Power Corrupts and Gamer Points are evil

Microsoft have got it all wrong. Creating Gamer Points as an integral part of the XBL experience is detrimental to gaming and corrupts the minds of pure gamers. Some of these gamers already have corrupt minds but the pressure on pure gamers to conform is massive. Now don’t get your knickers in knot. Show some restraint and let me finish. I promise I won't even mention the Gamer Point cheats.

In the eyes of big, bad Bill you need Gamer Points to prove that you’re a great gamer. You might think you’re a legend on Call of Duty but if you don’t have all the Gamer Points before you shoot someone in the head from 1000 metres just forget it. You’re nothing. But ask yourself why you need to show anyone anyway? You got 10,000 online kills in Gears of War and gained all 1250 Gamer Points. That's great, well done you, but who'd you do it for? What motivated you? I doubt that the answer will be that it was for the fun of it.

I’m willing to bet that most 360 gamers have played at least one game to within an inch of its life just to get all the Gamer Points. Did you enjoy the games more? No. The Gamer Point philosophy completely contradicts the main reason that video games were created in the first place.

What’s worse is that Sony are very definitely working toward some kind of Gamer Point system. This means that 2 of the big 3 players in video games think that Gamer Points are the way to go. And they are. For them anyway, because it means keeping gamers locked into their brand, and paying out their hard earned cash so they can slavishly continue feeding that insatiable points tally.

Will Nintendo follow suit? Now, you can say Nintendo can barely get online gaming up to a satisfactory level but that’s missing the point. Nintendo don’t offer any form of inter-gaming, inter-gamer one-upmanship. Nintendo make it much more personal. If you've completed Resident Evil 4 on the Wii then you’ll be beaming from ear to ear with self-satisfaction. Sure, you can go and tell your friends about how great it was and how you could look up Ashley's skirt but that information isn't plastered all over the internet. Thank goodness and yes I did. Ok, so gamers can still exaggerate about scores or the games they've completed but it isn't the same as trying desperately to prove you're the best because you did x, y and z in a game AND you have the achievements AND the points to prove it. Probably got the T shirt too! See what I did there?

Nintendo’s philosophy is clearly all about fun. It always has been. They leave it to the gamers to fully explore and experience games to a level where each individual gamer is happy. Microsoft, and soon Sony, place huge signposts with Gamer Points attached to entice you to do particular things and play the games the way they want you to.

Out of the big 3 video game companies it is Nintendo that are not considering Gamer Points. It is also Nintendo that have the gaming world at their feet. So, forget Bill, stand up for your own enjoyment and play the games for the reason that they were created in the first place, for fun. Oh, and I told you I wouldn’t mention the cheats.

To have Gamer Points or not to have Gamer Points? That is the question. Or is the answer somewhere in the middle? Tell us on the GAMEOV3R FORUM

Dive! Dive! Dive!

Just before I started typing this I was all set on what I was going to write about, and that is my dislike of water levels in games. Now I know what you’re thinking, isn’t that a bit odd if you’ve read my blog entry two days ago? Well no, and I’ll tell you why… I don’t dislike water levels! So all in all that initial thought was a complete dud, and just like this paragraph has achieved a big fat zilch!

But that’s where you and I are wrong you see, as it got me thinking about why I had that thought in the first place and after absolutely seconds of thought I realised where it came from. You’re intrigued I can tell! The game I kept thinking of was Tomb Raider, a game of exploration. That’s good, I like to explore, I like to swim, so swimming while exploring should really float my metaphorical boat right? Wrong.

So what’s my problem? Well, funny you should ask as I’m about to tell you exactly that. It’s that Lara’s lung capacity annoys me. What I’d like her to be able to do is go down and not worry about coming back up for air. Stop sniggering at the back. I hate the fact that there's an imposed time limit before I have to come back up to the surface. Now you might say it's realistic, no one can hold their breath indefinitely, but is it fun? Sometimes time limits are a useful tool, other times they're just plain annoying and for me this dives straight into the latter.

Now Lara, you've been on enough of these trips to start getting your packing list right. How many times does this situation have to happen? Pistols... check, tight shorts.... check, magnetic grappling device?!... check, compact scuba diving equipment... ugh! Twice I forgot my PE kit and had to do it in my pants and my lesson was learned, the embarassing part is that I was 23 at the time.

