Fallout 3 updated

Like Fallout 3? Good news for you and several million other people then.

The powers that be have decided to give us a patch for the game on all formats that will stop random crashes, infinite XP exploits and which will let you drop now useless quest items clogging up your inventory. Sweet!

For more details click here.

Article by: Edwin Jones

UK games sales higher than ever

Happy new year!

It's a little late but the year is still young. To start off on such a new year how about some good news about the economy instead of all the bad stuff?

according to Eurogamer, over 80 million games were sold in the U.K. last year. That's almost 2 billion pounds (not dollars) in game sales. Crikey. This is about 23% higher than 2007 so although the economy is suffering games are yet again not taking any notice. Hurrah!

Here come the dark side of it so get ready to grit your teeth - most of these sales are to casual gamers. We are talking about everybody who bought wii-fit here. Sadly, real gaming is taking a back seat to Nintendo's money machine but they have made it clear for a long time now that they care about money and not an innovative or playable game. No, they want novelty toys for adults and by god do they sell a lot of them.

Don't blame Nintendo. Blame your parents. In fact, go out and buy them GOW 2 or Fallout 3 right now to show them how awesome games can be. A 360 can be bought for less than £100 these days so it's not hard to give them one. If nothing else they won't try to anger you again after seeing how ridiculously gory those games are. If you want to be a wimp about it get them 'Scene It' or something.

Wuss.

Article by: Edwin Jones

Could last-gen game pricing return?

I'm sure all of you have been gaming for a while. You might be a little annoyed about the current price of games of about £50 brand new in a shop when in 2004 you could get a brand new game for £30 online.

The good news is, this may start to stop. I managed to snag Fallout 3 for £19.50 delivered from Gamestation a few weeks back (yes, I will review it but I need to finish the damned thing, it's a monster,) and I was impressed. I've been looking around the shops and even Gears 2 is going for £35 in store these days. What the hell is happening?

That's where the bad news comes in. The world economy is dying on its arse. Whilst this means we can now get a litre of petrol for less than a quid again (yay!) it means millions are losing their jobs. The high street chain Woolworths closed it's doors recently and others such as The Officers Club (clothing chain) and Zavvi (they sold games too, so that's a shame) have gone under. Whilst it sucks that people are losing their jobs we have to focus on the bright side, and that is the chance that these new game prices will stick. Who will pay £50 for Gears 2 a few months after it was £35? Very few people. We do have to be aware that all these low prices could just be post christmas bargains and revert to the insane prices of last year, but I doubt that.

Let's hope we can take one of the few good things about this depression and keep it going. £50 for a 360 game (espeically if it was an Xbox port like Far-Cry instincts) was bleeding outrageous.

You can read more about the American side of this issue at Kotaku. If you want to learn more about this event in the UK, I suggest you step outside and go shopping. It's hard to miss.

Article By: Edwin Jones

Wii'itis?

According to The Sun, ten people a WEEK are hospitalised with wii injuries, normally shoulder or knee pains.

“It’s possible that Wii-itus may lead to rheumatism and arthritis in later life. Patients often have inflammation of the shoulder or wrist.”

Doctors even recommend stretching before playing Wii games. If you said that to someone in america, they would literally have no clue what you were on about, stretching? sounds like a way of cooking something for them.

Article by: William Stephen

End of Time for the Timesplitters Team?

According to CVG, Free Radical, the team behind games such as the timesplitter series (decent) and haze (not so decent) are another british company to undergo administration.

Though the company has been filed for administration, they are still saying its business as usual.

"We will be spending the next three or four days assessing the financial position of the company but it's business as usual, although we have asked that almost all of the employees apart from a skeleton crew remain at home."

So despite being on a skeleton crew its business as normal? Hardly. Less gaming companies though mean the industry isnt "recession proof".

Article by: William Stephen

Danger Danger! Youtube gets shakened!

Just found this now but has been around a while. Wario land shake it!, known as shake dimension here has a special youtube video. Look for yourself here!

Article by: William Stephen

Gamestation, bah humbug!

While you may have seen adverts for loads of cheap prices from gamestation and other places, that doesnt mean they are not scrooges. If you remember a while back I posted that Gamestation gave me a broken Lancer Rifle. Well the idiots forgot to keep extra stock incase such an event happen, so when I sent an email asking where my replacement is, they said they refunded me instead, without telling me beforehand!

Now this wouldnt bother me if this was just another game, but this isnt a game, it is a rare piece of memorabilila, with only 5000 made. On ebay the prices are already 3 times what the RRP was and it was only out last month!!

After complaining harshly to them through emails they have sent the bog standard "looking into your situation" email which will probably lead to nothing. It annoys me that a gaming company can just ignore something like this, and I really hope they do something for a change. If not, then I may just start a campaign!

Article by: William Stephen