Genesis and Master System versions.

The arcade cabinet was an isometric beat-em-up that saw Jackson trawling the streets, rescuing children and throwing magic bolts at hoodlums, armed guards and robotic dogs. Utilizing the dance button activated a smart-bomb style dance attack that forced every enemy to get in behind Mike and dance along with him before expiring suddenly. The home console versions followed the same premise, only with a 2D platforming engine, more suited to the hardware.

The game was decried by many as a crappy license but think hard. How many other games feature singers kicking the crap out of thugs and then coercing them into highly coordinated dance routines? Most music fighters are rap-based and one-on-one. Iâm thinking Def Jam Icon here and Wu Tang: Shaolin Style. There are simply no others. So in that way, Moonwalker stands alone. Also it contained digitised, chip-tune versions of Mikeâs music. Smooth Criminal, Beat It, Bad, Billie Jean and the obvious choice for the graveyard level; Another part of me. (Licensing, precluded the use of Thriller outside Japan). It was plinky-plunky and exemplary of the limitations of the Genesis, but still funky and recognisible and it gave the game a musical identity.

It was simple stuff. Smack about bad guys and rescue the kids from around the levels. Bubbles the chimp then comes and sits on your shoulder and points the way to the boss, which invariably turns out to be a bunch of goons. Very occasionally youâd get a shooting star that would turn you into a missile-spewing flying robot. It really wasnât bad at allâ well it was Badâ in a good way. Licenses may mean this game will never see the light of day again, but I would encourage Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo to consider it for their online marketplace. It will obviously sell and for the youngsters who werenât around when it came out, (before the premise of Mike hunting for children took on an objectionable aspect), itâs a great fun title with challenge and replayability. Well worth the 400 points or equivolent it would cost.

Michael appeared later in Space Channel 5 (parts one and two) and as a secret character in Ready 2 Rumble Round 2, both on the Dreamcast, so clearly his relationship with Sega and indeed video games stayed healthy. I would not be surprised if a Jackson-themed Singstar tore up the charts this Christmas. We gamers have definitely not seen the last of this man.

Itâs always been very easy to look at video games and find the obvious female stereotypes strewn across our thirty year history. Since weâve been able to identify adventure characters by gender, theyâve been largely male. Pitfall Harry, Jet Set Willy, Mario, Link. In fact the big revelation at the end of Metroid (Samus was and remains a woman) was pretty groundbreaking back in 1986. When females turned up it was usually either as damsels in distress to be rescued (Final Fight, Mario, Zelda) or weaker, faster fighters to balance the mediocre man and the beefy guy (Streets of Rage, Golden Axe). Then with Street Fighter II we got Chun Li, the token female who was actually pretty good at holding her own and was followed by Cammy and eventually a deluge of lady Street Fighters, each tougher than the last. But women still hadnât too often been the stars of games.

So itâs 1996 and Lara Croft is up on the posters, her gigantic polygonal mammary glands making all the adolescent boys dribble, and giving developers ideas. The move to 3D meant everything changed for one (well two) reasons. âHey, letâs make some games with a sexy girl as the star,â they said. âI mean who wants to follow a guyâs tight, supple buttocks around for ten hours? Certainly not girls, they donât even play these things.â And nobody thought to ask why. Surprisingly following Croft, developers actually managed to hit the mark a few times with slightly more well-formed female characters. So we got Jill Valentine (Resident Evil), Aya Brea (Parasite Eve), Darci Stern (Urban Chaos), Hana (Fear Effect), Cate Archer (No One Lives Forever), Joanna Dark (Perfect Dark), and Heather (Silent Hill 3). It wasnât the done thing to have girls play the damsel in distress any more and the sexes became equals of sorts, albeit that women were still often the weaker choice with the bigger pockets. Until finally we started getting some real characters that werenât just eye candy and sometimes the fact that they were female played into the story and had a real effect on their character progression; The Boss in Metal Gear Solid 3 probably being the best example of this.

But despite this short-changing of 51% of the species, Iâd like to argue for the other 49% for just one minute. Looking back on these games itâs pretty obvious that men get just as rough a time of things as women. Possibly more so, because developers donât even have to think, âHang on, what does this say about how we view this gender?â they just pump up his muscles, stick a gun in his hand and send him down the chute into the battlefield. Chris Redfield in all his lumbering, sweaty glory exemplifies this point. His arms may look like condoms full of walnuts but does he ever say or do anything memorable? In contrast, Sheva of Resident Evil 5 at least has a back-story and some motivation other than simply, âUmbrella bad, Chris SMASH!

Itâs embarrassing to say but video games in general, still being a medium on the brink of maturity, means that both genders are portrayed in broad brush-strokes and that comes down to lazy writing and a lack of focus on characterisation. But look to the best stories and youâll find a better class of woman and man. Metal Gear may be absurd at times, and might not rank alongside the best cinematic storytelling, but Solid Snake is as great a male character as The Boss is a female one. Heavenly Sword pitches a girl born into the role meant for a boy in a male-dominated world and though sheâs an incredibly strong fighter, her best characterisation comes in the form of her vulnerability. The mistake most inexperienced writers make (myself included at times in my shady past) is trying too hard to make characters look cool, tough and near-invincible. Thatâs very often boring as hell and impossible to relate to. Our flaws are where the reader and subject join up. Karla Valenti in Indigo Prophecy (Fahrenheit to my fellow Europeans) for example, is incredibly claustrophobic, a fear which impacts on the game itself as you struggle to push her through a darkened, cramped basement. In this case, it didnât really matter that she was female, and some games have capitalized on this manner of storytelling.  Mass Effect pulls off the perfect balancing act because itâs absolutely immaterial which sex you pick, everyone reacts to you the same. And guess what; my female Commander Sheppard, with all her hard-bitten lines, scarred face and equally damaged personality is the best female Iâve seen portrayed yet. Taking the gender issue out is not the answer every time, but in this case it works perfectly. Clearly BioWare took a hard look at the story of Ms. Pac-Man and saw an equality they could relate to. So in conclusion, itâs not that games are sexist. Itâs not even that game developers are gender-biased. Itâs that bad writing is just that. When games get consistently good stories, written by mature adults, both men and women will be portrayed in a better light. We will get the rounded individuals who resemble real people. We just have to hold on through all the meat-headed heroes and buxom, gun-wielding vixens until the culture catches up with our ideals.

Developers Sucker-Punch are clearly going for a dark, comic-book style to the game. It fits the gameplay perfectly as you're playing an electric superhero/superantihero who leaps around a city in chaos, dealing death to wrongdoers and/or innocent bystanders. So that would fit with presentation that matches today's black, gritty comic books from the likes of Frank Miller, Mark Millar, J. Michael Straczynski, Brian K. Vaughan and Brian Michael Bendis, right? Wrong? The comic scenes are spliced in between each major action section with such clumsiness it feels as though they're just placeholders that never got replaced.

Here's how it goes.

1. You do a mission, running from A to B, and killing dudes 1 thru 20.

2. The mission ends, we cut to a swift montage of pretty competent comic art, complete with a voiceover as gravely protagonist Coal explains how he met someone new and had a conversation with them. This process takes about twenty seconds to watch.

3. Cut to Cole, straight after that, somewhere else. Go do another mission.

Did you spot what was missing? Character interaction, development, empathy, identifying with our hero in any way.

"But that's fine too!" You say. "All I want to do is bust heads. Make with the zapping already. We don't like getting bogged down in those hour-long Kojima style cutscenes." True, sometimes they can screw up the pace and have you longing for some more gameplay, but those bits between the action are absolutely crucial for us caring about what's going on. If we're simply told "Then I met this woman. She worked for some company or other. Told me I had to work for her." we learn nothing except the basic framework for the maguffin Cole's been sent on. He has no more motivation to complete his tasks than before. It short-changes us as an audiance and crucially it falls way short of Sucker Punch's aim. The real meat of graphic novels are the taut scenes of character interaction. They define the story, justify and strengthen the action and give us something to really get hooked on. Imagine watching only the last third of The Matrix. Sure it would be cool, but we wouldn't know why Neo was really fighting, or care what happened to him.

The game itself is fine. A prime example of accomplished, sandbox action with some spectacular moments. I just don't care about what happens to anybody in it. Next time you're riffing on comics developers be sure to read one or two first. I reccomend Powers and The Ultimates.

Having never played Ico or Shadow of the Colossus before, I have issues with how the recent trailer for The Last Guardian made me feel. The story seemed simplistic enough. Penny Arcade among others have remarked that there's only two ways that game's ending; The boy dies or the baby Gryphon thing dies.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/6/8/

The music (courtesy of the Coen Brother's; Miller's Crossing) is manipulative in the way it tweaks at your  emotions and brings up all your regrets and happy memories at once. And of course, the look of the game is beautiful, in that way Team Ico alone seem to be able to manage. Vast, empty, ruined lands, lonely individuals and a tender friendship, tempered by heartbreaking loss. I knew all this going in, and I'm a grown man with a beard, so why was I blubbering like a schoolgirl who's just been called fat by the boy she's been crushing on for years?

I can only assume it's because deep down I'm a sucker for the emotional kick some very select games are capable of delivering. Due to the interaction, it's often even more engaging than a film, book or TV show when a character you've been playing for hours suffers a great loss. These games stick with us and we all like to pick over them fondly in the weeks, months and years after completion, strangely content with the haunting effect they have had on us. Yesterday I bought Shadow of the Colossus on eBay for a hefty price, just so I can finally play this celebrated game and stop feeling like I'm missing out on servicing my soul.

Here are my top ten recommendations for games with an emotional punch that will stay with you.

Possible spoiler warnings if just knowing the titles of these is enough to help you work out what happens.

--------------------

10. Fable II

9. Grand Theft Auto IV

8. Call of Duty 4:  Modern Warfare

7. Secret of Mana

6. The Darkness

5. God of War

4. Heavenly Sword

3. Mass Effect

2. Final Fantasy VII

1. Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistance

E3 2009 and two significant steps were made towards increasing the number of full games downloaded rather than bought in stores. Firstly the PSP GO with it's built-in memory, lack of a UMD drive and focus on the PSN store. Secondly Microsoft launching full 360 games, pointedly canceling their sparse run of Xbox classics. It's clearly huge, because soon we'll be buying full games for these systems and Gamestop (and Game in the UK) as well as all the other stores won't see a penny.

