New Assassins Creed PodCast

Assassins Creed has been out a while now. Did it live up to the hype and was it even worth the wait? What do these types of big blockbuster games mean for the future? Also, is this a new change in direction for the PS3? Is 2008 the year for Sony? With the death of HD-DVD it most certainly looks like the Playstation 3 is on the up!

For witty banter (ahem) and in depth discussion check out the podCast!

Click here and then click on the blue 38.5m link and enjoy!

Happy listening.

Game Stadium!! Bournemouth

The smell, the sweat, the sticky floors and the husk of competition, the British Arcades are often remembered with a rose tinted dollop of 70’s and 80’s nostalgia. But alas they have long since gone the way of the dodo. A few remain in bowling alleys and such places but none contain the spirit of competition that many people so fondly remember. Local arcades were a great idea, they gave gamers a place to meet face-to-face, to indulge in their hobby with like-minded people and challenge them to test their skills.

The online domain has long since taken over and the anonymity it brings means that sometimes you will inevitably run into some idiot who thinks it’s hysterical to act and talk in a racist, misogynistic and violent manner.

Wouldn’t it be amazing if the arcade went through a re-birth? Rising like a phoenix out of the ashes and into an arcade for the modern era, sleek, beautiful and full of Hi-Def next-gen technology where we can all come together and celebrate our passion.

Game Stadium in Bournemouth is the ONLY independent new arcade centre to be opened and it deals exclusively with Playstation3. Its sleek look is down to the vision of owner Phil Reed. It offers the perfect conditions for competitive play for gamers of all ages. In fact Game Stadium runs its own competitions, from Call of Duty 4 to Pro Evolution Soccer, for which they offer prizes of up to £1,000.

A large number HD screens complement a private gaming booth with a gigantic HD Bravia screen. Not to mention that the whole place is connected to the net, so if you already have a Playstation3 you can use your own identity and play online, and if you don’t have one? Don’t worry, because Game Stadium will provide you with one.

This is the first of a new breed of arcade. If you are in the area and a gamer you really have no excuse, you have to check out Game Stadium and sample its gaming goodness.

Check out its website here.

Check out some pics here.

Interview with Peter Molyneux

Check out this interview with Peter Molyneux. I was really lucky to interview him on his life making games, to find out what inspires him and to have a cheeky look at Fable 2!

Click here to read it.

I can kill you with my BRAIN!

Well its taken all my childhood and some of my adult life but finally, finally, they've come up with a way to control computers, more specifically games with just our thoughts! This research in Australia, explained on the BBC news site by President of US/Australian firm Emotiv, Tan Lee, is the latest in the technology known as non-invasive electroencephalography (EEG).

"It picks up electrical activity from the brain and sends wireless signals to a computer. The headset could be used to improve the realism of emotional responses of AI characters in games. If you laughed or felt happy after killing a character in a game then your virtual buddy could admonish you for being callous"

This head-set is surprisingly cheap. As the technology has grown so its cost has gone down to only $299. A small price to pay for moving things with your mind.

So here's what I'm thinking. We get a Wii controller for the Xbox 360 or the PS3, full motion sensativity. Then we get this mind reading thing (electro reading, whatever) and then we get Lucas Arts to make us a Jedi game. Use the Wii mote as a lightsaber and then we can actually have force powers and us THEM PROPERLY! Is that not awesome.


Check out the link here to the BBC news site if your interested in reading about how the science works. Click here.

Impending DOOM!

It's gonna hit the fan big time when the new GTA is finally released. Not only do we have have Tanya Byron's review on the harms of video games to children going public at a similar time, but we've also got the Presidential election in the States heating up, with hungry politicians just grabbing hold of anything to push them ahead. I'm looking at you, erm, all of you actually!

Things are probably going to get pretty messy and underneath it all will be one game. It's a good thing that game is GTA and not another rubbish publicity hounding, violence-for-the-sake -of violence-run -of-the-mill-shooter. We have a tough time ahead of us. We should start planning are arguments now ahead of time. We should be prepared to defend our favourite past time and not appear like a bunch of apethetic illiterate idiots.

It's a sad thought but were not ever going to fully get rid of this kind of stigmatism. Just ask the film industry. They've been legitimised for years as an art and they STILL get crazy right-wing nuts claiming that movies are a serious threat to the children.

Won't somebody, PLEASE, think of the children.

What ever happened to the rugby game?

I hail from the other side of the River Seven. I'm Welsh and I've spent the most part of my life living Wales. I've just watched another win by our fantastic boys in red and it got me thinking. What ever happened to the rugby game.

Now I understand that compared to football, rugby is a somewhat niece market. There’s no way a rugby game is gonna sell as well as say Fifa. But over the years there have been some really fantastic titles. If you like rugby of course, if you don’t then your out of luck because the amount of different controls that a video game version of rugby requires boarders on the ridiculous.


The one rugby game I remember playing the most was Jonah Lomu Rugby on the Playstaion one. A game where teams were so miss balanced that any game could descend into a free-for-all and where Lomu himself was pretty much indestructible!

That’s not to mention the commentary where every five minuets heard the commentator shouting “and he’s gone in there like a freight train!” Boy did that get old quick.

And yet there was something about Lomu Rugby that kept my friends and I enthralled for hours. If we were ever watching the Six Nations and half-time approached we’d fire up the PSone and have a quick game, it did after all support the multi-tap feature.

I know other rugby games have been and gone, some with really good 3D graphics but none have captured that same magic as Lomu. I wonder if there’s a next-gen title in the works, mind you we’ve a while to next world cup, does Lomu have a son?