A advert for the game in MVC stated a September release sparked suspension and soon after Nintendo confirmed the release date, this means European gamers will only have to wait a mere few weeks  after the game is launched in North America. Metroid: Other M reaches Japanese stores on September 2nd

Other M is a new step in the Metroid franchise as it is the first in the franchise to be worked on by a third party developer in this case Team Ninja. Nintendo will still play a part in the games development but that hasn’t stopped Yosuke Hayashi & Yoshio Sakamoto on wanting to leave their mark on the long and much loved franchise.

The two title promise unique gameplay experiences while being able to have a common system between them. As the title gives away the titles are both puzzle based games that stretch across 30 levels in which players throw paper bears into the using the Wii remote.

The Tales of Bearsworth Manor: Puzzling Pages tasks players with collecting objects while The Tales of Bearsworth Manor: Chaotic Conflicts is more action oriented with the player being tasked to destroy waves of enemies while protecting valuable blue jewels, if a player completes both games Square Enix promise a special treat.

The Tales of Bearsworth Manor: Puzzling Pages Screenshots:

The Tales of Bearsworth Manor: Chaotic Conflicts Screenshots:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Although the trailer is rather lacking in details the game is said to have over 500 songs with over 90 on disc, an “all new stroy driven quest mode” and many other improvements to the basic fundamentals of Guitar Hero. Alongside the game will be an all new guitar which has gone beyond customisable Faceplates and reached out to customising the shape of the guitar itself.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A select few of the songs that will feature in the game have also been released, the complete list so far is as follows…

AFI – “Dancing Through Sunday”
Anthrax – “Indians”
Avenged Sevenfold – “Bat Country”
Black Sabbath – “Children Of The Grave”
Buzzcocks – “What Do I Get?”
Children Of Bodom – “If You Want Peace… Prepare For War”
The Cure – “Fascination Street”
Def Leppard – “Pour Some Sugar On Me (Live)”
Dethklok – “Bloodlines”
Dire Straits – “Money For Nothing”
DragonForce – “Fury of the Storm”
Drowning Pool – “Bodies”
Fall Out Boy – “Dance, Dance”
Foo Fighters – “No Way Back”
Foreigner – “Feels Like The First Time”
The Hives – “Tick Tick Boom”
Jane’s Addiction – “Been Caught Stealing”
Jethro Tull – “Aqualung”
KISS – “Love Gun”
Linkin Park – “Bleed It Out”
Megadeth – “Sudden Death”
Metallica & Ozzy Osbourne – “Paranoid (Live)”
Muse – “Uprising”
My Chemical Romance – “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)”
Night Ranger – ” (You Can Still) Rock In America”
Nine Inch Nails – “Wish”
The Offspring – “Self Esteem”
Queen – “Bohemian Rhapsody”
Rammstein – “Waidmanns Heil”
The Rolling Stones – “Stray Cat Blues”
Silversun Pickups – “There’s No Secrets This Year”
Slayer – “Chemical Warfare”
Slipknot – “Psychosocial”
Stone Temple Pilots – “Interstate Love Song”
ZZ Top – “Sharp Dressed Man (Live)”

Admitedly this all sounds good but only time will tell when we get our hands on the game itself and see if it tickles our Love Guns.

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock is scheduled for a September 2010 release.

A recent claim by an IGN employee saying “Several developers that have experienced 3DS in its current form have reported, off the record, that it has processing capabilities that far exceed the Nintendo Wii and bring the device with abilities that are close to HD consoles such as PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.”

A bold claim indeed when you consider that both the Wii and the DS would be left in the dust by the 3DS and even more so when you consider that Nintendo in recent years has never been a company that goes for high power hardware.

The concept of a hand held more powerful than the 360 and the PS3 is a marvel in its own right and when you take into account how well the DS systems have sold (out selling everything this generation and tipped to be the best selling system in history within next few years)  and it seems Nintendo could have a other huge hit system on their hands.

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle continues the story 3 years after the events of the original released back in 2008 and a few things have changed indeed.  Assassin rank battles are on the rise, a new corporation has taken over by the name of Pizza Bat and Travis is nowhere to be seen since he threw away his No 1 rank crown away and has never been seen or heard from since.  That is until he returns to Santa Destroy to fight Skelter Helter, who wants revenge on Travis for killing his brother in the first game and thus becomes the 51^st ranked assassin in the United Assassins Association (UAA).  Unfortunately, things take a turn for the worse when Travis’ best friend, Bishop is killed by henchmen of the CEO of Pizza Bat who also happens to be the No 1 ranked assassin, as told by the returning Sylvia Christel and thus Travis is on a path of revenge and must fight his way back to the top and become once again the No 1 ranked assassin of Santa Destroy.  Along the way, you meet some old faces and new in the form of the zany boss characters that hinder your path of revenge.

