You gotta love how Chris's tenacity to just stand smack bang in clear view of the window. At least Sheva tried to keep hidden.

It's confirmed that the co-op play will stem throughout the entire main game. With the A.I taking control of Sheva when you don't have an online buddy to play through the game with. I'll be sure to only play this game if a buddy is free to muck it out online, because the A.I looks like a liability. Did you see the amount of times Sheva got man handled by enemies? With a game this fast paced, I need to know the A.I can move fast and keep out of harms way and that trailer did not showcase it would be able to do that. I'd be thoroughly pissed if I was playing through the game, hustling and then the screen goes red with "Sheva is dead..." plastered across it, purely because the A.I decided to stand around and get molested by an enemy. Also, there's no partner zapping feature as there was with Resident evil zero. - so there's no switching of characters on the fly.

Watch it: A short walkthrough of the partnered gameplay

I honestly would've preferred Jill Valentine in the supporting role. A hot African village would've been the perfect condition for her to whip out the boob tube, mini skirt and knee high boots combo. But I guess Capcom having a black protagonist feature dispels the notion of a lone white man rolling into an African village for some genocide action if a black lady is in on it too.

Capcom not one to hold back on the goods have also released an alternate trailer to the game which shows some interesting new scenes...

Sheva looks like Rihanna and that woman looked like Beyoncé. What is it with Capcom?! They obviously realized titties were the only thing missing from their last trailer, so opted to correct it with this one. No idea who that woman is, but she looked like a bad girl. Or possibly a good girl who has gotten caught up in some bad shit and will of course end up dead for her naughty ways. She reminded me of that nasty bitch Naomi from Metal Gear Solid: The breasts on partial display, the syringe, the strut, the smugness. As for the hooded figure - the mind boggles, because it looked to me like a female. When the hooded figure jumped into the boat you could see she they had heels on, when the hooded figure was in the truck their chin and mouth looked like a woman's, and when Beyoncé-Naomi walked off and the hooded figure followed her - she walked like a woman. Could it be Sherry Birkin...? Who knows! But I get the feeling that hooded character is of some relevance and that you may also have to square off with 'em at some point.

This game is looking like it'll share a fair bit in common with Resident evil zero. With the partner feature, the leech like creatures and also the reference to Africa. It'd be really cool if Billy Coen made a justified appearance. It'd be the perfect oppurtunity to weave him back into things considering he was one of the first known Resident evil characters to step foot in Africa. It'd be a great throwback if it turned out that Umbrella had set up Billy to be captured and executed so that he could take the fall for the wiping out the village in Africa. Making out he killed civilians there, when in fact Umbrella hired marines were sent to slaughter the villagers because they were failed experiments. Billy was a cool character, so I hope they bring him back. It'd help make Zero seem somewhat relevant.

I'm all out of potential plot lines and reveals until Capcom throws me something else.

One thing is for sure. THIS is the game that is going to have me buying either an Xbox 360 or a PS3. I want Resident evil 5 at midnight of it's release without fail.

I thought this was an April fools joke. But it's the real deal folks. Capcom's well received zombie fest Dead rising for the Xbox 360 will be shuffling its way to the Wii! Capcom decided to to green light the port due to Resident evil 4: Wii edition selling so well. This is good news that a developer can actually be bothered to port an Xbox 360 game to Wii. I'd savour this moment, because I can't see it happening too often. Capcom have vowed to have the game look as identical to its Xbox 360 counter part as possible. Capcom know how to push hot graphics out of Nintendo systems, so I'll put money on Capcom staying true to their word. As is now customary for the Wii there will be some gestured Wii remote waggling to assist in your zombie slaughtering.

This surprise news has no doubt got non Xbox 360 and PS3 owning Wii lovers dropping to their knees and clutching their hearts in the hopes that this opens the gateway for a port of Resident evil 5. As cool as it would be, I can't see it happening. Resident evil 5 is on another level graphically from Dead rising - well and truly. It wouldn't even be a case of downgrading the game to have it run on a Wii. More like starting from scratch and building shit from the ground up.

