Everyone hates campers!

Do you remember a few years ago some games companies were paying people to camp outside game shops in advance of big releases? The one that springs to mind was for a Turok game. Anyways some really sad individuals have started to camp outside a games shop in Sweden in anticipation of GTA 4. Now don't get me wrong I want this game to but camping......no way Jose. I might jump the queue a bit if I can but no way am I taking my flask and sleeping bag.......IDIOTS!

No more parachutes

Come June we will be able to get our hands on the next Lego game. Lego Indiana Jones will be bringing smiles of joy to our faces and I suspect it will feature all FOUR films, yup I think the new film will be part of it. Anyways I have just learned that in typical Lego game fashion, there will be over sixty playable characters. Most of the popular ones I can think of but sixty from the Indy games?? I reckon there may be a few Star Wars cameos and maybe even.......Batman? Time will tell.

Iron lion zion

A nice wee man at Capcom has let loose a few details about Resi 5. Mostly he has been explaining why Africa has been chosen as the setting. It seems that Africa is where life and the T-Virus originated, so why not. Also we get to find out what has been happening in the ten years since S.T.A.R.S. dis-banded. This game is high on my want-o-radar so as soon as I hear more it will be here. Just for the record, I do not see there being any racism with setting the game in Africa and having to shoot coloured zombies.....we've been shooting white zombies for years and no one minded so.....

Grand theft Sony

Word has emerged that Sony has secured an exclusive deal with Rockstar to launch a GTA 4 PS3 bundle. This will be the 40gb version bundled with GTA 4 for £299.99. Which is essentially giving away the game for free. This is a kick in the nuts for MS who seemed to be great friends with Rockstar by securing downloadable content for the 360 first. This game is going to shift a lot of consoles, who will come out on top? Four weeks time will tell.

Say Halo to ready-up

My friends at ready-up.net recently visited the i33 event, which caters for the world of multi player gaming and while there made a video about the Halo 3 tournament that was taking place. The video was submitted to OXM who are now showing it on their website follow the link to see what went down, great work guys. http://www.oxm.co.uk/article.php?id=3700 also follow this link to the more brilliant ready-up home page http://ready-up.net/

Too late to GTA

It seems that a fair few UK online retailers are approaching and indeed have sold out of pre-orders for GTA 4. Play.com has recently stopped taking orders and GAME and Gamestation are no longer guaranteeing delivery on time. Indeed GAME have cancelled all non UK orders for the special edition pack, citing weight limits and postage as reasons. This could be the biggest selling game of all time, if you want to get it on the day looks like you might need to camp out. I must confess I wasn't that into this game but after reading lots about it I really want it!

Get the Rock outta here

Oh dear! EA have messed up big time with this one, pay attention. At long last Rock Band has been given a confirmed release date for the end of May here in the UK but.............It will retail at £129.99, which is for the drums, microphone and guitar. Not too bad I hear you say, well that doesn't actually include a copy of the game!!! That will be an extra £50 or thereabouts, so round about the £180 mark all in. Then you find out we will be getting charged 160 ms points per song compared to 80 points in the US of A. Sounds to me like someone don't want this game to sell in Europe, watch this space.

Best News ever.

I have just heard the greatest gaming news ever, so much so I might have to lie down after I finish this. Rockstar have announced that after GTA 4 is out and on the shelves they have acquired the license to make a GTA type Star Wars game. This is different to the game mentioned further down. It will take place over seven huge Star Wars related maps including Coruscant, Endor and Death Star. You can chose either good or bad and build your stats as you progress. Sounds too good to be true? Yup it is April fool! Ain't I a stinker?

Sticks and stones....and lots of money

A little insider news now but keep it to yourself, my one loyal reader. It appears that super duper retailer GAME has fallen out big time with.........................EA. Oooooooh! why? I hear you ask. Well it seems GAME weren't happy with EAs' pricing plan and tried to alter it a wee bit but EA were having none of it. The end result being that GAME are not getting EA games in in the quantity that they used to, so EA games are placing lower in their in store charts. Potentially fatal for a huge company like EA. But here is the best bit, apparently one of the head honchos at GAME stays with......yup someone high up at EA, ah the irony. Single player mode for them for a while then.

Stay on target....stay on target!