Yet, did you notice the utter lack of fanfare to that effect? It was as if Sony and Microsoft didn't want to nip at the hand that feeds them with any grandstanding about the new services. In the future, like it or not we're going to be downloading most, if not all of our games. That time will be different for all of us. Some (like me) will hate the fact that we don't have a boxed, hard copy for our collection or something to sell again on eBay or Amazon to further fund our hobby. But a lot of people won't care at all and will in fact be glad of the ease of use. No more having to deal with sales clerks, no more clutter on our shelves, just teaming hard-drives and instantly accessible games.

Written By: Alex Shaw

Whilst at the MCM Expo in London under the Gamehounds banner, I spoke to Leo Tan; UK PR Manager for Capcom about Monster Hunter on the PSP. With me were my Digital Cowboys co-host Tony Atkins and from Superhappyfuntimeshow - Chris O Regan.

GH: Leo. We're very much Monster Hunter outsiders. We"ve heard about it on various podcasts and weâve read about it, but weâre trying to get to the heart of what the gameâs about. What do you think is the appeal is for the core fanbase?

CAPCOM: Thatâs a tough one. Itâs such a huge game. Thereâs so much to do in it. Itâs got an MMO style meta-game that spans for hundreds and hundreds of hours, only thereâs no subscription. To get the most out of it you need to meet up with other people and play. If you have just one other person to play with it becomes this incredible, life-changing experience. If I had to summerise it, Iâd say "Hit big monsters with big weapons.â

SHFTS: Iâll confess, Iâve been playing this since it first came out on the PS2 and I really like it on the PSP. The problem is getting people together.

CAPCOM: Funny you should say that. (He hands us a flyer) Weâre opening a dedicated space in central London from the first of July to the first of September. Itâs three stories, two minutes walk from Tottenham Court tube station, where you will be able to just come in, meet other Monster Hunter players and just play.

Check it out here

SHFTS: Agreed that multiplayer is very important but itâs also a solid single player game. Bit of a dungeon crawling loot-gatherer.

CAPCOM: I would kind of describe it like Phantasy Star Online. Itâs a few maps and they change subtly along with the monsters and itâs a case of finding monsters and killing them, then getting better weapons to kill bigger ones. Good for Diablo players who like loot tables. But unlike PSO the combat isnât just pressing X, X, X. I like Phantasy Star and the loot table stuff is brilliant but Monster Hunter is so technical, and this is maybe one of itâs problems, that thereâs a lot of learning to do at the beginning. But it doesnât get repetitive because thereâs always new weapons and new skills to learn, armour to build and an insane amount of customisation. So even if you and I both played Long sword class we might develop our characters quite differently, specialising in healing or evading. The dynamic is always changing. Itâs complex but worth the effort.

SHFTS: Is it online or local play?

CAPCOM: Itâs local play. There are ways you can play online but we donât support them.

GH: Moving swiftly on. Itâs massive in Japan though, isnât it?

CAPCOM: Three million units shipped over there last year. More than Wii Fit. Itâs the biggest game out there and itâs on an older platform (PS2).

GH: If this was TGS, weâd have a massive line to get through to reach this game, what problems have you guys come up against trying to bring this to Europe and America?

CAPCOM: I think thereâs a chicken and egg situation where you want to get players in, but for that you need players. Also thereâs a general environmental difference; the weatherâs not as good here (England. Tell me about it.) itâs not as safe on the streets, not as easy to meet up. Itâs tough to get over the fact that itâs on PSP here. Not enough people use their handhelds in the UK. There are almost as many PSPâs out there as Xbox 360âs (3.2 million to 3.4) Too many units are just sitting at home in a drawer. People have this attitude like because itâs a portable console you must be travelling when you play it. Iâve spoken to people who say âYeah Iâve got it and I like it, but I donât travel very much.â And I think, nor do I, but I still play my PSP at home and at work. If youâve got an amazing set up at home, brilliant, but a good game is a good game.

-----

Many thanks to Leo for the interview. We should have a discussion about fighting sticks sometime, because he loves him some Street Fighter. And NOW I want a PSP! If only Sony would release an updated model... hmm.

On hand were myself and Tony Atkins reporting for Gamehounds and Chris O Regan of All Games Radioâs Superhappyfuntimeshow. We spoke to Mike Oldman, Community Manager for Eidos Game Studios, about the Batman: Arkham Asylum demo.

GH: This is basically the most interesting thing weâve seen all day. Why has Batman: Arkham Asylum been held back for release?

Eidos: We didnât have a solid announcement regarding release date. Itâs just a case of making sure itâs the best game possible. Thereâs nothing wrong with the game, and itâs nothing to do with Square [Enix, who recently acquired Eidos]. Weâre looking at a late summer release, but the movement on this has been minimal.

SHFTS: Itâs a good time to release, I think Bioshock was out around that time two years ago.

Eidos: Yeah you get that summer lull where games donât generally come out. I think weâre in the middle of one right now.

SHFTS: Can you tell us what weâve been playing here? It seems like a good, but quite short demo.

Eidos: This doesnât show everything in the game by any means. Itâs literally just a combat arena. Itâs one of the separate modes that run alongside the story. Itâs like a survival mode. Youâve got wave after wave of enemies you have to beat and get a high score and there will be leader-boards as well. They wonât just cover combat, thereâs a range of modes like invisible predator and itâs basically a series of set challenges. All the skills you learn in the single-player game are transferable into this. The combat changes quite a lot once youâve gone through the game.

GH: So itâs a progressive combat system and youâll be learning new skills.

Eidos: Thatâs correct. I think thereâs about twenty takedowns for Batman in the game so what youâre seeing here is just a bit of it. We also just announced the playing as the Joker content for PS3 only. There will be challenge rooms just for the Joker.

GH: Iâm assuming we canât ask if there will be any 360 exclusive content, maybe Killer Croc?

Eidos: (Smiles) No announcement at this point is the official word.

GH: Thereâs a twinkle in your eye.

Eidos: Wait and see.

SHFTS: One of the things Iâve found when I was playing the demo is that there seems to be a lot of automation in the moves. Like you only have to press a few buttons and he launches into a combo. How does that work? Is it like Assassinâs Creed?

Eidos: It really depends on who you watch playing. The skill of the player really does change the combat quite a bit. Iâve watched people playing today and you get some people only punching repeatedly and it always looks the same. But really itâs designed to be a sort of Tony Hawk style combo system. Once youâre getting seventeen-hit combos on the go it really changes the gameplay completely.

GH: So itâs not so much about the danger of actually dying as it is juggling combos.

Eidos: You have to think forwards as to which guy Batman goes for next so that he can go through a combo. Youâre seeing basic thugs here, but later on you get guys with weapons which you have to deal with differently. You canât punch a knife guy in the face, you have to stun him first. Guns become a big issue too.

GH: So you have to be tactical about who you take out first.

Eidos: Absolutely. One of the things weâve been saying since day one is that Batman is not a superhero, heâs a guy in a suit with some nice gadgets. Heâs a badass, yeah, but if youâre going to fire a bullet at him itâs going to do some damage. So the second someone gets a gun you need to take them down immediately.

GH: I was watching earlier and you actually go into a skeleton mode while fightingâ

Eidos: Yes. Thatâs the invisible predator mode. Itâs in every element of the game but itâs not specifically for combat. Itâs used for the investigative and detective elements. The majority of the game as it plays out, you do not want to get spotted by enemies and you want to scare them. Thereâs a dynamic fear system throughout the game where if something happens to one of them in a shady area, they wonât go back to it. Predator mode allows you to see through walls, asses the enemiesâ reactions, heart rates, see how theyâre doing. You can mess with them.

GH: How easy is it to hide from enemies? Iâm thinking of Tenchu and Metal Gear Solid here.

Eidos. Basically if they can see you theyâll come after you. They wonât forget you either. Environment plays a large part in things and itâs not too hard to get away with your grappling hook. His gadgets play a pretty big hand in that. Especially the batarang, which doesnât get a look in on the demo.

GH: Purely as a gamer, promotion aside, whatâs your favourite part of this game?

Eidos: My favourite part of the game, I canât talk about.

GH and SHFTS: (Cries of disappointment)

Eidos: Thatâs sickening to say, I know but it is to be kept quiet. Aside from that is combat. The combat is quite excellent. You can interrupt anything at any point. The animationâs not locked, you can throw or counter at any point. Once you get a feel for that it really changes the way you play. And itâs brutal.

SHFTS: Itâs dark, but itâs Batman.

Eidos: Yeah, but it surprised even me. You see a few sequences and hear the odd bit of dialogue and you think, heâs messed up. And Arkhamâs not a nice place to be.

GH: Weâre looking forward to it. A good superhero game, you donât get that very often do you?

SHFTS: Superman 64?

GH: Mike, itâs been fantastic, thank you very much.

Eidos: Itâs been a pleasure.

I was lucky enough to get to play a demo for this much anticipated game this weekend at the London MCM Expo. I was there under the Gamehounds banner and got a great little interview with Eidos community manager; Mike Oldman, which I'll be transcribing for P.N. in the next few days.

The demo was a series of survival matches against rooms full of thugs. There was none of the swinging around and promised predatory gameplay, but considering how many people were jostling to have a go, that was actually a good thing. This was purely a quick session so we could see the graphics, textures and movement up close and get to grips with some of Batman's basic moves. Fighting is so fluid and responsive in this game, it feels a little like Assassin's Creed in terms of making you look cool with minimal button-mashing. I'm assured that while this will ease you in on early sections, the later denizens of Arkham will require more tactics, so it won't be a case of being held by the hand.

Batman's cape swishes about him with the eye-catching grace of Nariko's hair in Heavenly Sword. In fact, it's the best cape I can recall in a game. The Dark Knight moves somewhat similar to the recent Christopher Nolan movie incarnation, with short, sharp, economical blows, rather than the sweeping movements of the Animated series. Fans of the Hush storyline will appreciate how technical he is as a fighter and it feels like he's making split-second combat decisions rather than just mashing punches together. Textures glisten with that Unreal sheen and the character models, body structure and sound effects pack the same meaty punch as Gears of War and similar gritty, physical games from that engine's family.

I, personally have been looking forward to this for a long time. Aside from the SNES version that made an excellent platform beat-em-up of the Animated series license, this is a classic comic-book and movie character who has never had a decent, contemporary incarnation in a video game. Now it looks like this may be that long-overdue menacing, adult representation he deserves. Playing the demo only made me thirst for more.

