The hugely talented Peter Hollens

Here we are again, another post and another video from the internet that hopefully you've yet to discover.

As you have probably guessed from the title, todays video comes from Peter Hollens; a man who does a fair few accapella covers then a music video to go with them.

Now I may be biased but he is a hugely talented man who should (by all rights), be a bigger star than he is. The majority of his covers are better than the originals and his videos have a kind of human touch that is missing from the big superstar counterparts.  Check out the links below for his YouTube, website and Twitter.

So without going on too much here is my own personal favourite; Peter Hollen's cover of 'Some Nights by Fun'.

YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/peterhollens
Website: http://www.peterhollens.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PeterHollens

A new direction for the site

So it has been a long while since I posted on here and to be honest I've just not had the time to read gaming news and post it here. Believe it.or not it is a very time consuming role so I have decided to add a new feature to this blog.
So every so often I am going to post weird, interesting and sometimes funny videos I have discovered online or on the TV.
Todays video of choice is from Adam Buxton's new TV show: Bug. If you haven't seen it on Sky Atlantic then the premise is he plays a few music videos he found online & roles through the youtube comments and users to comedic effect. It's quite similar to what he did when he presented Never Mind The Buzzcocks if you saw that.
Below is the part of the show where he, with the help of an up and coming music director, creates a video to a song he has written. This video is entitled 'Sushi'.

Hogs of War

There have been many different turn-based tactic games released over the years but only one stays strong in my mind, always having a soft spot as a true classic of the genre.  That game is 'Hogs of War'; released back in 2000 for PSOne and PC by Infrogames Studios.


The game is set in a First World War-era battlefield where anthropomorphic pigs engage in combat to ultimately control the distribution of Swill (the lifeblood of pigs).  The player takes turns in control individual members of their squad of hogs to engage in war with the opposition, similar to Worms style of play.  Once in control of their Hog the player can move around the 3D environment, jumping over terrain and swimming through bodies of water, only able to engage in combat whilst stood still.  The turns are timed and there are different classes of soldier to choose from with add the tactical element to the game as time can be precious and taking out one particular opposition class can sometimes be the win or lose decision in a game.

There are four main classes of Soldier; heavy gunner that specialises in long distance heavy weapons like bazookas and mortars, engineer that specialises in explosive weapons like grenades and TNT, espionage that don't appear on the mini-map and use Sniper rifles, and the Medic that can heal other units in both long and close range.  Despite the classes, any soldier can pick up any weapon or ability found in the crates dotted around the battlefield.

There are also a variety of vehicles that can be utilised like tanks, pillboxes, stationary turrets and bunkers and tents that provide no weaponry but allow a small healing ability whilst hiding in them.

The single player campaign features a player chosen nation from the UK, France, Germany, USA, Russia or Japan (represented by humorous names and not the country name), trying to take control of regions of 'Saustralasia' a land rich in Swill.

The overall gameplay of the game is pretty solid as it quite hard to get the turn based games like Worms wrong, but it is the humour in the game that made this game a classic.  From the opening sequence to the random quips made by the Hogs in game (all voiced by Rik Mayall), the game is rich in a humour that doesn't try to be clever or up-brow, just plain, simple and easy to get along with.

There was talk of a sequel being released on Nintendo DS,  Wii, Playstation 2 and PC but unfortunately it has never seen the light of day and is currently presumed cancelled.  This is one game that I would love to see a sequel of but with most classics I know that a sequel would never live up to the pure love I have for Hogs of War, and is probably better off left alone.

If you want to give this game a try, you can download the game via Brothersoft.

PSN down on 1st March for Maintenance

The PlayStation Network will be down for maintenance on Thursday 1st March from 16:00 until 07:00.

Both the console and PC PlayStation Stores will be unavailable during the downtime, as well as Customer Account Management and Account Registration services.

"User who are already signed into their account on PlayStation Network before the start of the maintenance will not be able to stay signed in to their online session and will be signed out at the start of the downtime period" Sony says.

