Finally.

After what feels like (and may well actually have been) months, I have finally escaped from the graviational pull of the mysterious level 20! For all those of you who have also suffered through this most inventive of our glitches, I want you to know I feel your pain.

But no matter, I'm past it now. Now, schadenfreude... Lozza, Emma, Guy and Phil are all still to get through it. Mua ha ha ha ha.

Anyway, enough of this. :-)

I've been rather enjoying Guitar Hero II again, of late... though I think that RedOctane/Activision need a deal with iTunes. I've spent far too much money buying all the tracks I don't already have to listen to on my way two and from our shiny new offices... though the unique brand of air guitar that Guitar Hero tracks bring out in me must be confusing some of my fellow commuters.

I'm still terrible, though... but c'est la vie. It's fun, and that's what matters.

I'm also back playing World Of Warcraft.

Yes, I know.

I'm not on my dwarf any more, though... I'm back to my faithful old troll (the very first character I played, and played to 60), and he's doing rather well.

Wooton (that's his name -- another literary reference, though slightly less obscure) is level 70, and ploughing through the level 70 content. I've now cleared all the level 70 5-man instances with him and Heisenberg (that's his pet cat, don't you know), bar one, and his equipment is fast-becoming respectable, as you can see through the magic of the armory.

I have uploaded a gallery so you can see the true magesty of his very silly-looking gun, and see a few other bits and pieces.

But enough about WoW. The most important gaming-related decision I'm weighing up at the moment is whether or not to buy a 360, a Wii, or both...

I've not really been tempted by the 360 before, but the combination of the fun of Gears of War's chainsaw bayonet, Guitar Hero II's X-plorer and the swinging swords of Devil May Cry 4 is starting to seriously tempt me. Pro Evo 7 is on the horizon too... but that's another matter entirely. The Wii has a rather different allure... I think that Super Mario Galaxy and Manhunt 2 will be the games to finally break down my resistance, assuming they live up to my ludicrously high hopes for them.

But we shall see. My bank account has recently been drained rather thoroughly by the purchase of a not insignificant amount of platinum, so I think it might be a while before I get the chance to splash out on a new console without serious scorn from my other half... but , as I said, we shall see.

Nintendo--for years the distant third place in the console race--must be chuffed at the Wii's Australian sales figures.

The Wii is now officially Australia's fastest selling console, with sales of 32,901 Wiis in the first four days after last week's launch. It has eclipsed the Xbox 360, which sold 30,421 in its first four days after its March launch this year. And not only is the Wii the country's fastest selling home console, it's the fastest selling piece of game hardware including handheld devices.

The record of fastest-seller is a great one for Nintendo to hold, and it looks like one it may hold for a few years. The only other foreseeable game hardware launch is that of Sony's PlayStation 3--and if the scarcity of available units from the PS3's international launches are anything to go by, it's not unreasonable to think that Sony may find it hard to even ship 30,000 units locally when the console launches here in March 2007.

Of course, if you wanted to be completely pessimistic, you could say that the Wii didn't exactly smash the Xbox 360's sales records. A margin of 2000 isn't really that much, especially when you consider that the Wii is several hundreds dollars cheaper in Australia than the Xbox 360 was at launch. Plus, you could say that the Wii had the added advantage of being launched so close to the Christmas buying rush. If you wanted to be pessimistic, that is.

Bottom line, however, is that Nintendo needs to be congratulated on having such a successful launch. And the best news is that while Wiis may be sold out in some locations, anecdotal evidence is that Wiis are still available out there in Australia-land--perfect for those still wondering what to buy for their gaming needs this Christmas.

Ever since the Wii virtual console was announced, I've been musing about what games I'd really like to see on it.

I loved my NES and my SNES to bits at the time, and was playing the SNES as recently as a year ago, before I moved it to the museum in the CNET UK office (home now, of GameSpot UK).