Yup star Wars time. The Force Unleashed is now quite far in to development and for the most part is looking good-maybe too much emphasis on the new game engine than the gameplay but I'll wait and see. Anyways it has come to my attention that a new Star Wars game is in the offing and is going to be announced in the next week or so. What could it be? What would you like to see? Personally I'd really like to see Star Wars original trilogy Arcade on XBLA mmmmmm!

Just a little "bit"

Ha, ha that title was actually quite funny when you find out it refers to this weeks XBLA game which is.......Mr Driller online. For those of you too cool to play Mr Driller, go away, for all the rest...it is one of those quirky puzzle type games that will hook you in and bleed you dry. Ultra cute, ultra easy to get in to, horrendously hard to put down. As per the norm 800 ms points, out Wednesday-providing Tuesdays downtime doesn't break live!!!

Recon on another game?

If you head on over to the official Ghost Recon site you will be thrust into a flash presentation hinting at Ghost Recon 3, no bad thing. No screens or anything just now just some army type chattering but the recon games, for me, have always been good. More as always, when I find out.

Apologies

I must apologise for my absence but I have been busy getting engaged. As you can see not that much has happened but I'm back.

Zippy and George 2

Ok last time I mention RSV 2, for a while at least, I got it last week and must admit to being a tad disappointed with it. I was expecting an overhaul of Ghost Recon 2 proportions, instead I got a map pack for RSV. I appreciate that the games were made by different departments of Ubisoft but this just smacks of money making laziness. Ok I admit it is still a good game and the multiplayer is ok but it should have been so much more.

Love Fifteen

Just a wee update, last week I got my paws on Sega Superstars Tennis and it is really good, quality Sega gaming. The tennis plays as well as you would expect and the mini games are great fun. Seems though that i am the only person on my friends list playing it, so if you get the chance pick it up it's great.

Splinter Vegas Recon Melee.

News has reached this Haggis that Ubisoft have secured the rights to the Tom Clancy name. Big deal huh? Well interestingly it apparently means that they now have free reign to do with the games as they wish. Rumoured spin-offs are reported to be a possible MMO and wait for it...........a Smash Bros type game set in the Clancy Universe. For some reason I really like the sound of this idea, but personally I'm waiting for Clancy Kart! Or maybe Clancy's man with the squidgiest face to wear aviators!

Holy ganados

Completely unconfirmed rumours but.....I have recently heard that a special edition Resi 4 is on the way to the 360 and PS3. Some supposed pack shots have surfaced on the wonderweb. The leak supposedly comes from Capcoms' San Fran HQ. However a person working at said HQ has denied the news, shame really coz I would love achievements for playing Resi 4. The pic is of the leaked box but unless it is a tin case edition it looks wrong.

CHAVEZ check this PRICE out.

Did you see what I did there? If you did you will know that this story may have a Rainbow six slant to it. HMV.com are currently offering a RSV2 clan pack to save the clan gamers some money. What you get is four copies of the game for £119.97 instead of a wallet busting £159.96, this basically is buy three get one free so four gamers each chipping in £30 can get RSV2 a bit cheaper. Also included are two exclusive guns to use in game, wow! I'm sure though if you look around you might be able to pick it up for £30 anyway, so far £35 is the cheapest I've seen it.

Angry mom, bans X-box live

In my vast trawling through the wonderweb I came across this story, I can't decide if I should take it seriously or with a huge pinch of salt. All of us 360 owners will know about friends lists and parental controls so the story doesn't hold much water but follow this link and make up your own minds. http://www.wlns.com/Global/story.asp?S=7985534&nav=5D7v

'EAr what's this all about

As mentioned down below I was wondering why Army of Two has some kind of regional coding on the disc that shows up on your profile and your disc icon, well I found out. It's so that you can't play multi-player with anyone outside of the region you are playing. So kiss goodbye to any glorious thought of playing this pretty good game with your foreign friends. EA, what a complete balls up, but as I mentioned on another site, gaming without screeching Americans could be the greatest gift EA has ever given us. Look at the picture and decide for yourself!

