• Chief: Karl Urban
• Cortana: Salma Hayek (JUST for the costume)
• Sgt. Johnson: David Scully
• 343 Guilty Spark: David Hyde Pierce
• All the Grunts: WeeMan (just like in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)
• Captain Keyes: Sean Connery
• All of the Elites: Bob Sapp
• The Flood: Paris Hilton, Ashlee Simpson, Hilary Duff, Meatloaf Aday as Carrier Form.

Gabe Newell Pimps Darwinia 05:36 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: General News (1 comment)
In this action packed edition of the Valve weekly Steam update:

Hi, this is Gabe Newell. Normally the weekly Steam update news is written collaboratively by a number of people around Valve, but this week I'm grabbing the reins and writing it myself.

I've been playing a lot of Darwinia lately. Like most of you reading this, I play a lot of games and most of them don't manage to capture my attention for very long. But I'm now playing through Darwinia a second time, so I think it's fair to say I'm hooked. I'm currently on Temple, and while I'm not as good at the game as some people around the office, I've managed to get Airstrike researched to level 4.0 which is pretty satisfying. It'll be out on Steam this coming Wednesday, and the demo will be available shortly before its launch. Send an e-mail to me at [email protected] and tell me what you think of the game once you've played it.

We recently had several members of the hardware press out to to Valve to see the new Day of Defeat movie we used to drive some new features in the Source engine. A number of articles about their visit should surface over the next week or so. The first one we've seen is over at Bit-Tech.net.

Xbox 360 Sold every 13 Seconds on Ebay 05:18 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Consoles: Xbox 360 (1 comment)
TeamXbox has an amusing story that estimates that a new Xbox 360 is sold every 13 seconds on Ebay according to Terapeak's web-based research, which might explain why there are none in stores.

In fact, over 586,035 bids were placed on 39,562 systems. The success rate for Xbox 360 systems listed on eBay.com was 78.2%. The average selling price for units sold was $718 per unit.

It is interesting to note that the majority of listings took place primarily between 8AM-12PM PST and in the evening between 2PM-7PM PST. 92% of the listings were auctions and approximately 65% of those transactions were 1-day duration listings. eBay.com Picture Services and Bold features were the most used selling tactics by eBay sellers.

Since the first week demand has dropped to an average of 15 bids per successful listing. The success rate and average price of Xbox 360 auctions have also come down. They are now 75.4% and $702, respectively.

Halo movie or Hellboy 2? 05:01 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Consoles: Xbox 360 (1 comment)
After Peter Jackson spilled the beans he was trying to recruit Hellboy's Guillermo del Toro to direct the Halo movie, del Toro is now saying that he might be doing Hellboy 2 instead. Clever posturing perhaps?

Speaking to the British film magazine Empire, del Toro confirmed that he has indeed been approached to direct Halo. "I'm in talks with them [distributors Universal Studios and 20th Century Fox] and Peter," he told the mag.

Perhaps more astonishing to fans is the fact that the Halo movie is only of secondary interest to del Toro. The filmmaker's top priority is a sequel to Hellboy, which has reportedly done well on video. "Halo is very much an interesting project because it's so full of monsters," he said. "It's a big temptation...but it's not true that it's on and Hellboy's off. Hellboy's on. If everything goes as planned, Hellboy will go. ... It's still on the front burner, but it's all about the budget."

Xbox 360 Compatability List Updated; Recalled 04:44 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Consoles: Xbox 360 (3 comments)
Earlier today Microsoft updated the list of Xbox games you can play on the 360 (via emulation) and then recalled them as a bug cropped up that fuxxored Halo 2. The added games were all Ubisoft titles such as Ghost Recon, Ghost Recon 2, Ghost Recon 2 Summit Strike, Rainbow Six 3, Rainbow Six 3 Black Arrow, Splinter Cell, Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow, and Splinter Cell Chaos Theory. But then the sky fell:

However, after the update was installed, Halo 2 would only play in the standard 4x3 TV dimensions, not the 16x9 letterbox format used by high-definition televisions. Also, the game's graphics appeared compressed--a dramatic shift from its previously crisp, HD textures.

A Tribute to Build Engine 04:01 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: Action (3 comments)
Thanks to the 3D Realms site for the link to a series of interviews paying homage to the Build Engine (you know, Duke Nukem, etc). Included are words from Scott Miller, Ken Silverman and others.