"Users who attempt to log into their account after the maintenance begin will be presented with the site maintenance notification page."

The maintenance might have something to do with it being a leap year. During the last leap year in 2010 a calender related bug caused older version PS3 clocks to reset, leading to problems with lost trophies.

Amazing Spider-Man release date revealed in new trailer

Activision has released a June 26th US release date for Amazing Spider-Man.

The new Spider-Man game is being developed by Beenox who developed the Edge of Time and Shattered Dimensions Spider-Man games.  The games story will take place after the events of the upcoming Spider-Man film released in July, and will serve as an epilogue. The game is set to be released on Xbox360, PS3, Wii, DS and 3DS, and is expected to hit European shelves three days later.

Activision also released a new trailer reveal for in-game villain Rhino, you can check it out via the IGN Youtube video below.

Killzone 3 multiplayer to be released as a free download by Sony

Sony have revealed that they are releasing the multiplayer aspect of Killzone 3 as a free download.

From Tuesday, 28th of February gamers in the US will be able to download the multiplayer portion of the PlayStation exclusive FPS for free from the PlayStation Network, the latest episode of the PlayStation Blogcast has revealed.  There is currently no definite news on whether this offer is coming to Europe.

This standalone part of the game comes with all the maps but will have an unspecified level cap. There will also be a limit on what rank players can achieve in this free offering and a limit of the number of unlockable weapons and skills available.

Gamers will have to pay $14.99 if they then want to unlock the full multiplayer experience.

GAME closing 35 stores and Gameplay.co.uk

GAME have announced plans to close 35 stores and it's gameplay.co.uk website.

All stores affected by closures have been notified and all Gameplay website customers will now be served via Gamestation.co.uk as of the 1st March. The closures are part of the firms plans to reduce GAME and Gamestation stores from 610 stores to 550 outlets by December 2013.

The company told MCV that it has a 'detailed plan to help customers move to another local store or online' and has said that it would do its best to redeploy its staff if possible.

The news comes after a few trouble months for GAME group, where it has suffered credit issues following a poor Christmas and troubles with stocking games in it's stores.

Relive those Grand Theft Auto early days

1997: Tony Blair wins the general election, Channel 5 launches, the first Harry Potter book is published and the Teletubbies first hit our TV's. It was a very active year but for gamers there was one thing that hit our shelves in that year that changed gaming forever, and that was the release of Grand Theft Auto.

Grand Theft Auto introduced gamers into the open sandbox world that so many games have tried to emulate but most have ultimately failed.  It is one of the most popular gaming series around having sold over 130 million copies of the GTA series of games.

Playing the first GTA does feel dated and now feels like a game you'd expect to find on a handheld as opposed to a console game but you can't beat the nostalgia that comes from loading up the game, getting in a pick-up truck, and cruising around the city listening to Sideway's Hank O'Malley (and The Alabama Bottle Boys).

If you want to relive those glory days of running people and driving over crates in the street to get your weapons then you can download the game for free from http://www.rockstargames.com/classics/. Not only can you download the original GTA but you can also download 'GTA2' and other Rockstar classic 'Wild Metal'.

Theme Hospital

Theme Hospital was originally released in 1997 and was the second game in the popular Theme series of games; following on from Theme Park.  The game was a massive commercial success, selling over 4 million copies worldwide.

Theme Hospital is a simulation game set in a hospital that would make a trip to your local Accident & Emergency a dream experience. The game starts off in an empty hospital with a fairly basic layout and your goal is to build the rooms available, hire the correct staff, fill your hospital with seats, fire extinguishers and all manner of small items, in order to fulfil the targets set for you within the fields of financial attainment, percentage of patients cured, patients cured and hospital value.  Once you have fulfilled the targets for the hospital (within the time limit), you are moved to a bigger hospital, with bigger targets, new diseases, new rooms to build and a more complex layout.

