World's most expensive video game

The world's most expensive video game is available for auction on ebay right now. Think of the greatest game you've ever played. Think of a game that is the best game ever made. And then discover that the most expensive game in the world is ... TETRIS!

Yes indeed, Tetris. In fact a first edition Sega Megadrive version of Nintendo's classic puzzler. Signed by the games' creator, the Megadrive version of the game is one of less than 10 ever made for Sega's hugely popular console. According to the seller there are between 3 and 8 copies ever made. Nintendo obviously early on made a decision to allow the game to be published on the Megadrive before quickly having a change of heart, but not quickly enough to stop a few copies being made and released.

The asking price is $1,000,000 but the seller is taking offers over £20,000. Whilst I'm sure there are people out there with enough money, and crazy enough to make a bid, I don't think he's going to get what he wants.

Check out the auction here on ebay.

'Man collects PlayStation 2 games. All of them...' ....Why??

Having read this article on Yahoo I only have one question: WHY?

http://uk.videogames.games.yahoo.com/blog/article/26376/man-collects-playstation-2-games-all-of-them.html

Why spend all that money collecting over 1800 Playstation 2 games if you aren't gong to play them?! I've seen The Angry Video Game Nerd's collection on YouTube and it's impressive, but at least they've all been played. Sure, I'd like to build up a big collection of games for my latest consoles, but only for the purpose of being able to play them all and have a taste of all different styles of gameplay. Sometimes I'll even buy a game that's not something I would normally play, on the recommendation of a friend or family member.But I always play every game I own.

Perhaps I'll never have an incredibly valuable collection of never been played, still in their wrappers, classic games, but at least I'll be able to say I've enjoyed playing them.

Happy Birthday Sonic!

Today marks the 20th anniversary of everyone's favourite supersonic blue hedgehog, Sonic! On this day 20 years ago Sonic was making his first video game appearance on the Sega MegaDrive and he's had a phenomenal career since. I've grown up with Sonic and I've loved everything he's done. I've played all the games, watched the TV shows and read the comics. Do I feel old? No way! If Sonic is still only 15 after all these years then we're all going to live forever!

Sega are celebrating in style with the release of Sonic Generations on all the major consoles, and even in the online world of Phantasy Star. And to mark his 20 years in the business they have released 20 cool facts you may or may not have known about the cool blue hedgehog.

1. Over 70 million games have been sold worldwide
2. "Project Needlemouse" was the name given to the Sonic project
3. Sonic is fifteen years old and has never aged
4. An estimated 60 million people have played at least one Sonic game
5. Sonic runs faster than the speed of light and is officially the fastest videogame character of all time (Guinness Book of Records) 
6. Sonic was voted number one video gaming icon of all time* (msn poll 2009)
7. Sonic's shoes were inspired by a combination of Santa Claus and the colour red for speed and fire
8. Sonic originally had a girlfriend called Madonna and was in a rock band
9. Sonic's first ever appearance was a humble one - as a toy hanging from the rear-view mirror in the little-known arcade racing game Rad Mobile
10. Sonic has starred in his own line of comics and in four animated TV series
11. Sega sponsored the Williams Grand Prix team and the team's lead driver, Alain Prost during the 1993 Formula One championship
12. Sonic fans have collected over 70 billion rings between them
13. Sonic was the first video game character to have a balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
14. Sonic has made cameos in various games including, The Simpsons Game, The Incredible Hulk, Tom and Jerry: The Movie and he also featured in the Simpsons show
15. Sonic has appeared in over 65 games
16.   Dr Eggman has an IQ of 300
17.   Sonic the Hedgehog's personality is a juxtaposition of kindness and ferocity, as on one hand he does all in his power to snuff out evil, but he also can't look away when somebody else is in trouble
18.  Sonic hates boredom and being tied down, so much of his time is spent running towards the next danger or adventure 
19.  Sonic's favourite food is chilli dogs 
20.  Sonic cannot swim
                                                                                                                                   Source: Yahoo.com
Check out the full article on Yahoo!

Yet another hacking in the gaming industry

I've just received an email from Sega that their network had to be shutdown yesterday due to unauthorised access to their Sega Pass database. That makes the third major games company to be attacked by hackers potentially in recent weeks. Why the video games industry is the target of so many hacks right now I have no idea but if things continue and more major players are attacked, gamers are going to start losing their trust of online gaming networks. I myself have accounts with various online games and while I don't keep any payment details online, I am ever more cautious about what I sign up to.