Written By: Alex Shaw

This is the question whose answer is very much in danger of disappearing up it's own arse. I had to tackle it in a recent podcast and my co-host Tony and our guest Daniel Floyd had to be very much to-the-point. Firstly you have to define art, then discuss which games fit into that category. Cooper Hawkes of Gamehounds maintains that "To me, art is imagination brought to life, and ANY game you play is that.â My counter-argument is the deluge of entirely financially-motivated movies out there. To me at least; Saw V is not art, Epic Movie is not art and the complete works of Pauly Shore are definitely not art. Hawkes and I are going to argue that one out later but in the meantime we defined it on the show as âAnything that"s been created with the intention of provoking emotion taking precedence over financial gain.â

Now by that definition Shadow of the Colossus, Ico, Flower, Braid all qualify. Aside from being achingly beautiful at times they tell a story that evokes emotion. They donât have to; they could just have been standard adventure fodder. Braid could easily have been just as good on a technical level without any poetic references or back-story, purely based on its mechanics. In fact I know a few people who would have preferred it that way. The reason it qualifies as art by this definition is that Jonathon Blow chose to paint a different picture with it. He chose to tell a deeper story. Littlebigplanet as I have said is absolutely a gigantic art project started by Media Molecule and added to by thousands of players the world over, continuously recreating a collage of gaming experiences, some good, some bad and a few fantastic. It uses platforming mechanics as an end product but the tools the creators use are the components of the levels themselves. Itâs quite possible to tell an emotional story using the LBP engine and not one of its contributors outside of the Guilford-based developer stands to make a penny of profit for the time and effort they put in. I know nothing about high art, Iâll freely admit that, but I do know that not all modern-day artists are that selfless.

Roger Ebert has stated in the past that games will never be on a par with films artistically speaking because there is a degree of interactivity that takes away authorial control, but I see this as a gross oversimplification. It doesnât apply to all games, but some that can be argued to have more artistic merit are going to tell a story no matter what you do. The author always has ultimate control of where youâre going. Sure I could play a game erratically, keep doing the same thing again and again, stop halfway through, skip all the cut-scenes and shut my eyes for the ending but I could also stand in the Louvre and stare at just the bottom-right hand corner of the Mona Lisa, thus taking away all control from Da Vinci in communicating what that painting represents. In either case Iâd be being a dick. And Ebert, thanks to the fast-forward and eject buttons weâve had for the past thirty years, we can do that with films now too.

The conclusion we reached on the podcast was totally unexpected. Even though we could argue the point until the cows come home, itâs based on our personal definition of what makes something art. Daniel Floyd surmised that maybe he didnât want games to be art. Theyâre fun, and most art isnât (to him anyway) and more importantly isnât it just our own insecurities about what weâre passionately into that made us ask that question in the first place? We want games to be taken seriously so that when we say âHey, Dad, Iâve decided what Iâm going to do with my adult life; Iâm going to write about Sonic the Hedgehog.â Our fathers will nod their heads appreciatively because they understand how important games are. We want them to be accepted as a valid, adult pursuit and when it comes down to it, art will never be considered to be just for kids.

Yes, we're a gaming site, but what the hell, most of us have an opinion about this film, even if it's hate. I never much cared for Star Trek. Being raised on Star Wars I always felt that Picard and company lacked in excitement and action, being more interested in politics and diplomacy. However, my wife made sure I watched the first seven Star Trek movies recently to get to know the original crew. They range from Great (Wrath of Khan) to embarrassingly crappy (Final Frontier), but crucially I got a bead on the characters. Other shows, films and games set me up to get into this universe. The cream of recent Sci-F; namely Firefly/Serenity, Battlestar Galactica and Mass Effect. All painted vivid universes with living, breathing people and an emphasis on drama, characterization and action.

So seeing the new JJ Abrams redux was actually pretty fantastic for me. Star Trek 09 has everything I could possibly want. It restarts the universe (No spoilers but once you've seen it there's some really clever stuff going on regarding the new storyline.) and presents you with new actors filling the quirky roles of all the old characters, injecting them with youthful energy. Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto as Kirk and Spock are absolutely magnetic, capturing the twinkle of Shatners eye, his swagger and arrogance and Nimoy's focused, calm and unwavering demeanor. They are stars in the making. There's pacey action and oddball comedy, all conducted convincingly in a shiny new version of the old world. It feels like a full cinematic experience as well, as opposed to the featurelength TV shows that the later movies often felt like. The camera soars past a gigantic Enterprise that's never felt more tangible and real. It's also got a lot of heart, with several moments being actually pretty moving.

Abrams has a talent, displayed in Lost, M:I-3 and Cloverfield of blending the realistic with the exciting and breathing new life into tired old genre's (Twilight Zone-style mysteries, spy thrillers and monster movies). He's the perfect director to bring this to 2009's addiences, both old hands and new blood will find something to love. It's definitely arguable that this film is not as faithful to the old shows as it could have been, it's heavily action based and reeks of setup with it's view to many sequels, but none of this mattered to me as everyone involved handled the main game so well. A genuine experience. Best film of the year so far.

Rating: 10/10

You have to factor in many things when weighing up the perfect length. Firstly genre; a fifty hour single-player action game would never get finished, an eight hour RPG would leave people feeling cheated. Secondly, variety; if youâre doing the same thing over and over for twelve hours, you will definitely get tired of it by the final quarter. No amount of jazzy cut-scenes could prevent a repetitive stop-and-pop from leaving you with a dull feeling in your gut whenever you think about playing the game again. Thirdly, context; if youâre trying to beat the game over a weekend, youâll stay on top of the difficulty curve but you might get exhausted with it by the end. Space it out over six months and youâll keep having to re-learn the controls and mechanics and wandering around not knowing where you should be (Final Fantasy XII, Iâm looking at you). Itâs easy to just say that it depends on the game, but Drakeâs Fortune would have been more digestible minus the last hour or so of frantic blasting.

A great deal of the problem lies in the development process. When designing a game and estimating time of play, it is incredibly difficult to balance out players who will try to finish quickly or slowly. There are months of meetings, scripting and storyboarding sessions, months more of engine building, texture mapping, voice recording and motion capture. Hard effort goes into every iota of design in the production and the deadlines always loom on the horizon. By the time it gets to the play-testing stage, any reports that the final sections are tedious or frustrating come after months of expensive production. What are the developers meant to do, simply scissor them out in a rush to the finale? 

Wanted is a short, stylish game that is nonetheless frustrating and formulaic. It manages to outstay its welcome by precisely one level; the last one, which after eight previous missions of Gears/Uncharted/Dark Sector/50 Cent-style blasting action that weâve all done before, presents you with alley after alley of stupid, bullet-absorbing thugs. It might be a good rental but only if youâre not tired of treading that well-worn path. As a retail game itâs hard to recommend. The sting of it is that four more levels would have taken it into the realms of galling tedium. By the middle of the game youâve learned all the mechanics and youâre just rinse/repeating so Swedish developers, Grin, were already in a no-win situation. Ultimately itâs a licensed game and while the investment means it may sell more than a new IP, it also constrains. Wanted may have been better as a downloadable game along the lines of Watchmen, along with the lower price point.

The simplest answer to the perfect length of a game is; if you are beginning to get cheesed off with the game and just want it to be over, itâs too long. If you finish and feel like the developers could have given you more, itâs too short. The sweet spot is an exhilarating final section/race/puzzle and satisfying end sequence bringing you back to the title screen and hovering over "New Gameâ even though itâs 1am. You can get by on four hours sleep, right?

Written By: Alex Shaw

Last November I, like many PS3 owners, finally got my hands on LittleBigPlanet. It surfed in on a wave of hype and outstanding critical acclaim. Create and publish your own levels, experience content produced by gamers the world over. To begin with it was just as shiny, inventive and accessible as I'd been led to believe. Then as the days went on and the mechanics began to grate a little, I joined the throngs of complainers lamenting the floaty platforming, unexpectedly steep difficulty curve and twitchy online interface. Half the user-created levels were just trophy runs and prize giveaways, the other half were taken off the servers for copyright infringement. Due to an insanely busy Christmas gaming schedule I put it down for a few months.

I went back last weekend to re-assess. While many of the above problems are still present I finally realised what was wrong with my perception. I was judging this as a platformer. A total redux of what we thought that genre was, true, but a platformer like Mario and Sonic nonetheless.

It"s not.

LittleBigPlanet is a grand art project begun by Media Molecule in November 2008 and added to by thousands of artists both talented and talentless. Itâs an exploration of what gamers can do creatively with a console; a machine usually unsuited to this task. And it simply takes the form of a platform game.

Itâs still annoying, floaty and full of shabby, prize-littered levels whose inept designers are begging for approval, but crucially the reviewers who gave it tens on pure speculation that there would be excellent content were absolutely right. A little digging and patience turns up levels of extraordinary complexity, beauty and fun. Everyone can find something to love about this game. You may be muttering "Welcome to last yearâs opinions,â but, you see, I had to let the hype die down, the deeper content be published and the new purchase price drop to such a tragic low that this became the brilliant underdog it was always meant to be. LBP, I misjudged you and I apologise.

10. Raven Lord (Heavenly Sword). The kind of boss you have to hit ten times for every one time he hits you. Plus he can fly. Youâll have been wanting to clobber him for the duration of the game and the fact that he makes it so hard nearly dulls the sharp ending of this overlooked PS3 classic.

9. Graven (Conan). Itâs the repetition that kills this gameâs enjoyment factor. You have to jump through hoops and perform identical, perfectly timed attacks repeatedly or he regenerates health and you start all over again. After six phases of doing the same thing you begin praying to Crom that Conan will simply grow a pair, forsake the quick time events and just cut this bastardâs head off.

8. Darth Vader - Final Battle (Star Wars: The Force Unleashed). Vader should not be easy to beat, granted, but when he effortlessly parries every one of your attacks except a specific three-button combination that he seems particularly weak to, it forces you to turn what could have been THE grand duel into a series of Vader beat-downs, which he is fumblingly unable to counter.

7. General Raam (Gears of War). Hiding behind a huge gun and merrily absorbing your bullets into his head, Raam is one of those essentially invincible guys, until you reach the prescribed quota for shots in the face, at which point he dies. It makes no sense. Infuriatingly difficult, especially on Insane.