The story wasn’t entirely top-notch stuff from the first game as it got the job done and helped you along the way to becoming the top assassin.  This time, little has changed since the whole revenge path storyline has been done before in countless games but in this type of game, it serves its purpose well and you will like some of the characters along the way despite some of them having brief appearances. Travis is his old cocky self and Sylvia is her old flirty self and they collide in words on more than one occasion and even though what happens between them is so predictable, it is a little interesting to see nonetheless.

No More Heroes 2 is pretty much similar to the first one in almost every way possible but that is by no means a bad thing because the gameplay in NMH was exciting and fun to play at the end of the day.  You will feel right at home with the controls if you have played the first game but if not, then they are really simple to use anyway and the first battle in the game acts as a tutorial to help you get in the swing of things.  The A button is used to attack with your beam katana and depending  on if the Wiimote is upwards or downwards, a different stance attack will occur.  You can use brawl attacks with the B button and again, different attacks are done depending on the stance of the Wiimote.  Evasive moves are done via the D-pad and movement is done with the nunchuk with lock-on used with the Z button.  It is very enjoyable to use throughout especially when you weaken an enemy enough to kill him with a directional swipe of the Wiimote and see the blood spray everywhere when an enemy gets sliced or decapitated.  Wrestling moves make a welcome return and you learn more via the magazines found at the Motel that Travis calls his home.  Again, these are done when an enemy is stunned and the motions that have to be done with the nunchuk and Wiimote are displayed on screen.  There is just something so awesome when you pull off a backdrop or a German suplex then the beam lands and instantly kills the goon you just kicked the crap out of.

The main highlight of No More Heroes was the eccentric boss battles you had throughout whether it was against a stage magician or an army girl.  Desperate Struggle has its share of kooky characters although they aren’t as fleshed out or memorable than the ones you came across in the first game.  While some of the boss battles are fun to fight, others are too easy to be exciting (one that takes place in an abandoned house has one of the easiest bosses I encountered in a while).   Some of the more interesting characters include a Russian astronaut, a co-ed and a football jock with his plethora of cheerleaders to cheer him on.  Actually the battle against Charlie MacDonald as he is known as is definitely the most interesting since you fight in a giant robot known as the Glastonbury and him and his supporters form together to become the Santa Death Parade.  It is a fun mech battle that is not overly complicated.  Even though you start out as rank 51^st at the beginning, don’t let that fool you into thinking you have to fight 50 bosses because that isn’t the case.  It is more like 15 or so with certain events having you go up a few ranks in the space of one event.  One thing that could be an annoyance to some is that a few locations leading up to boss battles can be overly long (one outside a shopping mall seemed to never end, as enemy upon enemy just seemed to keep coming and really got tired of it about 5 minutes in and lasted probably another 10-15).

When you defeat an enemy, a slot bar appears on screen and spins and if you manage to get three slots to match, then a darkside power activate.   He has weird names for these darkside powers such as “Cranberry Chocolate sundae” and several things can happen depending on what matches up on the slow.  Time could slow down and enemies can die within a few hits or if you transform into a tiger, a little pounce on these scared goons is an instant kill and it is pretty funny to see enemies cower in fear whenever you obtain this power throughout.  These powers are excellent to do and can speed up some of the more mundane places in the game.

A few little additions have been made like the inclusion of a running slash attack that you pull off by shaking the Wiimote while running at an enemy and if you do a certain task within the game; you also get another attack called the Step-in slice attack, which you can enable by shaking the nunchuk.  While these additions are great, they aren’t entirely necessary as there were very few points throughout the 10-12 hour journey that they were really required and helped me out of a dire situation but the latter attack is perhaps quite useful for boss battles if you find yourself stuck at one.  Unlike the first game, you are given the option to use the classic controller as well but since the Wii controls in my opinion are tight and reactive, I stuck with that method throughout the playthrough.  Also, the ecstasy metre that is in the form of a tiger has a new hyperspeed mode once the tiger glows red and it is remarkable to see Travis slice his way through several enemies in twice the speed pretty much.

