The Nintendo Effect

So, it's out. With surprisingly little hype (at least in my current gaming circles), the Nintendo 3DS is here.

Initial impressions have been mixed. First I was tempted, then I wasn't, but now I find myself tempted again. The launch line-up isn't exactly mind blowing, but then, when is a launch line-up amazing? Pretty rare I'd say. There are a couple of highlights though, Street Fighter IV looks great and Ghost Recon is apparently a rather good game. PES is also there, and whilst I know most people prefer FIFA these days, personally I prefer Konami's efforts, and this plays as well as the rest. The lukewarm line-up aside, my urge to indulge in the 3D side of gaming is luring me more and more. So that's it, I'm inevitably going to buy one aren't I? Well..........

The trouble is I have a bit of a dilemma about purchasing so soon after launch. Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly no stranger to buying consoles early on. I had the PS2 on launch day, and had the Wii about a month after its release. But it's the Wii and the DS that are causing the problem for me. Y'see, I've been burnt a little by Nintendo and now I'm wary. Let me explain...

Cast you mind back to late 2006. The Wii was almost upon us and we were being tantalised by trailers of people acting out their gaming moves. I watched (whilst salivating) at that Red Steel trailer. The guy sat in a comfy chair in his swanky lounge whilst pointing his virtual gun at the screen. So immersed was the gentlemen that he was actually dodging the virtual bullets in real life. "That's it" I thought to myself, "I may not be able to afford a PS3 when it comes out, but this looks like the future". The idea of playing the kind of games I know and love but in a completely new way sucked me in hook, line and sinker. Things looked good at the start. Red Steel was great fun although not perfect by any means, and whilst pointing a Wiimote at the screen seemed a little strange, it offered the new experience that I'd hoped for. Then it happened...

The party game market took hold. The non-gaming fraternity started seeing the potential fun in owning the little white box of tricks for the odd game here and there. The 'casual gamer' market was well and truly at full pace and the developers saw the opportunity to make a quick buck. "Why make an effort with the games when the Wii owning public don't read reviews, aren't particularly knowledgeable and will buy anything as long as it has the words 'sports' or 'party' in the title" I can imagine the devs saying. The market got drowned in shovelware, I got bored of sifting through the junk, desperately trying to find a decent game, and my love affair with the Wii was over.

Nintendo loved it though, sales were through the roof and it appears that they really had tapped into a niche market. The same strategy was applied to the DS. Brain Training games and puzzle games were made in abundance, and with advertising campaigns showing that the older generation can indeed own a handheld gaming without looking a bit odd, the DS's success had been laid out.

The thing is, I hate those types of games. I wasn't brought up on a diet of crap games like Beach Brain Sports Training Party 5: Extra Party Edition! I don't want an f'ing party, I just want a deep and fulfilling game!!!

Now the 3DS looks like it holds loads of potential. The list of games in development looks promising. Along with the already released SFIV etc there are games such as Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater and the Resi games. It all looks good, and if they keep this trend of software up then I reckon the DS could be part of my gaming future. But a part of my brain thinks "hang on, wait for the shovelware". If DS owners choose to upgrade to the 3DS, then surely a lot of those won't want to blast zombies, they'll want a puzzle instead.

If this happens will the 3DS start to go down the same road as the old DS? £180 for a big 3D producing paperweight doesn't float my boat.

It'll be interesting, that's for sure.

Let the motion gaming battle commence

Motion gaming is hardly a new development. Give Nintendo the credit it deserves. The Wii was very much the Last Chance Saloon for Nintendo, at least as far as releasing full blown consoles go. The company knew that it simply couldn't compete on the same technical level as the other consoles on the market, and Nintendo had to think laterally about where to take their new console.

Behold, one motion controller later and a massive new casual gaming audience tapped into, the rest as they say is history.

Inevitably, Sony and Microsoft have now decided that they fancy a slice of the casual gaming pie. This move will always prompt the familiar fanboy reactions from all camps. Trawling through the numerous gaming forums on the internet shows all of the usual responses to the decision. Wii owners shouting "Sony and Microsoft can't think of anything new", or "they've already chosen which direction to take their console, they should stick with it". The level of anger never ceases to amaze me when gamers try to defend their beloved console.