6. Navarro (Drakeâs Fortune). Run a gauntlet of grunts and get nothing but perfect headshots, all the while being cut to pieces if you break cover. Follow up with a ridiculous quick time event. The game itself is worth so much more than this laborious war of attrition.

5. Solidus (Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty) At last you get a katana, and that blond whiner finally starts seeming like he might have some hidden grit to his character. Then Solidus whips out his own blade and lays into you so ferociously it reduces the fight to long periods of blocking with occasional frantic attacks. Itâs all the more insulting considering how visceral the Snake-on-Snake fight was at the end of MGS1.You were right to hate Raiden.

4. M-Bison (Street Fighter II Turbo) Bison takes one look at you and begins a shuttle-run of Psycho-Crushers back and forth across the screen. If you ever get a decent kick in, you get thrown like a Don King prize-fight. Heâs a legendarily cheap boss, but heâs not as cheap asâ

3. Seth (Street Fighter IV) If you thought Bison was unfair, Seth will calmly counter every attack with one of his amazing repertoire of three moves; the instant hundred-foot kick, the teleport/bitch-slap and the suck-you-into-my-belt, which takes such little regard of physics itâs beyond insulting.

2. Abyss (Marvel VS. Capcom 2) If you never played MvC2, look forward to a summer of screaming at this evil green fuckwit. He has three forms: firstly, a twelve foot-tall armoured horn-beast; secondly, a green naked man with a gun who laughs chirpily as you get blasted; and a third that fills most of the screen with teeth and lava. All of these âmovesâ are spammed constantly until you die, which you will, over and over.

1. Jinpachi (Tekken 5) Saving the worst for last. Remember fighting Heihachi at the end of Tekken? He was fast and strong, with swift, brutal counters, but he was fair. This mutated version has a cannon in his chest and if you stop attacking him for more than half a second heâll happily blast you with it, dealing about 80% damage, at which point it just takes one more cheap shot to finish you off. Evil incarnate; thy name is Jinpachi.

The problem with all of these bosses is that they force you to fight in one particular way. Their limited but overpowered attacks leave you resorting to the one or two tactics that cause them even a little damage. But by the time youâve figured out what these are, youâve been killed a dozen times and your joy in the game is ebbing. Hands up whoâd play more single-player Street Fighter IV if the final boss was Bison, not Seth. The best bosses, (which I might write another article on) are memorable for the way they kill you once or twice, fair and square, and then once you spot their weakness, go down gracefully and leave you remembering how enjoyable the whole game was. More like them, please.

This is an update of the 2006 Xbox release of Outrun 2, (which was itself based on two Outrun Arcade cabinets by Sega). The graphics have been polished up and all the cars are available immediately making it game very accessible.

Taking control of one of a selection of Ferrari's the player races through various branching zones trying to make checkpoints within the time limit and ending up in one of five finish lines. All the while, the hot babe on your arm rewards you with adoration when you perform well and derision when you fail. You can also do time trials and heart attack mode, in which you"re asked to drive in specific ways (hitting no traffic or staying within colored lines for example). Thereâs also a basic online mode in which up to six people can head for the finish, either with collision on or off.

The best part of this shallow but shiny  racer is the drifting mechanics. Take a corner at speed and itâs fairly easy to swing your car into a long and gratifying drift which not only looks and feels the business, but shaves valuable seconds off your time and saves you having to slow down. With collision off in multplayer and six gorgeous looking Ferrariâs all arcing in unison round a hairpin bend itâs hard to remember a time when racing felt as fun or stylish. The graphics are crisp and colorful taking you through a variety of different backdrops, from Niagra Falls to a Shuttle launch-pad, all beautiful and exhilarating to cruise past.

The original Xbox version, rated as one of Edgeâs top 100 games of all time, was released with additional modes, some of which have been trimmed for this XBLA (and PSN in Europe only) version. The most obvious omission is the originalâs extensive series of challenges. This increased the longevity allowing you to daisy-chain unlocks (Cars, tunes and more challenges) in a series of achievements. Thereâs also, like the original, no local multiplayer mode, which is a shame. However itâs worth remembering that for 800 points rather than the 1200 most classic Xbox games command youâre still getting most of the game for two thirds the cost. I personally enjoyed Outrun Online Arcade so much I picked up Outrun 2 on Xbox for Â1.99 ($2.91) in a bargain bin, so if this loss of extra modes has you fuming, you can find it on eBay or elsewhere for a very reasonable price. The XBLA version wins over the old, for me at least, due to the polished graphics, immediate accessibility of all cars and most importantly the chance to play with friends or strangers in a 360 online race. There are general leader-boards available, but Sumo have not yet gathered that most of us only care about our friends fastest times.

In summation for 800 points you get a flashy, slick, hellishly addictive arcade racer. Itâs not going to win any awards for depth, complexity or originality, but as someone who rarely gets much out of racers other than the Burnout series itâs got me back into feeling the need for speed, and the drifting is absolutely second to none. Itâs closer to Ridge Racer and Daytona than Gran Turismo and GRiD, but if thatâs what you like then at this price youâd be crazy not to bag this classic.

Rating: 8/10

After playing and reviewing GoldenEye again recently for the first time in years (Check out the video podcast here) and with Riddick about to be re-released I started wondering about the distinction between the good and bad (and terrible) games based on movies.

For the longest time, they were just sideways-scrolling platform shooters or brawlers, with tenuous links to the narrative of their movie counterparts, often featuring hero models who bore no resemblance to the actors. For every step forward (True Lies) there were five drunken staggers backward (Robocop 3, Lethal Weapon, Jurassic Park on the Genesis). This was back when a simplistic adventure could be swiftly knocked together and released around the same time as the movie with relatively little prep time. Even considering this fact, the trend led to some of gamings most wretched abortions as thousands of buried E.T. tapes will attest. Later on as technology improved, shallow 2D adventures gave way to shallow 3D ones and despite the lack of quality increase, development times extended due to volume of programming for this new dimension and burgeoning opportunities for FMV and realism. The choice was either bring it out way after the theatrical release (GoldenEye) or rush it out for with the movie for marketing reasons (Batman Begins). In pure financial terms, obviously the latter seems most likely to elicit profit; people buy in droves because of multimedia hype, this will dry out in the months and years it takes to craft a substantial game so why bother? But that only makes sense if you know nothing about games. GoldenEye sold gangbusters and was one of the best reasons to buy an N64. It had a tight, innovative single-player mode, groundbreaking four-player death-matches and stands as the first brilliant console FPS. The fact that it was a movie tie-in and you were playing James Bond was just the icing on the cake but almost seemed incidental to it's success. It was a fantastic game, decorated to feel like Bond"s world. Look to the thoroughly shitty Tomorrow Never Dies and The World is Not Enough to see what happens when you donât pay attention to that crucial first part. 

The central problem lies at the top. Film producers list the video game along with the MacDonaldâs promotion and the action figures in terms of a small part of the mass-media event that a big cinema release tends to be. So time and budget are rarely a luxury and quality is often not an issue. Look at Pixarâs releases. Nearly every one of their films is a masterpiece, but their best game tie-in, Cars, is only pretty good. The fact that an alarmingly high percentage of movie tie-ins are aimed at children, frequently seen as having no taste or understanding of quality by producers also means that most of the games are going to be bad. You can picture some cigar chomping Hollywood savage tanned nutmeg-brown with a $300 haircut and a phone taped to their ear, sat by his triangular pool, jerking off idly into a pile of money, saying "What else can we do? We got the Mountain Dew promotion, the cartoonâs coming out this summer, the Pussycat Dolls are doing a music video and oh yeah, letâs do a video game. I know a guy.â Twisted exaggeration, yes, but the truth nonetheless.

Itâs a costly process to channel developers into making a movie tie-in. They fight against an unmoving deadline, glaring dissimilarities from the source material, unwilling actors, (Sierra found that out the hard way with their Damon-less Bourne game) and more often than not, a narrative that does not lend itself to an eight hour, action-packed video game adventure. Nobody sets out to make a bad game, but itâs very easy to make a bad one anyway if you arenât given time, research or resources and the money-men are breathing down your neck with release dates. The results range from Jack Sparrow dying when he touches water to the epic grandeur of the Lord of the Rings trilogy reduced to hack, hack, hack, uh-oh Gimli died!

Think of the best movie tie-ins. GoldenEye, Riddick, The Warriors, Die Hard Trilogy. All aimed at adults, all released significantly after the films in question. (Butcher Bay had much more to do with Pitch Black than the horrendous Riddick follow-up). They were all made by experienced developers with their hearts set on carving out excellent games and the producers were wise enough to step back and trust in the strength of the source material to fuel sales, long after the DVD had come out.  But think of the worst, and youâre probably envisioning games released a week before the movie, terrible review scores, jerky, unpolished gameplay and very little added to the central story. At best you sit and watch a crude interpretation of the action from the film on a loop, hammering the A or X button or flailing your Wii mote. Itâs not a trend likely to end any time soon either, with these games being massive hits, because in terms of sales, the money-men are absolutely right. Most kids donât have any taste. God bless the ones that do, because theyâre the ones begging their mommyâs to let them play Psychonauts or Super Mario Galaxy, but too many are swayed by advertising and the dreamy pursuit of more Ratatouille fun (as if a crummy 3D platformer could distil the subtle, gourmet genius of that film). If they enjoyed the film, surely theyâll enjoy the game, and itâs that promise of potential that keeps this cycle of derivative crap circulating forever.

But take heart, because the opposite end is even worse. Movies based on games are so bad, that they hardly even count as films. Michael DeLuca allegedly wanted Kurt Wimmer, writer and director of Ultraviolet and Equilibrium, to write the movie version of Metal Gear Solid. This was after David Hayterâs script was passed on. For producers to disregard the individual whoâs been inside Snakeâs head and embodying his voice for a decade yet seek instead, the man who adapted Sphere for the screen suggests to me a level of blind ignorance of the medium of games that borders on comical. If you want someone to blame, look at the richest bastards in Hollywood. I used to love movies, but itâs stories like this treatment of arguably the greatest game ever made that make me look at what EA did to Godfather II and think to myself: it could be worse.

