Anyone who was on the site yesterday will know that a personal PS3 rant from Gareth landed up causing quite an explosion within the PS3 community, from our own comments section to local forums. We did not anticipate the response but found it interesting to say the least and had some people questioning if we would ever do one for the Xbox 360 as well.... One of our readers redirected us to a thread about our article that had been started on the PS3za.co.za forums and in it, I found an absolute gem of a post by one who goes by the name of Valente. What it is, is a "remix" of the article but this time, modified for the Xbox 360 instead of the PS3 and with quite a comedic twist to it as well. I had a really good laugh reading through, as will you and the towel comment is absolutely priceless although he does also speak many truths as well.

...The console is not even HD ready out the box and that’s right, I forgot to buy an HDMI cable.... No controller charger, why not just throw in a cheap one with some 360 branding and Wi-Fi, that would be nice too.> So after my trip back to the store to pick up a Controller charger, a towel and a Wi-fi adapter I was now ready for online gaming - well, not really. At this point i would just like to note that in the box of a PS3 system, you get a Mini-USB cable, Wi-fi and a Blu-ray player. But that aside I finally get to plug the 360 in, gaming goodness couldn’t be far away now… But it was.... With that finally done and another 10 minutes or so to set up my profile, to my shock and horror, I noticed that I actually needed to pay to go online.... While it was updating, I went to the store and got me some Earmuffs to drown out the sound of the 360's Jet engine.... Too bad then that After 3 hours worth of cables, fire extinguishers, updates, Live, scratched disc's and whatever I really didn’t feel like it anymore.... I thought the updates were necessary because the “glitches” in Fable 2 was not great, but Gears runs fine (well the online doesn't), and it doesn’t need an update? The sad ending to all of this is that Christmas is coming and a lot of people may be receiving 360's for gifts, I just think it really sucks and borders on unacceptable that all the stuff needed to enjoy your 360 could be ruined by the infamous RROD."... Not that it matters, the Wii has sold a gajillion units and will probably continue to do so even if news spread that it was killing small animals.

Just a reminder to anyone who may have actually forgotten, today is the day that the New Xbox Dashboard Experience arrives. When you get home and switch on your Xbox 360, you will be asked to update. Once the update is downloaded and complete, you can start creating your avatar and messing around with the new layout. I am really looking forward to the new party chat that will allow 8 players to hook up and chat as well as move into game lobbies. All in all the new dashboard might not be as impressive as what Sony has planned for Home but I am really excited at the idea of never having to look at another dashboard blade go "whoosh" across my screen ever again.

I love videos like these, they always remind me why I shouldn't bother trying to skate again. It's one thing to see gameplay videos and tech demos for a new game but it's a different story altogether when the video's sole purpose is to show you just how badly you can destroy your poor self in an upcoming game. The latest video for Skate 2 does just that and some of these bails had me cringing at the thought of experiencing a bail like that for real. Granted, I have a had a couple of real life bad ones before and the idea of leaving the bails to the videogame characters sits perfectly fine with me.

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.

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.

Earlier this week, Videogamer.com posted up a 720p comparison of Call of Duty 5 on the PS3 and Xbox 360. I saw the video and started noticing differences between the two that I felt couldn't be ignored. So what I did is, I took a screengrab of the comparison to show you. Comparison videos always cause a general ruckus between the different console owners and this one is obviously doing the same. Truth be told, the Xbox 360 version looks significantly better and what bothers me the most is that I picked up the differences in the introduction cut-scene, which is a controlled environment that doesn't really have that much complexity to it. So why I ask, does the PS3 version look significantly worse?... You can click the above image to see it in full resolution, although take note that there is a little bit of compression on the image.... When you take a closer look you can clearly see that the texturing on the man's clothing and even the little badge on the bottom right is significantly lower and more "jaggy" or pixelated than the one on the Xbox 360. Not only that but you will also notice that the guy all the way in the background has some missing models on him. Now I have seen Uncharted and Metal Gear Solid 4 running on a PS3 and the graphics were phenomenal. So why again is the PS3 getting the short end of the stick. Why on earth, in a cutscene so simple, would Treyarch have to resort to lower texture resolutions and less geometry. I can't even see such small changes making a large difference to the framerate anyway. At the end of the day, small differences like this won't completely change a gamers experience but really, this doesn't make any sense because we know that the PS3 should be able to handle graphics like this without any issues. I ask again if it is just down to developer laziness because regardless of which was the lead platform, it can't be that damn difficult to make the graphics look equal in quality on both.

This latest trailer for Skate 2 gives us a bit of a look into the storyline for the game. Now I know you might be thinking that the story in Skate 2 is just about as important as the story in a pornography but after watching the video I was pretty impressed (with the trailer not the pornography). While the story is very light, I really like how the pro skaters have been integrated into the cut-scenes, with the voice work and animations looking pretty solid as well. This is just another reason that Skate 2 has so many people eagerly awaiting it's release and is showing just how important it was for the Tony Hawk development team to take some time off to renew the brand, because this is looking incredible, Skate 2 comes out at the end of March in 2009, so there is still a little bit of a wait. If you own the first skate then you can still break that out to get some practice and if you somehow missed that train, I suggest you go and pick up what is now a very cheap copy of the first Skate so that you can start perfecting those 360 flips.

One of the new additions to Gears of War 2 is the ability to take photo's whilst spectating then upload them to your profile on the Gears of War website so that you can view them, download them or share them with your friends. Here's a small gallery of a few images that I took this week, check out the action of some of our multiplayer sessions and it's easy to see how crazy some of the battles can get. All the pics are available after the jump.