In truth I find these reactions somewhat bizarre. Why do they feel the need to defend their chosen consoles so vigorously? I can only deduce that it's because they find the other machines as some kind of threat, or are they in denial? On a subconscious level do they actually think that the Wii isn't quite as good as they want to believe? Or maybe it's simply because they've seen the tech that Sony and Microsoft are developing and they're scared that Wii owners are suddenly going to say "wow, Sony have motion controls now and it's in HD!!!! Quick love, get on the internet and bring up eBay, I'm going to sell this bad boy!!". Hardly a realistic assumption is it? On the other hand 360 and PS3 owners alike look down on Wii and try to claim that it's not a real console. It must be hard for these people knowing that the Wii has outsold them all despite it's last generation 480p resolution graphics. Just try claiming to them that graphics aren't everything. WOW!! You'll be shot down in flames in an instant as a "poor, can't afford a real console, casual gaming" moron who doesn't know anything about gaming. Well, I've only been playing for 25 years, what would I know eh?

So what about this new motion controller tech? Well, Sony have the Playstation Move. Initial impressions of the device for me are mixed. Let's make one thing clear, it's a bit of a Wiimote clone. They can spin the details as much as they like, they can claim it's "more than a Wiimote", but sticking a couple of glowing balls on the top doesn't make it brand spanking new. An Ann Summers 'toy' yes, but new? Okay, it does feature some enhancements over the Wiimote such as use of the coloured globes to help track movement and height rather than the Wiimotes old fashioned infra-red method. The globes also change colour depending on player's surroundings to ensure that the PS Move is easily seen. This new technology also means that the movement won't be lost should someone walk in front of the TV. Very nice. And from the demos that have been shown so far it looks as though it does transfer player movements brilliantly, but it IS still a Wiimote with some new technology thrown in. Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking it, the Wiimote works well and is proven. Fair play to Sony for following suit, just don't dress it up as some sort of revolutionary gaming device because the gaming public aren't stupid, they can see through the PR bulls**t.

Microsoft have taken a rather different approach to the motion gaming/family ethos. Project Natal as it is known doesn't feature a controller at all. "You are the controller" the trailer says. Initial impressions are very impressive with a Natal version of Burnout getting a very positive response, Natal seemingly being able to track even the finest movements. So that's it then, Microsoft have managed the holy grail that is full body motion capture. The gaming world has no limits. Freedom in gaming it seems is a reality. Hold on though, let's take a step back for a second and take a long hard look. There are no buttons on Natal and this surely has to cause some issues. Let's take the game of football as an example. The trailer touches on this genre of game with a penalty shootout. Fair enough, but what happens if you want to play a conventional football game? How do you control it? In a third person view? How do you run? Jogging around your lounge can't be right surely, especially as you will need to be looking at the TV at all times. FPS games are another difficult genre. You can point your imaginary gun at the TV, turn on the spot and shoot (ala Wii), but how do you walk? Stamping your feet? No thanks. It seems to me that whilst Natal seems to offer new found freedom, it also seems to be marred by a new found restriction. It's obviously too early to tell how Microsoft are proposing to overcome such issues and I have no doubt they have something planned. Maybe they are choosing to ignore these genres altogether, instead opting for the conventional controller should a player want to indulge in that kind of game.

Those that know me will also know that I am a 360 and Wii owner and don't really have a bias towards any one console. A good game is a good game, a good peripheral is a good peripheral regardless of the system it is on. To me the PS Move is showing the most potential for the new motion controllers. Rip off or no rip off, the PS Move seems to offer the most flexibility with a balance of motion controls if you want to get active, or the buttons for the times when you want to be a couch potato.

Truth is nobody really knows what impact the new motion controllers will have for the future of all three consoles. God knows, the Wii and it's family friendly nature has made it damn difficult to predict. One thing is for certain though, it's certainly going to be interesting watching it all unfold this Autumn at the proposed release dates.

Just please don't let us drown in games like 'Family House Babysitting Party 13'......please!!

Be prepared for a million comparisons to MK!

Mario Kart is a strange phenomenon to me. It's quite hard to put into words. I would probably say that it's the most annoying and frustrating game I have ever played, no really! Trouble is, I can be quite irritable when I play a game. Just witnessing me playing CoD online is an eye opening experience with foul language and anger bursting from every conceivable pore.

Now imagine me taking that anger and transferring it to Mario Kart. Picture the scenario, I'm in the lead for the entire race until I reach approximately three corners from the end. Now I get hit by a blue shell and stop dead. I immediately get hit again by a red shell. Then I get immediately hit again by a POW block before finally being smacked into next week by some gimp on a Bullet Bill!! I'm at an unavoidable standstill during this whole episode until I finally manage to get my speed back up. I pass the finish line....LAST!! From 1st place to last in approximately 10 seconds. That is what Mario Kart is all about and that is what sends my 'rage'ometer off the scale. I end up punching my leg in sheer anger!!

