HOT NEW TRANSFORMERS ACTION

We're a couple of days behind with this one, but Yahoo have an exclusive trailer of the forthcoming Michael Bay Transformers film.
click on this bit of text now



It does all look very impressive, very shiny, all quick panning camera angles and that. But there are two things that concern us, the increased role of spike witwicky and a whole bunch of humans, and the lack of the classic transformers change sound. These problems can all be fixed before the film comes out, so i should warrant that Mr Bay and his team of spielberg drones pull their fingers out, cut out half the scenes with the boy and unlikely girlfriend holding hands, and replace them with that sound effect.



There's also an amazing new silver surfer trailer here but we don't know how new it is, so we're not going to make too big a deal of it. I hope galactus is in the film.

Amazon: Super Paper Mario To Hit UK In November 2007

Amazon have Super Paper Mario for the Wii on advance order, the release date is November the 20th 2007!


We hope this isn't going to turn into another one of those Metroid Pinball moments!

Frank Miller's 300 HD-DVD To Get More Content Than Blu-Ray

A new chapter in a war that looks like it's never going to end...

300 is coming to HD-DVD and Blu-Ray in the United States on the 31st of July 2007, this much we could have guessed. What we didn't think would happen is that HD-DVD wins this one because it gets a nifty feature thanks to it's IME technology.

The HD-DVD version including a feature which allows you to watch the entire film with blue screen picture in picture functionality, as well as getting a special commentary by Zack Snyder. You also get an exclusive HD strategy game "Vengeance & Valor", though we don't know what this is or understand how it works.

Bungie Compensate Halo 3 Beta Players

Anyone still angry about last night?

Bungie have announced that the Halo 3 beta has been extended by 4 days and now ends on June 10th at 11:59 PM PDT. Click here for more details.

Bungie Betalicious Video! Offical Halo 3 Footage!

Wednesday's Beta can't come quickly enough!

Bungie's newest update is that of a video, a 78mb glimpse into what we'll be playing this coming wendesday!

CHECK IT OUT NOW!

A Fair Review Of The PS3... From The Inquirer? WHAT?

Considering how anti PS3 they have been of late, the Inquirer have posted what can only be described as the fairest article we've seen yet on the PlayStation 3.

We'd have to say that they've (almost) got it nailed, with controversial comments such as:

"Microsoft needs to take lessons on how to provide an online store, Sony's should serve as a very good example."

"Is it worth £425 though? No. Either go to Japan and get one half price like we did, or wait until the price drops."

"Microsoft take note, the 360 is almost unbearable to use as a playback device."

Not forgetting that they only talk about 2 games that they've played, we wish they would have expanded their review to compare the quality of multi platform titles such as Virtua Tennis 3 and how the online multiplayer doesn't match up to that of the 360.

Read more here.

Definitely compelling stuff, we can only hope that the press (and fanboys) are starting to get over the hate campaign for the shiny monolith. While the article does appear flawed (and it does seem like the inquirer has stopped receiving brown envelopes from Microsoft) we do agree we most of the points they've raised and we'd be interested to know what you think, let us know!

Virtual Dog Walking: THE Most Challenging Game Arcade Game!

How we wish we lived in Japan!

Strolling through many blogger entries led us to this blog, TOKYOMANGO. She talks of the latest things happening in Tokyo, with articles about everything weird and wonderful in the worlds most intriguing capital. This entry of focus being about the Virtual Dog Walking game she has found in an arcade:

"This is me playing the dog walking game. This is arguably the most challenging arcade game I have ever played. Much more so than Beatmania or DDR (j/k, I so don't play DDR) or Street Fighter II. Basically you have to walk on a treadmill while holding this white dog's leash. Walk too fast, and he'll get tired. Walk too slow, and he'll get bored. And when obstacles like the neighborhood bully dog or a oncoming car shows up on the screen, you better steer clear! If you mess up, your dog dies. I think my dog died in the first few minutes of me playing. In real life, however, I have a healthy 4 year old dog that I have no problem walking. So while this was fun (well, stressful) to play, I wouldn't say it's very realistic. "

We can only hope that this will make it over here. The truth is of course that it won't, as the arcade as a whole is dying in the UK. With disappointing versions of games like F-Zero (without the Gamecube memory card compatibility) and distinct lack of Mario Kart V2. The last game we remember seeing that was new in Bournemouth was good old Time Crisis 4. Oh woah us.

Anyhoo, seeing this blog brightened up our days. This is the sort of thing blogger was invented for! More please!

Shocking News: Game Have Bought Gamestation!