One thing that has been omitted from Desperate Struggle is the open world of Santa Destroy and instead you are given an overworld map of the city and can choose from a variety of different locations whether it is ranking battles, side missions or shops.  I see this as a vast improvement over the boring world of the first and it makes the experience more streamlined.  Ranking battles can be entered at any time now thus it is not required to get a specified amount of money to enter and once again, this is another improvement over the first.  One of the best things about the sequel is that it has gone away with the dreary side missions from NMH and replaced them with 8-bit style side missions that really bring back nostalgia to those who grew up during the NES days.  Several of them are 8-bit versions of side missions in the first game such as coconut grabber, which sees you kicking palm trees to get coconuts into your backpack.  It is pretty awesome that they are accompanied by 8-bit music and you can find yourself quite addicted to a few of them although they tend to have only several levels each. One of the side missions is not 8-bit and has you picking up scorpions and it is easily the worst one of the bunch and you will try it once or twice and not bother with it again.

One may ask, “Why are there side missions in this game when you don’t need the money to enter ranking battles now?” Well, you need money because of the fact there are other collectibles to purchase in the game such as beam katanas, clothes and to enhance your strength and stamina respectively at the gym.  If you purchase a new weapon, you can switch to it at any time during battle but once you gain access to the dual beam katanas known as the Rose Nasty, you will stick with it and nothing else since they are very useful throughout the later stages. The gym challenges are different to those seen in the first game as they also take the form of 8-bit games.  One sees you running on a treadmill and the other sees you punching and kicking dumbbells while avoiding hearts from the camp gym owner.  The latter took a while to get used to personally but they are a welcome addition nonetheless.  Collectibles in the game are obtained by hitting the chests throughout the different locales in the game and these take the form of Mexican masks amongst other things and you can easily see them crowd the motel room as you progress onwards in the story.

Also included in the sequel are revenge missions, which are the equivalent to the assassination missions in the first game.  Unfortunately, these are not very interesting to do as you just do two different types of missions 5 times each (there are 10 missions in total).  First one being that Travis has to kill all the enemies in the location within the time limit and the second is to kill the specified target within the time limit.  If you are the kind of guy who wants to do everything in the game, then by all means go ahead and proceed with this.

As much as I enjoyed the game, there are a few disadvantages that have to be pointed out.  First and foremost is the camera.  The camera will not be your best friend in this game and it pretty much hinders you rather than help you especially during some of the more crowded battles against nameless foes.  It will zoom up and just go all crazy on you if you are in some sort of boxed location and it got on my nerves but nowhere near the point of quitting the game entirely.  It doesn’t help that you don’t have full access to the camera except for a few occasions in the game and can only centre it but it decreases the enjoyment of the action a little. The second is that during some levels, I was fighting enemies to no music whatsoever and just got me out of the game a tad because of that.  When it is there, it matches perfectly to what is occurring on screen, which is non-stop action.  Finally, during some of the more hectic action sequences, the frame rate would take a bit of a dip but not to the point of unplayable but if you play it long enough, you will notice it and it happened during a few cutscenes also.   One thing that could be considered a negative point is that the game on its standard difficulty is not really hard and only seen myself having to do a few of the bosses a maximum of two times before progressing onwards but it doesn’t take away from the enjoyable factor the game has at the end of the day.

I like games that have unique stylish graphics and NMH 2 has that with its great cel-shaded look.  Some of the characters ooze with style and the animations are on the top-end of the Wii especially seeing some of the grand death sequences after defeating one of the bosses in the game.  Blood gushes throughout this game when countless enemies are defeated and it makes a pretty nice change from the bloodless version of the first game that Europe got.

As I stated before, there isn’t a whole lot of music within the main game but what is there is charming to listen to.  Some of the 8-bit tracks are quite catchy to listen to and shows how far the gaming industry has come when you hear tracks like that but boy it does bring back nostalgic memories nonetheless.  The soundtrack is a mixture of punk and rock songs and fit perfectly in this kind of crazy game.  Voice acting is strong throughout and fit the character’s moods well.  Nothing is really bad on the audio side of things because fighting with the beam katana is pretty sweet especially hearing the sounds that come out when you clash with enemies and when an enemy is defeated etc.

Despite a few setbacks with the camera and lack of assassin characterisation, No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle triumphs as a worth sequel to the excellent No More Heroes.  Fighting and slicing your way through countless goons and killing the bosses in stylish ways is quite satisfying and with a decent story to boot and graphics that never get boring to look at, you can’t go wrong.  If you want more of the same action you encountered in NMH, then no look further and get yourself a copy of No More Heroes 2 today.