Going back to games is something weâve all faced. Maybe the first time round you werenât in the mood, or you had too much on your plate or the game simply repelled you by being tricky and convoluted, but then you started seeing it everywhere, your friends kept staring at you aghast when you said you hadnât even really played it and finally podcasters started talking about the thing like it was a world changing event in gaming, one which youâd missed out on. Those thoughts trickle to the back of your mind and prick at you when youâre in bed, or walking down the street or cruising Amazon. âYou never finished Mass Effect dickhead.â They say. âWhatâs the matter? Is Little big planet too hard for you?â until eventually. âYouâre not afraid of The Darkness are you?â Until you snap and go on a budget spending spree.

This is the best thing about the ordeal. You spend only a fraction of what these games originally cost. I picked up Mass Effect for the British equivalent of $12, The Darkness for $9 and LBP for $18. All of which add up to less than one new game. The slow decline in price of any game on the market is a godsend for folks who pick it up late, something that may go away when itâs digital downloads only. Pleased with your bargains you take them home, slap them in and fire them up again.

âand youâre back where you got stuck before. This is the hardest part and the biggest hurdle you will ever jump in that game. RPGâs are the worst offenders. With a platformer or a shooter, youâre going to get fairly universal controls and hopefully an easy to grasp interface. An RPG takes the five hours youâve already played it just to get to grips with the complex combat, leveling and item system, so when you come back, you have to re-learn that in minutes or youâll die quickly and repeatedly. Final Fantasy XII still has me stymied. Iâm not sure Iâll ever be able to go back to that one because itâs a generation behind. The lumbering behemoth of non-widescreen, standard definition, coupled with a wired pad of all things, is a mighty enemy indeed.

But in the case of Mass Effect I had two avenging angels on my side. Xbox Live and a good friend. Quantum sat patiently and talked me through a difficult vehicle section and the mine that followed simply by listening to my descriptions and going from the memory of his past six runs through. Yes thatâs not a typo, this man has spent hundreds of hours in that game, and who better to have at my back? Now Iâm halfway through and really beginning to enjoy the story and the world itâs set in. So next time you venture back into an uncharted game that you just canât seem to break into, I can thoroughly recommend getting a coach. Someone whoâs been there and can dissolve your frustrations with knowledge and guidance. Quantum, to me is better than a strategy guide. Thanks mate.

• Episode 5 (May 22/07) Features a screwball radio play 45 minutes in.
• Episode 9 (June 20/07) Was sequels and why they suck, where we worked out the mathematical likelihood of any trilogy being even good, let alone great. This data was extrapolated from 57 existing trilogies.
  
• Episode 10 (June 26/07) Featured among other things video game controversy where we talked about Carmageddon, Beat em and Eat Em and Custers revenge. This was after Manhunt 2 was refused classification in the UK.
  
• Episode 11 (July 4/07) The first room 101 where we threw things we hated about films and video games into a room representing hell.
  
• Episode 13 (July 18/07) Was the 2007 E3 special, featuring Chewbacca and his PSP.
• Episode 18 (August 22/07) Where we looked at films that need remaking. It finishes on an awesome Clive Owen song.
  
• Episode 14 (July 25/07) One for Firefly fans.
• Episode 19 (August 30/07) Movies based on video games and why they all suck.
• Episode 24 (October 3/07) With the release of Halo 3 we did an epic episode looking at the whole trilogy. 
• Episode 36 (December 29/07) The games of 2007 roundup.
• Episode 37 (January 10/08) 2007 news roundup (Including Jeff Gerstman's sudden exodus from Gamespot)
• Greatest Hits (April 22/08) Episodes 1-51's best bits (Also look on the blog at April 6/08 for the trailers of the Bollywood movie of Digital Cowboys)
  
• Episode 53 (April 28/08) Retro games console test and Wii Fit
• Episode 55 (May 15/08) GTAIV Epic Review
• Episode 56 (May 22/08) After Empire magazine published the 500 best movies and Godfather was number one as usual, we decided to do our own, alternative ten greatest movies ever.
• Episode 58 (June 5/08) The NES special
• Episode 59 (June 12/08) The Sega special (featuring Tony Edwards)
  
• Episode 61 (June 26/Part 2 27/08) Metal Gear Solid special
• Episode 63 (July 11/08) Gameboy Special
• Episode 64 (July 18/08) E3 2008 Special
• Episode 67 (August 8/08) The second Room 101
• Episode 69 (August 21/08) Amiga 500 Special
• Episode 70 (September 11/08) SNES Special
• Episode 74 (October 12/08) The dead console special. Turbo Grafx-16, Atari Lynx, Jaguar, 3DO, Sega Saturn, Nintendo Virtual Boy, Nokia N-Gage.
• Episode 75 (October 16/08) Our online friend Davus died. Tony hosted this one and we talked about the gaming community we build up around us. Probably one of the best episodes.
• Episode 83 (December 12/08) The death of the PS2
• Episode 86 (December 30/08) The games of 2008 awards ceremony double episode. After this, we had to decide what to do with the show.
  
• Episode 88 (January 16/08) Following the death of EGM; The decline of print in gaming journalism
• Episode 92 (February 14/08) We got mentioned on 'Gamers with jobs'. Kropotkin guested and we talked about mobile gaming. We also started our Twitter account.
  
• Episode 97 (March 20/08) Paul took a break, we got a new logo and ethos. Alex started writing for PN. Edie guested. Alex's favourite episode.
  

I sit gazing into my rapidly cooling coffee. It's two in the afternoon on a sunny day in a sleepy New York bistro. Nintendo, sitting across from me laughs uproariously into his cell phone and says his goodbyes to the caller, closing it and setting it beside his untouched cup.

"That was Time magazine,â he says. âThey want to do an interview with me this week.â

âI know,â I say. âYou just agreed to meet them Friday after lunch.â Nintendo nods and takes out his Blackberry, tapping at the tiny keys and smiling.

âMmm,â he says.

âThat was the day we were going jet skiing on Drake Lake,â I say pointedly. Nintendo stops tapping and looks at me as if waking from a dream.

âCan we make that Saturday?â he asks and starts to check his Blackberry. âNext Thursdayâsorry, the Tuesday after that?â I look at Nintendo as he starts to pencil me in and my shoulders slump.

It was never like this before. We met in 1985 when we were both very young. It was one of those friendships that you find yourself holding up as the yardstick to every relationship. He was fun back then, and honest. We"d play at exploring castles, rescuing princesses, battling fire-breathing monsters and all the other things kids find to do. We grew up together and our friendship only became stronger. We played better, smarter games, went Kart racing and got into RPGs exploring vast imaginary worlds. He learned new skills and I learned from him.

Then came high school and college and we still kept in touch, even though we saw each other less. I hooked up with an ex-girlfriend of his, who was a little more mature then either of us, causing an undeniable rift - yet still every time we met it was like we were kids again, but with encounters tempered by our newfound view of the world. The imaginary lands never seemed more vivid and real.

Of course people change. They grow up and move on to greener pastures with the inevitability of little Jackie Paper. The last time I saw Nintendo he wasnât doing too well. The imagination was there in his work, but he was having an awful time of getting people to really pay attention to it. I was frankly worried about him, but the distance between us was growing vast and noticeable. We kept in touch; we both got jobs and moved in different directions. The way it always goes.

Next thing I know, itâs New Yearâs 2006 and heâs calling me up, blind drunk and very happy. His business ventures in Japan, America and Europe are all paying off so well, he can barely get the stock in to meet demand. Iâm so incredibly happy for my old friend and tell him so, but for the first time it doesnât seem like heâs listening to me. Then he calls me the wrong name. I mention it, and he mumbles something and hangs up.

Itâs July 15^th 2008. Today. I havenât seen Nintendo for four years and heâs sitting across from me in the bistro, with the world at his feet.

âI saw your work with the space project,â I offer, âGreat stuff.â He looks up at me from his iPhone.

âThanks,â he beams. âWhat did you think of the sports programmes?â

âAlso good,â I say diplomatically. I donât want to bring any personal feelings of indifference into the conversation. Iâm trying to be as positive as I can be, but itâs hard when heâs received seven calls since weâve been sat here. I feel like the proverbial third wheel.

âAnd what about that music project? That looks like great fun doesnât it?â

Not wanting to be painfully honest, I change the subject. âAre you planning any more projects based on your old creations?â I ask hopefully. Nintendoâs brow creases.

âThatâs a lot of effort for not much return,â he says absently, ordering us both another coffee. âThe last one took three years to make and made substantially less profit than a cheap little Carnival I set up in two days.

âBut it was such a great piece of work,â I press on. âSurely thatâs what counts in the end; building something of substance, something of merit. Something that will last and future generations can appreciate.â He looks stumped and chews thoughtfully on a biscotti. Then Time magazine calls and Iâm alone again for fifteen minutes.

âSo Iâll put you down for jet skiing on Duck Lake on Tuesday the twenty-ninth, OK?â Nintendo repeats.

âDrake Lake,â I say quietly and nod.

âSwell,â he says, rising from the table, throwing down a handful of bills. âListen, I have to run, Iâve got to be on the Tonight Show, and they start recording in three hours.â

âIâll see you later,â I say, locking eyes with him. He smiles, but his eyes are on his Blackberry again.

And you know what? In a few years time, when the standard of his work is at an all time low, his new friends have all deserted him and heâs no longer the man of the hour, he may come to me, deflated and contemplative, with plans and ideas that more closely resemble the heights he reached as an imaginative child with a world of potential. On that day, when I could crow and sneer at his downfall, I will instead sit back and look at his new ideas and encourage him in doing what he always did best; creating worlds that were bright and fun and innovative, and of undeniable substance and quality.

I tell myself this as I watch him go. Who knows what will happen to him, but if my battered heart knows anything itâs that heâll always land on his feet, and Iâll always be there for him.

1. "Boom - Resident Evil!"
2. Hey you're a white, average cop in their twenties. Your name is Chris/Jill/Leon/Claire.
3. Welcome to the scary mansion/police station/Raccoon City/Eastern European/African village.
4. Things are looking a little scary, thank God you have your pistol.
5. Aaagh... Zombies/Infected folks of mixed ethnicity!
6. Solve this puzzle.
7. Oops, the pistol's a bit rubbish, here's a shotgun.
8. Aaagh... monsters that are faster and more dangerous than zombies!
9. Here's a bit with a train/tram/boat.
10. Hey you've reached the laboratory, now get to the bottom of this mystery.
    