I've already experienced having my World of Warcraft account stolen, but I'm pleased to say that Blizzard have an excellent response strategy to these type of activities. However, how many of the other games companies can boast such a great track record. Sony's network has been down for weeks and this must frustrate gamers no end. You have to wonder who is going to be the next target.

As a gamer it is a horrible reality to face. Not only may your favourite games be unplayable due to downed networks or stolen accounts, but your personal details and financial details may also be stolen and used fraudulently. The only thing you can do is be vigilant about passwords, payment details and what sites you sign up to.

Nintendo Wii U

So I've just read about Nintendo's successor to the Wii, aptly named Wii U. Apparently this comes from Wii being a reference to 'We' meaning you, me and the whole family, and U which obviously means 'You'. It's a strange description from Nintendo but essentially they're saying it's a console for all the family but that's also perfect for the individual. I guess that means it's going to have all the family fun of the original Wii but with an equal amount of attention given to the Next Gen gaming that solo players found on PS3 and Xbox 360.

As I've just mentioned the Wii U is going to bring HD gaming back to Nintendo, at a quality to rival Sony and Microsoft, but they also are bringing a whole host of new innovations to the table, in just the way Nintendo always do. The most striking has to be the new controller. It looks like a mixture of an iPad and a standard game controller. There is a touch screen in the centre of the pad that can apparently do HD graphics, and then sticks, buttons and a D-Pad located around the screen. The pad is also motion sensitive and has a built in camera and microphone. With all of that the only thing that's missing is the kitchen sink!

One of the new concepts is the ability to take a game you are playing on your TV and in an instance transfer it straight over to your pad's screen. This smooth transition is set to work both ways and with the pad being portable you can then take your gaming to another room if someone wants the TV. Of course the pad isn't an independent console so you will need your Wii U within range and turned on to continue playing. The touch screen will also be usable for web browsing and utilizing the built in camera, it will be possible to have video chat over the new Nintendo Network.

Only a couple of games have been announced so far; Super Smash Bros and Lego City Stories, however several demos have been revealed to the press that demonstrate the power of the Wii U and it's new controller. One of the most interesting demos uses different Wii pads to view an arena from different angles depending on the location of the pad in relationship to the Wii U. Nintendo are trying to emphasize to gamers that games no longer need to be within a 3D realm on the TV but actually within the immediate area surrounding you. It's a first hint at the 3D worlds of sci-fi movies.

If Nintendo can pull of the Wii U incorporating both the family fun of the Wii and the Next Gen gaming that PS3 and Xbox 360 players have grown accustomed to, then they are on to a winner here. As a Nintendo fan from way back, I look forward to seeing and hearing more about the Wii U.

Nintendo's Wii U is set to be released next year.

Tomb Raider (2012)

I've just been treated to a delight; a video of FMV footage from the new Tomb Raider reboot game. Whilst it looks amazing, it's not a true insight into how the game will actually look, but that's not what caught my attention. What caught my attention was the SquareEnix logo that flashed up at the beginning of the video! It seems that the Tomb Raider franchise is being taken in a new direction by a new development team. And having seen a few of the next gen offerings from SquareEnix I'm now really excited about what will happen with Tomb Raider.

If you want to see the latest video it's available on Yahoo Games. If you want to see what other next gen offerings are available from SquareEnix check out any of the recent Final Fantasy games, the Kingdom Hearts series of games and also the lesser known hit Nier. All have the most involving stories, incredibly realistic graphics and beautiful worlds. 

News: Sonic Generations

Sega have announced the development of the next Sonic game, Sonic Generations. To be released on both Xbox 360 and PS3, Sonic Generations will bring both past and present Sonic's together for the ultimate race against time.

Appealing to the generation who grew up with Sonic, Generations is half classic Sonic 2D platforming action, with the unique 3D twist the Sonic 4 introduced us to. Classic Sonic has his trademark spin dash and spin attacks to fight off enemies, and has lush 2D style environments to explore.

Appealing to the younger audience, Generations is half modern 3D sonic, with beautiful 3D environments to explore and Sonic's latest abilities; targeted attacks and jump boosts.

According to Sega:

"Sonic’s universe is thrown into chaos when a mysterious new power creates ‘time holes’ which pull him and his friends back through time.  As a result he encounters some surprises from his past history including Classic Sonic, Sonic as he appeared in 1991.  Modern Sonic and Classic Sonic must defeat this strange new enemy, save their friends, and find out who really is behind this diabolical deed... "


The release announcement trailer looks absolutely stunning and I hope the gameplay is as good as the trailer looks. Sega's recent Sonic releases have been below par so they need to pull a gem out of the hat for this one. Especially because this game is being released to celebrate Sonic's 20th birthday. This needs to be some birthday present for someone as famous as Sonic!


