The images make up a chart of pricing for the motion control gaming setups that has Kinect coming out cheapest, with Nintendo second and Sony last with the PlayStation Move.

This has garnered quite a big debate as of late, due to the fact that Microsoft has included a balance board in the Wii list of items and two navigation controllers on the PlayStation list, which some argue isn’t required as you are able to use existing PS3 controllers instead to save money.

This is an argument that can go either way, depending on how each company chooses to market it – the PlayStation Move offers a cheaper upfront cost if you start with just a one or two player setup. Meanwhile, the Kinect is probably the cheapest overall system because it doesn’t require any add-ons or controllers – something that is also touted as its limiting factor.

Source: Kotaku via Aiming at Gaming

The details, which were posted on the new site (http://callofduty.com/blackops/) were quite scarce, but it has been revealed in a tweet that the first proper trailer will be going live tonight on SpikeTV. Here is the full tweet from @treyarch:

“The world-premier teaser for the next Call of Duty airs Friday NIGHT (12:40AM) on SpikeTV! http://bit.ly/9TF07″

Well, that’s everything I’m afraid, for any more details on the game itself you’ll just have to wait until the official teaser is launched later today.

Patrick Seybold, PlayStation representative, has tweeted the following:

“Congrats to Bungie. Marrying their creative minds and incredible talent to the power of PS3 will be like giving PS3 fans Halo on steroids.”

This shows that Sony, or at least Seybold, is extremely happy with this turn in events and could very well lead to some promising results for all those involved. One thing for sure is; it definitely will not be a new Halo as Microsoft own the rights to that game not Bungie.

The official website also contains a number of countdowns to locked areas of the website, presumably so they can drip-feed information to the Sonic fans worldwide and bring the old hype train out of its station. There are three interesting things to note from the website:

• It clearly states ‘Episode 1′ under the Sonic The Hedgehog 4 logo – so it will be an episodic game
• The game is to be released digitally, via the PSN, Live and Wiiware platforms.
• There is another platform (or platforms) that are currently hidden – possibly iPad/iPhone?

If you want to see the trailer, you will have to go over to Gamespot for now, as they have an exclusive on it – but we’ll get a video here as soon as it gets YouTube’d.

Halo: ODST droppedstraight from 1st to 3rd, getting pipped by the resilient Professor Layton and Pandora’s Box. Down in tenth spot is Batman: Arkham Asylum, which is touted by many as the years best game. i just wonder if the general public thinks so.

1. FIFA 10 (EA)
2. PROFESSOR LAYTON AND PANDORA’S BOX (Nintendo)
3. HALO 3: ODST (Microsoft)
4. NEED FOR SPEED: SHIFT (EA)
5. WII SPORTS RESORT (Nintendo)
6. GUITAR HERO 5 (Activision Blizzard)
7. MYSIMS AGENTS (EA)
8. COLIN MCRAE: DIRT 2 (Codemasters)
9. MARIO KART WII (Nintendo)
10. BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM (Eidos)

If you look at the last 10 seconds or so of video, you will also notice the new throwing knife weapon in action. If that isn’t enough to get you jittery I just don’t know what is!

Below is the Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 – Flag Runner – multiplayer video:

The demo for Mini Ninjas was very recently unleashed on the Xbox Live Marketplace and the PlayStation Store, to be precise, Wednesday, 19th August 2009, and Thursday, 20th August 2009, respectively. After a quick playthrough of the game last night I thought I’d give you a brief sumamry of my impressions.

To start with, you play as a nippy little chap by the name of Hiro, who, it turns out, can possess animals, allowing you to turn into numerous forest critters, ranging from frogs all the way up to panda bears (who can actually attack too).

Hiro has a number of ninja friends, who each specialises in a different field including, but not limited to, strength, stealth, archery and flutes. Yes I did say flutes, which can be used by Suzume, a female ninja, to temporarily entrance enemies while you beat them to death, which you cna see for yourselves in the video below:

All in all it was a very cartoony experience, yet with levels of sophistication and depth. Mini Ninjas is definitely a game to look at, just don’t expect it to replace God of War III in your most wanted list.

As if the idea of a few more Dead Space games isn’t good enough, it would also appear that a movie adaptation of the game is also in the works for the horror series. This is an actual film with real actors, not an animated affair like the existing Dead Space: Downfall movie. The rumours even suggest that D.J. Caruso has been signed on as director for the film, known for directing the recent action hit, Eagle Eye.

US Deal

Amazon has an offer running where if you pre-order Madden NFL 10, you get a $10 Amazon gift voucher:

UK Deal

On the UK version of Amazon you can currently get Virtua Tennis 2009 on the Wii, Xbox 360 or PS3 for only £24.99:

I can’t say how long these offers last for, although I believe the US gift voucher offer may alst the duration of the Madden NFL 10 pre-order period.

You start off the game at the Burrow, where you get your first broomstick riding experience of HPHBP. There are some good effects going on, with grass and bushes blowing about and motion blur kicking in. The controls  on the broomstick are about right, sensitive but with enough friction. Riding a broomstick is one of the three main mini-games featured in this Harry Potter game. You simply aim for giant floating star shapes, which boast you one step closer to catching a snitch.

After the Burrow you are whisked away to Hogwarts, which is very familiar to the previous version. Not much has changed in terms of the schools/castles layout. The corridor décor has been improved somewhat and there’s a more polished feel when walking around the complex.

It’s in the Hogwarts grounds where the biggest changes have taken place. There is more space, some open fields, even a cave system and some other bits that you’ll find pleasantly surprising. Despite all the new additions and polish, there isn’t a great deal of difference. Given the two years since Order of the Phoenix, the changes aren’t as drastic as expected in the surroundings. There have, however, been changes to the characters.