This episode is what finally caused me to sell Mario Kart. I wanted to love it I really did, but there's only so many self inflicted dead legs I can take. Yet strangely, I still feel fairly affectionate towards MK but I'm not sure why.

So along comes Sega and Sonic with their offering for some karting madness. I was all ready to rubbish the game without a second thought, "pah, it's just a crappy MK clone" I'd say.

So is it a crappy clone? Well, it's a clone alright, that can't be denied, but crappy? No, far from it!!

I was in the fortunate position of being able to download this game on my 360 to get a feel for it without having to spend my hard earned (well, 'earned' at least) money on it. I was pleasantly surprised. The game is a sight faster than MK that's for sure and the art style is colourful and bold. Although I took a shine to the 360 version it somehow didn't feel quite right on that console. It was the potential of the Wii version that got me excited and it is this version that I decided to purchase.

Let's get this out of the way first, Sumo Digital have blatantly copied many aspects of MK. All the weapons from MK are there, only with a different skin. Instead of red shells you have red rockets, instead of green shells you have green boxing gloves, instead of banana skins you have traffic cones, instead of the ink squid thingy you have a dazzling rainbow.........you get the idea. So there we are, Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing (or S&SASR as the kids are calling it on the streets) has almost no original ideas, at least as far as weaponry goes.

But to be honest I couldn't care less because one thing I did initially notice from the demo was that although the weapons do come into play, they are nowhere near as punishing as they are in MK. Getting hit by a weapon will usually cost you a position or two and once you've been hit you are made invincible for a few seconds allowing you to regain your momentum. Now that I have played the full game I can confirm that my initial observations about the weapons are accurate. They are tuned enough to be a factor in a race, but never to a devastating level. It's this momentum in a race that starts to separate this it from its MK counterpart.

The emphasis with this game is focused very much on speed as opposed to MK's slower weapon heavy gameplay. If I was to make a comparison on track design I certainly wouldn't compare it to MK, I'd say it has more in common with Wipeout or F-Zero with tracks twisting like a corkscrew, turning upside down, loop de looping and more. Speed burst pads are available throughout every course (as you would expect) and are positioned in such a way that you can do almost an entire lap without slowing down. If you miss that vital speed burst have no fear, the familiar drift system from MK has made it into this game also. Simply turn into the bend, hit the drift button and build up your boost. The longer the drift the better the boost, but hey, you've played MK, you know how it works!!

Graphically the game is pretty, but is a slightly mixed bag. The visuals are much busier than MK with so much stuff happening beyond the confines of the track it's unreal!! Take the Roulette Road track. As the name suggests it's based on a casino. This means that you have a giant roulette wheel spinning underneath a transparent section of track, lottery balls rolling down a metal chute, giant fruit machine wheels spinning. It's truly manic. Unfortunately it can be argued that whilst all this very pleasing to watch, it can make the visuals look cluttered and a little 'unclean' when compared to MK's more simple design method. All this graphical content comes at a price when it comes to framerate also. It's certainly not as smooth as MK but it is a consistent framerate without any slowdown and is certainly not an issue during play. I don't really notice it now to be honest.

The audio is nice with some catchy music, decent engine effects that are different depending on which vehicle and character you're using. The only thing may be the commentator, he can be a little irritating at times, but not to worry, you can turn him off if you wish.

The game also supports online play. Whilst it is fairly basic it is at least solid. I have yet to play a race that has lag and the framerate stays consistent all the way through. One feature I do like is the way that it will fill the remaining grid with AI cars if there aren't enough players in the room. This ensures a nice busy race every time.

Whether you're racing offline or online you will accumulate 'Sega Miles'. These are credits that can be used to purchase other characters, music and courses. Whilst this is really a simple 'unlock stuff as you play' mechanic, it does at least feel like you have a choice in what you unlock first. Do you choose to save up your miles to unlock that expensive character first or do you purchase the cheap stuff early on?

It's a sad thing that this game gets caught in MK's shadow. I honestly believe the mixed reviews this game has received is due to the "it's not MK so why bother trying" mindset. If you take a step back and try to judge the game on its own merits it does a fine job and is up to the task. Yes the controls are the same, most of the weapons are the same and the drift mechanic is the same, but it's the courses and the speed that makes this game feel different. I just hope more people buy it because I believe this game can sit proudly alongside Mario Kart in anyone's collection as the other "great karting game" for the Wii.