Check out the trailers here and the recent press release here on Sega's website.

Nintendo Announces Wii 2

Nintendo has officially announced that it will be demonstrating a successor to the Wii at this year's E3 Expo in Los Angeles. Apparently it is going to be more powerful than the PS3 or Xbox 360. As a big Nintendo fan I'm excited by this news, but I'm also curious if they are going to continue down the 'everyone a gamer' route that the Wii took or if they are going to mount a serious challenge for Sony and Microsoft. I own a Wii and I think there are some great games on the console, but I had to get an Xbox 360 in order to play some of the more serious titles that I used to play like Resident Evil 5.

Having been introduced to the Fable series of games on Xbox I'm looking forward to a glorious HD Legend of Zelda game on the next console, as I think Fable is the strong competitor to Zelda that there has never been before.

Check out the link on Yahoo! for news on Nintendo's big release.

Rockband Network Downloadable content unavailable

So who's clever idea was it to release an app for the Xbox 360 that doesn't work properly? I've been after a copy of Rockband for some time now because the tracks available to download are far better than rival Guitar Hero offers. Before I got a copy of the game I found an app to download for the Rockband store, and spent ages browsing through and making a list of songs that I wanted.

So when I got a copy of Rockband 3 for my birthday I was straight onto the Rockband Store to download my favourite tracks only to find that all the RBN content is 'unavailable to download'. For three consecutive days this content has been unavailable and it's only today that I did a Google search and discovered that the tracks are there to download IF you load up the Rockband game and go to the music store through the game! But these tracks aren't available through the downloadable music store! What's the point in the downloadable app if you can't actually download any songs through it?

Anyway, I'm going to check the in-game music store later and see if I can actually get hold of some of the tracks for the game. If anyone wants to check the office Rockband forum for more information, I got the news from here.

World of Warcraft Account Stolen!

My WoW account has been inactive for quite some time now but only just today I received an email from Blizzard informing me that my Warcraft account had been merged with my battle.net account as part of their centralized management of accounts. Firstly, I don't have a battle.net account and secondly the email address that the account was registered to was not one of mine, being that it was x***@yahoo.com.

My concern was obviously raised at this point so I took to the Warcraft forums to confirm that:
1. Blizzard are definitely consolidating all accounts into one battle.net account
2. That this email was a phishing attack

Unfortunately for me it appears that number 2 didn't apply. This appears to have been a genuine email from Blizzard regarding my account. So I decided that if they thought my WoW account should be linked to a battle.net account then I should go ahead and create one.

And that I did. Except when I came to add my Warcraft account I was informed that I couldn't do it because it was already registered to a Blizzard account!! So someone has stolen my Warcraft account!! Now I know I haven't been using it much recently, but that's no excuse for anyone to steal what is essentially my property. Not only that but it is also identity theft as my account holds email, password, address and billing information. Lucky for me that I stopped playing before I moved house and that my debit card has recently been replaced. So any information on my WoW account is pretty much useless!

I've submitted my request to Blizzard for help, provided a photo of my driving license, the original activation code for my WoW and various other security details to verify my identity. Now I have to wait and hope that they can recover my account and that nothing sinister has happened to it.

This is the full email from Blizzard. If it ever turns up in your inbox and you haven't requested any change get straight in touch with their customer support.

---------------------------------------------------

Hello Willie, 

This e-mail notification is to inform you that the World of Warcraft account, **********, has just been merged into a Battle.net account. If you were not the person who performed this account merge, please contact Battle.net Support immediately.

You have successfully merged the following World of Warcraft account:

**********

into the following Battle.net account:

x***@yahoo.com

From now on, you must use the above Battle.net account name and its password to play World of Warcraft and to access World of Warcraft Account Management for billing and subscription services. Your World of Warcraft billing information has not been affected by this merge.

Important! Please note that any existing recurring billing on the merged World of Warcraft account will continue uninterrupted. 

In addition, you will use the above Battle.net account username and its password to log in to other Blizzard online services such as World of Warcraft Account Management, the World of Warcraft Armory, and the Blizzard Store.

A similar notification of this account merge has also been sent to the email address registered to the Battle.net account.

For more information, click here for answers to Frequently Asked Questions or to contact the Blizzard Billing & Account Services team. 