Ever done PE in your pants, share you mental scars on the GAMEOV3R Forum and then tell us what you forgot to pack on your expeditions

RIP Link

I’ve played Final Fantasy games before but having never played the original game, and holding Square Enix in high regard, I thought it was high time I did. So I went out and bought Final Fantasy I & II – Dawn of Souls for my GBA so I could play anytime and anywhere I wanted to.

While playing the game last night, tucked up in bed, I uncovered something that no Nintendo fan should ever have to see. I’d just sailed into a harbour and wandered into Elfheim. While I was investigating and chatting to the residents I spotted three gravestones in the north east of the village behind the Sanctuary. The first two gravestones were just plain old gravestones, I know this because that’s what the game told me, but the writing on the third gravestone was earth shattering. It said, “Here lies Link”. I could barely believe my eyes. Link is dead.

This is sad news indeed and it took me a moment to gather myself but as I did one almighty question began to form in my mind, and no, I wasn’t thinking about who’d killed Link. It was this, if Final Fantasy was created in 1987 then who the hell has been running around in Link’s clothes for the last 20 years!!?? A Link to the Past, Link's Awakening, Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess all had an impostor pretending to be the real hero of Hyrule. This is an outrage!

Come and pay your respects with us on the GAMEOV3R FORUM and then we’ll go and track down this usurper and make him pay!

Cry Me A River

I think of all the graphical improvements that have come along in this HD next gen era, the one that impresses and pleases me the most is water. I've been playing a lot of BioShock recently and the stuff is everywhere. Dripping down the walls, pouring through the ceiling and sitting in puddles on the floor. In some rooms you're knee deep in it and I love it! Despite the obvious problems with getting a decent plumber I can't take my eyes off it, and it's wasted more of my time in non-gameplay moments than anything else.

It takes me back to the time me and Matt were playing Gears of War online around the time we both bought our Xboxes and I said to Matt, you have to come and look at the sea! So off we trotted in the middle of this battlefield and stood side by side looking out over the balcony to the horizon with all thoughts of the ugly aliens baring down on us put right to the back of our minds. It really was a romantic little moment that neither of us mention anymore, but now I'm sharing it with you. It never would have worked with me in Birmingham and him in Scotland anyway! All joking aside I think we made a connection that day that eventually led to us helping GAMEOV3R create this place.

Anyway this has all got rather soppy now and all this reminiscing has brought a tear to my eye.... actually no, it's OK, I think they're just watering a bit.

Need a good plumber? Maybe someone knows one on the GAMEOV3R Forum... Oh and tell us about some graphics that blow you away while you're at it

Vick's Monday Blues

Stttttttttttt....rike!!!



If you like bowling let us know on the Forum or if you've got better things to do, leave a comment here instead

Hope you enjoyed that, Vick :)

and the best platform game ever is...

Earlier this year Retro Gamer Magazine polled it’s readership in an attempt to uncover the Top 25 Platform Games of All Time. The response to this was massive. So massive that the weight of the replies buckled Retro Towers leaving it looking something like it's distant relation in Pisa. The results they received were fascinating, unsurprising yet surprising and included many titles from gaming’s lavish history.

I’m sure that without you even seeing the list you could guess that some of the most famous character's gaming delights were amongst those in the parade and as nice as it is to see Mario and Sonic it was nicer still to see Tiki the Kiwi rubbing shoulders with Bub & Bob. Even a game that starred Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck put in an appearance.

No one ever completely agrees with these polls. In fact sometimes someone disagrees with all the games altogether! So let’s a have a little fun. Below I've listed all the games from the top 25, but they’re in the wrong order. I want you to put them into the order that you think they should be in. Get out a pencil and paper or just type it on your computer but get them jotted down.