11. Damn, it was Wesker what done it!
12. Aaagh... a Tyrant! Better use this rocket launcher.
13. All done. Fly away on the helicopter and stare at your partner with your dead, personality-free eyes.

Hello everyone.

I'm Lizz and I'm married to Cowboy, Tony Atkins.

I would like to share with you some of my video gaming background.  

I was given a Master System II when I was about 10 and was only given one game, which was Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade.  My reactions were not very good so I donât think I ever saw the third level of this difficult platform game, plus, my sister used to kick my butt when playing Alex Kidd in Miracle World so the console gathered a lot of dust.  Later, I was given an Amstrad PC with lots of copied games but they took a long time to load and had a tendency to crash.

I didnât really come into much contact with games - other than Tetris on the Game Boy, which I completed on the hardest setting and saw the rocket take off once - until I met Tony.  He owned an N64 and Playstation and bought a Dreamcast soon after we started going out.  I didnât play the N64 or Playstation as there werenât any games that interested me.  I only played Soul Calibur on the Dreamcast and used to successfully button bash, which annoyed Tony as he couldnât beat someone who was so unpredictable.  It wasnât until Final Fantasy X that I got more interested although after playing over 100 hours, I still never completed the game. 

The Xbox was my breakthrough.  I bought my own console and Xbox Live account and we set up a good network in the house and I have many memories of sitting in the converted attic playing 16 man Rainbow Six 3 with friends that we met online and still talk to five years later. 

Tony bought a gaming PC for the release of Half-Life 2 so we had 2 PCs to play World of Warcraft together when it was released.  I was hooked, like the 14,000,000 other subscribers, but my desk set up, gave me repetitive strain injury so Iâm not able to play for very long.  I currently have one level 71 character and about a dozen alts over a couple of servers.

I also really enjoy playing games on the 360 like Rock Band & Guitar Hero and XBLA puzzle games.  I still play the odd shooter, like Gears of War 2, but my slower reactions let me down sometimes and I find that Iâm only good for target practice.  I did own a Nintendo DS but recently sold this due to the acquisition of an iPod Touch which is even more mobile for quick casual games than the DS for commuting.

Thanks for reading.

Lizz Atkins

 Of course, what I am referring to is breaking the 100,000 gamer score barrier.

As I currently write this, I stand at 99,683 and I have mixed feelings about going past the 100k mark.  My initial feelings are 'Yay, about fecking time!'  I"ve been achievement hunting since 11/12/05 so as you can see that's 3 years of blood, sweat and tears and probably thousands of hours played.  So I should at this stage be jumping for joy as 100k has always been my goal.  However, herein lies my problem - what happens when I pass that goal?  I"ve been so focused in getting past it that I'm now a little apprehensive how I"m going to feel once Iâm there.  Itâs almost like hitting the reset button in Call of Duty 4 once youâve hit level 50 to go back to zero again.

Now, of course, achievement points mean far more than just an accumulative score, they are there to guide you through games and experience new and wonderful things you wouldnât have challenged yourself to bother with before.  Of course, Iâve could have hit 100k easily last year if I had done what a lot of achievement whores do, play every game that comes out and then hit it for 300 or 400 easy points and then just move on to the next one.  This has never been my style, I like to get the very most out of every game I put in the drive, which can sometimes lead to playing games for 100+ hours.  So as you can see, I take my gamer card very seriously.

However, this has never stopped me from playing the odd crappy title - Jumper, Shellshock 2, please raise your hands - but Iâve also found some real gems along the way - Cars and Just Cause to name a few.

So whatâs my goal after 100k?

110,000 doesnât quite have the cache, so I guess I need to aim high, 200k maybe.  In the end, it always comes back to the games though and achievements come in at second place.

Iâm looking forward to this continued journey in the years ahead.

Tony aka GHOST WORLD

1. Streets of Rage 2 (Mega Drive)
2. Alien Vs. Predator (Arcade)
3. Final Fight (Arcade)
4. Asterix (Arcade)
5. Streets of Rage (Mega Drive)
6. X-Men (Arcade)
7. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade)
8. Die Hard Arcade (Saturn)
9. The Punisher (Arcade)
10. Kung Fu Master (Game Boy)

10. Syndicate
9. Cannon Fodder
8. Rainbow Islands
7. Sensible Soccer
6. Worms
5. Kick Off
4. Lemmings
3. Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe
2. The Secret of Monkey Island
1. Monkey Island 2 - LeChuckâs Revenge

Next week; Paul?

The second question is whether you have played the previous games. You could probably get by on a thorough perusal of Metal gear history online but this is a game built upon a foundation of dense characterisation and vividly realised set-pieces designed to evoke emotion. This cannot be swiftly assimilated in a few pages. To get the full effect you will have at least had to have finished Metal Gear Solid on the Playstation. Sons of Liberty and Snake Eater add texture and history to the saga, which then fully enables the player to feel the true sense of completion in Guns of the Patriots. If you havenât played any of them, track down Metal Gear Solid on the PS1 or if you own a Wii or GameCube find the remake; The Twin Snakes. It hasnât been played by many and both have their strengths and weaknesses but the improved graphics may make the transition smoother.

Final question. Do you own a Playstation 3? If the answer is no, does this single game truly warrant the hefty investment? Going back to question two; if you have completed the first three and thoroughly enjoyed them and are hankering after this final instalment then this could indeed be the one killer app to convince you. It is a fantastic game in itâs own right. Almost every facet from previous instalments has been polished up and perfected from the once-fiddly camouflage to the cluttered item selection. Now your sneaking suit mimics your surrounding environment with a single prompt and the in-game menu gives full interface with a vast arsenal of weapons and gadgets, siphoning them into handy quick-select packages. The photo-real graphics and awe-inspiring soundstage push the PS3 to new heights of excellence and the new third-person camera finally makes hunting down enemies a joy rather than a chore. It is in short, everything Metal Gear could and should have been. It will remain Sonyâs flagship game for quite some time.

It isnât without its flaws. Half the game is spent sat passively watching lengthy cut-scenes which will become tiresome if you donât know your history. Even if you do, in fact even if you have loved every previous moment of Kojimaâs unusual blend of melodrama, action and oddball humour you might wish heâd had a better editor to trim a few of them down. The crawl mechanic is still broken and clumsy and you will often hit the deck and struggle to get back up when you are being attacked. However, long-time fans will forgive these as eccentricities of the series and will most likely be glued to the screen in rapt attention as the ghosts of previous adventures are evoked and explored.

In summary, this is so far, without a doubt the best game on Playstation 3. If the clumsy, archaic online mode is anything to go by, the future of the series will NOT be spent there. So whether we see any more from Snake and friends, this moment, frozen in time will mark the noble death and rebirth of the stealth action game.

Rating: 5 Stars

This review sits beneath a landslide of amassed praise and hyperbole surrounding this game. A title has not received such unanimously vaunting praise since Ocarina of Time on the N64. I could just repeat what everybody else has said and state that this is a strong contender for game of the year and virtually flawless, but in all honesty my experience seems to have varied. In the interests of journalistic integrity I canât just say itâs perfect. Itâs not and thatâs fine, nothing really is. So if you need validation for your purchase or a collection of how many incredible new features there are then look elsewhere. If, however you would like to know what ânot without its flawsâ means (and it has been said by many) then read on.

Before I start, may I first echo the praise for GTA IVâs central character Niko Bellic. He is a prime example of depth in a central protagonist and I never felt frustrated with the way he acted. In fact, his forthright strength of character actively left me discouraged to go on the usual killing sprees, unlike the callous Tommy Vercetti from Vice City. Niko is definitely likable and compelling and many of the characters he meets (especially at the front end of the game) are multi-dimensional and interesting and only a little clichÃd. The polish on the format is definitely apparent on start-up. The weight of the character and the vehicles he drives is apparent. The impact of hitting someone with a car or shooting them is amped up and the people behave a little more realistically. You can play for ages and still notice new things. It was only after about twenty hours that I started to see repetition, which gave way to cracks and flaws in the gameplay and eventually full-blown frustration at what eventually became apparent; polish is all that distinguishes this game from the previous iterations.

This is not to say that GTA III, Vice City and San Andreas are not superb games, but they were all based around the same engine, pioneered on the previous generationâs consoles and significantly here not replaced with a new one. This is GTA as we know and love it, but also (if applicable) as we hate it. The old problems are still there. The refined mission system means that if you are (unfairly?) slaughtered on a first attempt you can reload the current task. What it doesnât counter for are the often monumentally long and boring drives between the islands that you often have to take. The Taxi system is a masterstroke, allowing you to skip many of these for a small fee, but all too often a specific vehicle is needed, necessitating you sitting for five minutes each attempt, having the same (or at least similar) conversations with the same characters who quickly reveal their lack of dimension through the repetition of the odious things they say. Hearing it once would be fine, twice or six times is unbearable. Maybe I wasnât a sharp enough player. Maybe I shouldnât have died so often or lost track of my fleeing quarry, but many missions are so trial and error based that you need several attempts just to know whatâs around each corner.

In the interests of constructive criticism, rather than picking at the holes in this (admittedly fantastically presented and well planned) game, I will suggest what Iâd like to see in the next instalment. For instance I would genuinely like to see the old engine scrapped. It was great for the PS2, functional and fun, but for current gen consoles, with responsive and intuitive characters like Assassinâs Creedâs Altair stalking the bustling streets, we need a model that knows when not to plummet off a rooftop because the camera whipped round to an awkward angle at an inopportune moment. We need a man who knows to lock onto and shoot the thug who is three feet away and emptying a shotgun into him and not stubbornly keep aiming at the one three rooms away behind a crate despite numerous frantic button taps. These are simple things that Rockstar surely will contend with someday. I just wish it had been for this game.

A save system that would allow you to start at the warehouse full of goons at the end of a long drive, not before it, would be nice, along with the ability to get people to be quiet in the car so you can listen to the music. Speaking of which, the soundtrack needs a mention. Over a dozen radio stations and only one or two with anything good on: perhaps a little too much like real life. This is only remarkable because the previous two games have had two of the most outstanding collections of 80âs and 90âs period music in any video game ever, and whatâs assembled here seems a little too much like the eclectic mix that would play in a smoky record shop run by a music elitist who loathes anything popular. Perhaps Iâve been spoiled by Guitar Hero, but a handful of rock songs just isnât good enough when swamped by a deluge of reggae, electro, funk and obscure hip hop. Hell, one station is entirely dedicated to Bob Marley and the Wailers. This saddens me as I was genuinely excited about the soundtrack, but the Chatterbox equivalent talk shows always seemed to be playing the same three segments, which meant that by hour thirty, I was switching off the radio and listening to the soundtrack to Layer Cake on my iPod. Next time, Rockstar, donât be afraid to put on more songs that people know and/or like. Obscure is ok, but nostalgia has more power than novelty.