Sincerely,
The Battle.net Account Team
Online Privacy Policy

British Academy Video Game Awards

It's BAFTA time again and there's a whole host of exceptional games up for the award for Video Game of the Year. If you haven't already voted or didn't know you could then here's your last chance to check out the nominees and cast your vote:

http://www.baftagameaward.com/awards/index.html

Another Sega Megadrive collection?

Is it me or is the Megadrive collection growing stale? There was a collection on Xbox and PS2, that eventually ported to PC. Almost the same collection appeared on Xbox 360 and PS3. And now there's a GOLD EDITION arriving on PC shortly.

As quoted from Sega's website "This special edition consists of all 45 titles from the previous Mega Drive Classic Collection™ Volumes 1-4". What? So this isn't a new collection? In fact there aren't ANY new titles on the disc?! If you owned any of the previous collections on PC or on any games console, then you've pretty much already got these games. And whilst I agree that the MegaDrive was an amazing games console with a massive list of exceptional games, why would anyone want to buy the same games again and again and again? 

These collections are supposed to be 'Classic' or 'Ultimate' or whatever buzz word sells, but I can think of plenty of MegaDrive games that haven't been included in any of the collections I've seen. How about Flashback? Now that was a classic that pushed the limits of the console. It had a fantastic story and excellent gameplay. Not to mention the lush graphics. Or how about NBA Jam? My brother and I loved that game as kids.

I understand that there may be some developers who refuse to let Sega use their games in these collections. It's their creation after all so why should Sega make extra profit from it? But to have no new games in this Gold Edition collection just feels like they haven't even bothered trying.

Read the full list of games at Sega's site here.

Review: TMNT

TMNT, not to be confused with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (it's a different game), follows the crime-fighting turtles on yet another adventure. This time retold by the turtles themselves as we play through the story from each of their perspectives. The story of the game is told through a series of comic strips with narration from each of the turtles. Their story is of an event in their lives that almost tore the gang apart, but ultimately leads to them growing closer as a family and stronger as a crime-fighting quartet.

Initial impressions of the game is that the developers have gone for a cel-shaded cartoony style. Everything has quite strong black outlines and feels very much like a comic book or the original cartoon series. However, it's done with style and doesn't at all detract from the gameplay. Different levels are given different shades of colour to add atmosphere to the game. For example in the first level you play as Leonardo as he navigates his way through a lush green jungle full of beautiful natural colours. In the next level you take to the city streets at night and suddenly the city takes on much darker shades of gray, with the little colour around being the red streak left by Raphael's mask as he runs through the streets.

TMNT is made by Ubisoft and feels a lot like their Prince of Persia games. The turtles can run, jump and perform combinations of attacks as is standard in most platform/fighting games. However they also have the ability to swing from pole to pole, run short distances along walls to navigate holes, and wall jump to gain extra height. The Prince of Persia games do pull these manoeuvres with a touch more finesse than TMNT but then TMNT does feel like it's been slightly toned down to appeal to a younger audience. Not to say that it is in any way an easy game to complete. TMNT proves challenging to novice and expert gamers alike. Using the wall running ability to navigate holes takes some work as it's all too easy to overshoot the platform you are aiming for and end up falling into the next hole.

TMNT distinguishes itself through the special move that each turtle has and the team attacks that can be performed. Leonardo can phase through certain walls and doors (not sure about this ability personally, it doesn't really fit in with the reality of the turtles). Raphael can use his sai to climb certain walls. Michaelangelo can spin his nunchucks to fly short distances. And Donatello can use his staff to launch himself across gaping chasms. Team attacks depend on the active turtle but can be very useful in boss fights, in fact some bosses can't be beaten without them.

Perhaps this is my only criticism of the game; that some bosses can only be defeated by using the turtles combined attacks and it's not always obvious which ones. I may have missed the moment when team attacks were introduced but I went all the way through the game without understanding how they worked or what purpose they served, until I came face to face with a boss who could only be defeated with a combined attack. Of course once I knew what I was doing everything made sense!

The game doesn't take too long to complete. I finished in about 6 hours but I'm sure it can be done in less if you know how to defeat the bosses. There are some extras to unlock, mostly the in-game videos and some artwork, but there's a couple of unlockables to invest in: the Weekend Weapons and the Halloween Enemies. I won't spoil the fun by telling you what they are, but they are the best unlockables that I've found in the game. There are also challenge levels that are unlocked by achieving A ratings on each level.