The game revolves around the player buying and placing rooms (or facilities) in a hospital, and hiring doctors, nurses, receptionists and handymen to make the hospital operational. Once the hospital is opened, patients will start arriving will all manner of amusing fictional illnesses which must be diagnosed and cured in order to obtain money and achieve the set targets. The player must also ensure that the hospital and equipment is kept in clean, working order and that staff members do not get to tired or to cold while at work.

There is a somewhat dark sense of humour running throughout the game, the same humour that runs through all of Bullfrog's Theme games. The fictional illnesses adding to the humour with diseases such as Bloaty Head, Hairyitis, Heaped Piles and The Squits. There are loads of little humorous touches that you will experience throughout the game with workers who 'smell faintly of cabbage', references to other well-known computers, and the occasional visit from Death himself if your hospital reputation gets that bad.

It may have been 15 years since it was originally released but Theme Hospital is still a cracking game and the humour within still stands as strong now as it did all those years ago. If you have never played the game, and god knows why, then you should definitely pick it up and experience a game that is nothing short of a classic. You can download the game from the PlayStation Store or you can pick up the Windows version from the GAME website for just £2.99. http://www.game.co.uk/

Capcom announce Street Fighter x Tekken preview event in London

Capcom Europe announced details today of a special Street Fighter x Tekken preview event in London on the 29th Febuary.

The event will take place at the Villain Bar Great Eastern Street, London and will begin at 6pm.  Entry to the event is free to enter and will give gamers a chance to preview the game before the games official UK release on the 9th March.  It has also been announced that there will be prizes and giveaways to the best players of the night.

For full details visit the Capcom Europe blog post here: http://www.capcom-europe.com/blog/2012/02/want-a-fight-sfxt-preview-event-in-london/

Borderlands 2 hits the US on September 18th

Gearbox Software has announced that Borderlands 2 will be released in the US on September 18th.

As well as releasing the date, Gearbox have also announced that if you pre-order the game from either GameStop or Amazon and you'll receive a ticket to the Borderlands 2 Premier Club enabling exclusive access to special pre-order content.  For full details of the content and how to pre-order visit http://www.borderlands2.com/preorder/.

Gearbox completed a trio of news by releasing a new "launch date trailer" for the game, showcasing the new characters, abilities and some in-game footage.

GAME won't be stocking Ubisoft's Vita Launch Titles

UK Videogame retailer GAME will not be stocking Ubisoft's Playstation Vita launch games.

Rayman Origins, Lumines Electronic Symphony, Asphalt Injection, Michael Jackson: The Experience and Dungeon Hunter Alliance will not be available to buy when the Vita launches tonight.

"All customers affected by this decision have been made aware of the situation and we will continue to communicate any updates to customers through out Twitter and Facebook feeds." GAME said in a statement issued to VG247.

Vita launch titles from other publishers EA, Codemasters, Namco Bandai, Sega and Capcom will still be available in GAME stores from midnight.  No specific reason was given for not stocking the games and Ubisoft has declined to comment on the matter.

This news adds to the growing concern over the stores future after the company had recent trouble with it's ability to raise credit insurance and acquire new stock.

For a full list of PlayStation Vita launch game details visit http://blog.eu.playstation.com/

PlayStation Vita Launches Tomorrow

Tomorrow marks the date of the 22nd February 2012 and the UK launch of the PlayStation Vita: the predecessor to the promising but ultimately disappointing PlayStation Portable.

The Vita will set you back £230 for the Wi-Fi only model and £299 for the 3G & Wi-Fi model.  PlayStation Vita launch titles include Uncharted: The Golden Abyss, Gravity Rush, WipeOut 2048 & Modnation Racers: Road Trip, to name a few.

The official midnight launch is being held at GAME Oxford Street, with a selection of special goodies being handed out and a couple of guests.  Wipeout 2048 developers Karl Jones & Ami Ledger will be there to sign copies of the game & the Vita Mobile Team will also be there offering people in the queue a chance to sample the Vita before picking it up.