We can indeed confirm that GAME have bought Gamestation for £74 million pounds. It's a shame really because we were only £50 off being able to buy them ourselves dammit.

Here's some more info from GAME chairman Peter Lewis:

"We are delighted to bring Gamestation into our portfolio and believe it has a strong future within the group, the Gamestation business is one we have long admired and is complementary to our existing business in terms of both store portfolio and target customers. By investing in both brands we will further enhance the group's retail strategy while continuing to deliver and broaden our consumer reach. I am confident that this transaction will add considerable value to GAME and its shareholders over the coming years."

As fans of Gamestation's excellent customer service, special offers and attitude towards the gamer we're upset to hear this news. GAME has fallen into a trap of late of being too focused on sales, own brand hardware and their dammed loyalty card to deserve our patronage. We haven't shopped there for ages and have even contacted management regarding the level of service in a few of their stores.

GAME buy Gamestation - what next?

Just as we thought that GameStop were going to try and put their foot into the UK, we see a sneaky move from Game!

Readers! Remember that it's not like last time. Many think that Electronics Boutique was bought out by GAME. In fact it was completely the opposite way round, Electronics Boutique was simply a name loaned out from the states for the company known as Future Zone. This group bought GAME and decided to give back the name to the states and stop paying them money for it each year. Then the re branding of EB stores occurred and it was all downhill from there, the company became completely focused on the money.

We can only hope that Gamestation will continue to run as normal and GAME will not interfere with the every day running. What is left for us now? Well in the Bournemouth area we don't have many other choices apart from ePlay and CEX in Southampton and a few independants around and about. What about you guys? Do you know of any other chains?

Gamestation employees, our thoughts are with you.

PS3 Fanboys Just Don't Help Themselves Do They?

Just had this turn up in the inbox, with the subject: "remind you of anything elite?".

OMG Microsoft stole Dell's idea!!

Good god. You're right. Or are you? Does it matter? Did we forget the white version of the 360 that's been around with the same shape for a year and a half?

Thing is chaps, it's... erm... just a shape!

Yeah that's right a simple housing for a console. I mean surely we can all play that game now can't we?

It's all just too easy.

This got us thinking, whats in the aesthetics of a console? Who does it really matter to? Who nailed it this generation? Is the Wii the most beautiful? Is the PS3 the shiniest? We know a great many people that fear to touch their PS3 in case they may get a tiny greasy finger mark on the shiny shiny coating.

Wratty has a thing for vertically driven consoles, he just doesn't like it at all. Not one console is allowed to be stood up in his manor, not one. Even the Wii!

We could even go as far as other thefts of console imagery. Consider the PS3 font for example. Absolutely no originality at all! At least Nintendo always make an effort to fit their fonts or logo into the console's purpose. Look at the Wii with the focus of the Wii-mote shape as the "i" or the DS with the dual screen emphasis. Then there's the 360 with it's ring of light obsession!

The simple fact of it all is that looking at the Internet, apparently aesthetics do matter! We've just been scrolling through people remarking on the threads on Engadget, and just look at the amount of people slagging of each console based purely on looks! It actually gets stupid! My thoughts are with your girlfriends. Or boyfriends.

Nah what am I saying, you spend 16 hours a day on forums! You don't know real people!

DECISIONS DECISIONS

It would appear that a growing part of the nintendo wii experience will be turned over to making gut-wrenching, life altering decisions.



Just today, I've had to try to imagine which of the virtual console games would be the most benficial to download, just thinking about this gave me a headache, which games do I already own that can be played on the current gen machines thanks to games like the Sonic Mega Collection and the Capcom Classics, which games are actually shit, most of the turbografx ones I should credit. It's quite a minefield I tell you.



Coupled with that is the fact I don't know whether I should wait for friday to roll around, just to see what new games appear on the horizon. Of course one also has to consider whether I've actually played the existing virtual console games enough, should they be finished before starting with something new. Of course not, after all, these things aren't actually meant to be played, they're supposed to be looked at with wistful wonderment, a longing of days gone by, memories of long hot summers, running in the fields with our pals, playing with marbles, scaring the girls with a frog. Except none of these things happened, we were sat indoors, playing Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles.

If we were to think too hard about it, these things might depress us, to know that 15 years have passed since we played Turtles for the first time, we were just as bad at it then as we are now, the same levels cause us immense anger, and we'll probably waste another lovely summer indoors playing it.

So with all that in mind, it was decided in my brain that Urban Champion was to be the next downloaded game.



YEAH BITCH!!! take that you slack jawed, green haired twat.

Other decisions include all the Everybody Votes channel maddness, but that can be saved for another post.