...and hosted by me!

You can find it here. As those of you who've been following the podcast will know this is my first time hosting it... and don't worry, it's not going to become a regular thing.

As explained in the intro, Guy's been struck down by swine flu, Luke's off on a super-secret mission for us, and Mark is having fun moving house... which left me. I rather enjoyed the challenge, and think that our brief show worked rather well, under the circumstances... it'll take more than a few piggy sniffles to get the GSUK podcast.

Hope you like it.... we've got all the usual segments (though the news discussion is a little brief), and have two competitions to give away 20 Champions Online beta keys and 5 signed copies of Ashes Cricket 2009 on PS3. So go give it a listen... and be gentle.

A couple of updates from me for today...

First up, we have a competition that's running alongside this week's Start/Select! We've teamed up with the nice people at Fox to give you the chance to win not only Max Payne on Blu-ray, but also a 40" HDTV and a PS3 just to make sure you can watch it.

What you need to do is watch the latest Start/Select, which features an interview I did with John Moore, the film's director, and answer a simple question... easy.

Other than that joy, I have just discovered a little flash game that is oddly compelling, much in the way that Progress Quest was, albeit in a much prettier way. Thankfully it's got fairly strict limits plugged into it so it can't waste more than about 5 minutes a day, but it did make me smile. Anyway, take a look and judge for yourself.

I mentioned last week that there was another competition coming and I can finally reveal what it is...

We've teamed up with Sony to give you the chance to win one of five PlayStation 3s complete with a copy of Resistance 2... and the winners will get a chance to face off against the GSUK staff in Resistance 2 in an episode of Start/Select next year!

To enter, just head over to the competition page, answer the question, and give us your details.

Simple. Good luck!

It's all go around here at this time of year... and I've got your second competition today good to go.

Head over to London Calling in the next 25 3/4 hours (that's until 1800 on Wednesday December 3), and you can win a limited edition copy of Call of Duty: World at War on PC!

There's good reason for the short timescale, so head over to LC, check it out, and enter.

Good luck!

I have two competitions for the delightful readers of GameSpot UK this week, but only one to tell you about right now...

We've teamed up with GameStation to give one lucky reader their top ten games of the year: World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King for PC, FIFA 09 and Little Big Planet on PS3, Gears of War 2, Call of Duty: World at War and Tomb Raider Underworld on Xbox 360, Professor Layton and the Curious village on Nintendo DS and Football Manager 2009 on PSP.

Head on over to the competition page and enter now!

I'll have new on the second competition just as soon as the prizes arrive in the office and I can post a photo to show we've got them in time to get to you for Christmas!

Time for a less cantankerous post, I feel...

Head over to London Calling and you'll see the first of a batch of competitions we've got to keep you going through the festive season... and it's the first of two Mirror's edge ones.

We've got three copies of an EP which is launching alongside EA and DICE's innovative first-person free-running game, featuring remixes of the theme song by some music industry heavyweights, as well as three limited-edition Mirror's Edge tees to go with them.

For more info, check out my post on London Calling which has all the details.

Good luck!

When it comes to games publishers trying to make a buck or two, I am generally rather liberal with what I feel is acceptable.

I don't have much of a problem with in-game advertising when done right (take Burnout Paradise), though it really irks me when done badly (see Quantum of Solace's indestructible Vaio laptops, Tabula Rasa's in-game DellXPS machines)... when it comes down to publishers are in the games business to make money, and we shouldn't be under any illusions otherwise.

Movie tie-in games will generally continue to be short, low-quality affairs because it's just not worth publishers doubling the development budget for a 10% sales increase. It's a shame, but I accept it makes sense financially and can move on.

Image and quote via Destructoid.

All that having been said, a few comments last week from Activision's Bobby Kotick irked me immeasurably. When talking about the upcoming Ghostbusters game, and his firm's decision to dump the project. The short-sightedness of the comment seemed to me to indicate a very, very dangerous attitude that serves short-term financial aims rather than long-term ones for the good of his firm and the industry; the dumped games didn't "have the potential to be exploited every year on every platform with clear sequel potential and have the potential to become $100 million franchises. … I think, generally, our strategy has been to focus… on the products that have those attributes and characteristics, the products that we know [that] if we release them today, we'll be working on them 10 years from now."

Now that is, my friends, epic asshattery of the highest order. New IP is what keeps the industry going, and work on new IP can lead to advances in other games--a team learning from one project can leap into another one taking much of the work and experience with them. Taking a second part of his point his comment that games should be "on every platform" irked me as well. Great games are rarely truly multi-platform. A really good DS game is built from the ground up with the DS in mind, playing to the limitations and the unique features of the hardware; a great 360 or PS3 game uses that lack of limitations to its advantage... if you're trying to have a one size fits all approach, with an eye on what to include based on limitations of other platforms the game could be ported to, it's going to go horribly wrong. You are not going to make a compelling narrative if you're creating it with a view to making it work with half the elements left out, and you're not going to make a good Wii game by just downscaling graphics on a PS3 game and adding some pointless waggling.