Goody bags including merchandise will be distributed and the first person in the queue will receive a year's supply of free Vita games.  A select amount of invitations to an exclusive after-party at the PlayStation Vita Rooms will also be handed out, where fans can enjoy DJ-Sets, refreshments and an exclusive chance to sample upcoming Vita releases.


"As the official launch partner, we've been leading the way by giving gamers the chance to sample the console across 600 GAME and Gamestation stores and the excitement built around the PlayStation Vita launch shows that handheld gaming is as popular as ever," explained GAME and Gamestation marketing manager Anna-Marie Mason.

"With both our flagship stores opening at midnight to celebrate the launch of PlayStation Vita, we're getting set for a fantastic night of gaming and we're looking forward to giving customers the earliest chance possible to buy their own PlayStation Vita."

Gamestation's Birmingham New Street store will also be opening at midnight.  There were no plans to roll out nationwide midnight launches but ask in your local store to find out if they are doing a midnight opening.

The Start of the Elder Scrolls

If you are like me and are a lover of The Elder Scrolls series of games but only really became aware of the series around the games Morrowind/Oblivion, then you've probably wondered where it all began.

Well with the help of a DOS emulator you can now download TES: Arena & TES II: Daggerfall and play the games that kick started a series which has grown into a worldwide success.

If you want to play these two classic games and see for yourself just how far this game series has come since 1994, then head over to http://www.elderscrolls.com/arena/ and download the game.  Then head over to http://www.dosbox.com/ to download the emulator and get to work on installing the game.

There is a pretty detailed how to guide included in the Arena download, explaining the somewhat long winded installation process but you should get through the installation fine and soon be loading up the game start screen.

For downloading Daggerfall just select it from the Games dropdown menu of the Elder Scrolls website.

DLC

Videogames have always offered something unique when it comes to the entertainment industry, enabling an even more complete immersion into the world with which you choose to entertain you.  You can genuinely feel like you have become the World Class racing driver you always wanted to be or lose yourself within a fantasy world where your actions have consequences on the story.

This is the kind of immersion that has lead to Videogames becoming one of, if not the major industry within the entertainment industry, but as games have progressed over the years so have the demands from the gamers themselves.  We've gone through single-player, multi-player, online multi-player, brilliant stories and characters and downloadable content.  It is the downloadable content where one of my main gripes with the gaming industry occurs.

Let me start by saying that I am not against DLC but there comes a point where it's not so much to keep gamers happy but instead an easy way to take some more money out of our pockets; Call of Duty Elite being a great example of the latter.  You don't need to release new Map Packs every month in order to keep people interested in playing your game, nor should we as gamers have to pay in order to view some more in-depth statistics of our gaming.

The Battlefield 3 'Battlelog' online is a brilliant statistics site; free, in-depth, shows upcoming unlocks and individual stats for each weapon/vehicle.  Surely anyone who needs even more detail, heat maps and the like is spending way to much time on their gaming and should be putting more effort into actual real life.  If you make a game with good shipped maps/vehicles/tracks etc and a good online experience you will retain gamers without the need to constantly churn out somewhat half rate content.

I can only guess that the Call of Duty DLC explosion is more to do with Battlefield 3 having a more complete online War zone feel, with players helping each other out, playing the objective and the draw of flying a jet into someone's face (all things that are non-existent/rare in Cod).  I used to be a hardcore Cod fan but over the past few iterations in the series I have lost all interest in the series with each game lasting less time in my collection before being traded in.

Some games have understandable DLC, games like Forza where a tonne of content is available but it is nothing more than a personal preference if you choose to download them.  It's an example of a game that would still be a great game even if there was no downloadable content on offer.  This is the kind of DLC that we as gamers should be provided with; content that might not be overly required to enhance the game but would do so if you chose to download it.