Overall, TMNT is a great game for younger games and fans of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It's a well made game without any major flaws but it is relatively short, even with the unlockable content. If you are looking for a more challenging similar game I would recommend trying any one of the Prince of Persia games, I'm currently playing through Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. But if you happen across TMNT in a bargain box or at a car boot sale then definitely pick it up.

Spider-Man Reboot

Okay, so it's not technically a video game blog, but I have to comment on the progress of the new Spiderman movie. After hearing the sad news that Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire would be leaving the films I was concerned and curious about how a reboot of the series would turn out. In some cases the reboots have been fantastic for the series; think about Batman Begins or X-Men: Origins. But it's a big gamble to take.

However, I've today learned more about the Spiderman reboot and the great news is that it's going to stick much more to the plots of the original comics (and hopefully therefore to the cartoon series I was engrossed by as a child!). Spiderman is getting back his web shooters (and hopefully some of the challenges of the original comics, when his web cartridges ran out!). He's also kitted out in a slightly less Lycra based costume and his love interest is going to be his high school sweetheart Gwen Stacey.

I'm looking forward to some teaser trailers of shots from the movie, but it could be a while as filming is currently in progress. I guess we'll be anticipating a release date next year.

Check out that full article on Yahoo Movies

Activision and Blizzard?

Activision and Blizzard; when did that happen? I've only just caught a whiff of this one!


Is this going to be a match made in heaven or does this spell disaster for one, two or all three of the companies involved in the buyout. I guess it means more financial power but if Activision are currently ditching some of the best series (Guitar Hero, True Crime, Tony Hawks) they have you only begin to imagine that they intend to survive off of the profits of World of Warcraft and Starcraft, arguably two of THE biggest online games in existence. And to me this can only end up badly.


On the back of the news that Guitar Hero is being axed, I can only hope that Activision are planning on some big titles to replace them.

Resident Evil 5 Mercenaries Reunion Problem

I downloaded all of the extra content for Resident Evil 5, as I do all the free download content available for all my new games when I get them. Having played through the main game and unlocked some of the extras I figured it was a good time to try out some of the extras. The bonus levels are excellent and add another level to the main story, so I decided after completing those that I should give a go at the Mercenaries game. Having downloaded the extra content I figured I'd see which characters were available to play as.


And you can imagine my disappointment when the Mercenaries Reunion game a disc read error and crashed the game; I was devastated. It had taken ages to download the extra content and I didn't want to have to go through it again. So thank goodness for the internet! A quick Google search and suddenly I wasn't alone with this problem. But what was the cause of it? ... It was all because I'd download the free extra figures!! I guess they are included in the Untold Stories pack or something as they were causing the Mercenaries Reunion game mode to crash! You'd think that Capcom would have ironed that bug out but there you go.


So anyone having a disc read error on the Mercenaries Reunion mode or who has just bought Resident Evil 5 be warned; don't download the free extra figures if you're getting the Untold Stories pack. If you have already downloaded it, just delete it from your system and the game will work fine!


Here's the link where I found out about this problem Yahoo Answers

Downloadable Extras: Good Value or a Rip Off?

So I was recently reading a Yahoo article about whether downloadable extras for today's modern consoles represent good value for money or just one big con? And it made me think about my Christmas present, Fable 3. Whilst I am thoroughly enjoying the game, getting every single bit of possible enjoyment out of it, my one major criticism has to be that it feels like the game is all about making more money out you.

For starters there's the Understone quest pack. This was released very soon after the game was, in fact too soon to have really been something developed after the game was released. The only way this could even been possibly claimed would have been if the developers had been in a rush to get the game out so cut out a few non-essential bits to meet the time restrictions. However this is all completely irrelevant when you actually go to download the 'downloadable content'; To my surprise the 250MB download took only a few seconds, and a quick Google search turned up several articles that pointed out that the content was already on the game disc and you were just paying to unlock it. This also applies to most of the costume packs, dog potions and other 'downloadable' extras. To me it's a big con if the content is already on the disc. I've paid for it so why should I have to pay again to get what I've already paid once for?

I expect this trend applies to many of the new releases of the past year. I always thought that downloadable extra content should include genuine extras such as new maps for multiplayer games and content that IS NOT included on the original game disc! How far should we really go for extras for our games? How much should be expect to pay to extend the life of our favourite games? I'm more than happy to pay for brand new content that adds a lot to my games; not just one mission, one costume, etc and especially not content that is already included on the game disc! Where do you stand?

If you'd like to read the original article you can find it here: Downloadable extras: Treated or cheated?