While I accept that games publishers are in the business to make money, and as much of it as they can--but this sort of short-sightedness is going to do nothing for their bottom line in the long run, screws over gamers in the short term and does the image of Activision-Blizzard as the new publishing colossus astride the industry no good at all.

As the more eagle-eyed among you may have noticed, we've got a new competition running for the lovely users of GameSpot UK.

We've teamed up with the lovely people from PlayStation to give you the chance to not only win a PS3 and copies of the übercute LittleBigPlanet, but also the chance to work with Sony to get your level made just the way you want it and made available on the PlayStation Network on the day of launch!

Oh, and to sweeten the deal, the first 100 people to enter will also get their very own woolen Sackboy and limited-edition LittleBigPlanet T-shirt--which will also go to all the winners, even if they missed out intially.

"How do I get my hands on this beautiful swag?" I hear you cry. Well, it's simple. Head over to the competition page, read the instructions--and maybe even watch the video--then upload your level idea template (oh yes) to your profile.

Then you can submit it, or you can post it in the competition forum to get feedback from everyone else in the community to work towards building a better level.

You've got a couple of weeks to submit your final entry, and then we'll pick a shortlist and open voting--the one with the most votes then wins! Easy.

So what exactly are you waiting for? Get to it!

Full terms and conditions and associate things can be found on the competition page.

Good luck!

Well, it's certainly possible...

Heather deserves the credit for being the first to spot the scans of Woolie's Christmas catalogue that tie in with some intelligence we received a little while ago. She is the bright smiling face of TV.com in the UK, but will be popping by GameSpot UK every once in a while when we need an extra pair of hands!

Do drop by her London Calling post on the matter and say hi.

It's that time of year again...

Intent Media announced this year's nominations for the new slimmer, meaner and generally smarter Games Media Awards, set up last year to recognise the growing talent in the UK games media.

As you may remember we were up for a raft of awards last year, and even managed to win the Best Podcast award.

This year features fewer categories, but we're still in the running in four: Guy's up for best writer (the category I was nominated in last year, lest you forget), Luke is up for Rising Star, the podcast has been nominated as best broadcast--where it's up against the BBC's Click and Five's Gadget Show, among others--and we've also recieved the nod for best UK games site.

If you want to vote, head over to this London Calling post for all the relevant instructions, where there's also a link to the MCV site with details of all the other nominations.

Sorry it's a bit late... as you can imagine Thursday (when they came out) was a little hectic what with GS Wide launching, and I was in hospital on Friday having my wisdom teeth removed! But I'm back, fighting fit and providing my usual excellent level of service now, I promise.

Only a very brief update from me before I head back to the wireless set to enjoy a little more Test Match Special...

I just wanted to make sure you all knew that this week's Start/Select was now live, and that it is a particularly fine episode this week... and not just because it features me defending the corner of traditional cooking against Mr Cocker and his upstart DS utility.

I won't tell you who won, but I will tell you that the contest is well worth watching.We also have the latest from EA on Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 and Crysis Warhead.

It was a weekend of mixed emotions in Paris for Blizzard fanatics. It opened on a high when the rumours about Diablo 3 turned out to be true, and climbed to even greater heights as attendees rapidly realised how true to the previous instalment in the series the game looks to be, and how much work has already been done on it.

However, Diablo fans aside, Blizzard offered very little in the way of news at the event. The much-hoped-for launch windows for Starcraft II and Wrath of the Lich King failed to materialise, and other than a few tidbits thrown out during the few developer and producer interviews that were not about Diablo III there was little new on show. It was, however, the first chance that many attendees had to play the two other upcoming titles in the Blizzard stable, and the panels did offer a rare insight into the game development process for both those titles.

For gamers around the world there was plenty to cheer about too. Those present were the first in the public domain to play with the Death Knight, the first new class for World of Warcraft since the game's launch, and a significant number of questions about the class have been answered... though at this stage the answers could still change. For more, check out my hands-on preview with Wrath of the Lich King based on an hour or so running around the Plaguelands trying to kill as many mobs as I possibly could, all in the name of responsible journalism.

If you want to know all the information about Diablo III—and I certainly hope you do—then your first port of call should be our impressions piece, based on the trailer, all the gameplay footage that was shown over the course of the weekend, developer panels, and a fairly rigorous interrogation of developers about any features they were willing or able to talk about. No comment on a cow level, I'm afraid; I'll remember to pack the thumbscrews next time I head out to a Blizzard event.

