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Was there seriously only two games that interested me on PC that was shown at E3? No... There was only one exclusive (Civilization V) and Portal 2 (which is going to be on consoles as well). There are more that I consider more console than PC... but here's what I found interesting about these two games.

CIV5
PALGN have an interesting preview of Civilization V. Seems like a lot is changing in the series, but I think it's too early to tell how these changes will play out in combination with each other.

Quote:

..the game will feature 10 policies: tradition, freedom, autocracy, commerce and growth. If you get fully upgrade at least 6 of these, the you get access to the ‘utopian’ social policy, which allows you to build a wonder.

Anyway, looks interesting. Go read the preview they have some screen shots too.

IGN has a Behind the Scenes video, you can view it here
Portal 2
I think we can put our differences behind us... for science... you monster...
There's some cool looking stuff in Portal 2. From the interesting looking plot (wait, wasn't this supposed to be a prequel... now it's a sequel) to the new features (like goop) It looks like it might be able to stand alone on it's own.

Check out all Part 1 of 3 of the Portal 2 E3 demo in the youtube vid below

The latest issue of KZone comes with a LEGO Harry Potter tin that fits a DS.

Urbabe is incredibly excited about the release of LEGO Harry Potter (the video game), but I'm not so keen. Just don't love Harry Potter that much. How about you?

Well if you are keen to get the game, you can get it from play-asia. The game is region free on the following platforms PS3 , PSP, PC and DS and at these prices it does make it worthwhile to get it from overseas.

There's also the Japanese and US versions of the 360 game which are not known to be region free yet.

The game comes out at some point in June, so you'll have to... wait.

I don't know anything about Harry Potter so it makes it hard to put in witty references to it.

Hey! Club Nintendo has updated their Star Catalogue (on April Fools day... why?)

Anyway there are three different folder and bookmark sets, each contain three folders and two bookmarks for 800 stars.

There's also a pencil case for 1250

And my favourite, Mario Party Playing Cards for 1500 stars.

You can see them all at Club Nintendo

Hey... what are you doing Saturday? Do you want an R18+ rating for video games in Australia? Well, then you probably should be heading down to your local Attorney General's office and moaning (is that what zombies do?) at them.

The rally, planned to be held on 21st of November (the Saturday after the release of the Australian friendly version Left for Dead 2) kicking of at between 11am and noon, ending at 5pm or so.

There are specific demands being made of the Attorney Generals:
1. Removing Michael Atkinson from the R18+ decision
2. Releasing the R18+ discussion paper
3. Let the public vote for whether or not the R18+ should be brought in
4. Make Attorney General decisions a majority rather then unanimous decisions

You can find out more information at the Left 4 Dead 2 Rally website.

Michael Atkinson recently responded to a Gamer query, you can see the original scanned letter here.

I don't think we'll be attending (busy day), but if you can do so. Especially if you are in Adelaide...

LEGO Rock Band, while it has been released in the US, is yet to be released here. Rather than just import it from Play-asia, I decided to get it from JB Hi-Fi, because... well I suppose I need another LEGO minifig key-ring. So I'll have to wait another week or so...

Anyway, the opening video looks awesome...

And whilst watching it, I was trying to figure how the bus was put together. But nicely LEGO Club has released the instructions. (via
FBTB has releasedinstructions for the LEGO Rock Band Bus.

Looks great.

The full track listing for LEGO Rock Band has been announced. All the tracks can be exported to Rock Band 2 for $9.99 (800 Microsoft Points). Looks like fun. The game seems to be going up against Band Hero in terms of mood/track listing.

All American Rejects, “Swing, Swing”
The Automatic, “Monster”
Blink-182, “Aliens Exist”
Blur, “Song 2”
Bon Jovi, “You Give Love a Bad Name”
Boys Like Girls, “Thunder”
Bryan Adams, “Summer of 69”
Carl Douglas, “Kung Fu Fighting”
The Coral, “Dreaming of You”
Counting Crows, “Accidentally in Love”
David Bowie, “Let’s Dance”
Elton John, “Crocodile Rock”
Europe, “The Final Countdown”
Everlife, “Real Wild Child”
Foo Fighters, “Breakout”
Good Charlotte, “Girls & Boys”
The Hives, “Tick Tick Boom!”
Iggy Pop, “The Passenger”
Incubus, “Dig”
Jackson 5, “I Want You Back”
Jimi Hendrix, “Fire”
Kaiser Chiefs, “Ruby”
Katrina & The Waves, “Walking on Sunshine”
The Kooks, “Naïve”
KoRn, “Word Up!”
KT Tunstall, “Suddenly I See”
Lostprophets, “Rooftops”
P!NK, “So What”
The Police, “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic”
The Primitives, “Crash”
Queen, “We Are The Champions”
Queen, “We Will Rock You”
Rascal Flatts, “Life is a Highway”
Ray Parker Jr., “Ghostbusters”
Razorlight, “Stumble and Fall”
Spin Doctors, “Two Princes”
Spinal Tap, “Short & Sweet”
Steve Harly, “Make Me Smile”
Sum 41, “In Too Deep”
Supergrass, “Grace”
T-Rex, “Ride a White Swan”
Tom Petty, “Free Fallin”
Vampire Weekend, “A-Punk”
We the Kings, “Check Yes Juliet”
The Zutons, “Valerie”

Oh and Destructoid has a preview of the game which looks awesome.

Iggy Pop and David Bowie will appear as playable characters in LEGO Rock Band according to USAToday. The article also adds a new song to the track listing Bowie's Let's Dance (Iggy's The Passenger was already known to be in the game).