I would like you all aware that I know making the game in the first place costs money and DLC is often a way to repay the money spent on it's creation, and that it is a business at the end of the day and the aim for any business is a profit.  I know this is true but sometimes (and more often nowadays) videogame companies are taking this mass attempts for profits a little to far, and sometimes a great game can become a greatly disliked game because of this.  You don't need to ply us with more content than we could shake a rather large stick at to keep us gamers happy, instead spent a bit more time on making a great game at launch, release one or two content packs to tie us over while you work on the next game.

It's not like we have to pay film companies extra to download the deleted scenes from a film.

The Decline of Gaming Classics

There have been many videogames over the years that have been classed as 'Classics', from Pong to Super Mario Bros and even up to games like Grand Theft Auto Vice City.  Some of these classics have been around for upwards of twenty years and some of them have been more recent but are games that you know will become classics; games that will always be played by someone, somewhere in the world.  But the other night whilst trying to get to sleep this thought hit me, a thought that there are very few, if any, games that have been released in the past few years that I can see becoming a videogame classic.

NES Classic Super Mario Bros.

With the advent of the internet and playing online against your friends rather than playing split-screen in the same room has placed the general perception of what a videogame needs to include to a different level.  Most gamers in the current gaming world will generally look to see if the game has online capabilities before buying a game, because online multiplayer has now become one of (if not the) major selling points when making a game.  I personally feel that we gamers who look for a good single player game, with a great storyline are a dying breed; slowly being eradicated by the social gaming youth.

It's the need for online gaming and an adequate single player section that is the main contributor in the lack of potential gaming classics around at the moment.  The one thing pretty much all current gaming classics have in common is that they have no online capabilities, and the only chance of playing with friends was to have them on the same screen sat next to you with another controller.  All the classics currently around generally have a good storyline to them, granted some of them may not be long or written to an award winning standard but the stories were good.  The gameplay is usually easy to use and easy to just pick up and play even if it has been years since you last picked up the controller.  The visual are dated and in honesty look terrible but that doesn't matter, because you play the game because of a deep rooted love of the game and it's that love of the game that masks the graphically power (or lack of it) in an old game.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 Online

Obviously it would be difficult to keep many of today's current run of games online and running because running the servers to play the game costs the company money, with most games having a certain amount of time after release before the servers are cut off.  Evidently if hardly anyone is playing the game online then it makes sense financially to cut the servers and spend the costs elsewhere, either developing new games or adding new online features to current games of the moment.  But with cutting off the servers you leave the game to stand alone on it's single-player which is generally not good enough on it's own feet and fails to lift the game above the shoulders of all the other games around, generally condemning the game to videogame oblivion.

There are a couple of games that I think could make it into the videogame classics of the future; games like The Elder Scrolls and Fallout series but that is mainly because these games have no online.  Sure enough these games have downloadable add-ons but these are not essential when the games stand on their own feet without them.  Games like Call of Duty will gradually fade into the distance with every new game in the series pushing the older versions further away from our minds.

Red Dead Redemption

The video game industry is a strange place and anything can happen; maybe in 20 years time games like Call of Duty 4 and Red Dead Redemption will be viewed as classics with private firms/people paying for workable  servers so that a select few can still play them online and relieve the good old days when you first picked up the game.  Feeling that nostalgia fill you up in the same way it does today when you pick up a Mega Drive controller to play the original Sonic or when you pick up an N64 controller to play a round of Goldeneye.

I know it is an old and well overused phrase but it is true, because only time will tell.

Netflix launched in the UK and Ireland

This weekend saw the launch of unlimited film & TV streaming service Netflix here in the UK, available now on the PS3, Xbox360 & the Nintendo Wii.  Having previously only been available in the US, Netflix's subscription costs £5.99 a month or €6.99 in Ireland with each new subscriber receiving the first month free. 

The subscription cost matches the lowest priced package available from UK rival Lovefilm, with its unlimited streaming package costing more.  Netflix has already announced plans to launch its service on further platforms in the future, with the service available on the 3DS, PCs and Smart TV’s in the US.

