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Anybody who’s ever played a football management simulation will tell you that they can quite literally take over your life. Marriages and relationships have ended because of them, and it’s even been rumored that real-life club managers use them to look for new players!
Football Manager is the undoubted king of this world, and every new season brings a brand new release with fully updated transfers and club data. Football Manager Handheld 2009 is a condensed version of the PC game, which for the first time includes a 2D match engine.
Click here to get this PSP title for £17.73 from The Hut.
One of the best PS3 launch titles was MotorStorm, so it’s not that much of a surprise to see a sequel appearing in the form of MotorStorm: Pacific Rift. What might be a little surprising is a move away from desert environments to interactive islands - but this ends up making for a much better experience anyway, which can only be a good thing.
All seven vehicles classes (bikes, ATVs, buggies, rally cars, racing trucks, mud pluggers, and big rigs) are back, and there’s also now the option to race on monster trucks. Also, up to 12 players can compete against each other online across a total of 16 different tracks.
Simply Games have this game available for £24.79 - for more information, click here.
Race Driver: Grid £22.99
15 Nov
Although it’s fair to say that the online capabilities of Race Driver: Grid are pretty poor, the game itself is perhaps one of the best racing titles to be released in 2008.
Up to 43 vehicles can be raced around tracks from different countries (which include Japan and the United States, as well as a few European destinations). Where this comes into its own though is with the damage model, which is the best of its kind in the gaming world.
Click here to buy this XBox 360 title for £22.99 from ShopTo.
XBox 360 Console Bundles
15 Nov
There are some decent XBox 360 console bundles around just now, which is maybe a little surprising when you consider how close Christmas is. But with the economy in the toilet, maybe it’s not that shocking!
The XBox 360 Arcade is the smallest system of the three available, but it’s also the only one that comes with games included (Boom Boom Rocket, Feeding Frenzy, Luxor 2, Pac-Man and Uno). It doesn’t come with a hard drive, although Microsoft are still selling the XBox 360 20GB hard drive for £12.99 - a very cheap way of making a worthwhile upgrade.
At Currys you can get two packages for £129.99 each:
XBox 360 Arcade set with a copy of Fable II
XBox 360 Arcade set with a copy of PES 2009: Pro Evolution Soccer
Meanwhile over at Comet you can get the XBox 360 Arcade set with a copy of just-released-the-other-day title Call Of Duty: World At War for the same price of £129.99. Click here for more details.
Finally, there’s a slightly complicated deal at Amazon which is well worth the hassle.
Add the XBox 360 Arcade set, the new XBox 360 Wireless Entertainment Pack (which contains a wireless controller and copies of Kung Fu Panda and Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures), and a choice of game from a selected list to your basket, and enter the code XBXGME10 to get the whole lot for £129.98 - click here to see more information on this confusing, but decent, offer.
You might be glad to know that there’s only a couple of XBox 360 60GB Premium console deals around, and these are both identical to a couple of the XBox 360 Arcade offers featured above.
As you can tell by this system’s name, it comes with a 60GB hard drive. This used to be 20GB, until Microsoft decided to be generous and boost the size up to this new level.
Click here to get the console with a copy of Call Of Duty: World At War for £159.99 from Comet.
Over at Argos you can still get an XBox 360 Premium with three games, and an extra controller, for £169.95 - the titles are Kung Fu Panda, Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures, and Viva Pinata, by the way.
Finally, the potentially baffling Amazon deal mentioned in the Arcade section above is also available with an XBox 360 Premium console for the higher price of £169.98. Click here for more details on it.
The top-end XBox 360 system is the XBox 360 Elite. It’s the only one with a completely black finish, and it’s also the only one to come with a massive 120GB hard drive.
Me thinks that if this isn’t big enough for you, then nothing will be!
Comet have the XBox 360 Elite console, along with a copy of Call Of Duty: World At War, priced at £229.99 - click here for more information.
Lastly, that damn Amazon deal is back again! Read the bottom of the Arcade section above, and then click here to see the full details on how to get a very good bundle for £229.98.
In a strange move, many versions of Spider-Man: Web Of Shadows are different from each other. It’s a 2.5D side-scrolling brawler and platformer on the DS, a side-scrolling beat ‘em up on the PlayStation 2 and PSP, and a full-3D action game on every other console.
What’s consist with every one of them is the ability to choose whether to align with the good guys or the bad guys, which is similar to Spider-Man: Friend Or Foe. The new combat system is worth mentioning as well, because you can now actually fight on walls - giving Spidey a distinct advantage.
To get the DS release for £14.99 from Game, simply click here. PS2 owners can get their version for the same price, from the same retailer, by clicking here.
Game also have the Wii (click here) release available for £17.99, and the XBox 360 (click here) version priced at £24.99.
Play.com Game Reductions
15 Nov
Today there’s been a few Play.com game reductions that seem worth mentioning.
I’ve arranged them in alphabetical order, for no reason other than to be nice. How lovely of me.
DS
Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword £9.99
PS3
Haze £9.99
Little Big Planet £29.99
TNA: iMPACT! £11.99
Wii
TNA: iMPACT! £11.99
XBox 360
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion £9.99
TNA: iMPACT! £11.99
Little Big Planet £29.99
14 Nov
Little Big Planet is one of the most innovative games that I’ve seen in recent years, and one that could potentially last forever. And to think we all used to believe that Pong was amazing!
You control small avatars (known as Sackboys, due to their appearance) in a variety of platforming scenarios. There’s a set of pre-built levels to explore, but where this really comes into its own is with its customisable nature - your character and personal space can be altered, and you can also build new objects and levels which can then be shared and played with online.
Click here to buy this PlayStation 3 game for £29.99 from Play.com.
If you enjoyed (or are still enjoying) Call Of Duty 4, then you’ll be glad to hear that Call Of Duty: World At War is out - NOW! The story in this one focuses on the final battles of World War II from the perspectives of a Marine Raider and a Red Army soldier, with several historic battles taking place.
As you’d expect, the online multiplayer mode is where this really excels. This time round there’s a new addition too, in the form of a co-op mode - this can support up to four online players and two offline.
Pop in to Asda and you can pick up either the PlayStation 3 or XBox 360 releases for £27 each.
When the original DS was released it was rightly regarded as one of the best handheld systems to come along in some time. Not only was it quite easy to use, but the possibilities for unique gaming experiences seems almost endless.
A small complaint was that it was rather chunky, so in 2006 the Nintendo DS Lite console was born. It’s much slimmer and lighter than its predecessor, and the buttons have been moved around a bit to make it even easier to use than before.
Tesco are currently selling various colours of system for £89.97 each. Click here for the black one, click here for pink, click here for silver, or click here for the standard white version.
Remember to enter the voucher code Freedel at the checkout to save on postage costs, and to search this site to find some cheap games to go with your new console!
A couple of days ago a new update was released for PES 2009: Pro Evolution Soccer that included some new kits and extra licensed teams. The best news though was that the transfers have been fixed - which means that Berbatov is now at Man Utd, and no longer makes Spurs look good.
The game itself as is as good as its ever been, although it’s easy to see why some complain. Not only has FIFA come on in leaps and bounds, but the online play STILL HASN’T BEEN FIXED! Here’s hoping a future update will sort it out, once and for all…
Click here to get the XBox 360 release, or click here for the PS3 version - both of which are £24.99 each at Game.