The games characters look more like their movie counterparts, with better facial modelling and body animations to represent their actual actions. The in-game menu displays Harry Potter and he interacts with your menu movements and selections, this is where you can see some of the finer details, like the expressions, hair and eyes.

The great thing about this game, especially for kids, is the side quests and mini-games. As I mentioned above one such mini-game is broomstick riding, which comes in the form of Quidditch. The other two games are potion making and duelling.

The duelling is very similar to Order of the Phoenix, although spells look brighter and mroe colourful, there is little new in the actual gameplay here. The potion making can actually be quite good fun, it seems a bit basic at first, but later on requires a fair amount of skill in terms of co-ordination, reaction and awareness.

Harry potter and the Half-Blood Prince doesn’t bring a whole new game to the franchise, it’s too easy to see the similarities to Order of the phoenix to say it is something brand new. However, as you probably won’t be buying the game expecting a new game, but instead wanting to follow the HP story, you should find it a fun venture.

Kids and adults alike will enjoy this game, as long as they are happy with the simple gameplay mechanic that is used. The main story isn’t very difficult, but trying to beat the tasks and mini-games can be a real challenge at times. Overall the game lives up to the Harry Potter name, and with cutscenes that blend both photo quality and game footage, you’ll be sure you are wtaching the movie itself at times.

Overall Rating: 7/10

The Wii Fit still refuses to drop from the top five yet alone the top ten, basically wasting a space on the list (should it be the top eleven instead?)

Following on the sports theme, UFC 2009 and Virtua Tennis 2009 both fared reasonably well, managing to reach the 5th and 9th spots respectively.

Harry Potter comes in tenth, which isn’t bad considering ti was barely out a day before this chart was done, so expect number 1 spot to be filled by Mr. Potter in Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince, or HPHBP (review coming to JVG soon).

Check out the full list for yourselves and let us know what you think:

1. Fight Night Round 4
2. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10
3. Transformer: Revenge Of The Fallen
4. Wii Fit
5. UFC 2009: Undisputed
6. Call Of Juarez: Bound In Blood
7. The Sims 3
8. [PROTOTYPE]
9. Virtua Tennis 2009
10. Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince

The new game boasts an updated graphics engine and a number of new features. But if you are still sitting on the fence post umming and ahhing on whether to get this game then maybe you should check out the brand new video game launch trailer:

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is released on pretty much every electronic device imagineable* on Friday, 3rd July 2009.

* PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PS2, DS, PSP, PC and mobile phones.

Some of the results are bound to be criticised, while many will be considered spot on. The best E3 game was designated as Naughty Dog’s very own Uncharted 2. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is set to be a best seller in the video game charts when it launches exclusively on the PlayStation 3 later this year (rumoured to be Christmas time).

The gadget war (Best Hardware/Peripheral) was won by Microsoft’s Project Natal, beating the Wii’s MotionPlus and the PlayStation 3’s currently unnamed motion wand. Project Natal certainly seems more innovative than the upgraded Wiimote shown by Sony, but isn’t it just a fancy EyeToy/PlayStation Eye camera?

The full results are below, let us know what you think of the results:

Best of Show
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
(Naughty Dog/Sony Computer Entertainment America for PlayStation 3)

Best Original Game
Scribblenauts
(5TH Cell/Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment for Nintendo DS)

Best Console Game
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
(Naughty Dog/Sony Computer Entertainment America for PlayStation 3)

Best PC Game
Star Wars: The Old Republic
(BioWare Austin/LucasArts)

Best Handheld Game
Scribblenauts
(5TH Cell/Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment for Nintendo DS)

Best Hardware/Peripheral
“Project Natal”
(Microsoft for Xbox 360)

Best Action Game
Modern Warfare 2
(Infinity Ward/Activision for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC)

Best Action/Adventure Game
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
(Naughty Dog/Sony Computer Entertainment America for PlayStation 3)

Best Role Playing Game
Mass Effect 2
(BioWare/Electronic Arts for Xbox 360, PC)

Best Racing Game
Split/Second
(Black Rock/Disney Interactive Studios for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC)

Best Sports Game
Fight Night Round 4
(EA Canada/EA Sports for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)

Best Fighting Game
Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars
(Eighting/Capcom for Nintendo Wii)

Best Strategy Game
Supreme Commander 2
(Gas Powered Games/Square-Enix for Xbox 360, PC)

Best Social/Casual/Puzzle
DJ Hero
(Freestyle/Red Octane/Activision for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii)

Best Online Multiplayer
Left 4 Dead 2
(Valve/EAP for Xbox 360, PC)

EA Bright Light seems to be pulling out all the stops for the new Harry Potter game, not only are they using a brand new advanced facial animation engine, which will allow us to “read the emotion in characters’ faces as they talk”, they also managed to get voices from many of the films actual actors/actresses.

Apparently, Harry Potter won’t be the only playable character, although no details have been divulged as to who else you control (Ron and Hermione is probably a good guess though). The press release also states:

“[The development team] had access to photos and body scans of all the characters, so every raised eyebrow and fluttering cloak is accurately portrayed in the game”

To show the dedications of the developing team, one person in particular, here is another snippet from the PR document:

“One of the developers also built a complete broomstick rig in his kitchen at home and brought it in so the animators could ‘fly’ a broom themselves and experiment with every possible move.”

This is a huge number, yes, it’s spread over all platforms but even so, it’s definitely something for Treyarch and Activision to be proud of for the fifth instalment of a franchise that was getting old on their third attempt.

All eyes are looking forward now to the big day 11.10.09, when Call of Duty 6 Modern Warfare 2 hits shelves worldwide. I just wonder how they are going to beat nazi-zombies…