Vote Earth for Earth Hour 2009

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Wii Firmware Update 4.0

Finally, after Miyamoto and Reggie hinted at a storage solution around E3 time last year, the expected firmware update has arrived that allows Wii Channels to be stored on an SD card. It integrates well into the existing Wii Menu and once accessed follows a similar format to the data maintenance screens. The new features allow access to channels stored on the SD card, letting you play them without having to copy them first to your Wii memory. Like this



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Xi Comes Home

A strange thing happened yesterday... I entered Home on the PS3 and spent maybe 20 minutes actually enjoying what I was doing. I know, hard to believe isn't it? I've never been Homes biggest fan yet I've poked my nose in when updates have become available just to see if it's improving. The Red Bull flying game wasn't bad but was short lived. Then I looked at the Far Cry 2 and more recently the Capcom Resident Evil spaces. Both were disappointing and left me feeling like I was wondering around a small part of the gaming world except with all the fun gaming bits removed. So what happened yesterday?

Xi that's what. Accessed from the main square by walking up to some graffiti on a wall you'll be teleported to a new area called the hub. Once there a voice directs you to do certain things like find three pieces of a torn photo. Once you've done this you're given further instructions to access and complete a puzzle on an online gateway upstairs, perform a certain action in a specific place or research some information on a website, all the while picking up clues to enter words into your holoPAD. Doing this adds either a portion of a picture or for some reason unknown to me, a butterfly to your collection. I'm assuming these activities will be released every few days or so as there are quite a few pieces to collect.

What also makes this new area more welcoming is that it actually has a bit of character sadly lacking elsewhere. A slightly deranged robot called Stapler who gives you additional tasks to perform and even the fact that some of the panels in the corner of the room aren't properly fixed and sit leaning against the wall. It may not be much but it gives the area some personality. For once not everything is perfect.

Whilst very simple it works and finally gives people a reason to come back. So Home is getting interesting... well I'll be damned.

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You Sank My Battleship!

I've just seen what's new on the Xbox LIVE Arcade today and I'm deeply disappointed. Why? What's got you so worked up I hear you ask... actually I think these are just the voices in my head but that's probably for another time. It's not so much what's available today it's a pricing issue. Lately XBLA games seem to have been creeping up in price and often I haven't purchased a title purely because I feel it's too expensive. Now I'm not against games coming out at 1200 points or even more if they're offering something that's worth it, which brings me back to today and the arrival of Hasbro Family Game Night. Download the game room for free and then add in the games you actually want for Microsoft points. Perfect, why pay for five games in a pack if you only want to play one? So how many points? Go on have a guess... no really go on, it'll be fun... 400? Try doubling it. Yes 800 each! For Connect 4 or Yahtzee or Battleships?! Scrabble is only available in the US and Canada apparently. Who on earth thought that was reasonable? I mean the price, not that we can't get our Scrabble fix here in the UK.

Looking on Amazon.co.uk I see the game came out in November for the Nintendo Wii containing five games, adding Sorry and Boggle to the list above and now selling for £17.99 (which you could then trade in should you wish). If those five games were all available on the XBLA it would set you back £33.75! Makes the mind Boggle doesn't it? Let me think now... I've got 800 points and the choice is Rez HD or Connect 4, a choice I could make in my sleep! So come on now own up, was this your idea EA? Just admit it so I can lay off the exclamation marks! Bugger, there goes another...

Incidentally did anyone spot the women washing up in the background on the 50's game box while the men play?

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Video Games Bafta Winners

So the gaming Baftas 2009 were held yesterday and contained a few surprises in and out of the winners list.

Call of Duty 4 picked up three awards for Gameplay, Story and Character and The People's Choice. Professor Layton and Boom Blox picked up awards for Handheld and Casual respectively. Great to see these games getting recognition even if it had to be with the rather ambiguous 'Casual' tag. GTA IV failed to pick up anything despite being nominated in seven categories, as did Fallout 3, my personal favourite game of 2008.

Game of the year went to Super Mario Galaxy.

Some of the big winners you'll note were actually released in late 2007 but were allowed to be included due to a scheduling change.

The full list of winners can be seen here.

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"Kijuju!"

Via the Capcom Blog comes news of the competition of the day.

To promote Resident Evil 5 contestants are encouraged to scour the streets around Trafalgar Square searching for body parts that have been placed in the area. Should your search be successful then head to Westminster Bridge before 11am this morning, hold your recovered body part high in the air and shout "Kijuju!". The Capcom team promise to make themselves known to successful contestants.

Each body part has a value. Arms and legs are worth 2 points, a torso 3 and a head 5. The player who accumulates the most points by 11am wins a trip to Africa. Get searching! You only have 2 hours left .. .. .. .. .. ..

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Shut It Rico! - Killzone 2

Having picked up Killzone 2 on Friday and played it through to completion I'm already looking forward to working through it again on a harder difficulty level and trying it out online properly. The last but one mission where you get to use the Exoskeleton contains some of the best visuals I've ever seen in a game. If you've played the demo and think the graphics are good just wait until you see this.

My one complaint with the game (you knew one was coming didn't you) is why on earth Guerrilla Games thought it would be a good idea to put in such an obnoxious, foul mouthed arse of a character to work along side you called Rico. He takes a much larger part in the second half of the game and I absolutely hated the guy. I'll admit this to you now, at one point in the game it's just you and Rico in a lift. I was so fed up with his behaviour and his over use of the 'F' word that I took the opportunity to shoot him... right in the ear. Now if ever there was a time for him to swear this was it, but no, he relatively calmly (for someone who's just been shot) told me to watch where I was shooting and yes unfortunately he survived it.

Top game then but hurry up with the patch containing the option to duct tape Rico's mouth please!

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