Supreme Commander Interview 03:35 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: Real-Time Strategy (1 comment)
Supreme Commander HQ chats with Chris Taylor about (you guessed it) Supreme Commander, a spirtual successor of sorts to Total Annihilation. Include in the write-up are a pair of new screenshots.

We have heard the maps are big, even huge. Can you demonstrate or explain the actual size of the maps in terms that people can relate to, or comparatively speaking, to another game?

CT - I wouldn't want to make any absolute statements here, because every RTS game is different and has a different scale, so I would just guess that the average map in SUPCOM is anywhere from two to eight times larger than the largest maps of most RTS games today.

Cinematic Effects in Source 03:22 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: Action (6 comments)
Bit-Tech takes a look at the new cinematic effects in the Source engine which comes with 7 new movies (mirror). It looks like the old Half-Life 2 engine has legs yet. Here's a taste:

Valve are looking to push the boundaries on the gaming experience on all fronts. Half-Life 2 is, in my opinion, the best shooter of all time, but that doesn't mean Valve are sitting still. They're looking to push the boundaries even further than they managed with Half-Life 2. Graphics technology has come a long way since the launch of Half-Life 2, just over a year ago.

They feel that the next step is to improve the cinematic experience in Day of Defeat: Source with effects such as Depth Of Field, Motion Blur, Film Grain, Dust, and Colour Correction. Over the next few pages, we'll be covering these new technologies and how Valve intends to integrate them into Day of Defeat: Source to make it even more cinematic than it already is.

With the exception of Colour Correction, all of these film effects essentially reduce the fidelity of the image, but the human eye perceives a much more complex scene. It could also be said that some of these technologies aren't going to be easy to implement into the classic WWII multiplayer, but it should serve you with some tidbits of graphical goodness that we're expecting to feature in Valve's future titles.

Koster on Emotional Engagement 03:09 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: MMOG (3 comments)
Next-Gen notes a blog update from SOE's Raph Koster where the topic is emotional engagement in games. Shhh, don't tell anyone but the real secret is nerfing the crap out of everything and doing "revamps" every year or so. Just kidding! I don't play Star Wars Galaxies. Here's a snip:

It's hard not to see the game world in terms of the narratological side these days, when all the buzzwords are about improving presentation: the HD era, the need for better facial animation to convey emotion, and so on. Yet the "games as models" viewpoint is truer to the core nature of games; a modern blockbuster game, like say Half-Life 2, would make a terrible movie if yu stripped out all the FPS parts, but would still be a passable game experience if you ripped out every cutscene and character bit.

Of course there is room for both, but IMHO most of our learning to improve games as story is going to come from learning to make movies, frankly. Better writing, better cinematography, better shots, better CGI, etc. It's outwards-looking learning, and it won't make the games any better as gameplay, but it will make them better interactive entertainment experiences.

Brothers in Arms Gains Deathmatch 03:01 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: Action (0 comments)
One of the Gearbox designers got tired of not having Deathmatch in Brothers in Arms, so he made a deathmatch mod for the game that you can now enjoy. In other BiA News from Allison "ennui" Berryman:

• First off, we've posted a blog concerning our upcoming History Channel special, which combines video game footage with the real WWII story of the 502nd. It is complete with some behind the scenes pictures of the Colonel, who helped oversee the project. You can check out the blog here. We're all very excited to see this air on December 18th.

• Today, we made live a wiki for modders working with the BiA SDK. We hope this will be a great resource for our community and anyone interested in making mods with Brothers in Arms. Wiki users will use a login from our forums, and can request access directly from me (ennui) via forums PM (http://gbxforums.gearboxsoftware.com/). The wiki is here.

Microsoft Claims 360s > PS3 02:56 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Consoles: Xbox 360 (9 comments)
Xbox chief financial officer Bryan Lee believes that the 360 and Playstation 3 are similar in power, but that the latest Xbox actually has the overall edge:

He was demonstrating Xbox 360 to delegates at this week's UBS Global Media Conference in New York. During an hour-long speech he progressed through the usual demo of Live, Arcade and the machine's connectivity. He then said, "If Sony does hit the specs which they've said they'll have there's a debate. There are a couple of categories where they outdo us, and there's several categories where we outdo them."