Bruce Lee 1984
(Spectrum, C64, CPC, Apple II, Atari, DOS, MSX)

New Zealand Story 1988
(Arcade, Spectrum, CPC, C64, Amiga, ST, NES, Master System)

Super Mario Bros 3 1988
(NES, SNES, GBA)

Super Mario Bros 1985
(NES, GBA)

Super Castlevania IV 1991
(SNES)

Pitfall 1982
(Atari 2600)

Tomb Raider 1996
(Saturn, PS1, PC, Mac, N-Gate, Pocket PC)

Monty On The Run 1985
(Spectrum, C64, CPC)

Flashback 1992
(DOS, Amiga, Apple Mac, Archimedes, SNES, 3DO, Mega Drive, Sega CD)

Castle of Illusion 1990
(Mega Drive, Master System, Game Gear)

Manic Miner 1983
(Spectrum, C64, CPC, BBC Micro, Dragon 32/64, Amiga, Oric 1, Game Boy Advance, MSX, Sam Coupe)

Super Mario World 1990
(SNES, GameBoy)

Yoshi’s Island 1995
(SNES)

Sonic the Hedgehog 1991
(Master System, Game Gear, Mega Drive)

Super Ghouls ‘N’ Ghosts 1991
(SNES)

Rainbow Islands 1987
(Spectrum, C64, CPC, Arcade, Master System, Mega Drive, Atari ST, Amiga, NES, PC Engine, PC)

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 1992
(Master Syatem, Game Gear, Mega Drive)

Prince of Persia 1988
(Apple II, Apple Mac, DOS, Amiga, ST, Master System, Mega CD, Game Boy, Game Boy Colour, NES, SNES, Sam Coupe, CPC, Spectrum, Game Gear, Turbo Duo, Mega Drive)

Castlevania - Symphony of the Night 1997
(PS1, Saturn)

Chuckie Egg 1983
(BBC Micro, Spectrum, Dragon 32/64, C64, MSX, Tatung Einstein, CPC, Amiga, ST, PC)

Bubble Bobble 1986
(Arcade, Spectrum, C64, CPC, Amiga, Apple II, MSX, ST, Sharp X68000, NES, Master System, Game Boy, Game Gear, DOS)

Impossible Mission 1984
(C64, Acorn Electron, CPC, Apple II, Atari 7800, BBC Micro, ZX Spectrum, Sega Master System)

Banjo Kazooie 1998
(N64)

Super Mario 64 1996
(N64)

Jet Set Willy 1984
Spectrum, C64, CPC, BBC Micro, Acorn, Electron, MSX, Atari 8Bit)

You got your list? Good.

Now, head on over to the FORUM, post your list, compare it to the official Top 25 and tell us what you think. Did it match? What's in the wrong place, what should have been no.1, is there a game that you feel doesn’t deserve the praise?

What about any games that you think are missing from the top 25? What about; Super Metroid, Rolling Thunder, Pitfall II: The Lost Caverns, Dizzy, Head Over Heals, Shinobi, Jet Set Willy II: The Final Frontier, Flimo’s Quest, Super Frog, Bionic Commando, Sonic and Knuckles, Metroid, Sonic Adventure, Boogerman, Great Giana Sisters, Strider, Conkers Bad Fur Day, Star Quake, Banjo Tooie, Donkey Kong Country, Earthworm Jim, Chuck Rock, Kid Chameleon, Bazooka Bill, Wonder Boy, Nodes of Yesdod, Solomon’s Key, Bonk's Adventure?

Get on the GAMEOV3R FORUM

Bullet Time

Most films these days are at least 2 hours long so when I saw Shoot ‘Em Up would be less then an hour and a half I felt a little bit cheated. Adding this to the fact that the film appealed to my gamer side more than my movie side I felt unsure if I would enjoy it.

I needn’t have worried, Shoot ‘Em Up doesn’t disappoint. It lives up to its name, perhaps surprisingly delivers a descent story and has some great characters convincingly played by Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti and Monica Bellucci. It’s explosive, gritty, dirty, lavish and glossy. Gorgeous too, when Monica Bellucci is commanding your attention. That’s almost worth the entry fee and price of a hot dog and a drink alone. Well, perhaps not the drink.

There’s the obvious connection with John Woo’s now infamous choreographed gun ballets and detractors will certainly site this as a reason to say that Shoot ‘Em Up is crap or that it’s just a Woo rip off. It’s neither. The film stands on it’s own two feet needing no John Woo-esque crutch.