It was around this thirty-hour mark that the weight of the game began to press down on me. I knew I wasnât far from the end but it just seemed to be going on forever, with each gruelling mission advancing my percentage of completion a fraction at a time. The fun began to ebb and a cold determination to finish rather than enjoy it began to set in. Again, perhaps if I had taken my time, it would have been better, but the repetitious waltz of chase/hide/shoot took such a hold that I could barely tell one mission from the next. Itâs not just that all the missions in this single game follow the same handful of themes, itâs that this is all GTA has ever done and once again, to be constructive, perhaps the next should include more variation, even if this sacrifices the playing time of the core story. There is still plenty to do once you finish the final mission (indeed, this is the gameâs key strength) with dozens of Taxi, vigilante and assassination missions, coupled with the usual treasure hunt. But once again, though they have swapped hidden packages for pigeons, itâs the same as it always was: drive/find (/shoot if necessary). The shooting system itself has indeed been refined, but after a time every single shootout became the same. Hide behind a wall or a box, wait for the hoods to show their faces, blast, repeat. Iâd have appreciated either variation or simply less of the same. Five standout set pieces would stay with me longer than twenty identikit scuffles.

The much vaunted strong point of the game is the story. True, it starts out great with a thought-provoking series of tangled relationships, and much in the way of exposing the hypocrisy behind championing the American dream whilst despising outsiders who wish to join the party. There is musing on the nature of revenge and starting over and it truly holds your attention, but again it is only to a point. At some undetermined moment the clichÃs begin to appear until you find yourself sitting in a car with foul-mouthed Mafiosi thinking, âI have so done this before.â Rockstar run out of steam and leave you stranded in a limp reproduction of the Sopranos all too early. Once again, if they have to shorten the story for the next instalment in favour of consistent quality and depth then I certainly wonât be complaining.

The friend system initially is great fun. Spending time with your buddies shooting pool and the like is entertaining, but eventually you find yourself with twelve people calling up and badgering you to go to a strip club with them when itâs (really) three in the morning and all you want to do is sleep. Eventually you realise that the limp bonuses that keeping everybody happy offers simply isnât worth the hours of your time and the ignore button becomes your new best friend.

Finally the real killer of this game for me, beyond the repetition, beyond the lame back-end characters and forgiving it the engine which still canât seem to manage to keep the frame rate consistent and a far-off vehicle visible from moment to moment, no, the real killshot for my enjoyment of this game was the frustration factor. I lost count of the number of times I roared at the screen and writhed in my chair as Nikoâs speeding car clipped a lamp-post and ground to a halt allowing whoever he was pursuing to escape within five seconds meaning I would have to jump through many hoops again just to get back to that same place and perhaps catch him. The illusion of freedom was never so present in a game. You may be able to go anywhere and do anything (weathering the consequences each time, usually involving a tedious police chase) but you still have to do a hell of a lot of things to the letter if you wish to actually play the game. You canât cunningly set a trap for the dim-witted hoods you know are going to emerge from a certain door, you have to go in the front way and hit a certain spot. You often canât shoot an enemy off the back of a motorbike because you must get to a certain place and kill him there and you certainly canât let any of the core characters die, much less kill them. This leaves you prey to occasionally retarded A.I. both for allies and enemies, and performing the same tasks in the same ways to appease the game mechanic. When the cries of protest at an unfair death outweigh the smiles of joy at the clever digs at American culture and the occasional original mission you have to start questioning the validity of those multiple perfect scores. So this is the tallest order to Rockstar and requires them to go back to the drawing board. How about an open-world game where you really are free?

The saddest thing for me is that of course they wonât do this. The engine they polished may be from the last generation but it keeps the current gen happy. The next instalment will use the same one, the same problems will be present and of course I will buy it on day one, because Iâm like that.

I donât regret buying this. In fact despite the seeming negative tone of this review I would urge everybody with the corresponding console to go out, buy this and play it to death. It is more of an experience than most other games. I have barely mentioned the incredibly fun multiplayer setup, the pure joy of just cruising around the city on free mode with your two best mates in the car seeing what you can jump over and the mysterious downloadable content weâve been promised for later this year. It is genuinely worth every penny of its price tag. Itâs not perfect. We should not demand perfection from our games. But it could be better and to that end Rockstar can take on board what many people have said, and perhaps next time I can truly say that this timeâ it was different.

Rating: ****

The original SingStar was released on the PS2 in May 2004 to generally positive reviews. It was praised for its easy accessibility, versatile track list and multitude of gaming modes, but also criticised for the very specific nature of its note chart. While it followed the model of a classic karaoke machine, the double-edged sword of its points-scoring nature meant that songs had to be sung in a set manner, allowing you to see exactly how well you were doing but also no real creativity while singing. This meant that if trailer-park chanteuse Christina Aguilera were to attempt her own song, Genie in a Bottle, she would have to ensure she stuck to the exact vocal pattern she created in the original track. This would mean that achieving the coveted perfect 10000 score would prove difficult, even impossible for a showboat like her.

Regardless of this, the game proved a huge success in Europe, spawning many additional song packs including Party, Pop, Rocks!, 80s, 90s, Anthems, Legends and R&B. Its initially girl-oriented audience has widened over the years to the point where the new version has a cool-looking gent on the cover, validating the more self-conscious guyâs inner desire to grab a mic and make like Blink 182.

In December 2007 SingStar was finally given its current generation console update. Some things were different. Some have changed. Gone are the sparse, white menus, replaced with a welcoming HD front-end offering access to the SingStore and your online profile. These are the two key facets of SingStar on the PS3 that set it apart from its earlier instalments. The SingStore itself is at this moment four months old and boasting an impressive girth of 200 downloadable tracks. At 99p a go it is unsurprisingly easy to find yourself loading your cart up every time you pop in, and each time you do an old favourite or something new is brought into the SingStar format in what has proved to be a very pleasing manner. It is this feature above all others that set SingStar on the PS3 up as something different to its predecessors. The initial thirty songs are a fine mix, sure to contain at least one song that everybody knows, but soon you will find yourself hankering for more and itâs the expandability that makes this a truly lasting game; almost a platform in itself.

If you are lucky enough to acquire a PS3 camera then the other feature opens out before you; namely the ever-growing online community of SingStar players each able to download half-minute snippets of themselves performing. You donât need the camera to view the videos of course, but anybody with a sense of fun would want to get hold of one anyway after seeing what these people can come up with. Some are great, some are plain awful and a few are genuinely inventive, their creators utilising their thirty precious seconds to truly entertain. This reviewer has seen Chewbacca dancing for joy (presumably over his new Star Wars PSP), singing fruit, chin-people, cross-dressers and the most ridiculous pair of pyjama bottoms ever. The interface shares a similar flavour to YouTube and Facebook, allowing you to make comments, keep friends, rate videos and be rated. It gives a grander sense of scale to the game and seeing everyone performing the songs we have in common creates an unusual sense of unity for a console game.

On the subject of performing we come to the great divide that is an undeniable part of the SingStar experience. There seems to be two very distinct ways of playing, depending on which of two ends you want to achieve. Firstly there is performing a song; actually getting up on your makeshift stage and belting out Life on Mars in a manner that would make Ziggy proud. This makes it a fun experience for you and everyone else involved, and can leave you with a score that is mostly admirable. The other way is the calculated discipline of getting your voice to follow the sliding pitch bar without missing a single note. Unfortunately this is where the game falls down for the average person. Trained singers will likely be able to control their voice so that it sounds effectively like the original track, whether they channel the original artist or not, and still hit the notes, but the other 98% of the population will come off sounding more like what Alan Partridge would refer to as a trapped boy. A horrible, monotonous whine will escape your lips, interrupted only by the occasional swiftly stolen breath and instrumental pauses, and everybody in the vicinity will feel their flesh crawl and desperation to leave the room. It is a weighty choice when deciding whether to play for points or for the general fun of the SingStar experience, which when done right can make for a truly memorable party, often captured forever in a grin-inducing scrapbook of pictures and videos thanks to your camera. Those who can genuinely sing need not worry, but if you have that much vocal control, you should be doing it for a living anyway.

It is significant that Harmonixâs Rock Band has a far less stringent requirement from its vocalists on the Easy setting. Since the front man is the mouthpiece of the band, a player desperately playing for points and singing technically correctly but droning abominably would swiftly destroy the rhythm and morale of the rest of the group. However, Rock Bandâs note charts have a forgiving flow to them allowing for that all-important performance to shine through. On Expert itâs a different story, though, and many a slapdash vocalist will have to be rescued by their teammates repeatedly should they attempt it. I myself save the high score attempts for times when nobody else is around to feel the pain.

SingStar PS3 is a significant step forward in the series, broadening its horizons extensively. Now when you have your family over you can let them browse through the store until they find something they are prepared to sing and then video them while theyâre at it and keep the clip for all time. As far as future instalments go, Vol. 2 is due in June and promises harmonising on duets (singing different lines over each other on tracks like California Dreaminâ) and PSP interactivity with the SingStore. Hundreds of tracks will no doubt be released in various European languages (fingers crossed for Cochise by Audioslave, already on a song pack in the USA) but perhaps some editing tools would be a wise element of future DLC, to ensure that the submitted videos remain fresh from those who enjoy channelling their inner star. If youâve never played before, own a PS3 and this appeals to you then now is the time to take up the mic, but if youâve been annoyed by the playing system in the past then little has changed to make it easier to get a high score and still sound human. This reviewerâs advice: let the points go and just sing your heart out.

Rating: ****

Alex

This week, the Cowboys are focusing on the facts. We have several news articles from the world of video games, including Bungie's exodus from Microsoft, the PlayStation 3 price drop and the continuing saga of Rockstar's Manhunt 2 and its casual sadism getting everybody upset.

We also have mini reviews of Portal (one fifth of Valve's The Orange Box), and new cinema releases Kenny and Control.