The top 5 at the moment is as follows:

1) Super Smash TV (SNES)
This game rocked in a very serious way. Very simple style, great multiplayer and fiendishly difficult at times. That Other Alex that works for GameSpot seems to feel the same way, as you can tell from his damning Cash Guns Chaos review. Super Smash TV? I'd buy that for a dollar!

2) Mario Bros. 3 (NES)
This vies with the SNES Mario to be my favourite Mario game of all time, and might just pip it. The flying racoon (or whatever the hell it was ) form was inspired.

3) Street Fighter II (SNES)
The grandaddy of all console beat-em-ups. SFII is one of the few games that still feels fantastic to play. It's not the same on XBox Live, and the SNES verion is the only version I've ever found to come close to the fun of arcade play. That, and Guile's mid-air back breaker is so much easier to pull off on the SNES.

4) UN Squadron (SNES)
My favourite side-scroller. The difficulty ramps up nicely, the play-style is varied throughout, and the graphics are suprisingly good. Oh, and the dogfighting was inspired. And while they're at it, they can bring back the co-op mode.

5) Super Mario Kart (SNES)
The original, and the best. I can't think of another genre where the original member was as near-perfect as this. Kart racing as it was really meant to be. Anarchic, fast, and uttlrly bonkers. As tracks go, do they get any better than Rainbow Road? I think not. Bring it back.

There are more games on my list, and I may share those at some point in the future...

But now, it's over to you. What games would you like to see on the Wii virtual console? Any megadrive fans out there want to relive some games? Other nostaligic NES-owners who want to fight Duck Hunt's corner? Whoever, whatever -- let me know below which games you want to see, and why.

What is it about party games that we Aussies just can't get enough of?

Here at GameSpot AU, we've been tracking game sales charts for Australia for a little while now, and for the past few months there have been three constant entries in the top 10: SingStar, Buzz and Brain Training. Compare that to the US charts and there seems to be a world of difference. US gamers still tend to lap up racers, shooters and action games, with nary a 'non-traditional' genre in sight. And when I say non-traditional, I mean titles that don't fall into what most people would typically consider as games -- such as karaoke, quiz, music, puzzle or fitness-type titles. The most popular of these non-traditional titles down under are, of course, party games such as Sony's extremely successful SingStar or Buzz series.

Sony, for its part, obviously doesn't think US gamers like these types of titles that much, having not released many Buzz or SingStar games stateside. Australians, on the flipside, are lapping these games up. Is it because Aussies just aren't as "hardcore" as US gamers? Or do we just have a natural affinity for making fools of ourselves at karaoke?

Here's a controversial thought: maybe the Australian games market is actually a little more mature than the US. Before you howl me down with stats and figures on how huge and advanced the US games market is, let me assure you that I'm not trying to compare size here. In pure dollar terms, the US is a behemoth, and Australia in comparison is miniscule. And I don't mean mature in the sense of being more adult or dignified. What I mean is the shape of the Australian market -- the people who game, those who own consoles and use them regularly -- may actually be what the US will be like in a few years' time. The three big players in gaming -- Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo -- have all acknowledged the need to expand past the "core" audience of gamers in order for the industry to prosper and grow. The big three are planning to expand the market by developing new titles to attract people who aren't interested in shooting Nazis, or going on mythical quests, or killing aliens in a post-apocalyptic future. Sony's already produced these type of games in their party series, while Microsoft is about to test the waters with Viva Pinata. Nintendo's entire philosophy with the Wii is to attract as many people back to gaming as possible.

It's clear that with SingStar, Buzz and Brain Training such Top 10 stalwarts in Australia, our market may already include plenty of these new types of gamers the major games companies are trying to attract. Who knows? Maybe our Top 10 charts are a sneak peek into the future of US gaming.

While most Australians can only look on in envy as Japanese and US gamers get their hands on Sony's PlayStation 3 next week, we lucky GameSpot AU staffers have been fortunate enough to have spent some quality time with the new console this week. Of course, we're not as lucky as Greg and the gang over in GameSpot US, who have already been playing with the console for a while--check out our Launch Centre for everything you need to know.