The movie is a lot of fun and perfect for gamers with a penchant for wielding firearms, wanting to be Max Payne or those that always wanted to have their very own BFG.

Shoot Em Up has put me in the mood for some blasting action. No Jack I’m not going to go out and shoot someone but I might go and try that demo of Stranglehold.

Got an opinion on Shoot 'Em' UP? Have your say on the FORUM.

Rubber Johnnies

You probably gathered already that I’m back. My sincere apologies for loosing the plot last week. Thankfully our Forum Butler, Captainff, worked wonders and restored all of my marbles. He said there were a few missing so he topped up any gaps with Stella so I’m happy. Happier than ever for some reason.

On to business, when was the last time you played around and you didn’t use any protection? The last time you didn’t use a little rubber friend? I, like a good Family Fortunes researcher, surveyed 100 people* and I was astounded by their responses. Do you people not realise the implications of your actions! This is a serious issue we’re talking about here. Possibly life threatening and you could save yourself a whole lot of trouble just by spending £8.



When did I last play unprotected you ask? Every night.

My Wii remote is as naked as the day it was created and is proud to be. It has never been dropped, bashed, thrown or immersed in liquid. It is still as shiny as polished metal and it will remain that way even though I play with it almost everyday.

The reality is that I’ve yet to even see even one Wii remote dropped by anyone never mind one being launched at the TV or used to accidentally decapitate someone. There is little chance, if any, of the remote sailing across the room and damaging itself or you or your loved ones so it’s plainly ridiculous that anyone should spend their hard earned cash wrapping their fabulous looking Wii remote in rubber. It’s not even like the remote is fragile. Apply the same logic to every item in the house you’d probably be living in something closely resembling a bouncy castle and be bubble wrapping your wine glasses before use.

The item under scrutiny here is a Thrustmaster T-Protect. Marvellous isn’t it? Can you imagine such an ugly thing wrapped around your remote? I’ve seen better looking swamp donkeys. It’s completely impractical too. It only protects the edges of your remote so if you’re a bit clumsy there are more bits unprotected than not. Worse still, not only do you have to take off the T-Protect to change batteries it prevents the remote being charged in a docking station. Even Thrustmasters OWN docking station. D’oh!

It really is nothing short of ridiculous that companies are trying to get us to buy protective rubber cases for our great looking Wii remotes. The remotes are gorgeous and robust and they don’t need protection. Oh, and neither do we.

*I made this up.

Latex fetish? Tell us on the FORUM.

Survival Of The Fittest

Pac-man first appeared in October of 1979 and although the characters shape was often cited as being inspired by a pizza with a missing slice, did Tori Iwatani actually make a discovery that questions the evolution of life on our planet?
Since the skeleton was unearthed many interesting facts have come to light and we now have an almost complete picture of how Pac-man lived and died.

With the creation of Ms Pac-man in 1981 the population boomed and 'Pac-people' were spreading faster than butter on soft warm buns. It seemed nothing could stop the Pac species until an over sight at the Pacadburys factory...

It's now believed the species reached extinction due to traces of nuts making their way into pills during manufacture. Employees were allowed to eat as many pills as they could during work hours and many perished on the production lines. Packets were soon leaving the factory without warning labels on and their fate was pretty much sealed. All this came on top of the ever declining population of ghosts.

Pac-mans memory lives on though through the medium of our favourite pastime, video games. Maybe now though we'll all think of him a little differently.

Are you a nut or allergic to nuts? Tell us about it on the GAMEOV3R Forum

Vick's Monday Blues

Ouch that must have hurt...



If you like laughing at other people's expense let us know on the Forum or if you've got better things to do, leave a comment here instead

Hope you enjoyed that, Vick :)

Nintendo Wii Hanabi Festival

You'd better sit down. The Virtual Console is about to go into OVERDRIVE.

To celebrate the Japanese holiday season famous for it's fireworks Nintendo has launched it's first, possibly not the last, "Hanabi Festival" today on the European and Australian Virtual Consoles. Over the next three weeks we're going to be able to download games that have never been officially released before in PAL regions.

You ok? Well get your jaw off the floor and read on then!