The Wii port of Dead rising (which I've dub Dead rising: Wii edition) is slated for a tentative late 2008 release in Japan.

Varrigan city has been over taken by a group of terrorists known as The organizers, who have taken it upon themselves to transform the city into a arena in which its citizens must survive by killing or be killed in the most brutal ways possible. The whole thing is captured and aired on a TV show called 'Death watch'. This is the back story behind a game called MadWorld heading to Wii. However messed up you thought that synopsis was, multiply it by about 10 and you're close to the craziness and sickness that is the trailer.


This game looks crazy. Like a mad cross between God hand and No more heroes. The game is developed by Platinum games, a studio comprised of several key members of the former Clover studios, including Shinji Mikami - which explains a lot about the originality of the game and the art style. I will say at this point that Suda51 has had no hand in developing this game, but it's fair to say Killer 7 and No more heroes games have had a definite influence. Given that the game is from the driving forces behind Viewtiful Joe and Ōkami - things are in good hands.

MadWorld is currently scheduled for a quarter 1, 2009 for North America and Europe, with no word on a Japanese release as of yet. No doubt the European and possible Japanese releases will feature zero blood and enemies who die in a shower of black pixels.

MadWorld looks cool, mature, hardcore and shows the Wii is graphically capable: more of what the system really needs right now as opposed to bastard sequels to Wii sports. Hopefully the game won't be a case of style over substance and folk will actually buy into it. Although I foresee Wii sports resort killing MadWorld in sales.

I'm-a tell you now, I'm not buying this shit. As if the mini games didn't look boring and uninspired enough, that Cammie woman put the nail in the coffin. I'm not touching this game with a motion sensing, rumble featured barge pole. The jet skiing looked really cool. But I'd rather experience jet skiing with the Wii remote and nunchuk on a new Wave race game. Preferably one which shares more in common with the N64 game and not the crappy GameCube one.

The motion plus thingy is a neat idea, but I've yet to come across a game which would require such accurate motion that the Wii remote can't handle on its own. Then again, I also didn't see the point in a white dinner tray that you stand on whilst playing what is essentially Wii sports - but millions still bought it and Wii fit turned out to be a pretty nifty game. So what do I know?! I'm sure Nintendo will showcase motion plus well, just as they did the Wii remote and Wii balance board. Nintendo obviously have a future title up their sleeve which requires more accurate remote action. Either that or they just want more of our money.

Note to Reggie: Stop talking slow and pausing after ever sentence expecting a round of applause. You can do that shit for a new Mario game or a triple A title. Not for a point 5 sequel to Wii sports. The silence in the auditorium was deafening. If you turn the volume up and listen closely, you can actually hear the Wii fan whirring admist the sound of the crickets.

Capcom announced last month that Resident evil 5 would feature an online co-op mode, but it's great to see it in action. As I mentioned before (not that it wasn't obvious) the big foreheaded lady baring a resemblance to Rihanna (aka The Forehead) Sheva Alomar is who the second player will take control. It's unknown whether players will be able to work the co-op mode at key point during the main game, or if the online co-op mode will be entirely seperate from it. But the mode looks to work in a similar fashion to Resident Evil Zero - having to double team on situations to progress and not always doing so side by side. The difference obviously being that both characters will be controlled individually at the same time. I'm definitely looking forward to playing this mode with a buddy. Going at this game over Xbox live with the headset is sure to be a blast.

Here's some character info for you too. Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar are both members of the B.S.A.A, which does not stand for the Black Slaughter Assistant Act, but the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance. Albert Wesker and Sherry Birkin are 100% confirmed for the game and I'm eager to know what role they'll play, especially Sherry. No doubt there'll be other character surprises in store. I'd probably scream like a bitch if the likes of Jill Valentine showed up in this game. Sheva is so gonna die, I can just feel it. You just know she's going to get gang assaulted in the corner of some shack by the possessed villagers, get infected and end up dead. If Capcom do a Resident Evil 4 and have her make it to the end of the game, offer herself to Chris on a jetski in the middle of nowhere and then get turned down, then Capcom are confirming that the male heroes of Resident evil are gay and that Chris did not get those muscles for the ladies.