Overall score: 90%

The graphical debate pops it's head up again!!

Ever since the release of the Wii there has been a debate of graphics vs gameplay. The Wii owners will argue that it's the way you play the game that makes the machine relevant, while the 'next gen' contingent claim that graphics help to suck you into the game.

To some extent I agree with both of these statements, but lately I have been pondering this debate more.

Y'see, Codemasters are the source of my musings. I have always loved Codies right from the C64 days of BMX Simulator and the Dizzy series but I have started to get a little disappointed with them of late. The problem comes with this current gen of machines and in particular their Wii releases. The problem started with Dirt 2. As a big Dirt fan on the 360 I was really looking forward to applying some Wii steering wheel loveliness to the hardcore rallying action. Things looked promising as this is a driving game and Codies do some of the best road based games of recent years. Games like TOCA Touring Cars on the original Playstation, Race Driver on PS2 and Grid on 360 have proved that for high speed thrills you can rely on Codemasters to produce the goods.........until now.

Put simply, Dirt 2 on Wii turned out to be a complete dogs dinner!! Codemasters decided to hand development rights over to Sumo Digital rather than develop in house which didn't exactly go according to plan. Graphically the game was average, and before I hear the cries of "THE WII ISN'T ABOUT GRAPHICS" I agree. The problem is I love using the cockpit view in racing games, I find it the most exciting way to play, so for this game to omit the cockpit view completely is terrible! Just to get this into perspective, TOCA Touring Cars on PS1 managed to have a cockpit view, PS1 FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!! I have also seen what Sumo can do with Outrun 2 on the original XBox, it's gorgeous! This isn't a case of the Wii having less power, this is a case of developers being lazy! All of this may have been forgiven if the motion controls worked but the steering couldn't keep up with the pace of cornering needed in the race. Overall a massive disappointment.

So now Sumo are at it again, this time with a massive F1 license. This game at least ticks most of the boxes, the steering controls are spot on and it has the cockpit view I wanted. It's fairly smooth and chugs along at a blistering pace. So far so good then, but why are the graphics poor again? Luckily this doesn't seem to detract from the gameplay which is the most important thing, but don't devs think that Wii owners are worth the extra effort? I can't help feeling that after all this time some developers have still got the mental attitude of "Wii owners don't care about visuals because they didn't buy a PS3, let's cut the development budget".

From what I've played I love F1 2009 and I'm certainly going to buy it, but by doing so am I condoning lazy visuals? Am I proving them right? Do we deserve great controls, great games and great visuals all at the same time?

Answers on a postcard...............

Love Your Console

St Valentine's Day is upon us and at this very moment couples across the land are preparing for an evening of romance. No one’s too old for romance you know. The young will be going to McDonalds and then to watch a film before finding a quiet spot in the park where the parents would never look for them. Couples that are still trying to impress one another will have sent slushy cards oodles of red roses and chocolates and will be going out for a meal at a flashy restaurant tonight. Tomorrow morning they’ll be going to see the bank manager about and re-mortgage. The happily married will be staying at home, opening a bottle of wine and watching a film. Even the older generation get in on the romance and will happily give each other Valentines cards and be going for an early night. Because that’s what old people do.

Suckers! Gamers don't need romance! All we need is a games console, the greatest games on the planet and the time to play them. That time, Gameov3r readers, is tonight!

Don't be predictable and commercial. Text your partner and apologetically explain that you just have to spend some quality time tonight with your beloved games console. If you don't think that'll go down too well text and say the car won't start or something. It doesn't matter what you do because it'll be wrong anyway. Embrace St Valentines Day and you are just a slave to commercialism and you are not being spontaneous enough. Flowers? What are you apologising for? Chocolates? You'll make her fat. Ignore St Valentines Day and we're not being romantic. It’s a lose lose situation.

So sod it! Quality time with your games is where it's at.

Now I wouldn't suggest that you give your console a bear hug, well you could but if it's a 360 it'll probably overheat and blow up. Just go and dim the lights, light a candle or two, pour a glass of coke and get a bowl of snacks. Now select a couple of your favourite games and settle back for a night of gaming bliss. Just you and your console partner.

GAMEOV3R accepts no responsibility for the break up of any relationships. He's too busy down in the cellar to care. As for me, well excuse me but I have to dash off. I’m having a quiet dinner with my wife. Just the two of us. :)

Whatever you’re doing tonight have a great time!