This week is Mario week, and has seen the original Super Mario Bros 2 (600 Points), Japan-only version, and Mario's Super Picross (900 points), has loads of Japanese text so you'll need to be good with Kanji or at guessing, released. I need to pause slightly here because anyone that owned a SNES and had the Mario All Stars cartridge actually had the Japanese Super Mario Bros 2 renamed as The Lost Levels and that is what you'll get on your Wii. Anyway, next week (21 September) is Ninja week, with the NES's Ninja Gaiden and Ninja JaJaMaru-Kun being released. The final week (28 September) is Sci-Fi week, which sees the release of Sin & Punishment...... ?? ....... yes you read that right. Sin and Punishment and Gradius III. Altogether now ...... OH YES!! This is quite possibly the best VC news since the VC was first announced.

On top of this Hudson have announced that they'll be releasing TurboGrafx CD and TurboDuo games onto the Wii's VC too! Games for both systems will cost 800 points across all regions and yet again that means in Europe too! The first three games will be Ys Book I & II and Chou Aniki.

This is this a great day for European Wii fans. We all know that the VC is great but this is the sweetest news yet. Sin and Punishment! I can't wait.

Is this the greatest day for VC news so far? Have your say on the Gameov3r FORUM

Coming Soon

Just how far away does something have to be to be labelled as coming soon? I mean would you say next weekend is coming soon? What about the release of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption? Christmas? The Playstation 4? All of these stand a chance of beating Nintendo's star to Wii points scheme I reckon.

The idea for this was featured way back in the promotional emails around the time of the Wii's launch and still we wait... and it's all gone a bit quiet.

Now all those wallpapers and ringtones are extremely tempting Nintendo but come on, pull your finger out! I want to spend some stars on some more VC action!

Talk about... stuff! and more on the GAMEOV3R Forum

Then, it was all over.

“You lying cheating piece of scum!” I shouted at the TV the other night as the Game Over message appeared. I’d being trying to set a new high score on Pac-Man when Inky did an unexpected U-Turn and killed me. Dead. Games can be so unfair sometimes and it leaves us feeling frustrated and cheated.

Sometimes we have to hold our hands up and say, “ok, it's my fault! I freely admit it. I’m a complete and utter frankfurter. I should be boiled, stuffed into a hotdog roll and drowned in mustard.” Ok, maybe not, but we do cause a lot of problems for ourselves, like breaking too late in Forza 2, missing the apex of a corner and ending up in the tire wall or not reloading before going one on one with one of those big Trolls in Resi 4 or even just not concentrating and walking right off the edge of a cliff or into the line of fire or walking straight into Inky. We have to take responsibility for these blunders, these gaming errors. We have to analyse them, conclude constructively and then go back and kick that game's ass! There’s no greater satisfaction.

We’ve all made mistakes and seen our on screen character meet with a sticky demise, but when was the last time you saw the Game Over screen when it was totally your fault and when was the last time that you lost all your lives unfairly? When a game cheated you out of something or lied to you, tried to make out it was smarter and then blame you? The nerve eh?

Get your butt on the Forum and be constructive about those foolish gaming mistakes or just moan like heck about the time the ground simply vanished beneath Mario’s boots and you died. Or when Sonic ran so fast his boots flew off, he became just an average hedgehog, and you died. Or the time you were cheated out of all your weaponry just before facing a kick ass end of level boss. Or when you wanted to chose Real Madrid on Pro Evolution 6 and the damn game selected Iran for you and you died. Or the time those bloomin’ Germans, in Call of Duty 2, ganged up on you and tried to insert bayonets where you just wouldn’t want them to! And you died. Or something. Did I dream that? I once dreamt I was an astronaut and I flew to the moon and I saw this big ugly creature and he tried to eat me! There once was an ugly duckling with leathers all stubby and brown la la la la laarrrr……

Matt has been banned from the Blog until he takes his medication. Once the Gameov3r Butler sorts out delivery of the crate of Stella I’m sure he’ll be back to … er …. oh….. I'll have to say normal.