For even more information, you should check out the interview with Blizzard's Rob Pardo, Brian Ekberg's piece over on our previews blog based on the developer panel on the Art and Lore of Diablo 3.

If any of you were there we'd love to hear from you... leave your thoughts below, if you were there, if you're excited about Diablo III or if you've got any thoughts at all about Blizard's biggest-ever gathering of European gamers.

For those of you who don't already know, going on right now is the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational event in Paris.

I've uploaded a few photos of how things are shaping up so far...

Brian Ekberg and I are going to be bringing you a live blog of the opening ceremony which is 1045 UK time (1145 here in Paris), so be sure to watch that space for news as it happens. If you want a sneak peak of what's likely to be coming, I'd suggest you check out my image gallery... the chap at the top looks to be familiar, and the fire round his hand may well we indicating some roman numerals... but that is, of course, just rumour and speculation.

I'll upload more pictures as I take them.

As some of you may have seen thanks to our community update and forum posts, we're hosting a Community Game Night tomorrow, with a little help from the UK Frag Dolls!

It's going to kick off at 8pm, and will feature Rainbow Six Vegas 2 on Xbox 360 and (maybe) PS3. Guy, Luke, Laura and I will all be there and available to be killed, and we will be ably assisted (read protected) by Jam, Kitt and Sarin of the frag dolls.

If you want to take part, then just PM me your gamertag or PSN ID before we kick off, and we will do our best to get as many in as you can.

Also, now you're done here, head over to London Calling for something approaching good Rock Band news.

I really should have covered this yesterday, but just didn't manage to find the time...

We recieved word yesterday from the ever-delightful Roxy from Atari (who you should know from the GSUK podcast after she made her debut there recently) that there was a unique event planned to promote the upcoming Sun Crossword Challenge for DS, which is coming out on Friday.

Clearly learning from the marketing minds behind that illustrious rag, Atari are offering commuters, gamers, and lovers of all things titillating by organising an event at London's Victoria station at 8am, involving a 'giant interactive crossword' and 'Page 3 stunners Vikki Blows and Sam Cooke'.

As well as being able to play the game itself, lucky commuters will be able to pause for a moment and, if the more intellectual pursuits are not their thing, can have a picture taken with the aforementioned glamorous ladies which, we are reliably assured would be 'perfect for making your workmates envious when you get back to the office'.

So there.

Ms Blows poses for Front

And yes, she really is called Vikki Blows. No, I don't know why either. You may know her from such things as a recent rather unusual Devil May Cry photoshoot, for new-ish lowbrow-but-with-pretentions British magazine Front.

This week you lucky people are getting your Start/Select dose a day early.

This week we've got some good stuff for you: the future of Mass Effect, Saints Row 2 and heading out for a little fun by the river.

And you're even treated to a guest appearance from me.

I finally got my hands on my most anticipated game of 2009, Street Fighter IV.

Heading down to Capcom's offices in Hammersmith I was the calm little center of the universe preparing to get my Guile on, so to speak, and ended up getting a little bit more than I bargained for.

I've not played a Street Fighter game since SFII Turbo, and have only really put serious time in on Street Fighter II for the SNES... but that was an incredible amount of time both at school and at university; my house in the second year was filled with devoted Tekken and Street Fighter fans, and we divided our time between SFII on the SNES and Tekken Tag on the PS2. Good times.

I was a little nervous to see SFIV after the travesties that have borne the Street Fighter name since SFII: Turbo despite the pleasing noises made by the developers, but I was very pleasantly surprised.

Not only does the game look good in the stills you've seen so far, but the animations are every bit as good as you'd hope. The new moves and gameplay mechanics fit in very nicely, and even the super moves aren't overpowered. Standard moves look as good as you'd hope, and the more excessive new ones look stunning. But, more importantly than all that, the game just feels right... and I can think of no higher praise.

In my time with Capcom I got to spend some time playing as Blanka, Guile, Crimson Viper and Abel and enjoyed them all. Guile and Blanka were my two favourites from SFII and playing them was as easy as I'd hoped... and the new characters fit in well too. I think that Crimson Viper may well be added to my standard roster when I finally get the game into my living room.

One little detail from Alone in the Dark (which I saw on Thursday evening as you can tell from my impressions piece published yesterday) that I didn't manage to squeeze into the preview...

One segment in central park gives you the opportunity to use the combination of a slope and a hot-dog cart as a lethal weapon...a detail which anyone who's seen Sleepers (which was written by the chap who is responsible to writing Alone in the Dark can't fail to appreciate.

One more reason to feel optimistic about the game, in my view. The build I saw was far from done, but it's really ambitious, relatively smart, and looks to be very capable of living up to both its potential and the series' name. It's too early to say whether it will or not, but I'm cautiously optimistic.