He added, "On balance I think most people who study the space will tell you our system is slightly more powerful than theirs from a hardware standpoint. But for the purposes of this discussion I think it's fair to say they're both Ferraris"

GameSpy Gamer's Choice Voting 01:55 pm - Joe 'Steejee' West - Games: General News (0 comments)
Time for your weekly intra-network whoring! Today it's GameSpy's Gamer's Choice awards voting. So head over yonder and be sure to stack the vote for Myst V as PC Game of the Year to show how hardcore you are.

Update - I think we broke their poll, sorry about that. Taking down the link for a bit. - Apache

NovaLogic Busted for Illegal Software 01:30 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: Action / Strategy (20 comments)
Thanks to 2112(AWG) for that tip that according to the Ventura County Star, game developer NovaLogic was busted for using illegal software, i.e. - programs without a license.

Music fans aren't the only ones getting caught for illegal copying and downloading. On a typical day, the Business Software Alliance is investigating about 700 companies suspected of using unlicensed software programs. On Wednesday, the Washington, D.C.-based alliance representing top software developers reported it had fined five Los Angeles-area businesses more than $500,000 for using software for which they did not have licenses.

One of those businesses was Calabasas-based NovaLogic Inc., a software developer.

NovaLogic creates games for computers and consoles such as the PlayStation and Xbox. The company was fined $153,500 after an audit found it had unlicensed copies of Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, FileMaker, Macromedia, Microsoft and Symantec software on its computers.

"NovaLogic Inc. is committed to full compliance with software licensing requirements," President Lee Milligan said in a statement. "As a software developer, our organization depends on respect for our intellectual property rights. NovaLogic regrets the inadvertent violation of license agreements and is committed to rigorous respect for the intellectual property rights of others."

Top 10 Best Selling Games in Japan 01:06 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Consoles: General News (11 comments)
Starting the week of November 28th:

1) Resident Evil 4 (PS2) Capcom
2) Animal Crossing Wild World (DS) Nintendo
3) Monster Hunter Portable (PSP) Capcom
4) Slime Morimori Dragon Quest 2: Daisensha to Shippo Dan (DS) Square Enix
5) Pokemon Mysterious Dungeon: Red Rescue Force (GBA) Pokemon
6) Pokemon Mysterious Dungeon: Red Rescue Force (DS) Bandai
7) Pokemon Mysterious Dungeon: Blue Rescue Force (DS) Pokemon
8) Mega Man Battle Network 6: Grega Version (GBA) Capcom
9) SD Gundam Gashapon Wars (Gamecube) Bandai
10) DS Training For Adults: Work Your Brain (DS) Nintendo

Hardware & Tech Nuggets 12:45 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - hardware: General News (0 comments)

Boards

• Foxconn NF4SK8AA - [H]

  Buyer's Guides
  

• December Value Buyer's Guide - SharkyExtreme

  CPU
  

• Modern Games and Modern GPUs: The Grand Clash - Xbit

  Display
  

• Samsung HP-R4252 42 Inch Plasma TV - Tweaknews

  Mice
  

• Logitech G5 Laser Mouse - Thinkcomputers.org
• Razer Diamondback (Salamander Red) - CaseModGod

  Systems
  

• Alienware Area-51 m5500 - Trusted Reviews

  Video
  

• ATI Mobility RADEON X1600 - Xbit
• XFX GeForce 6800 GS XXX Edition - Guru3D

Game Reviews 12:30 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: General News (4 comments)
So, what are you guys playing?

PC

• Diplomacy - Gamespot - 5.1/10
• The Chronicles of Narnia - 2404 - 8.1/10

  Xbox
  

• Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth - Game Over - 85%
• Crime Life: Gang Banged - Gamespot - 2.1/10
• Need for Speed: Most Wanted - Gaming Age - B
• Stubbs The Zombie - X-Play - 3/5
• Stubbs the Zombie - Hookedgamers - 7.5/10
• The Matrix: Path of Neo - Game Over - 75%

  PS2
  

• Castlevania: Curse Of Darkness - Game Revolution - C-
• Flow: Urban Dance Uprising - PS2.IGN - 7/10
• Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones - GamePro - 4.5/5

  PSP
  

• Need for Speed Most Wanted 5-1-0 - Game Revolution - C
• The Sims 2 - PSP.IGN - 7.5/10
• The Sims 2 - Gamespy - 3/5