In the meantime, share with me your experiences and thoughts on those times when you completely cocked up a game, or when a nasty game lied, stole and cheated you, or on Matt losing his marbles and being banned, or on any other phenomena, over on the Gameov3r Forum – GAMEOV3R

Eggcellent Idea!

Ever wondered what you'd get if you crossed an MP3 player with a Wii remote and an ostrich egg? What do you mean no? That's exactly what Sony has been thinking.
Welcome to Sony's iPod killer.... the Rolly! Named after the fat one on Grange Hill no doubt. Apparently they'll be different colours released with names such as the 'Gripper' and my favourite, the 'Zammo'! I think the top of the range 'Mr Bronson' model is a step too far though. I swear I don't make this stuff up, well not all of it anyway :)

You won't be slotting that in your pocket without people asking questions will you?!
It's controlled by motion sensing that allows the volume to be adjusted by turning the Rolly clockwise or counter-clockwise, select tracks by rolling it back and forth and even a shuffle mode is available... yes, you guessed it, by shaking it.

No more from me this time, I want to hear what you guys have to say!

Will Sony end up with egg on their face on this one? Share your thoughts on the GAMEOV3R Forum

Vick's Monday Blues

And this morning some useful advice for anybody on a Monday morning at work...



If that got a slight smirk let us know on the Forum or if you just can't be arsed, leave a comment here instead

Enjoy, Vick :)

Guitar Hero DS Style

Guitar Hero is coming to a Nintendo DS near you! Annnnnnnd it might not be using the stylus...

So what will we be using to rock out on then? Well it's anyones guess at the moment but it's said to be a brand new peripheral! The final design isn't erm... final yet, but imagine the sales if they made a range like this!
Surely a licence to print money if ever I saw one. I'm wasted in this job I really am! You could whip out your Flying V for Hanger 18, or your Gibson SG for Back in Black, I'm serious!

Whatever it ends up being like apparently we're going to "absolutely love it". It's also said that the visuals will be kept consistent with the other games in the Guitar Hero series.

Share your thoughts on Guitar Hero DS on the GAMEOV3R Forum

Video Game Character of the Month

Hmmph.. I suppose I’ll trouble myself to do this. Lee and Matt both do nothing around here and yet they've been saying that I’m lazy! Me! Gameov3r!! P’ah! Those fools. They'll see. This is the first, might be the last, of my Video Game Character of the month entries. I thought about picking one of my favourite characters of all time first but you wouldn’t even know what game I was talking about. So I’m making this as obvious as I can so everyone knows who I'm talking about. Such a chore.

Name: "Super” Mario.
First appeared in: Donkey Kong - though his name was Jumpman.
Lives: Mushroom Kingdom.
Killer move: Stamping on heads.
Most likely to: double in size and shout "yippee" and "woo hoo" a lot.
Least likely to say: "of course you can borrow my rubber plunger Wario."
Did you know: Mario has been 2D, 3D, big, small, Mini, Baby, Paper, Metal, Racoon, Fire, Teddy Bear and Paper.

Got a favourite video game character? Tell us who and why on the Forum

Sadness in the Fog

Polish game developer Nibris, who tantalised us with gorgeous footage and concept art for their unique gothic horror game Sadness last April, and then promptly stopped showing us anything, are back on the radar.

The last I heard was that Frontline Studio's were no longer working with Nibris and to be honest it all looked a little bleak for this Wii only game. Despite Nibris steadfastly saying they were continuing to work on Sadness there has been nothing new shown for a long time.

I've recently learnt however that it's odds on that the game is still in development. Yay! Nibris have signed with Fog Studios the entertainment industry representation firm. FOG chairman and CEO Ed Dille said, "When we evaluated Nibris and their highly anticipated Wii title Sadness, we saw a high level of creativity, passion and devotion to innovation."

This game is a very exciting prospect indeed and news that Fog Studios evaluated Nibris and liked what they saw is, I'm sure, music to many Wii gamers ears.

If you don't know what Sadness is all about, where have you been since last April? It's a historic action adventure set pre 1914, not in the 1930's as some games sites would have you believe, in a Slavic country and is presented entirely in black and white. The style, atmosphere and feel of the game is a tribute to pre World War 1 cinema while the gameplay promises to be entirely refreshing. Nibris themselves are boldly claiming that this will be a AAA title.