This show guest stars the legendary Tom Underhill and long-time listener, podcaster and all-round media node Matt Fowler. Be sure to check out Matt's show, Joinee Radio.

Folks have also been asking how to get in contact with us. Well, you can either submit a comment on the blog, email us at digitalcowboys@googlemail.com or visit our MySpace page.

WARNING: this episode contains VERY strong language.

With the landmark release of Halo 3, we decided a special episode focusing on the entire Halo trilogy was in order. This is the longest podcast we've ever done about one single subject.

We cover Halo, Halo 2, Red vs Blue, the "Movie" and finally Halo 3.

All long-time or newcomer fans of the Halo series should check this show out and pass it on to as many friends as possible.

What with Apple announcing and releasing several new models of iPod in the space of just a few days, the Cowboys decided they would be remiss to ignore the advances in the latest tech.

They discuss at length all of the new models and what they mean to the iPod fans and new buyers alike.

Also discussed are Atonement, Epic Movie and the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Multiplayer Beta.

00.00 Atonement
00.12 Epic Movie
00.20 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Multiplayer Beta
00.29 iPods

The music at the end of the show is the absolutely flabbergasting 'Through the Fire and Flames' by DragonForce, coming to a Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock near you in October/November. Suffice to say, it'll be bloody hard.

This week, the Cowboys review the latest comedy from Judd Apatow (the writer and director of The 40 Year-Old Virgin), Knocked Up. It's been billed for many months now as a sleeper hit, but by its very nature, that definition puts a lot of pressure on the film to perform to expectation. Alex, Paul, Tony and Tom all saw it and review it under our new rating structure, which will be in effect from now on (for ease of understanding where we're coming from). It is as follows:

A: Brilliant
B: Great
C: Good
D: Not good
E: Rubbish
F: Terrible

With plus and minus points in between to highlight aspects we liked or didn't like.

We round off the show with a discussion on the two decades or so of movies based on popular video games. Pretty much every important one is broached upon, and as most of you will know, a great deal of them are utter cack. We try to get to the root of why and which, if any, are worth tracking down. We also lend our thoughts on the big budget ones, due in the next few years and why they might work, where others have failed.

Party on.

In our longest episode ever, we've jam-packed info into this weeks episode. First Alex talks to Canadian correspondent Mat Lo about Michael Moore's newest documentary about the US health service, Sicko.

Then Alex, Paul, Tony and Tom discuss firstly Transformers and then The Simpsons Movie, two long awaited TV shows turned movies. Both get the thorough treatment that befits projects of this magnitude and by the end it's clear that not every Cowboy loves both films. Sparks fly!

Then Guitar Hero: Rocks The 80s for PS2 makes a much anticipated appearance. We've squeezed into our sequined jumpsuits and feathered our massive haircuts just for the occasion. Find out whether our appetites for tasty riffs and blinding fret-work will be sated until the holiday season.

We round off with a look at two new PS3 items: the Heavenly Sword playable demo and real in-game footage from Metal Gear Solid 4 - Guns of the Patriots.

At the very close of the show is a last minute update of a couple of previously discussed issues.

The show is getting more fun to produce every week. Keep on downloading us and thank you in advance for telling all your friends to do the same.

Also the website link on our iTunes page is fixed so you can now click on it and be taken here, rather than being sent to a bunch (completely unrelated) Cowboys of the Digital variety.

00.00 Sicko
16.00 Transformers
35.00 The Simpsons
54.00 Guitar Hero: Rocks The 80s
1.04.00 PS3 Demo Focus
1.18.00 Round off and update

E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo (now known as the E3 Media and Business Summit) is the biggest trade show for video games every year.

Until recently, anybody who knew a guy at a video game store could seemingly get in. The result was a whooping cacophony of fanboys, booth babes (not that we were complaining) and heady Vegas-style razzmatazz. This year, however, they decided to make it much smaller and more exclusive to keep out the riff raff. This was intended to get the show focussed once more on games themselves, with only gaming insiders, publishers, retailers and journalists admitted.

The Digital Cowboys have checked out the results and this week they discuss the ramifications to the gaming industry of the conferences from the big three: Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo.

Also: Rock Band, and why it's going to rock you like a hurricane!

00.00 - Microsoft
18.00 - Sony
43.00 - Nintendo
01.05 - Rock Band

It's a packed episode this week. Alex starts with a lengthy reeling off of the 20 worst and 20 best moments in the Star Wars saga, as this year all wannabe Jedi's will celebrate its third decade of world domination.

Tony reviews action-packed comic book adaptation video game The Darkness from Starbreeze Studios (The Chronicles of Riddick - Escape From Butcher Bay).

Alex plugs Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence (NOT the regular version, Snake Eater), a game that has consumed his life for weeks now, and needs a special mention.

Paul discusses the three grimy movies he watched this week that are either torture porn (Hostel 2, Captivity) or snuff related (Vacancy) and tries to sift out the best of the bunch.

J.J. Abrams new project, 01-18-08 (AKA Cloverfield) gets thrown into the ring. Not much to debate: just download and watch it right now from: http://www.davestrailerpage.co.uk/

And we round off with a group summery of Die Hard 4.0, possibly the least rubbish of the Summer sequels so far. Roll on Jason Bourne to snatch that tarnished crown away from Willis' bald head.

Our audience is growing, but we always need more, so let all of your friends know about us and email us here digitalcowboys@googlemail.com

Even better, you could review us on iTunes. It only takes a moment or two and we'll get loads more listeners if they can read the feedback themselves.

We love you long time: Alex, Paul, Tony and Tom.

WARNING: this episode contains VERY strong language.

Since we've been so nice in recent weeks, the Cowboys felt like venting for a change. We've got together and fixed upon the eight most rancid, horrible things about video games and movies which are bothering us at the moment and took turns submitting them for dismissal, destruction and obscurity in the bowels of Orwell's Room 101. This is the premise of an amusing BBC show which has run on and off since 1994, originally presented by Nick Hancock and then Paul Merton.

The sorry task for the three hosts not pitching is to defend the wretched things in order to keep them from their grisly fate. Who shall be saved?

There is more bile, venom and cursing in this episode than ever before, so the faint-hearted should steer clear. However, those with an axe to grind about having their time wasted by cinemas and their digital possessions highly priced and badly managed should find much here be tickled with.

Spread the word about Digital Cowboys. We want as wide an audience as possible to listen to our fevered rantings. Email every single one of your friends. Tell the world of our exploits. Post comments on this blog page. Email digitalcowboys@googlemail.com and tell us what you think. Request themed shows. Send us pictures. Get our name branded on your behind. Talk about us 'til the cows come home with everybody you meet...

Part 2: Focuses on the recently UN-released Manhunt 2 on PS2, PSP and Wii. We talk about why everyone from the BBFC to the ESRB have decided to make it pretty much impossible for anybody, mentalist or otherwise, to get hold of a copy of this grisly Rockstar escapade.

Part 3: Discussion about controversial video games in general, and why when you look at the content that people are making a fuss over, it seems to be by and large infantile, tawdry or just really poor taste, rarely connected with any real games of quality, and, when it is - like the infamous "Hot Coffee" incident - it could lift right out of the game without issue. Apologies for our screenshot this week, it was simply too gruesome to miss sharing with the world.

This week, we figured we'd take a look at the mass of new sequels emerging onto the big screen this year and why if you examine past efforts it is in fact statistically unlikely that a sequel to a great film will match it, and if it does, the likelihood of a third or fourth being any good at all is almost nothing.

Alex examined 57 trilogies and quadrilogies and found that there were only five that were consistently excellent, six more that lasted to two great films in a row, three that returned to form after a poor second movie, thirteen that only managed one great showing and a remainder of thirty that never even managed that final accolade. If you include all 57 trilogies, this gives a whopping 87% likelihood that a sequel will be worse than it's predecessor. The pie chart above represents only the trilogies which have at least one great chapter.

We cover most of the classics and some of the oddballs and make a few predictions on upcoming threes and fours.

If you've never listened to Digital Cowboys before, this is a great one to start with, as far as putting across the group dynamic goes.

Drop us a line at digitalcowboys@googlemail.com

HD-DVD and Blu-Ray/Forza Motorsport 2/Ocean's 13

For over a year, the public have had access to movies in the high definition formats HD-DVD and Blu-ray, but most people aren't too familiar with them. The bulk of our show is Alex, Paul and Tony discussing what HD discs mean to the movie-going public and which format might win the war. If you love seeing movies at their absolute best, this show is essential listening.

Part 2 is Tony's review of Forza Motorsport 2 on the Xbox 360. Fans of serious driving simulators will be salivating over this one right now.

We round off with a brief review of Ocean's 13, because it doesn't deserve a long one frankly. We also discuss other things you could buy with your Â7.50

OPPO DVD players, as mentioned in the show, absolutely ROCK and can be found here: 
http://www.crtprojectors.co.uk/

Digital Cowboys are of course not affiliated with either company, we just like 'em a whole lot.

Like the rest of us, Tom loves movies, music and video games and has spoken of opening a comedy club.

If you would like to be an investor in 'Club Tom' or want to pass on your thoughts on his work, drop us a line at digitalcowboys@googlemail.com

And if Edgar Wright is reading this, please write in and we will put you in touch with this sizzling young sweatshop of ideas.

He also went to College at the less prestigious of the two institutions in York. Like Alex, he wants to crack his way into filmmaking and they have shot several low budget movies together.

Check out their journey around Kent on YouTube in three parts here.

Mat got to see Grindhouse before any of us, so hear what he has to say about it in Episode 3.

Alex Shaw (Left): A former Film student from the less respectable of the two Colleges in York, Alex dropped out, flat broke after the first year and became a waiter while he wrote his Sci-Fi opus. This year he decided to get back to doing what he originally intended and is planning several no-budget films. Prone to knee-jerk reactions and bad jokes, but good at the rants and possessing an exhaustive memory for movie trivia and video game history. He's also a supervisor at The Gap.

Tony Atkins (Right): Forgoing further education, Tony crafted his career as a landscape gardener early. Placid and thoughtful, he tends to speak only when necessary and tries not to tread on people's toes. However beneath that affable exterior lies the heart of a video-game assassin, trained to devour games in a single weekend. Tony possesses an addictive personality and a highly competitive streak, but is frequently able to root out the balanced viewpoint.

Enjoy!