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I used to love the WWE and the SmackDown game series. I would watch all the monthly spectaculars, went to live events and dreamed of one day making the trip over to the USA to take in WrestleMania live. Alas,a couple of years ago I fell out of love with the company and felt that the SmackDown games were getting a bit stale and didn’t feel much different to the old PS1 games – and no game had emulated the awesome Create A PPV mode from SmackDown 2. I was quite apprehensive sitting down to play this as it had been a while since I had properly got stuck in to one of the games and did not want my fond memories spoilt, but I was in for a pleasant surprise.

There is so much content. There are a ton of wrestlers to pick from, lots of arenas and more match types than you can imagine. Once you have selected your match type you can tweak away at the rules to have your all time dream match up. Most of the favouite gimmicks are included such as Hell In The Cell, Inferno, TLC, Money In The Bank but no way to climb into a bulldozer and bury your opponent alive, so you won’t be able to recreate the Undertaker vs Kane much from the recent Pay Per View. Away from the brawling you can also get creating and Create A Superstar is as extensive as ever as spend hours creating a 8ft tall freak before creating a storyline where the freak finds love with the WWE Divas. Anyone who has ever player EWR on the PC in the past will know it can be great fun – and very time consuming – to create your own storylines and feuds, and in this game you can even stick in cut scenes to see your demented creation come to life. I had fun doing a storyline that saw Rey Mysterio go mad and keep screaming ‘DINNER IS SERVED’ at fellow superstars. Took a while to decide what the gripping climax should be before a light bulb went off in my head and Rey appeared at WrestleMania to claim that ‘DINNER WAS DISAPPOINTING WHERE IS PUDDING’ to the applause of the crowd. I don’t think I need another game this year, I’ll be stuck in the storyline creator. Once your masterpiece is complete you can share it online for others to enjoy and perhaps call a doctor for you if your scenarios are too crazy.

Replays can edited and shared with online friends. If on PS3 you can upload to YouTube

Back to the grappling and a neat new addition is that every time you play a match it has an effect on the WWE Universe. Instead of doing a plain exhibition match, you are actually playing out what is happening on that week’s TV show and storylines are generated based on what is happening on the ring. Superstars in feuds will see their rivals interfere in matches and it’s a very nice touch to keep matches interesting after you have finished the story modes.

Story mode is ‘Road To WrestleMania’ and you have five scenarios to choose from – be a plucky up and comer who wants to end the Undertaker’s streak, pick Christian and reunite withe Edge for some fantastic nostalgia, select Chris Jericho and be a nasty cowardly heel desperate to destroy HHH, feud with Randy Orton as John Cena and cheer up children as Rey Mysterio. Between matches you can wander around backstage talking to fellow superstars – or push them – and search for hidden items. It’s a bit odd and the Backstage Brawls are pretty awful and very repetitive. The storylines are fun though and you often wish the actual WWE TV shows could do something like the Christian and Edge story, though they are more likely to follow the crazy OTT Undertaker story complete with magical urn.

All this and no mention of the in ring action. When brawling you use the left stick to wander around, and the right stick to grapple. As your opponent gets more battered you can do more impressive moves with the right stick. It’s quite controversial as it feels as if you do not have much of a move set unless you let the match run longer. Your opponent does need to be stunned in order to pull off a finisher which is very nice when playing in single player but sometimes frustrating in multiplayer.  Reversals are plentiful and you can turn them down when playing on your own, but again multiplayer can be very frustrating with every move being reversed. Buying your copy new gives you free online play, all the match types are in there including for the first time Royal Rumble. Get prepared for pleas of mercy coming through your headset as you prepare to toss out another victim.

The game feels easier than ever to get into too but some of the problems plaguing the title from the PS1 days are still here. There are problems with collision detection, the commentary is rather poor, and the physics system for weapons has some very weird problems at times with steel steps bouncing off peoples heads and then into the ring. As well as changes to weapon physics, the Hell In A Cell match has changes and you will need to read the manual before playing or you ain’t getting out that cage. Sadly not a total overhaul as there is still only one spot on the top of the cage then you can slam your foe through, so if you haven’t played the game for 5 years you will still know what to do when up there.  The good old ‘NOW SAVING’ screens return with a vengeance and this has annoyed me for years. Why not have an icon in the bottom of the screen to indicate the game is saving instead of pausing everything.