Let's hope this game makes it to the shops with all the claims intact and this Fog doesn’t turn out to be the same that invaded John Carpenter's quiet seaside town.

Tell us how happy you are to hear that Sadness is still in the pipeline or tell us how sad you are that it's not even close to release on the Gameov3r Forum

Packaging Pains

Blister packs...
Where to start?... Surely the most appropriately named packaging material in the world.

There are many different grades for this stuff, ranging from the slightly flexible, mildly annoying type that can usually be tackled with a tool known as 'scissors'. You might find this surrounding your new USB memory stick for example and I've rated this with a 'rage factor' of 3.
At the complete opposite end of the scale we have this...


A rage factor 10 if ever I saw one!

Microsoft just love the stuff. I imagine if you worked for Microsoft, sitting still at your desk for too long could result in being blister packed yourself! I'm told by a reliable source that Bill had to be removed from this by the fire brigade.


Apparently their packaging design offices consist of no traditional materials at all such as bricks or glass. It's all just one completely seamless see-through plastic shell inpenetrable by the most advanced tools known to man.

We asked Bill what it's like to work in an environment like this.

"I have 100 billion dollars... You realise I could spend 3 million dollars a day, every day, for the next 100 years? And that's if I don't make another dime. Tell you what - I'll buy your right arm for a million dollars. I give you a million bucks, and I get to sever your right arm right here", he said.

I kind of feel he lost the question somewhere but it did give me a chance to respond. Bill, I'd happily let you sever my right arm for a million bucks if I hadn't already successfully achieved it trying to get into your damn packaging!

Show us your blisters on the GAMEOV3R Forum and vote for your favourite packaging!

Drug Habits

Pac-Man is one my all time favourite games. He’s recently been given a new lease of life on XBLA in Pac-Man Championship Edition and if you’re a self confessed game addict and haven’t played this yet, you really must!

Our unmistakable little yellow friend first has come along way since his early pill popping days down the local arcade. He invaded our homes on the Atari 2600 before appearing on almost everything that had a microchip in it. Often these games were unofficial clones, some better some worse than their licensed counterparts, and sometimes more cunningly disguised so as not to tempt prosecution! Stand up and be counted Hungry Horace!

Atari 2600 Screenshot

Our wafer thin pal put on a few pounds and became American, no I mean, spherical (sorry! ;) ) in later games. He even found himself traversing a place named after him. I'm sure had Pac-Man known about Pac-Land before he started running around mazes being chased by ghosts he'd have gone into real estate.

Even as late as 2003 Pac was still at it and, as with most drug users, he'd gone onto the hard stuff. Glue pills no longer did it for him so concrete power pills were the order of the day.

Next a surprising move, family friendly Nintendo teamed up with Namco and brought us an all new take on the Pac-Man series. "Pac-Man vs" was a multi player affair in 3D mazes and was revealed to a sneering and sniggering E3 the very same year. Was this the best Nintendo could do? It seemed so as Sony swept all aside at the huge show.

Gamecube Pac-Man Vs – released as a bonus disk with R:Racing Evolution.

But Pac-Man's never say die drug habit is insatiable and he's back again, on Live Arcade. The Live Arcade is getting quite a few excellent retro futuristic and classic remakes and Pac is right in there with them. Gorgeous to look at and slick to play. This has lost none of the simplistic original charm but has certainly upped the ante and added new gameplay features, tactics and even more charm. This game will keep you going for a long time.

It's a little pricey at 800 points when the likes of JetPac Refuelled, Sonic, Track and Field and more are a mere 400 but it is worth it.


If you fancy giving Lee or I a challenge for that No.1 spot on the Gameov3r Friends Leaderboard then get Pac CE downloaded, join the FORUM, add our Gamer Tags and get munching! Come on! You know you can’t resist a challenge!.

Vick's Monday Blues

Yes it's me again... and this time I made it on the right day!
Anyway I'll not keep you as I know you're all just dying to watch part 2 of Vick's Monday Blues.



If that got a slight smirk let us know on the Forum or if you just can't be arsed, leave a comment here instead

Thanks again, Vick.