Soul Calibur IV £9.99
21 Jan
Soul Calibur IV is, rather confusingly, the fifth entry in the Namco series of fighting games. Story, Arcade, Training and Museum modes from previous titles return, along with a new one in the form of Tower Of Lost Souls – which requires you to win battles in order to gain rewards.
Character Creation from Soul Calibur III also makes a comeback, although weapon styles are restricted to those already available with the original set of characters. Speaking of which, this has special guest appearances from The Apprentice and Yoda of Star Wars fame (Darth Vader can be purchased as downloadable content).
Click here to buy this XBox 360 game for £9.99 from Play.com.
Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth is a standard point and click adventure, and is a spin-off from the main Ace Attorney series (which has nearly always focused on Phoenix Wright up until now) – with similar gameplay mechanics to the other four titles.
Five different cases are included, with each unlocked by solving the previous case, in much the same fashion as other Ace Attorney games. Basically, if you've played one of them before, you'll feel right at home with this one as well.
Click here to get this DS title for £17.99 from Amazon.
XBox 360 Elite Deals
16 Jan
If you think that Sony are bad with their constant buggering around with the size of the hard drive in the PlayStation 3, Microsoft are probably worse when it comes to the XBox 360 – you can currently get an Arcade, Premium or Elite console (although the Premium has just been discontinued).
The XBox 360 Elite is in black and comes with a 120GB hard drive. All the accessories are black as well, so everything looks quite snazzy (not that that should really matter too much, to be honest).
Click here to get the system for £169.99 from HMV.
The Hut, meanwhile, have a bundle with copies of Lego Batman: The Video Game and Pure in the box for £173.73 – for more information, click here.
Click here to visit Amazon who have the system for £199.99, with either a Wireless Entertainment Pack (black controller, Lego Batman: The Video Game and Pure) or a choice of two titles from fourteen (including Bayonetta and Darksiders).
Disney Sing It is a karaoke video game which features a number of songs by Disney-affiliated artists, as well as those from shows and films such as the High School Musical series – although there's sadly no classics included (meaning no Lion King, etc.).
Oddly the packaging states that downloadable content is also available, but apparently Disney have changed their mind and decided not to release any. The cynic in me says this is so they can keep on doing packs like this in the future, but that could just be me!
ShopTo have Disney Sing It, with two microphones (for use on the PlayStation 3), available for £9.85 from ShopTo – for more information, click here.
If you feel like your brain may be in need of some tuning up, then Dr Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain? may very well help you out. Although not scientifically proven to improve how your brain works, it has been deemed popular enough for some schools to use the mini-games as part of the curriculum.
A variety of puzzles – including stroop tests, mathematical questions, and Sudoku puzzles – have been designed to help keep certain parts of the brain active. Whilst the voice and handwriting recognition is a bit dodgy at times, this becomes quite addictive very quickly.
Click here to get this DS game for £8.95 from ShopTo.
James Cameron's Avatar: The Game is based on the film of the same name, and uses the same technology to be displayed in stereoscopic 3D – the only drawback being that to get the full effect you'll need a 3D TV (which won't be out until later this year at the earliest).
It's actually almost like having two games in one, as you start off as a marine communications officer before turning into your avatar – at which point you can decide to continue as one or the other. As this has more in common with RPG's than anything else, younger gamers may get bored easily (something to consider if you were thinking about Christmas, etc).
Click here to buy the PlayStation 3 release for £17.95 from Zavvi, or click here to buy the XBox 360 version for the same price from the same retailer.
Fracture £5.95
09 Jan
Fracture tells the tale of a xenophobic United States, which has been split into two sides, the Pacific and the Atlantic, by rising water levels caused by global warming. When tension mounts, war breaks out – and it's your job to lead an army from the Atlantic to deal with the Pacific force.
This is a fairly average first-person shooter, with low replayability and a very annoying amount of repetitiveness. At times it almost feels like some sort of mashup of lots of different games from the genre, which is very disappointing.
ShopTo have this XBox 360 game available for £5.95 – for more information, click here.
Resident Evil 5 £11.98
07 Jan
Ten years after the events of Resident Evil, Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar investigate an Umbrella terrorist threat in the desert region of Africa – here they find out that Ricardo Irving is planning to launch a virus, and discover that they must stop the virus before it infects the entire world…
Resident Evil 5 features similar gameplay to Resident Evil 4, with context-sensitive controls and dynamic cut scenes also making a welcome return. For the very time in the series, you can now also play with a friend online – something which adds an entirely new dimension to one of the best franchises in modern gaming.
Amazon are selling this XBox 360 game for £11.98 – click here for more details.
Quantum of Solace From £6.98
07 Jan
Quantum of Solace is the first 007 title to be released on the current generation of gaming consoles, and is based on the film of the same name – as well as incorporating parts of Daniel Craig's first Bond movie, "Casino Royale".
This is primarily a first-person shooter, though at times the view switches to a third-person perspective to emphasise that you are Bond. The online multiplayer mode is probably the best thing about this game, as the single player missions are neither particularly interesting nor exciting enough to warrant repeat plays.
Click here to buy the PlayStation 3 release for £6.98 from Gameplay, or click here to buy the PlayStation 2 version for £9.99 from CoolShop.
In 2016, a nuclear attack in Saudi Arabia kills six million and cripples the world's oil supply. After initially signing a treaty that agreed to the co-development of technologies for a new missile system, the price of a barrel of oil rockets past $800 – and helps turn the United States Of America and the European Union from firm allies to sworn enemies.
This is the basic back story to Tom Clancy's EndWar, which is a real-time strategy game that allows you to play as either side (or as Russia, who have become the world's number one supplier of natural gas and crude oil). If this isn't enough action for you, then take the battle online and fight it out with other players from across the globe.
Play.com have the XBox 360 release available for £4.99 – for more information, click here. PSP owners can click here to get their version for £8.95 from ShopTo.