Ghosts of Christmases Past

It has become a bit of a tradition for me to get out my old consoles and computers during the Christmas holidays and this year has been no exception. I've been up into the loft and amongst others I've brought back to life my Megadrive, SNES and my C64. My wife is not happy. But anyway, games I've played so far include the seasonal Daze Before Christmas, Madden 93 - I always play as the NY Jets and I don't know why, NHLPA93 - I always choose to be Edmonton and again I don't no why, Road Rash 1 & 2, Desert Strike, Exploding Fist and Suspended. I even rediscovered the delights of Rollo to the Rescue and have been playing the slightly festive James Pond 2 on my GBA. I just love all this cartridge, cassette, 5 1/4" disk, game swapping madness! I love it as much as I loved playing all the way through the latest games. Must be an age thing.

Two things have struck me while I've been playing on these old machines. No, number 1 isn't my wife hitting me with her high heeled shoes from across the room. No, the first thing I noticed was that so far this holiday I have spent as much time playing all of my older games as I have spent playing just one current generation game, Tomb Raider Legend on my Xbox360, so far this holiday. The second thing I noticed was that Electronic Arts used to release, wait for it, GROUND BREAKING games! They created and published games that other publishers could only dream of or simply wouldn't take a risk on.

We all know only too well the EA licences that now monopolise today's charts, all those once great games that have spawned huge franchises that release and re-release sequel after, often lacklustre, sequel year upon year. But in the deep murky past there are so many great games. Many gamers will remember; Racing Destruction Set, B.O.B, Archon, Bards Tale, Where in the world and Where in time is Carmen Sandiego, Boulderdash 2, Caveman Ugh-lympics, Chuck Yeager's Flight Simulator (a 3d flight sim on the C64!), Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future, Power Monger and Zool. I can go on and on...... so I will. There's Centurion: Defender of Rome, M.U.L.E, Wasteland, Crüe Ball, Rampart, Neuromancer, The Untouchables, Robot Rascals, TKO and more. Even the original Fifa was risky. Taking on the might of top down kings Kick Off and SWOS at their own game. Isometric computer footy wasn't new but it had never been able to compete with the speed and fun of the top down twosome. Fifa took everything that was great about Kick Off and SWOS, made it look gorgeous, include tricks and flicks, set the gameplay in treacle and viola! It was a massive risk that paid off and ironically Fifa is now one of the reasons EA take a lot of stick.

Not all of these EA games are classics of the same calibre as Archon but there is a tangible commitment to fun, variety and quality for the benefit of the gamers. How could it all go so wrong and when did EA get all cynical and more interested in their profits than the gamers?

Let's not end this here. After all it is the holiday season and so I'll leave with a jolly thought with tinsel on it. XBox LIVE Arcade has done a good job of releasing games that would have been in our shops a few years ago but that now would never ever have seen a shelf in the local game shop never mind be lucky enough to sit there gathering dust. Better still the new Wiiware channel will go a step further and give developers the freedom to be ground breaking and once again we'll see new innovation, creativity and variety in videogames.

The Upper Crust

Today I came across this little tool that analyzes the readability level of blogs, then translates that into the "Level of Education" necessary to understand the writing. How it works out these things I have no idea but here's some results from popular gaming blogs:

* Kotaku: Junior High
* Destructoid: Junior High
* GayGamer: Junior High
* Slashdot: High School
* Joystiq: College
* Level Up: Genius

So where exactly does GAMEOV3R come on this scale I hear you ask? Well, come on, from the extinction of the Pac-People due to a nut allergy, through gamer repetitive strain injuries and finishing up somewhere around choosing a game character to wed it is now official.... you have to be a GENIUS to understand our musings and here's our badge to prove it!



Actually I guess this shouldn't have come as such a surprise, I mean let's face it who else would be able to follow this stuff? We always knew you lot were some of the smartest gamers in town. Maybe Jack Thompson should pay us a visit and reconsider his opinions, "Do you need an IQ below room temp to be a gamer and post here?"

Astute, clever, intelligent, smart, brilliant, sharp, egghead, that's you lot that is. The GAMEOV3R Forum awaits

Too Many Games!

And you thought you had too many games to buy and play this Christmas!...



Nice to see some exercise equipment in there as well after all that gaming. They have rather skimped on the TV though don't you think? Maybe it's a retro thing.