The service includes thousands of films and TV series with films such as The Expendables, Saw V & classic films like Reservoir Dog's.  The wide range of TV shows available includes 24, Shameless, Doctor Who and even The Only Way is Essex.

Kinect Fun Labs

Kinect Fun Labs launched last year with little mention of it's release but you'd be hard pressed not to know it exists as it's is continually advertised in the bottom corners of various screens of the new Xbox Dashboard.  So what is the Fun Labs, well simply put it is a collection of little gadgets that you can download and use with your Kinect sensor to show the sort of things that the Kinect is capable of.  In fairness the gadgets are not what you would call amazing single games but more technical demos of the Kinect's abilities that you can play yourself.  Here are the gadgets available and a quick overview:

Kinect Me
This gadget is essentially a full body scanner where you first scan your head and then your body and Kinect Me will create an generated version of you to the best of it's abilities.  After creating you pose for photos with your virtual you, can add a voice message to go with the snaps and finally can upload it to the KinectShare website.  There is no much else to this gadget but it demonstrates the capabilities of face scanning within a game to quickly and effortlessly put your face into an in-game character.  That said maybe with better lighting, my avatar would have looked alot more like me.

Googly Eyes
Much like Kinect Me, Googly Eyes involves scanning things into the gadget but instead of yourself this time you scan in objects.  Once you have scanned in the front and back of the object, it will attempt to render the object as best it can while also adding a pair of Googly Eyes.  Once created you can control your object with your body and then record a short video skit to upload.  If your children are a fan of the kids TV show Ooglies then there is some fun for them in creating there very own 'ooglies'.  This gadget does however have limited lifespan to grown ups and it is advisable not to play it for to long or the Googly Eyes song will be stuck in your head for days.

Those two gadgets are your starting set but there are a few more that you can download to further experience the Kinect's capabilities.  There is Bobble Head where you use the same scanning method as in Kinect Me to create your very own BobbleHead Figurine of yourself and record an audio message which plays whenever you smack your figurine upside the head.  Build-A-Buddy consists once again as an updated version of Googly Eyes where you scan in an object of your choosing.  This time round you can choose 3 either-or personalities traits for your object and once your choices are made and your buddy is 'hatched', you get to play some very basic repeat the action games with your buddy.  Unlike the others there is some aspect of gameplay to this gadget but the same visual issues of to much movement and your buddy becomes some deformed evil dead looking creature are still evident.

Other gadgets include Microsoft's avatar chatroom suite showcase Avatar Kinect, your own personal carnival house of mirrors effect gadget Mutation Station, Kinect boxing but with a twist by using your scanned objects as fighters in Battle Stuff and perform 5 songs in your own air rock band in Air Band.  Each of these gadgets are currently free to download and play with 2 other gadgets available but at a cost of 240 points.  These two priced gadgets are Kinect Sparkler which is the first gadget that tracks finger movement and allows you to create sparkler drawn pictures, and Musical Feet which can be thought of as a virtual floor keyboard which allows multiple people to play the keys and create music to share.

Although none of these gadgets are overly amazing or awe-inspiring, unlikely to divert your attention from real games for more than 15 minutes they are however great examples of what the Kinect can do and a look into what the future may hold for the Kinect Sensor and it's abilities.  If you are also looking to an easy 400 gamerscore to add to your collection there are few easier ways in which to get them, even though it will take a little while of your time.  The only other thing worth mentioning is that Kinect Fun Labs does not appear in your Games or Apps menu and the only way I've found to access it is to go to the point of downloading it again and once the prompt appears to download, select Play Now.  This in itself can be infuriating but if you want to see what the Kinect can do and fancy an easy addition to your gamerscore total then it's something you'll get used to.

