Sony have become quite famous for their strange and sometimes just plain twisted advertisements. This latest advert for the PSP is actually quite magical and does a wonderful job of showing how much entertainment can be packed into the handheld device. While it's all very pretty and the music is catchy, that tune does bare a scary (as in 95% the same) resemblance to the tune "He's got the whole world in his hands". Whether or not any religious factions would care to make a fuss about it is a different story altogether. Look on the bright side though, the advert is nice and it doesn't involve naked people with thumbs in strange places!

I don't really know what to say about stories like this anymore... You would think that somewhere deep down inside the mind of gamers, a small bit of logic would kick in and tell you that playing a game for 27 hours solid is probably not very good for your health. This unfortunately was not the case with 15 year Swedish old World of Warcraft player who was keen to give his new "Wrath of the Lich King" expansion a good go when his body decided to have epileptic seizures instead. I found it quite funny to read that "Understandably, the boy's father plans to place limits on the amount of time his son can play videogames after he makes a full recovery." Did it have to come to seizures for the parent to realise that letting a 15 year old play for 27 hours was a really bad idea? Nice job parent and now videogames are going to take the fall for it, not you.

Graeme Devine, head of Ensemble studio’s, has been chatting to D-Pad magazine about Halo Wars and the imminent closure of Ensemble studio’s. It was nice to see the passion coming through from Graeme when he mentions ““I’ve been working on Halo Wars for over four years, so I’m not about to walk away from a game I’ve spent four years …

I know that all of you are actually all waiting for a response from Epic about the Map codes but unfortunately, we have been left waiting for the people at Microsoft to respond. On a different note, anyone who has tried to join a game using matchmaking will know that it's bordering on being completely broken as we hear that finding a game takes somewhere in the region of 20 minutes. Rod Fergusson, the producer of Gears of War 2 has addressed the issue on the Epic forums saying that they have heard the cries of the gamers and are working with Microsoft to try and get a solution, although it doesn't look like we will have anything anytime soon. He lists a couple of ways to try and speed things up and also gives a few interesting facts about Gears of War 2's online performance since release, so click through the source and read his post for yourself.

Please say the poor sales of LBP are just a blip, it’s just because it wasn’t out for very long in October is all and we can expect to see awesome sales throughout the month of November I am sure. Please say that’s the case because I can’t accept that gamers the world over are not taken with Sackboy. Last …

You may or may not have seen the image above that is being splashed around the Internet at the moment. It’s a screenshot from Banjo Kazooie and it seems to suggest that we are going to be seeing 3 old Rare games brought back to life. However the question here is whether that is true or are Rare just pulling …

So Microsoft has a new online store that has just gone live. You wouldn’t be wrong for expecting some cool exclusive toys or game related paraphernalia to be lying on the virtual shelves, but the reality is far from that. Last Updated: November 18, 2008

So then, we are midway through what could be called the most incredible release line-up in gaming history and to make things even more interesting, it's right in the middle of a worldwide financial crisis. With all of the games that have been released and indeed, a few more on the way, our poor little wallets and credit cards are cringing in fear as well decide on how much debt we are happy to sit with. This week sees the release of Left 4 Dead, the zombie infested, action filled, not-so-randomly generated gore-fest from Valve that promises to bring gamers a co-operative experience like no other. But promises are one thing, what is actually delivered is another. I went to go and check the first review scores that have been released and it looks like the wallet is going to have to prepare itself for one more hit. Check out some of the initial reactions, after the jump. To give you a rough idea of the initial reactions, IGN have given it a 90/100 saying that: "There's absolutely no doubt that Left 4 Dead is one of the most social and exciting multiplayer games that we've ever played. It's almost pitch perfect in how it captures the tension and the action of a Hollywood zombie movie." Then there is the reaction from the Official Xbox Magazine that has slapped it with a mighty 95/100, saying: Left 4 Dead's simplicity offers purity of gameplay - the same reason that gamers keep returning to classic arcade games. Come to think of it, with a handful of levels and unpredictable events happening within them, Left 4 Dead has more in common with "Ms. Pac-Man" than just the eating. It's the same thing over and over - but when simple ingredients are perfectly prepared, what could be a mere snack becomes a feast. This one just happens to be on human flesh. [Holiday 2008, p.32] With the lowest score of the four released reviews being a 90 and the highest being a 95 I think that it will be well worth your while to take notice of Left 4 Dead, because it looks like we might have somewhat of a gem on our hands. Keep your eyes peeled for our review soon.