Bobfoc

The standard GTA IV story didn't have mid-mission checkpoints, though, which is what most people seem to want. Given that they were present in Red Dead Redemption and the Episodes From Liberty City DLC, I'd be very surprised if they weren't included in GTA V from the get-go.

I'll give another recommendation for Ico/Shadow of the Colossus, but I also imagine someone who enjoys Ratchet and Clank and Jak and Daxter would have a lot of fun with the Sly Trilogy.

That's right. It's being announced at 9.00pm on Scuzz TV.

The next announcement will be made tonight on Zane Lowe's Radio 1 show between 7.30 and 8.00pm.

Rockstar seem to have a large annual Spring release, and it's a system that works well. 2010 had Red Dead Redemption, 2011 was LA Noire and 2012 brought us Max Payne 3. Putting GTA IV in that slot makes sense, especially considering that proven to be a window that doesn't compromise sales figures.

Here Comes The Pain was my personal favourite.

Eurogamer claims to have a "concrete source" backing up rumours of Mac support for GOG, along with a Mac version of The Witcher 2 and its forthcoming mod tools.

Review scores have been fairly scattered. Gamespot gave it 4.5 and Gametrailers gave it 8.8 (both out of 10), whilst the Metacritic score stands at 66 for the Xbox 360 version and 77 for the PS3 version. I guess the moral of the story is once again to take review scores with a large pinch of salt.

I wonder how hard it would be for third-party manufacturers like MadCatz to produce their own tablet controllers. There's always been a steady flow of cheaper, if perhaps a little less reliable, alternatives out there in the console accessory market, but I can imagine this kind of device being a real challenge to try to emulate adequately.

Exactly. I've seen this opinion that Wii U is Nintendo playing "catch up", and that the Wii was somehow a failure, all over the internet, and it just doesn't make any sense. The Wii has massively outsold the PS3 and the 360. The average consumer doesn't see "next gen" in terms of technical specs, they see it in terms of the consoles available on the market at that time. Some gamers, yeah, they will buy a console based solely on specs - if they're more into graphics, or wanting to play Call Of Duty and a hundred identical games, they're going to be more inclined to a higher-spec console. And, honestly, I think Nintendo are on dangerous territory in trying to appeal to that audience. But "the same games that are available on other consoles" has never hurt anyone before, particularly when most of them have variations unique to the WiiU version, and most consumers aren't going to buy a console under the impression that the launch titles will be the only games they ever play on it. A games console is an investment. Launch titles are important, but they're only part of a much bigger marketing push. If someone sees the potential in the WiiU, they might buy it before there are a huge amount of games they really want on it, and end up buying games for it they might otherwise have purchased for their existing console. Or they might not. That said, "game line-ups the same as other consoles" isn't even true. Here's a list of a few games coming out for WiiU, planned to be launch titles, that (to the best of my knowledge) are not available on any other console; Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate Runner2: Future Larry Zbyszko of Rhythm Alien ZombiU Tank! Tank! Tank! New Super Mario Bros. U Lego City: Undercover Wii Fit U Game & Wario Pikmin 3 The Wonderful 101 Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed Scribblenauts Unlimited Along with other games like Epic Mickey 2, that will lend themselves better to a Nintendo console, and variations on games like Arkham City that make them sufficiently different to the other console versions, and the huge list of party and casual games that will actually sell the thing, I don't think there's anything to worry about. It's a much stronger launch line-up than either the PS3 or 360 had. I'm still a little unsure of the tablet, and think it's going to lend itself to some awful gimmickry, but I thought the same of motion control and, to be honest, I tend to lean towards trusting Nintendo when it comes to games controllers. This is the company that invented the D-Pad, after all. With the exception of the N64 controller (and I know I'm in the minority about that one), I've liked every controller they've come out with. And, judging from their best stuff on the Wii, a lot of the launch stuff (particularly Nintendo Land, and things of that nature), will act as a glorified tech demo and tutorial on what the console and the tablet is capable of, while most of the later, better, first-party games won't rely nearly as heavily on it, and will just focus on being solid games. Some of Nintendo's best ever stuff was on the Wii, and I expect more of the same for WiiU. Runner 2 and Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing Transformed won't be exclusive to the Wii U, but I agree with your point. To say that the console will only sport rehashes of established games on other consoles is simply to ignore the facts.

