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So its finally been confirmed. Rock Band is coming to the Wii in June for the US. However, unlike the PS3 and 360 versions it has no online and no DLC.

The spokesperson explains: “Rock Band for the Wii will have functionality similar to the PS2 version. There will be no DLC available, but the Wii version will have the five additional songs on the game disc,” said the spokesperson. “However, because the Wii’s online capabilities and potential have yet to be fully realized, we wanted to wait before we explored online functionality for Rock Band to ensure that players get the high-quality of online performance they’ve come to expect.”

So it would appear that there making up for the complete lack of online capabilities with 5 extra songs. Ah well, at least that saves me the £100 I was gonna spend on it.

I’d heard rumblings about an upcoming feature that would allow you to copy your blu-ray’s from your PS3 to your PSP. I didn’t want to report until I’d heard something slightly more concrete but it seems that its a firm possibility. According to Sony Pictures they expect to release the first Blu-ray disc movies with Portable Copy “later this year” – they don’t have a specific timeframe yet. The technology is currently under development, so Sony is also unclear on whether a PSP firmware update will be required to get it to work.Does that mean we can all take copies of films from each others collections and copy the files from memory card to memory card? I’m guessing not – they’ll probably limit this to 1 or 2 PSP’s per system and you’ll probably have to couple your PSP with the PS3 from which the movie originated.

Activision has revealed its innovative approach to reproducing Guitar Hero on a portable platform, unveiling a plug-in peripheral for the upcoming Nintendo DS game, Guitar Hero: On Tour.

The device, pictured, consists of four fret buttons that plug into the Game Boy Advance slot on the handheld console.

Like in the previous instalments of the series, players have to match the icons on screen with the corresponding fret buttons, whilst simultaneously strumming the strings on the touch screen with a specially designed ‘pick’ stylus.

Looks good to me, but I have 2 main concerns. How many songs can a DS cart hold, and what is the sound quality going to be like?

I came across this a while ago and news is short on a Sunday so check this out. If you don’t already know the Microsoft Surface is near completion and is a new type of interface for computing. I’ve been using a keyboard and mouse now for… way too long and in my opinion its totally inefficient. I’m a fast typer but there’s only so much you can do with keyboard and mouse – bring on Minority Report style interaction I say.

I’ve been looking at games on the iphone for a little while now and there’s not a lot out there. Being a huge fan of Hexic this game here will be great when it launches – I’ve signed up to get the demo when its released. Anyone interested let me know and I’ll keep you posted.

Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford recently signed off on an in-game advertising deal with ad company Double Fusion. Cue upset gamers saying all kinds of nasty things to Randy both behind, and in front of, his back. Well, he’s having none of that, and has set the record straight on what the deal means for upcoming Gearbox games, not only promising “we hate exploitive advertising that doesn’t offer value to the gamer”, but also providing examples of how it’s being implemented into their next Brothers in Arms game – dare I say it – tastefully, by using only era-appropriate companies and artwork (in this case, a battle featuring a circa-1944 Philips factory in the Netherlands).

I like advertising if its done right and especially if its funny. It can also help to add a feeling of reality – we’re so used to advertising that we probably only notice it when its not there and if it gives the developers a few more pennies to play with then that can only be good for future game development.

Game: Guitar Hero III
Console played on: Xbox 360
Person Playing It: Kieran McGregor, South Shields

I couldn’t wait to get this game, I have owned every guitar hero game that has came out and they were all brilliant. When I got the game I couldn’t wait to religiously five star every song on hard, but I quickly found out that it was harder that GH2. Amazingly, the people at activision have managed to put a story into the game, so you aren’t just randomly playing songs at venues.

The game is basically the same as the other GH games, but this time there isn’t just a single career, but you can play a co-op career with a friend. The game is also improved by the new battle system in career, what it is, in your career you will face 3 characters that you have to beat to unlock in the shop, you will face; Tom Morello, Slash and Lou the devil, each character has the own special guitar. In a battle you will play a song, instead of star power you get battle power which gives you a power to use on you opponent, you unleash battle power the same way as star power, you use battle power to make your opponent miss notes and fail the song first. online play is also good as you can either do a face off where you play on the same difficulty and take turns at play parts of the song. You can play pro face off where you play on the same difficulty and play all the song together. You can play co-op where you can play different difficulties and you choose weather to play lead or bass. Or you can play a battle. The only downside to this game is that it gets quite repetitive and some people will get bored easily.

This game is good for hardcore gamers who like to religiously five star every song and get loads of achievements, but it is also good for gamers who simply like to have a nice relaxing play and find a difficulty that suits them best.

I’m going to have to rate this game 8/10 taking into account the game play and the improvements they have made to the characters.

Game: Rainbow Six Vegas 2
Console played on: Xbox 360
Person Playing It: Kevin Payne, Jarrow

Rainbow 6 vegas 2, what can i say? well.. to start the single player story mode is very very good, excellent graphics, great enjoyment with how you use stealth to anticipate your enemy movements is a big and fun part of the game. the CO-OP mode using two people doing story makes it very exciting. i personaly like to try and get more kills than my mate because it comes up with a kill/ death ratio. The terroist hunt game mode is another very enjoyable aspect to the game, you basicaly start the game with up to 4 people and you have to eliminate a certain amount of terroists at diffrent difficulty levels.

The online gameplay is very enjoyable and also quite tense as you are always watching for enemys behind walls and any objects you can think of..

The flaws, hardly any i can name but one that i find most anoying is the fact that the game hosts on online play can kick you for no reason during player matches, this really annoys me if i join a game and get kicked straight away because a group of mates are trying something out..

another flaw is online there can be slight lag that can interfere with the use of stelath you want to use.
if you are a fan of the old rainbow games or splinter cell games then this is a must buy, great online play and story mode.

The guys over at Game Videos and EGM posted up this walk-through analysis of the latest, and last, Grand Theft Auto IV trailer picking apart what they see and all the little hidden details that look to make this game shine. Rockstar say that about 70 percent of the video was actual gameplay footage. Yes, that chase scene is actual footage. It took one of their guys hours to perfect that high-speed 180. I also love, love the rocket contrails.

Scott Steinberg (marketing executive, Sony Computer Entertainment America) has downplayed the commercial viability of the his competitor’s exclusive content for Grand Theft Auto IV – “I personally don’t think there’s going to be a huge percentage of folks who jump into downloadable content for another price when they’re still playing through the core product.”

Steinberg goes on to pitch Sony’s own exclusives, saying that “not only do you get Grand Theft Auto, but you’ll get Metal Gear Solid 4, you’ll get Gran Turismo and these are also brands that have moved hardware units.” Calling those three games “the elite of the elite products that actually enable hardware to be sold with software.”