You can see what Bowie looks like as a minifig at RockBandAide. Don't think I've seen a minifig with different coloured eyes. I hope that LEGO puts out Rock Band sets, but they probably won't.
But at around the same time as LEGO Rock Band comes out according to Model Building Secrets, Hazel's Amazing Armory is producing custom minifig guitars so that your minifigs can rock out.

The pack will be available at the Custom Minifig Store Novermber 15 for US$20 and will come with 8 guitars and 2 hardcases in a cool looking box.

These are my quick play reviews. Basically I play a game until I get bored and tell you what I think of it. These are all for the DS and most are based on movies or TV shows. So it's not going to be great. Links will take you to either play-asia or amazon.co.uk where you can buy it if you feel so inclined (though most of my reviews probably won't convince you to).

Nicktoons Unite!
Wall of text intro. Awesome. No Idea how to play this game. Couldn't get out of the first room. Instant Fail. Oh OK, the characters are Jimmy Nuetron, Timmy (Fairly Odd Parents), Spongebob and some guy I'd never heard of. I like Fairly odd Parents and Spongebob, but this game seems impossible to play.

Spongebob SquarePants: The Yellow Avenger
Slightly better than Nicktoons Unite, however takes so long to tell you the story (it felt like 10 minutes) I almost believed that I was't playing a game. Wouldn't be so bad if it was video, but it's just pictures with text. Got into the game eventually and... oh no, tutorials every five seconds... seems to be a platformer... but it doesn't work very well... Sorry Spongebob, fail...

SpongeBob: Creature From the Krusty Krab
Ahh... video intro, better. Spongebob is dreaming and I have to control him using my stylus in order to get objects. OK. Probably one of the better Spongebob games. Actually played through 2 major levels (made up of about 5 minor ones).

Crash Boom Bang!
Oh. Mario Party DS with Crash Bandicott... great. Hey, if there's a minigame between two CPUs, how about giving me the option to skip it instead of forcing me to watch it? Actually why not give me the option to skip minigames that I'm involved in. They just don't seem to be that good. Oh, nevermind I'll skip the game entirely.

Finding Nemo: Escape to the Big Blue
A small amount of minigames linked together and they seem to be passable, but not all that great. Did Bubbles' missions, first involved rolling to the ocean, the second was Nemo popping bubbles, the third was moving to the correct spot to catch the speed underwater, where I failed and couldn't be bothered anymore. Lovely movie, meh game. Maybe one for the kids, but think they'd get bored of it too.

Pirates of the Carribbean: Dead Man's Chest
I assume that this is the second film in the series. Bit hack and slash. Controls are fairly simple (except jumping for some reason). Works well when it's being hack and slashy, but at times fails when it tries to do anything different. Suprisingly half decent game. Played through Captain Jacks escape from the tower and a bit into the Elizabeth's wedding escape. Actually would be a better game without the plot parts.

Go West Lucky Luke
Not sure if my brain is sliding out the side of my ears. Maybe I've played too many games. Seems to follow the movie, which makes it strange when you play as the bad guys in order to move the story along. Luke has 80 days to get the pilgrims from NY to California. He does this buy playing minigames. Each attempt at a game costs a day, so your progress depends on not failing. Some of the games are clever, others are rather annoying.

Hint to developers, if you are going to make a game where the character runs along in one direction and I need to swipe the screen up or down to avoid things, make the character run right to left or give me the choice. Making the character run left to right means that because I'm right handed my hand is over the objects I'm trying to avoid, so I can't see them.

There's also a section like Elite Beat Agents, but because there's no real beat there, it's hard to do the timings. Oh and there's a kind of cooking game. I haven't played Cooking Mama, so hard to compare.

Suprisingly decent game. Like all minigame packages though, not sure how much replayability there is though.

Cooking Mama
Don't see what all the fuss is about really. Mama is truly frigin crazy. I suppose I could do really well at this, but I can't see why I would want to. Cooked 5 or 6 dishes with various results.

The Playstation Blog has an interview with Naughty Dog Creative Director Amy Hennig about Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Basically they sent out a tweet asking "What would you ask her" and got back "literally dozens of questions".

One question asked if Uncharted 2 will close the book on Drake. The response? Naughty Dog have left the game open ended (but it is still self contained like Uncharted was) and that they will keep making the games until people stop buying them. Which is kinda obvious in a way.

Hopefully the Uncharted franchise doesn't get run into the ground like the Lara Croft franchise was.

The video goes on for longer, with many more questions answered, but I'm tired and want to go to bed. But check out the full video on the Playstation blog.

Oh the game is set for release on the 13th of Oct in NA, the 15th in Australia and the 16th in the EU.

And like almost every PS3 game, you probably should buy it from Play-Asia, because for no apparent reason, importing is cheaper.

Ahoy, yarr and all that. Today be Talk like a Pirate day and there be plenty of pirate booty ready to be dug up if you be willing to go after it.

First off, ye can get Tales o' Monkey Island Episode for free. For free I tells ya. Tis' madness. They be gi'in' it away, the scallywags. Set sail to Play Like a Pirate for the details.

Next ya can hornswaggle Lucasarts out of The Secrect of Monkey Island SE. You can get the booty for half thar doubloons you'd normally be paying those bilge-rats at Steam, Direct2Drive, and the Apple App Store (fruit aint in no pirates stinking diet).

So what ye be waiting for? Go get some booty now (or when it's talk like a pirate day in the Caribbean).

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