  GameCube
  

• King Kong - Gamespy - 3.5/5
• Super Mario Strikers - Game Revolution - C+

  DS
  

• Dragonball Z: Supersonic Warriors 2 - Gamespy - 3.5/5
• Ford Racing 3 - DS.IGN - 5/10

In Other News... 12:15 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - In-House: In Other News... (20 comments)
Voting for our official, actual year end game of the year awards will begin this weekend. Rather than sticking the stuff on the front site in short spurts, we'll be making a page with a bunch of polls for the various genres and platforms and put it on the top features box (e.g. - linked) which will be up almost two weeks. We can actually rotate some of the different polls onto the front page as well for more exposure. It won't affect the vote count other than making it more visible (i.e. - can't vote twice) so it should be interesting. The best fansite poll will be up until Midnight Monday (err, 11:59 PM Sunday, whatever) so the GoTY stuff won't impact that. Make sure to vote if you haven't already.

Today's question / topic:

Nominate some stuff for the awards! Speak now or forever hold your peace...

It doesn't have to be for the overall winner; think genres, platforms, best/worst qualities like graphics/audio, etc, favorite characters and all that jazz.

I don't think we'll be including the 360 since like, I don't have one. :(

Peter Jackson's King Kong Game Music Interview We get back together with an old friend, Composer Chance Thomas, to learn about his work on Ubisoft's action title

Hammer & Sickle Peek #1 We visit the armory in Nival's post-World War II tactical RPG to check out some of the guns our squad can equip

Strategy First to use Steam 11:42 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: General News (1 comment)
Strategy First announced that it would be utilizing Valve's Steam for a few games:

Software publisher Strategy First, Inc. a wholly owned subsidiary of Silverstar Holdings, Ltd. (NASDAQ: SSTR), and Valve Corporation, a leading entertainment and technology studio, are pleased to announce a multi-title distribution deal that will deliver a collection of Strategy First's front line titles and new releases via Steam, Valve's online platform for digital content distribution and management. Strategy First is the first entertainment software publisher to move forward with Valve's Steam, which connects nearly 6 million gamers worldwide.

Nintendo on Revolution Specs 09:02 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Consoles: Nintendo Revolution (36 comments)
Revolution.IGN posted the official response from Nintendo about the leaked Revolution hardware specs which on paper are roughly about 2.5x as powerful as the current GameCube:

Our competitors would have you believe that the next generation of gaming will be solely defined by high definition graphics. High definition graphics look fantastic, but come at a price. To shine, high definition games must be played on high definition televisions, which aren't cheap. Games with high definition graphics are expensive to develop because they must be developed in both standard and high definition formats. Those development costs are passed on to you in the form of more expensive software. Finally, playing games with high definition graphics requires a system with loads of RAM and costly high-end graphics chips, both of which make it prohibitively expensive for most consumers.

Sharper graphics are certainly part of the next generation. We know that games for the Revolution will look brilliant whether played on a standard television or on a high definition television. However, is that all there is to next-generation gaming? We feel that sharper graphics should be combined with a new way to interface with the game itself. Our controller is a sharp departure from the current standard, to be sure, but it will provide a level of interactivity you can't get currently.

We believe in providing a single system that can play not only the previous generation's titles, but also games from a massive library built over 20 years of creating innovative and exciting games. We also believe in providing a complete wireless online experience right out of the box.

Nintendo has created a gaming system that is sleek and compact in size, powers up quickly with minimal load times, makes game development easy and fast, is easy to use, and is affordable for everyone. We are confident that gamers and non-gamers alike will support the truly next-generation experience only Nintendo can provide. Once you have a chance to play games on the Revolution, we think you'll agree!

Mass Effect (Bioware game) Preview 04:32 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Consoles: Xbox 360 (3 comments)
Thanks to Beyond Unreal for the link to this preview of BioWare's Xbox 360 exclusive Mass Effect in the Kansas City Star. Included, are quotes from the dynamic Dr Duo Ray and Greg:

The game takes place in the 23rd century, when humankind has just started to explore space with manned craft -- an endeavor that soon takes our race beyond the familiar confines of our solar system and into the heart of the galaxy.