THQ CEO Brain Farrell has said the following “For fiscal 2011, we plan to deliver another high-quality WWE Smackdown vs. Raw game this fall, building on this billion dollar game franchise,” stated Farrell. “We also plan to go live with WWE Online in Korea later this year. We will be demonstrating both of these games at E3 as well as unveiling a new WWE brand extension at the show.”

All of THQ’s WWE title will be shown at this years E3.

Dookie (1994)

“Burnout”
“She”
“Having a Blast”
“Sassafrass Roots”
“Chump”
“When I Come Around”
“Longview”
“Coming Clean”
“Welcome to Paradise”
“Emenius Sleepus”
“Pulling Teeth”
“In the End”
“Basket Case”
“F.O.D.”

Milton Keynes: The UK concert made famous by Green Day’s 2005 movie for “Bullet in a Bible”.

American Idiot (2004)

“American Idiot”
“She’s a Rebel”
“Jesus of Suburbia”
“Extraordinary Girl”
“Holiday”
“Letterbomb”
“Boulevard of Broken Dreams”
“Wake Me Up When September Ends”
“Are We the Waiting?”
“Homecoming”
“St. Jimmy”
“Whatsername”
“Give Me Novacaine”

Warning (2000)

“Minority”
“Warning”

Nimrod (1997)

“Hitchin’ a Ride”
“Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)”
“Nice Guys Finish Last”

Insomniac (1995)
“Brain Stew”
“Jaded”
“Geek Stink Breath”

The Fox Theater, Oakland: The place where Green Day performed an intimate show for the band’s most recent album.

21st Century Breakdown (2009)

“Song of the Century”
“¿Viva La Gloria? (Little Girl)”
“21st Century Breakdown”
“Restless Heart Syndrome”
“Before the Lobotomy”
“Horseshoes and Handgrenades”
“Last Night on Earth”
“The Static Age”
“Peacemaker”
“American Eulogy”
“Murder City”
“See the Light”

Downloadable Content
The following tracks are already available in the Rock Band Music Library of downloadable content giving players the chance to complete the full 21st Century Breakdown album, view unique performances and venue visuals, and unlock exclusive collectible content!

“21 Guns”
“Last of the American Girls”
“Know Your Enemy”
“¡Viva La Gloria!”
“East Jesus Nowhere”
“Christian’s Inferno”

Featuring the likenesses of Green Day members Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool, Green Day: Rock Band covers everything from the band’s earliest punk hits to the epic scope of their latest albums, giving players the unique chance to experience the music of this pioneering band in a whole new environment featuring select venues and art specific to the band’s history. Green Day: Rock Band lets players perform vocals, guitar, bass and drums, as well as featuring the three-part vocal harmonies Harmonix first introduced with The Beatles: Rock Band, not only with the on-disc setlist but also when importing Green Day DLC tracks from the Rock Band Music Library of downloadable content. As they progress through the game, players gain access into the band’s media vault, where they can unlock collectible images, and rare and unreleased video footage of the band.

Green Day: Rock Band will ship simultaneously worldwide June 8 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 system and Wii in North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and other territories. The full track list will be fully exportable, giving players the opportunity to play the songs in Rock Band and Rock Band 2 on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 system, as well as Rock Band 3™, coming this holiday. In addition, the six Green Day tracks already available in the Rock Band Music Store as downloadable content can be played in Green Day: Rock Band with added vocal harmonies, unique performance visuals, and exclusive archival material. The game is compatible with all Rock Band instrument controllers, as well as most Guitar Hero® and other third-party music video game peripherals and microphones.

Green Day Rock Band hits stores on June 8th 2010.

The first game was hailed as a rare case of a first person shooter effectively using the Wii motion controls and delivering a decent experience.

Sega have seemed too taken to the game and have developed a sequel by the name Conduit 2 (it’s not clear to why it’s not longer called The Conduit). The sequel is set to include the following features

• New Weapons: A gun that can shoot through walls and new deployable turrets
• New Locations
• New Multiplayer modes
• 2-4 Player Split Screen

The latest issue of Nintendo Power has more details on the title including the locations the game will visit which include Atlantis, Siberia, Washington D.C, and a city at the center of the earth Agartha.

If interested in Conduit 2 head over to your local news agent and purchase this month’s issue of Nintendo Power.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 is scheduled to release May 2010.