Another annoyance is the roster again is a bit out of date. I understand there has to be a cut off time, but it feels like it was very early this year. At least most of the Nexus will be available later as DLC, though it’s a shame they were not in the game to begin with seeing how big their storyline on Raw has been. A few niggles that do spoil the hectic action, which you feel would not be an issue if they game was not released every year and the developers had some time to breathe.

The Pros

- A wealth of content

- Some great storylines in Road To Wrestlemania

- Create a storyline is packed with features to let your WWE Fantasies run wild

Cons

- Feels rather blurry on PS3

- Same old niggles when in the ring

- REVERSALS

Overall

With so much content you feel that THQ could easily extend the life of this game by releasing DLC roster updates and giving the developers two years instead of one to overhaul the game. The game is fantastic fun, and will no doubt be a dream title for WWE fans, but it would be great if the ageing engine could be revamped to give a genuinely new gameplay experience in future outings. Still it’s the safest and legal way to attack a friend with a steel chair. Fun but flawed, which could be fixed with a longer development cycle.

SmackDown vs Raw 2011 is out now for PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PS2 and PSP. The version reviewed was PS3 and had a mandatory install of around 3GB.

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Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light

Tactics Ogre

GoldenEye

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2. Use it to make some branded accessories for the two most biggest selling consoles on the market.

3. Count your millions.

Blue Ocean Accessories will be releasing a Sonic Screwdriver Wii Remote and DS Cases which come with a Sonic Screwdriver stylus. They will be timed to be released at the same time as a couple of games also based on the hit BBC show, so look out for retailer bundles from those crafty high street chains. I can see these being huge sellers at Christmas, so start saving now if you have any good friends or family members that love Nintendo and Doctor Who.

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This week saw BlinkBox launch an optimised version of their website on the PS3 adding yet another video portal to the console. In the past few years media functions have became a major feature of a console. Here we take a quick look at what these machines can do.

The Wii is the least media friendly of the current crop of consoles. You can look at photos stored on SD card, but not watch films through that or even on DVD. Thanks to the browser you can however watch iPlayer, YouTube and a bunch of flash streaming sites. It’s a shame that the console that is in the most homes has the least functions – but does mean you are more likely to actually play games on it!

The Xbox 360 is no slouch with a full array of video options. You can plug in a USB hard drive and play a range of file formats, stream video over a network, watch DVDs, subscribe to Sky TV without needing a satellite dish and download films from the Marketplace. Sadly, the console has no browser shutting the doors to YouTube and iPlayer. There is an add-on to watch HD DVDs, and you can pick up a nice selection of discs for cheap now, but you will have to stick with older releases with the film studios opting for Blu Ray as the HD disc standard.

Alongside BlinkBox, the PS3 has access to iPlayer and YouTube through it’s browser. You can download films through the PSN Video Store, watch DVDs and HD Blu-Rays, stream content over a network or from an attached hard drive. A rather nifty add on for the PS3 is PlayTv which adds PVR functionality to the console allowing to record programmes to the PS3 Hard Disc. Most of Europe and Australia can watch HD through the device, but the powers that be in the UK have chosen a different broadcast system for Freeview HD meaning that the unit can not pick up the signal for the HD channels.

There is something for everyone in all the consoles. Wii fans will love the ability to catch up on TV with  iPlayer,  Xbox 360 owners can watch films on demand and have Sky without the hassle of a dish and PS3 owners can enjoy HD Blu Ray films and record Freeview programmes. I personally would love to see optimised versions of IT Player, 4OD and Demand Five on the systems so I can abandon choppy video on my laptop. What would you like to see in the next firmware updates or even next-gen consoles,  in terms of added functionality; or would you rather just play the games?

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Metroid: Other M (Wii)

Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (PSP)

Linkin Park 8-Bit Rebellion (iPhone)

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The game is being released as a episodic downloadable title (hope they are more frequent than the Half Life 2 episodes) for Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii this July with more platforms to be announced. The game is a direct sequel to Sonic 3 & Knuckles and Sonic adds a new Homing Attack to his range of moves.