What we encounter is a war between artificial and organic life that has dangerous and far-reaching consequences. To protect the peace, your character becomes the first human to be indoctrinated into an elite military force called Spectres. You will control a spaceship and crew to enforce your mandate, with your first mission being to subdue a rogue agent.

Of course, this job is just the beginning of a larger adventure, and BioWare even plans to make "Mass Effect" a trilogy -- something BioWare joint CEO and co-executive producer Ray Muzyka says is easily done.

UT 2007 Bits 04:24 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: Action (3 comments)
Planet Unreal notes a forum post on the old UT boards which quotes some blurbs from the Official Playstation magazine (remember, it's going to be on the PS3) about Unreal Tournament 2007:

The design team is also very big on giving the player the freedom to change their role on the battlefield at any point. Polge explains: "We're not going to have classes. What we're tyring to do, though, is encourage people to take on roles." His example: "You can go and grab a sniper rifle and be a sniper for a while, but if you decide you're tired of doing that, you can play as an engineer by picking up some deployables, which are something els we're adding to UT 2007."

332k Xbox 360s Sold Says NPD 04:05 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Consoles: Xbox 360 (11 comments)
Next-Gen reports that Microsoft sold 332,000 Xbox 360s in the first ten days (might as well been the first ten minutes) according to the NPD Group. This low number is due to shortages caused by low chip yield:

Tucked away at the bottom of an an interview today in The Ottawa Citizen, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer (pictured) said, "In these new consumer electronics devices based on new chips, there's always the question of what yield will you get out of the manufacturing process of the new chip. We're getting a little less, but not much less than the yields we expected, and we know that the yields we expected will probably outrun supply."

He added, "We decided to go ahead and launch rather than wait until post-Christmas and get a few million units out into the hands of users. We're doing our best."

ATI Catalyst v5.12 Released 03:14 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - hardware: ATI (0 comments)
ATI released new v5.12 Catalyst drivers for its Radeon series of graphics cards. New features include: "The Catalyst� 5.12 software suite introduces dual core support for CPU bound cases. This feature provides improved graphics performance for DX 9 supported graphics adapters installed in systems running the Windows XP and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition operating systems." Peformance increases for various 3DMarks, Far Cry (up to 25%), Half-Life 2 and UT2004 are in there also.

Alien Swarm News 03:03 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: Action (0 comments)
Blackcatgames sends word that it plans on releasing Alien Swarm v1.3 and the new Telic Campaign on the 16th. Alien Swarm is a sweet top-down view mod for UT2004. They have a source engined Half-Life 2 version in the works as well. Here's a little FYI on it:

Alien Swarm is an overhead view tactical squad-based shooter for UT2K4. Set in the the distant future, the players take the role of a Commander in the Interstellar Armed Forces. They must guide their squad of marines through Swarm infested colonies, overrun bases and outposts, to achieve a variety of objectives. Featuring Assault Rifles, Heat Tracking Guns, Sentry Guns, Flamethrowers and more. Supports co-operative multiplayer.

No Publisher Interest in Rune 2 02:37 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: Action (16 comments)
If you can get the site to load (shakes fist at the 20 meg Spike TV ad that keep timing it out) 1Up has a story about a possible sequel of Rune, or lack therof.

Publishers apparently aren't interested in a Rune sequel right now, though. "They [publishers] see a game with a so so meta critic score and a devoted, but smallish audience and sales that were good but not great. Of course you and we know different," lamented Human Head CEO Tim Gerritsen on the game's official message board.

What will ultimately determine the future of Rune anything, though, is the success of Prey, their collaboration with Duke Nukem creators 3D Realms. If Prey succeeds, Human Head would have breathing room for calling the shots on future projects. "We are well aware that if we mess this one up, any hope of a Rune 2 ever will be pretty much be a pipe dream," he says.

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter Delayed 11:32 am - - Games: Action (3 comments)
Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter appears to have been delayed again until March. This affects both the 360 and PC versions. No official word or reason has been given.

Interviews 10:48 am - Elias 'Mithan' Doulias - Games: General News (1 comment)

• Games In 2005-2006: Brian Sullivan (Iron Lore Studios)
  Gamecloud interviewed Brian Sullivan the head of Iron Lore Studios (currently developing Titan Quest) about the games of 2005 and what to expect in 2006.