Quite a few folks seem to have left Bioware over the last few years, but this is probably the most significant change yet for the company. I hope everything goes well for all concerned.

Age certainly won't be a factor, but it's possible that all those years of piling on the pounds in between fights could be. I'll admit that I'm no expert when it comes to boxing training, but it was clear to see that he was pale and weight-drained in the build-up to the Pacquiao fight. Yes, Pacquiao was considered one of the best fighters in the world at that point, but I genuinely feel as though any half-decent puncher would have inflicting similar damage on Hatton, albeit perhaps not quite so quickly. Perhaps his preparation was hindered by depression and purported rifts in his training camp, but I don't think that was the sole reason for what happened. I think Hatton's downward slide began before the Mayweather fight, personally. He looked sluggish and out of sorts against both Luis Collazo and Juan Urango before taking down Jose Luis Castillo with what was admittedly a cracking shot after four relatively close rounds. Fighting at Welterweight, as he did against Collazo and Mayweather, Hatton didn't seem at all comfortable going toe-to-toe with the bigger fighters, while he's frequently admitted that getting down to Light-Welterweight for the Pacquiao fight didn't go well at all. I'm saying this as a Hatton fan, but I did think that he was "washed up" towards the tail-end of his fighting career, and I could think of several current Welterweight and Light-Welterweight boxers who I feel would outclass him. If he goes out and becomes an all-conqueror, though, kudos to him indeed.

If this were wrestling, he'd be coming back to squash a couple of jobbers in his initial comeback matches before putting over the young British talent, such as Kell Brook. Sadly, though, it's a real sport in which his opponents will be doing their utmost to punch him really, really hard in the face. As everyone's already said, this doesn't look at all like a good idea.

I'd suggest trying Sainsbury's Entertainment. The game is available for £33.99, but the voucher code "SEFIVEOFF" will bring it down to £28.99. It's currently in stock too. Here are the details if you're interested.

It looks as though the more recent achievement list is the correct one.

You'd be hard pressed to find a cheaper price at release, so that's an excellent deal for anyone looking to get the game as soon as possible. And yes, it will activate through Steam according to the product description.

If Robson manages to improve her first serve percentage, she'll have every chance of breaking the Top 10. She already hits the ball very well and has the power to cause problems for most players right now.

The vast majority of reviews have been positive as far as I'm aware. The game took me a little while to get into, but I got quite addicted as my character started levelling up. I only played it solo, though, and it's supposedly an even better experience with friends.

OK, I've bought the four-pack now. I can gift the remaining three copies to the first three claimants willing to pay me £3.50 through PayPal. My Steam ID is Bobfoc if anyone is still interested.

Would anyone be interested in joining in on a four-pack for The Political Machine 2012? It would cost roughly £3.50 each or whatever your local monetary equivalent happens to be.

You can, but you might want to get most or all of them done before the end of the story if you want to avoid a certain 'disappointment' that some fans were unhappy with.

Fair enough. I can't say it jumped out at me as being much else, really.

I was planning to give it a go, but my slow connection put me off the idea of downloading large Beta files for the time being. I'll be interested to read the opinions of those who do play it, though.

How well are you able to run Sim City 4? I've been thinking of picking it up myself but I've heard a few horror stories about it being a pain to get working properly on some computers.

I'd go with Rome Gold myself. It's the cheapest, easiest game in the pack to run and generally the most popular, and it comes with the Barbarian Invasion expansion too. If you enjoy it, you might want to consider picking up Rome 2 once it's released as well.