Are you excited? Or will the game follow this well worn path:

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The device, which is rumoured to be called ‘Arc’, has been delayed so that there will be more games available at launch. Hopefully they will also work out a better way to use the controller with more traditional titles. The Resident Evil demonstration with a Dual Shock in one hand and an Arc in the other looked fiddly and uncomfortable for long playthroughs.

The original March release looked like a good head start on Natal for Xbox 360. Microsoft’s nifty camera tracks full body motions, allowing players to perform actions without the use of a controller.

You can see videos of both devices in action below.

Will any of these devices succeed or can nothing beat the force of the Wii? Do you want to play games like this, or would you prefer to relax on the sofa with a controller?

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The Wii is a funny old thing. Having opened up gaming to everyone and their gran, we now have to deal with the inevitable deluge of shovelware and minigame collections cobbled together and sold by the thousands to unsuspecting families hoping for something that’ll bring the family together. In this brave new world there’s very little incentive for developers to make these games anything even approaching playable or innovative, and so Squeeballs deserves recognition for making a bold attempt at bringing something new to the evolving party-genre.

The set-up is pretty typical – right off the bat you get to choose from a bunch of minigames, which you then proceed to blast through with your friends and family. The games range from simple Wii Sports-style bowling to more complicated catapulting affairs. What separates Squeeballs party from the horde of similar games are the titular squeeballs themselves. The idea is that they’re stuffed toys that need to be tested to ensure they’re safe for children. At once adorable and completely expendable, these squishy little monsters will be catapulted, crushed, maimed, exploded, electrified, shot and knifed to death by your own hand, all in the name of point-grabbing. Whilst a few of the games will require you to protect or guide the Squeeballs, the vast majority will judge your performance based on how many you’re able to destroy before the timer hits zero. All make no mistake, they’ll be staring up at you with their big adorable eyes the whole time.

I simply cannot see this ending well.

This might lead you to think that Squeeballs is a morbid affair – but the whole package is presented with enough primary colours, comic-book stylings and comedy sound effects that the violence never detracts from the fun, and if kids are still the little maniacs they were when I was little, they’re going to have considerably more fun bashing virtual monsters with a hammer than they ever could throwing a virtual frisbee or heading a virtual football.

The music is alright – there’s only really one looping theme, but it’s catchy enough, and the visuals are charming. No single miningame is perfect, and the controls could use some refinement across the board, but some of the games are things we haven’t seen before, and any attempt at innovation – even if it doesn’t always quite work – is appreciated. Particularly nice was the slingshot minigame where players must pull back the wii remote Bart Simpson-style, and fire Squeeballs at a massive canvas in a paint-by-numbers bloodbath.

As a final note, I was deeply impressed that this game lets you rack up utterly ridiculous scores in the normal course of play. Check it out:

That's one hell of a score

Normally that would probably be considered something of a bug, but frankly it’s brilliant. I’d give this game a 5/10 under normal circumstances, but I’m happy to bump it up to a 6/10 due to this delightful glitch.

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If you’re one of the very many gamers a) likes games and b) owns a 360 or a PS3 but not a Wii, then you’ll doubtless be wondering why the upcoming port of cult-favourite No More Heroes – the hardcoriest hardcore Wii game in existence – is currently not due for a release outside of Japan.

The story runs thus…

The port, (entitled No More Heroes: Heroes’ Paradise) is all set-up and ready to be released to the Japanese market. But Ubisoft, who published the first game, have said they will not be picking up or distributing the 360/PS3 version. No reason is given.

I’d have guessed that from Ubisoft’s perspective it’s a sure-fire moneyspinner. A more cynical bloggerer than myself might wonder if Nintendo hadn’t leaned on the publishing giant, in an effort to keep an iron-grip on one of the few franchises that will stop hardcore gamers defecting to Sony or Microsoft’s consoles.

Whatever the reason, it’s bound to annoy 360/PS3 owners hoping for a slice of Travis Touchdown’s own brand of Otaku beam-swordery. I propose that the Internet rises up in protest, forming the world’s first User Generated Games-Publishing-House. With our collective intelligence, we’ll rally together to publish Grasshopper Manufacture’s No More Heroes port ourselves! An HD version for the people, by the people.

Or we could watch cats on YouTube. And in all fairness, the cats were there first.

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