• Games In 2005-2006: Jeff Morris (Epic Games)
  Gamecloud also landed an interview with Jeff Morris of Epic Games about 2005 games and what to expect in 2006.

• Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter
  PlayDevil has a Q&A; with Ubisoft Producer Mathieu Girard. Mathieu works with the production team on the upcoming "Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter" game.

• Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter
  There was a Ghost Recon developer chat last night and you can find the Chat Logs here.

• Valve
  ComputerGames.ro has a Q&A; with Mike Dunkle, Director of Caf� Operations at Valve. They discuss Steam.

Tracing Trends in Multiplayer FPS Games 01:55 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: Action (9 comments)
Bit-Tech has an interesting article called Tracing Trends: Multiplayer FPS that looks at how multiplayer first person shooters have changed from Doom to Quake IV. They also look at what upcoming games will be going to offer. Here's a taste:

Duke Nukem Forever
Well, we had to put it in. There's every possibility that DNF could actually make it out this year, after its recent engine switch. Duke Nukem 3D had some pretty cool multiplayer gameplay, although the hardcore mostly stuck to Quake, at the time. With it's typically over the top style, DNF has the potential to top Serious Sam as the best 'party shooter' although that is, of course, assuming it actually exists.

Serious Sam 2 Patch Fixes 01:49 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: Action (2 comments)
Seriously! posted the patch changelog for the forthcoming update to Serious Sam 2. There's no word when it will be released, other than "soon".

Assorted Downloads 01:36 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: General News (0 comments)

• And Then There Were None demo
• Half-LIfe 2 - DayHard Modification
• World of Warcraft European retail patches v1.8.4
• World of WarCraft Trial/demo

Hardware & Tech Nuggets 12:45 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - hardware: General News (0 comments)
Toms Hardware Guide got a major redesign.

Boards

• DFI Ultra LANParty UT nF4 Ultra-D - Viperlair

  Cases
  

• Either Way ATX or BTX Cases - Toms Hardware

  Cooling
  

• Thermalright V1 Ultra - techPowerUp

  Display
  

• HP F2105 21-inch LCD Monitor - Designtechnica

  Keyboards
  

• Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard - MetkuMods

  Mice
  

• Razer Copperhead - Pro-Clockers

  Storage
  

• Chipset Serial ATA and RAID performance compared - Tech Report
• Infrant ReadyNAS X6 X-RAID Network Storage - The Tech Lounge

  Video
  

• 3Digest, November 2005 - Digit-Life
• ASUS GeForce 7800 GT Dual - Limited Edition - Hartware
• MSI NX7800GT-VT2D256E - nVnews
• NVIDIA 7800 GT Mini-Roundup - Anandtech

Game Reviews 12:31 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: General News (0 comments)

PC

• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - Strategy Informer - 5.3/10
• Sacred Underworld - Gamerdad - 3.5/5
• Stubbs the Zombie - GameTactics - 7/10

  360
  

• Call of Duty 2 - Game Revolution - B
• Project Gotham Racing 3 - Boomtown - 9/10
• Quake IV - Gamershell - 6.8/10
• Quake IV - Xbox2news - 7.5/10
• Ridge Racer 6 - Gaming Age - B+

  Xbox
  

• Crime Life: Gang Wars - TeamXb0x - 4/10
• Operation Flashpoint Elite - Gamespot - 5.4/10
• Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones - Gamespy - 4/5

  PSP
  

• Crash Tag Team Racing - PSP.IGN - 7/10
• PoPoLoCrois - Gamespy - 3.5/5

  DS
  

• Animal Crossing Wild World - Gamespy - 4.5/5
• Burnout Legends - Gamespot - 4/10
• Snood 2: On Vacation - DS.IGN - 4.5/10

In Other News... 12:15 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - In-House: In Other News... (25 comments)
The past couple days I've been playing quite a bit of Age of Empires III. I really can't get into the campaign mode for whatever reason, but skirmishes are fun. The A.I. isn't the greatest thing to grace the RTS genre (don't even bother trying to stir up a good sea battle) but it's an amazing time sink and the graphics are beyond sweet. It's a fun building game also. Alas, too bad the brains don't match the game's beauty.

Today's question:

What's more important to you: graphics or gameplay? Your ideal ratio?

P.S. - Thanks Andrew for sending in the topless Jennifer Aniston photos. :)