The game looks amazing, but it does look a heck of a lot like Resident evil 4. We all expected as much, but at times it looked EXACTLY like it. Even some of the animations looked the same. When Chris shot the dude at the top of the staircase I thought we'd get a cool scene of the poor sucker tumbling down the stairs. But he just collapsed on the floor dead flat as a leg of his poked through the wall. There were some nice touches though that set it apart from RE4. Such as the explosion effects, the lighting, shadows and that you can see all of the equipment and weapons that Chris has strapped to him.

I also took note of how Capcom made sure to not make every enemy black in this co-op demo and to focus on monsters for the main trailer.

The game looks bad ass. It's gonna be the absolute shit. Capcom are going to shut it down come March, 2009 when this game releases across Xbox 360 and PS3. You know you're buying this game. Even if you don't own an Xbox 360 or a PS3 yet, you know you're going to make sure you have one by the time this game rolls around.

Just to bring it home how bad ass and tense this game is going to be, check out a clip of Chris doing his best to survive against The executioner. The AI seems to miss a lot of attacks at point blank range in this clip, which I'm going to chalk down to Capcom deliberately setting it that way for the sake of this video. The game would suck if it went down like that in the final code. Even on Easy mode that shit would be ridiculous. Chris doesn't get hit once by the villagers once despite a gang of them being right up in his face.


The executioner is not a replacement for Mr. chainsaw. More like an assailant, as Mr. chainsaw still makes his appearance. Am I the only one who feels that The executioner's blow should kill in one hit? Considering his hammer is that big and can wipe out entire rooms, you shouldn't be able to survive a hit from it like Chris did.

This game is so gonna rock. I feel like reviewing it now and giving it a 9.

Cool trailer. Even if it didn't show a great deal of new stuff. Very Star Wars-esque. George Lucas' beloved creation must be a new muse of Square Enix's, seeing as Final Fantasy XII stunk of Star Wars to the point of being a rip off in some cases.

Now for the big news. Square Enix announced that Final Fantasy XIII will release for Xbox 360 and PS3 in North America and Europe! I know there are PS3 owners out there whose hearts just gave out at the discovery of the news. So that's one less reason to buy a PS3. Console exclusives are drying up on the system like a puddle in the sun. The whole 'PS3 games can't run on an Xbox 360' argument begins to lose more and more weight when so many games are releasing on both systems with little to no differences between versions. Sony's solace will come with Final Fantasy XIII not getting a 360 in Japan. So the 6 people over there that own an Xbox 360 will either have to buy a PS3 or import the Xbox 360 copy of the game, and if they don't know English: had better learn it. I'm not sure why this is the case, but on a hunch - it could be there's something in Square Enix's exclusivity contract with Sony will disallows them from releasing the game on the 360 in Japan. If Square Enix announce Kingdom Hearts III for Wii or they do another PS3 and Xbox simultaneous release, then Sony are going to have to step it up and start paying serious money and donating organs for exclusives from Square.

With Final Fantasy XIII heading to Xbox 360, I stay believing 100% that Metal Gear Solid 4: Supersubsistanenance X will release on the 360 by the end of the year.

Nintendo have dropped what is pretty much an orgy of Nintendo goodness. Popular Nintendo created gaming figures such as Super Mario, Link, Samus and Kirby - all in one game, scrapping it out and looking mighty fine in the process. So why on Earth does this make for a good game? I’ll tells ya what…

Brawl is fun, period. No matter what mode you’re playing or whom you’re playing with, the game is insistent on you having a blast. Melee fans will be able to jump right in and get to work on the game modes, where-as newbies will only need to work the game for a short period of time before they feel they’re masters at smash attacking poor souls out of the screen. Brawl is more of what Melee offered, except things feel a lot tighter. More modes, more characters, more stages, more items, a larger soundtrack and new attacks – namely the 'final smashes'. These enable players to pull of an attack which can turn the tide of battle pretty quickly. Final smashes add a great deal to battles because everything goes out of the window as soon as the smash ball appears on screen. Players have to beat it in order to be able to pull of a final smash. The problem is that the ball takes a fair bit of beating to acquire it and it flies around the screen out of reach causing players to scramble to get at it. Some final smashes are better than others. Some will deal big damage in one go and engulf the entire screen, others will only work well if characters are heavily damaged, whilst some will work better on some stages than others. But because final smashes aren’t majorly regular occurrences (unless you set it so in the item switch) a characters’ final smash won’t always dictate who you take into battle. Some characters you might deem crap may have kick ass final smashes. Where-as a character you’re good with might have a crap final smash. Bottom line: Final smashes rock and the more over the top attacks look great.

