Bobfoc

Even if McLaren's new car doesn't meet expectations, at least it looks very nice.

I certainly think that this is Murray's best chance to win a Grand Slam so far, but I still don't think he'll have an easy day tomorrow. The big question mark lying over him is his mental toughness. As we've seen in some of his recent Grand Slam tournaments, he often has a tendency to suffer from mid-match lapses, particularly against lower-ranked opponents. This weakness was also highlighted during last year's final against Federer, albeit in a different way. On that occasion, I felt that the straight sets defeat didn;t tell the whole story as the balance of play was generally very close. The main difference between the two players came in terms of the pivotal moments. By that, I mean that Federer took his opportunities better, converting his break points and set points whenever they came up. Sadly for Murray, it was on those occasions that he wasn't unable to take advantage, and that was a key factor in his defeat. As a British tennis fan, I would love to see Muray win, and I definitely think he has the raw ability to do so. Whether he triumphs or not, however, will depend just as much on his ability to hold his nerve as it will on his tactical performance and that of his remaining opponents.

Federer was definitely below his best during that match, but fair play to Djokovic, who put in a very good performance. I would like to see a Djovokic vs Murray final as they haven't met in a Grand Slam before, and it would also be nice to see Murray finally secure his first Grand Slam title. It's far from a foregone conclusion, though, as Ferrer looked impressive yesterday against Nadal. He hasn't taken a set off Murray in their previous hard court meetings, but I think that Ferrer will prove to be a surprisingly tough hurdle for Murray to overcome.

£23.98 at gameplay.co.uk seems to be the best price for the PS3 version at the moment. I imagine it will go down in price again over the next couple of months, but the 360 versions of these games always seem to fall in price more quickly for some reason.

This year's award seems to be the most open it's been for a few years. If England had put themselves in a more commanding position in this week's Ashes test, I could see Swann being the favourite, but I'm not sure now. I'll actually be rooting for Phil Taylor, although I would be surprised if he got anywhere near the top three given the relatively low profile of his discipline. By the way, the event will be taking place tomorrow, not tonight.

Osmos is a nice, relaxing game, although it does get fairly tough quite quickly.

The patch has now been released.

You can also get it for £10.99 on both platforms at Gameplay.

As I'm in a slightly generous mood, I'll offer a free copy of Freedom Force to the first four people who provide me with their Steam IDs via personal message. I will gift the copies to the first claimants as soon as possible. I know this isn't the newset of games, but it is, in my opinion, an overlooked classic and, besides, it's a free game, after all. EDIT: All of them have now been claimed.

I wasn't really interested in this game, but I bought it as it would have felt foolish not to for 10 Microsoft Points. I'm a big fan of the Civilization series and I remember playing the demo of the Original Age of Empires, so perhaps I will end up getting into this. Even if I only get five minutes of enjoyment out of it, I'll probably have got my money's worth.

It should work, but remember that the demo only allows you to load one nation with a small database. If that's all you want with the full game, it's no issue, but just don't use it as an accurate guide as to how the game will run if you want to load multiple leagues simultaneously and in full detail.

HMV is offering a free mini football and Steam, Gamers Gate and Direct2Drive are offering collections of SEGA Megadrive/Genesis games for those who pre-order the game. If you're talking about prices only and you're not bothered about such extras, Coolshop and Zavvi seem to be the cheapest options at the moment, with ShopTo closely behind.

If this is Hodgson's last game, at least he'll have travelled in style. From BBC News

The ending of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II or, more specifically, the lack of one. Which game do you think most exemplifies a title that, despite having several notable flaws, is greater than the sum of its parts?

1. Marge vs The Monorail 2. Cape Feare 3. Sunday, Cruddy Sunday 4. You Only Move Twice 5. The Springfield Files 6. Trash of the Titans 7. The Cartridge Family 8. Homer at the Bat 9. The Joy of Sect 10. Homer the Great

I would imagine that you will get a fairly similar quality of service from both retailers as Game now owns Gamestation. I've heard mixed reports about delivery times, but there have been plenty of people who have received pre-ordered games either on or before their scheduled release dates. If, as you say, you have a Game reward card, you might as well go with them, but the difference will probably be negligible.

That's a fair point, and I agree that $250 is the most likely US launch price. I can see the UK paying over the odds, though, as is usually the case.

I dare say there will be plenty of new iterations of the 3DS over the years, so I won't be rushing to buy it at launch. To put things into perspective, 25,000 yen is the same price at which the Wii was sold at launch. Having said that, though, I'm more excited for the 3DS than I ever was for the Wii, and I'm not even into handheld gaming.

The 3DS has been given a Japanese release date of 26th February 2011, and it will be sold at a price of 25,000 yen (approximately $300 or £190). A release date for North America and Europe has not been fully specified, but is expected to be around March 2011. Link

The next piece of downloadable content for this game, entitled "The Sacrifice", has been given an official release date of 5th October. As some of you may know, it will be a prequel to "The Passing" and will also be compatible with the original Left 4 Dead. Source

Try this one. I agree that it looks great, but I can see it being like last year's Create-a-Storyline mode in that it will be limited for no good reason other than to allow the developers to modfy said restrictions in the following instalment and tout them as groundbreaking improvements. EDIT: Beaten to it.

http://uk.ps3.ign.com/articles/112/1122960p1.html A few more details and some new footage of the WWE Universe Mode.

1. Metal Gear Solid 2. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 3. Super Street Fighter II 4. Comix Zone 5. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City 6. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater 7. Halo: Combat Evolved 8. Streets of Rage 2 9. Sonic The Hedgehog 10. Max Payne

If you're referring to my post, I actually called it a 'gritty' shooter, not an FPS, but I can see that I probably didn't make myself totally clear.

Thanks. That's a shame, but at least it will mean that I don't have to be as picky when it comes to choosing where to pre-order the game.