WWE '12

The problem with a game series that releases yearly titles is that the games tend to stagnate. The next game is generally just an update rather than a completely new and renovated title, a few minor tweaks packaged a something new and amazing.  So after 7 yearly updates to the Smackdown vs Raw franchise of games, it is well overdue for a revamp and a new look and hence we've ended up with WWE '12.

The new game from WWE game staples THQ and Yukes is being sold as 'Bigger, Badder, Better', and a chance to 'experience the new WWE'.  So does it live up to that hype, is this a totally new direction for the somewhat stale series and the answer is no.  At the end of it all the game is still created by the same companies that have been making wrestling games since the very first WWF Smackdown way back in 2000, so there are no completely new and fresh faces in the series.  But it is not all bad and same old, same old as there are a few nice little touches to the game that show that with pushes in the right direction the game series could go onto the next level.

The first of these new touches are the new camera system that recreates the TV world of the WWE in the most realistic way yet.  The new system removes the HUD, uses all the camera work & action shots that are used in the TV shows to make you feel more like you are watching a show, opposed to playing a video game.  The camera system accompanied by a more TV presentation style WWE Universe & Road to Wrestlemania story mode make the game fell more real and like a TV show.  This does however lead me to the RTWM game mode which I personally don't like.

The Road to Wrestlemania could have been so good but instead it is a game mode where you don't get to select your character, you do a bit of fighting, press a button when prompted and then the cinematics take over.  It is a mode that is cinematically driven and when you are playing what is essentially a fighting game, watching videos isn't what you want to be doing.  It is also rather infuriating when you beat down on an opponent and press the button when prompted only for the cinematic to cut in where your character then takes a beating and/or loses to a guy you have just destroyed in the ring.  This game mode could have been so much more and if they had spent a bit more time integrating this mode into the Universe mode then there could have been something truly amazing to kick this series revamp off with.

The control system is also not to far removed from the previous series and with a bit of time and even a control layout shake up you can make it feel even more like the previous games.  The controls are not really anything new or revolutionary in all honesty, the reversal system has been changed and can get take awhile to get used to but you'll either pick it up with no problem or spend most your matches infuriated with the game while getting your ass handed to you by your opponent.  The computer A.I. has also had a tweak and has a tendency to be too aggressive but then again how often do real wrestling stars stop during a match to look blankly at the other wrestling whilst waiting for a grapple or slap to the chops.  In general I think it can be said that the opponent A.I. has been developed to make it more realistic to a real match, now if only they could sort out the referee and the commentary then it would be an almost brilliant package.

There is also an extensive Creation mode where you can create a superstar, moveset, complete entrance, finisher, arena and storylines, all of which can be uploaded online for others to rate and download your creation.  There is everything here to create classic ECW arena's, storylines from old or current shows and play them out in your created arenas.  If you don't fancy the Smackdown show in the Universe mode then you can change the brand to something you have created.

In overview this game is not a completely new invention in the series of wrestling games but it has the potential to be something amazing if pushed in the right direction and providing the makers listen to the suggestions from the ever loyal fanbase.  If you like wrestling games and want a game that makes it feel like you are in the show and a game where have almost complete control over the world of WWE then this is the game for you.  You may have noticed that I have not mentioned the online aspect of the game and the reason for that is the server's are unavailable on such a regular basis that I don't feel it worth me talking about.

What to expect this week (09/01/12)

This week is a considerably sparse week for games but that is expected as the gaming community settles from the big game releases over the Christmas period.  However there are a few titles due for release, which are:

• Angry Birds Seasons (PC) - The same old addictive & infuriating game but with seasonal themes from Halloween, St. Patrick's Day and more.
• Choplifter HD (PC, PSN, XBLM) - A updated reboot of the arcade classic featuring some cameos from some of gaming's most recognisable faces including Duke Nukem.
• Deadliest Warrior: Ancient Combat (PS3, XBox360) - A combination of first two games of the series (based on Spike Tv's historical combat simulation show), in one retail disc.

As always game release dates are subject to change & release date information obtained via IGN and HMV.