The subspace emissary is a great attempt at a solid one (or 2 player) story mode, but it does go on for too long and runs out of steam around the 30% completion mark; as you feel like you're doing the same thing over and over, with little to no variety. The final stage is also a cheap attempt at throwing in all of the previous stages, boss battles and matches with other characters at you in one go. The movie sequences are brilliantly directed though and will raise a smile with their subtle jokes and have you sat in awe at how great some of the sequences are for a Nintendo game. (Let's face it, Nintendo rarely if ever 'Wow!' with their FMV sequences.) It's cool seeing Solid Snake save Peach and Zelda, Link attack Mario and Fox McCloud save Diddy Kong. Seeing how all of the characters from different Nintendo universes get tied together is what makes the mode so much fun and keeps you playing. Plus, the plot is very well done. The ending is shit though. For all of the great movie sequences, and the damn near epic movie of the characters entering Subspace, the ending is whack. There pretty much isn't one at all, which causes the whole adventure to feel anti climactic.

The character roster is bolstering, but as with Melee, there are some clones and amidst the high production values many of the characters feel lazily put together. Ganondorf still doesn't feel different enough from Captain Falcon. Having him fight with his sword would've been better. Toon Link is a waste of time. Not giving him a special where he uses the skull hammer and giving him the same Final smash as standard Link was lazy. He should've been given a final smash where he summons a Tornado at the very least. The same goes for Ness and Lucas. They are both cool characters, but there isn't enough of a difference between them. Falco and Grey Wolf is the final straw for me. They both fight like Fox and even have the same final smash. The only difference between them is their speed and power. Falco I could deal with, but have 2 clones of an original character is overkill. The clones feel especially week in comparison to the brand new characters with new move sets such as Pit, Wario, Snake, Sonic and R.O.B who all fight differently to how the original Smash Bros. crew.

The audio in this game is solid. Many were disappointed with Nintendo's decision not to orchestrate all of the music, but once you hear the arrangements you won't care, as they're so well arranged. Where as Melee featured a selection of well known Nintendo compositions, Brawl's are more obscure. This doesn't make the music selection any weaker. If anything it strengthens it. I love the well known Super Mario and Zelda themes, but it's nice to hear themes you perhaps haven't heard before, as opposed to the same jingles that have featured prominently and been drummed into your head over the past 10 years. The Kirby, Fire emblem and Earthbound series featured some great compositions, so it's great they're given more air time and exposure. The main theme to the game also rocks. It's so infectious and I find myself humming it constantly.

The graphics are fantastic. The character models are brilliantly detailed. You don't get to appreciate them much whilst playing, but you can always pause the game, zoom in and position the camera as you see fit to admire Nintendo's handy work. This just goes to show the confidence Nintendo have in how their game looks. The stages look great and everything runs without a single drop in frame rate. The stages feel a lot more dynamic than before as there's always something going on with them. They're more simple in terms of layout than Melee, but much more detailed and busy in terms of what happens during matches. You don't appreciate how detailed the stages are until you see the Melee stages (several of which are included in the game). They look incredibly basic and dull in comparison to the Brawl stages.