Up close with the PS3 at Sony PlayStation's AU HQ.

The Australian launch of the PS3 isn't until March 2007, but Sony took us deep inside PlayStation AU HQ this week to give us an extended play session with the next-gen behemoth. And behemoth it was--our first impression upon laying eyes on the shiny black PS3 was that it was a pretty hefty unit. Looking more like a small bar fridge than a gaming console, the PS3 is certainly far removed from the petite slimline PS2. If you're planning on buying one of these babies next year, better start making room for it now.

Riiiiiiiiiidge Raaaaaaaceeeeeerrrrrrr!

The games themselves, as you'd probably expect, looked stunning. We played Ridge Racer 7 (amazingly detailed cars and tracks), Genji: Days of the Blade (impressive use of colours), Motor Storm (excellent rag doll animations on the riders) and Lair (you get to ride dragons--'nuff said). The standout was Resistance: Fall of Man. This first-person shooter looked gorgeous, with realistic locations and enemies linked with some decent gameplay.

There's a caveat to all this positive eye candy, of course. We viewed all of these games at Sony HQ through a high definition projector--the 1080p capable Sony VPL-VW100, which retails for a hefty AU$15,000. Right now, it's probably safe to assume that most gamers who shell out the cash for a PS3 won't have an AU$15,000 projector in the house, let alone a 1080p-capable display that would make full use of the PS3's visual capabilities. And as with the Xbox 360, this could potentially lead to disappointment if the console is hooked up to a normal old CRT television, or even an SD-only flatscreen. In Australia, 1080p-capable screens are just beginning to hit the consumer space in decent numbers, so it might be a while before the majority of gamers can get the most out of their PS3s.

But there is a positive. Our PS3 launch delay gives us Aussies until March next year to save up for a new HD screen. It looks like 2007 is going to be a pretty expensive year for gamers.

After hearing this line for the 18th time in the span of a few minutes, I start wondering, when does this start getting fun?

So I'm only about eight hours in to Final Fantasy XII (you can gauge my progress if you recognize the post title), but at this point I find myself forcing myself to play just to get my money's worth. The characters are bland, uninteresting and seem very unmotivated. The combat, while potentially deep and engrossing, has so far been limited to simple tank n' spank mechanics. And the new license system feels more limiting than it does empowering. Even the art direction of the game is slightly underwhelming. The characters and environments are still very well-detailed, but everything seems to just boil down to some shade of grayish-brown.

I have higher hopes for Final Fantasy III when that gets released in a few weeks, but I'm seriously pulling for FFXII to improve over the course of the next few hours or it may just fall into the graveyard of unfinished (and barely started) games.

Maybe I've just lost patience for games that don't wow me right off the bat. That's why they don't let me review games.

We just got some PlayStation 3 games in the office, which is exciting because we don't have a PlayStation 3 in the office yet (UPDATE: We got a PS3 in the office). EA sent over retail copies of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 and Madden NFL 07. The cases are smaller than conventional DVD and Xbox 360 cases. The cases are a bit shorter; however, the width and length seem similar to standard cases.




We spent a minute ogling the games' stylish, translucent casing, but we soon discovered some disconcerting information when we examined the backs of the games. According to the HD support specifications printed on the back of each case, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 only outputs up to 720p and Madden NFL 07 puts out 480i and 720p.



You may recall last year, many launch titles for the Xbox 360 received a lukewarm welcome due to a lack of features or lackluster image quality since many of them were quick and dirty Xbox ports. Let's hope that Tiger's 720p on the PS3 is only the result of a quick 360 port and not at all indicative of future resolution support.

We have to admit that Tiger seems happier on the PS3. The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions feature the same Tiger picture on the front cover, but Tiger sports an enormous grin on the back cover of the PS3 case compared to a cool gaze on the 360 case.