World of Duty

This one is as of yet un-substantiated but there is a rumour going round that Activision who now own Blizzard are working together to make a Call of Duty Massive Multiplayer Online game. Nothing has been announced of any firm details of consoles etc but it could be good. At the same time it might be utter tosh, I guess time will tell, lets keep an eye out and see how it goes.

Bully for you

Now I haven't played it yet but I have been hearing that Bully for the 360 is quite horrendously broken with various bugs and glitches showing their ugly heads. Freezes, sound glitches and other things have been cropping up. This sounds a great shame as I was quite looking forward to it, however someone from Rockstar had this to say.

"We have just become aware of the issues people are having with Bully Scholarship Edition on Xbox 360. It appears that some older 360s are experiencing framerate issues, freezes and other problems. You have our word that we never experienced any of this in QA - in any of our offices or at Microsoft. I am horrified, and we are now working around the clock to rectify this situation. Thanks to Neo-Gaf for bringing this matter to our attention. We love our games and put a huge amount of energy and care into making them all that they can be. We would never shove anything out the door - we never have and never will. We apologise to everyone affected for the inconvenience." Respectfully, Sam Houser

Army of EU

Just a side note which may or may not be of interest to anyone. I was lucky enough to get an early copy of Army of Two and I'm quite impressed with it but here's the thing. When you are on the 360 dashboard and the wee disc tray icon tells you what you have in it reads Army of Two EU. Is this some attempt by EA to see who is importing games or something? Inquiring minds wanna know.

Restless

Well it's a slow news day so I thought I would turn all my loyal readers on to the best Scottish film ever. Restless Natives tells the story of two guys from Edinburgh, stuck in dead end jobs who decide to hold up tourist buses dressed as the clown and the wolfman, sounds brilliant, right? Believe me it is wonderful and complimented by the awesome soundtrack by big country. You can pick it up easily on DVD for about a fiver, this link to play will help you http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/597239/Restless-Natives/Product.html. Go on and get it, trust me you'll love it.

Game over man....game over

Another aliens quote. As promised I have tracked down some pics of the upcoming aliens game and it has to be said they look pretty damn good. All of the ingredients that make the Aliens films good seem to be present. Check out the pics and let me know what you think. That is of course if anyone actually reads this blog.

Wii Skii do Wii? Wii do

This sounds kinda good, namco bandai are gonna be releasing a game for the Wii called We ski. Note they haven't went down the line of Wii skii, very individual. It can be played with either the controller or the up and coming balance board. The game will feature six courses ranging from beginner to pro courses and will also include some night skiing. The screens look pretty sweet so check 'em out.

Lost my way

Strange thing, after Channel 4 stopped showing Lost I didn't care about the programme. But yesterday I picked up Lost for the 360 as an interim game until something else comes out. So last night I had a thoroughly entertaining five hours playing the game, still got about an hour to go. It's not the most taxing of games but there is something about it I really like. Character models are mostly excellent, landscapes are impressive and gameplay is gentle. I will be trading it in this week when i finish it but I'm glad that I played it, oh I almost forgot...it gives up it's achievements like a good game should, sweet and easy.

King of the rocketmen

Next Wednesdays XBLA game will be an offering from the mostly superb Capcom. Rocketmen;Axis of evil is a side scroller, up to 4 player runny, shooty type thing. it looks to be based on some cartoon and a strategy type game, but it is a shooter. As seems to be the par these days it will retail at 800 ms points. Download the trial and see what you think, that's what I'll be doing.

New balls please!

Sega in their infinite wisdom has actually brought forward the release of a game! Yup you read right, brought forward. The game in question is Sega Superstars tennis, which to me actually looks like it could be fun. It features characters and courts based on old Sega games-sonic, samba de amigo, space channel 5, you get the idea. However by my calculations it is now out on the same day as Rainbow six Vegas 2- 21st March. Hmm I wonder what everyone might buy that day? Silly sega

They mostly come out at night....mostly!

For anyone witha film head that line will be instantly recognizable as Newts' classic line from Aliens and yes apparently it is not long until we get to play the new aliens FPS game. Published by SEGA and developed by Gearbox it will be called Aliens Colonial Marines and will feature lots of classic stuff from the films; weapons, locations, aliens etc. but of course lots of new stuff as well. There will be single player and multiplayer for up to four peeps with each person apparently undertaking different objectives. Sounds good? too right. One thing though gearbox do the brothers in arms games and the most recent one still hasn't been released after numerous delays.....fingers crossed. Screens as soon as I get them. It's down for release before the end of the year.