The online functionality in this game is bog standard, bordering on mediocre. It feels ragged and badly put together: on par with Mario Strikers Charged and not even close to what Mario Kart Wii offers. It's more of a slap to European gamers, as it seems between the 6 months they had to iron these issues out, nothing was done. Matches are plagued with lag and it takes pot luck and a couple of prayers to even get a match online with other people. I tried to have a match with a friend who lives in the same city as me and the lag was atrocious to the point the game actually froze. As with all of Nintendo's first party games we get bastardized Friend codes. Stupidly, your wins and losses aren't logged unless you're playing against a Friend, which sucks if you don't have many Friend codes. Nintendo should've allowed stats to be tracked with random matches and for names to be displayed, because these are the matches most will probably play the most. Small things hamper the online experience further. Not being able to put a name which exceeds 6 characters. Not being able to start a vote that you want to begin a match with only 3 or 2 people instead of waiting up to 5 minutes for the service to find a fourth player. There still being Friend codes in the first place. No messages or voice chat whilst in the onlien practice stage. It's just a shame that Brawl's high production values weren't translated and showcased in the online mode. The consolation for the ragged online mode is that when you do manage to get a lag free match between 4 players going, it is great fun.

Brawl is a solid game. The single player experience is great fun and incredibly padded out. There are lots of bonuses to unlock and tons of replay value. It's a game you and your mates will play for hours in multiplayer. The whole package feels much more complete than Melee, which is saying something considering how much shit that game had. The only nag is where online is concerned. It seems Nintendo didn't put as much effort into it as they should have, as it really does feel half assed in comparison to the rest of the game. It feels even worse because Nintendo showed they could offer up a solid online play experience with Mario Kart Wii. Which frankly, is alot more fun to play online than Brawl is. Also, Brawl does expose that the Wii would benefit from some form of hard drive and that downloadable content needs to be fully embraced to the maximum - Xbox live style. Brawl allows players to build their own stages, save snapshots they've taken during matches and save replays - and also receive this data from other gamers and Nintendo themselves. And whilst these are nice features and options, Nintendo could've taken them further. Downloadable content such as new characters, new stages, new music and new event modes would make great features and give players something new to look forward to. Because we know how Nintendo stay with sequels: they wait until a new system is out. Still, despite these niggles here and there, there's no denying how solid a game Super Smash Bros. Brawl is.

If you own a Wii, buy this game. It's that simple. A stellar game that will be fun to play years and years from now.

RATING: 9 / 10

Pro's
- Stunning presentation on all fronts
- Lots of replay value
- A host of unlockables
- Solid 1 player and multiplayer modes

Con's
- The clone characters are pointless
- The online mode is hit and miss
- No substancial downloadable content
- Non Nintendo lovers may not get the same enjoyment out of it as hardcore fans

Sorry Sega. Not feeling it. Until Sega can nail having Sonic play well in his standard form, they shouldn't be trying to have Sonic play as anything else.

Sega revealed early on that the Sonic unleashed stages will show passages of time, which is not random and occurs at set points in a stage. With this in mind it's looking like when night falls, Sonic may transform into a werewolf and players will have to make their way through the stage in Were form. I'm sure we'll get confirmation on the new werewolf play mechanic in good time. If Sega knew what was good for them, they'd chalk all this down to a bad joke and scrap the werewolf shit altogether. I could give Sega a chance with this, but they've had one too many already when it comes to Sonic's console outings and they mess them up in some way each and every time.

One of my superiors at work touched my bottom the other day. You know when you crack a joke with somebody and you kind of nudge 'em at the punchline? Well, she did that to me and nudged my bottom. I didn't think anything of it. But then a while later, she cracked another joke and went for my bottom. Then I walked passed her later that day and she smacked my bottom. Then on another occassion later that day, she got a handful of it. At this point I was beginning to think that maybe she had a thing for my bottom. I do have a nice arse, but that doesn't give her the right to put a hand to it as she pleases. My manager is much older than me. Old enough to be my mother, which is what makes it creepy. If a fine thing my age was to go for my bottom, I'd give them free reign. But not some 50 odd year old woman. She actually did it once before. She's not a shy woman. She openly told me one time that "You have a nice bum!" I just smiled one of those 'I'm smiling to hide how much I'm cringing and I feel uncomfortable deep down inside' smiles.

I did consider reporting her for sexual assault so I could get a payout and buy myself a new car, a PlayStation 3, an Xbox, a HDTV and a copy of Rock band. But I think I'll let her off the hook...for now.