I know this happens every year with something like 50% of all games released in the 8 week run up to Christmas. I can even see the developers and publishers thinking in that it's the time of year when people splash out with their spending and possibly spend more time indoors gaming, but this year seems worse than ever. There are so many games I'd like this Christmas but even if I could afford them all it'd take me until next Christmas to play them.

Unfortunately some games that at a quieter time of year you may have taken a gamble on, will get overlooked and fail to recoup their costs. What's even more unfortunate is that it'll be the marketing giants that make it through unscathed. I hear this is the reason Zak and Wiki has been delayed until 2008 on the Wii, to prevent what looks like a fantastic little game from getting completely trampled on by the big releases from Nintendo. Maybe this is the start of some publishers learning from their mistakes?

Should game releases be spread out more evenly over the year? Let us know on the GAMEOV3R Forum

Your Adventure Awaits

>LOOK

Oval Office
You are standing inside a White House, having just been elected to the presidency of the United States.

There is a large desk here, along with a few chairs and couches. The presidential seal is in the middle of the room and there is a full-length mirror upon the wall.
What do you want to do now?

> INVADE IRAQ
You are not able to do that, yet.

> LOOK MIRROR
Self-reflection is not your strong suit.

> EXAMINE CHAIRS
There are several chairs arranged around the center of the room, along with two couches. Under one couch you find Clinton's shoes.

> FILL SHOES
You are unable to fill Clinton's shoes.

> INVADE IRAQ
You are not able to do that, yet.

> INVADE IRAQ
You are not able to do that, yet.

Whatever happened to adventure games? Before consoles ruled the roost they were everywhere. I remember probably my first introduction to the genre on my little rubber keyed friend the Sinclair Spectrum 48k. It was The Hobbit (way back in 1982!), and I hated it with a passion. For its time the parser was pretty advanced, as rather than merely understanding the usual "get ring" type commands you could type sentences such as "follow tiny little man to Mordor to throw ring into volcano" and it just might happen, if you were lucky.
At one point in the game, it was possible to drink wine, getting the player (temporarily) drunk. The game would then substitute "sh" for "s" in its responses (e.g. "You drink shome wine"). This caused extra amusement if the player entered the command "sit".

Even with all this 'advanced' stuff I still found early adventure games frustrating, and like many people resorted to typing in swear words just to occupy myself. This would often result in amusing responses and filled my juvenile mind with much joy and happiness.

Ah the good old days of gaming! So back to my question, whatever happened to adventure games? Well, they evolved into point-and-click titles such as Monkey Island and Sam & Max completely avoiding the need for the games to understand text entered by the player, and they were good and often very humorous. But they just don't make em like that anymore... or do they?

There seems to be a whole underground realm of these kind of games now available on the Internet, some of them previously commercial games and others created from scratch and available as freeware. If you miss a good adventure you could do worse than start here.

Were you an adventurer? Are you a Hobbit? Do you have any large gold rings you need to dispose of? Maybe someone can help on the GAMEOV3R Forum

How to save our planet

I’m no tree hugging hippy nor am I a green warrior but I’ve been feeling guilty about these carbon footprints that we all have and I want to do my bit to help the environment.

Lot's of us walk and cycle to work. Some take buses and trains more often, buy greener cars and we do as much recycling as we can. A friend of mine attaches this... to the bottom of all his emails, very commendable, and even our government are going to huge lengths to reduce the nations polluting by adding extra taxes to things they deem bad for our environment. Because paying more for things is really going to stop us doing these things isn’t it?! Where does all that extra money go anyway? I haven’t noticed them repairing the ozone layer lately!

So what can the average gamer do to help reduce carbon emissions? We know our consoles consume a lot of electricity. We leave them on standby so that messages, Mii’s and demos can all be downloaded while we’re asleep. We even leave them switched on when we’re busy doing other things and whether you’re a hardcore or casual gamer you can’t deny the power consumption of our consoles is harmful to the environment.

Well, thanks to one Norwegian Biologist we have a solution which will mean we can leave all our consoles and TV's on all the time and play as much as we want to without feeling even a little bit guilty.

“Shoot a moose and you have saved the equivalent of 2 long haul flights”, says Reidar Andersen after research showed that the animal expels the equivalent of 2100Kg of CO2 a year. 2 long haul flights! Wow that equals that’s a lot of game time.

Grab your shotguns gamers and track down a moose today.

Do you own a gun or live next door to a herd of moose? We need to hear from you NOW!.