Reach out

I was browsing through the marketplace the other night looking for anything to download, nothing really appealed so I chose the Bionic Commando vid for no other reason than boredom. The vid starts with the old Bionic commando and I thought, oh no another classic updated. But then it changed to the new updated version with snazzy graphics. Wow! it looks really good, not just a lazy update. A few howevers though, apparently the file size is too big for the live arcade so some features may be lost and by playing this you unlock a new outfit in the full retail version, no other way to do it. I'm gonna watch this one, more as I get it.

Hard evidence

Just to prove to all you doubters, I was no.1 in the world on this level for a few days, how good am I?

Dream on

Whilst sufing the wonderweb earlier I discovered a wee nugget. A guy in Japan is selling off his collection of every Japanese dreamcast game ever made. All games are factory sealed and some are even double bagged! The games are on ebay as a group at the very reasonable reserve of $19,999,99. Mind you it's hard to put a price on such quality. However if my numbers come up tonight and I can find a freeloader disc and a Dreamcast, my bid will be straight on. This is the pic of the actual collection.

Xtra Nice Additions

All of you 360 owners may have missed this but on the marletplace there is an option to download some XNA stuff. For those that don't know XNA is Microsofts tools which can be bought to aid in the creation of games. Once you download the XNA thing you can then download some trial games that have been made. Jelly Car has you controling a car that can change size across a map to the exit, stupidly addictive. I also tried The Dishwasher which looks amazing and is a ninja type side on slash 'em up and Tiny Gamers which looks and plays like an ultra violent South Park. There are moe to try too, give 'em a bash they are actually quite good.

Bomb da Bass

I just saw a preview of Sega Bass Fishing Wii, which looks really good. I used to have this on the Dreamcast and is one of the games I really miss. This new iteration sounds to be ideally suited to the Wii with the Wiimote being used as your rod and reel, how wrong could this turn out to be? Check back round about April when I should have had the chance to try it out. Check this for a more detailed look at it http://www.videogamer.com/wii/sega_bass_fishing/preview-786.html

n+, what the hell is it?

Today I downloaded a trial of a game called n+ from the marketplace, after a few minutes I knew I had to play the rest of the game. I had only read a few things about this game, all had been positive and with justification. For those of you unaware of it, like i was, you control a weeee ninja whom you must get to pick up a key and then exit the level by jumping. There are however, hazards and enemys that must be avoided and you have a clock that ticks down, but you can pick up extra time. This is all wrapped in pseudo-spectrum type graphics which are entirely functional but really make the game. If you haven't tried it, splash out, I'm addicted.

I am....good at this?

After endless years of gaming with mixed results I recently felt that I had arrived....I topped the leaderboard on The Club! Ok so it was only on one level out of all the leaderboards available but it filled me with such gaming elation that I had never felt before. For a day or so I knew that anyone looking at the top of that specific board would see Haggis The Lord at Number 1. Of course within a few days i was toppled but I didn't care, I had made it.

Alas I lost the no.1 pic so this is the no.2 before I made it.

www.ready-up.net

I have recently been quite lucky to have been accepted into a gamers blog site. http://www.ready-up.net/ currently has ten members who post on a regular basis with regards to the wonderful world of gaming. Topics can be varied and everyone seems really cool. Pop over and check out the site. As the tag line says "we play games". Regards to all fellow members who may find this site.

It's a me.....again.

Us Europeans are famously overlooked by Nintendo when it comes to games releases, sometimes up to a year after the rest of the world. So it was a pleasant surprise to find out that Mario Kart Wii will be out on the 11th of April. It will come bundled with a wheel controller thing but will also support all Wii control methods. It has an r.r.p. of £40, and will have 30 ish tracks, multiplayer arenas and a new wii channel for scores and times.

Gear Up.

Just announced at GDC today, gears of war 2 has been confirmed for an exclusive 360 launch this November. Not much has been revealed at this point but it has been stated that Gears of War was just a warm up act for GOW2 which is going to surpass the original in every way. Check out the marketplace for a free theme, gamerpics and teaser video.