As a pretty hardcore gamer I'll give almost anything a whirl, but there are definitely genres which have never quite clicked for me. These include flight simulators, racing simulation (as opposed to arcade sty1e racers which I love) and bizarrely Wii boxing. Above all though, rhythm games have always flummoxed me. Given my passion for rock music Guitar Hero is obviously a hugely enticing prospect, but paying £70 for the privilege of sucking seems excessive. Fortunately Zavvi celebrated the hideously overpriced release of Rock Band by dropping the price of Guitar Hero III to just £45 for the bank holiday weekend. For those counting, that means you could buy three wireless guitars for the same price as Rock Band.

"Really?" asked Kirsten with a quizzically raised eyebrow, before proceeding to play for about three times longer than I that night. The easy mode is definitely a cop-out but is well designed enough that many songs are still empowering to play through. Mostly, though, you realise how many notes you are not playing and dread the higher settings. I'm already rocking through medium now, with a couple of 5-star performances under my belt. It's worth mentioning I find the "boss battles" in GH3 a bit odd. The idea of me beating Tom Morello or Slash in a guitar duel seems wrong on so many levels. I doubt that I'll ever master expert (five buttons is probably a bit much for my poor four fingers!) but it's been fun realising I can enjoy this stuff without excelling. Now I need to go find a copy of Guitar Hero II…

(this post was replicated from my website)

Now that it seems to have reached a resolution I thought I'd weigh in on the Bad Company DLC furore with a slightly less emotional response than certain others. For those unaware of the background, Bad Company was to have around 20 unlockable weapons, half of which could be unlocked in-game, the rest of which could only be purchased either through a limited edition gold release or via Xbox Live.

Aside from imbalancing the game itself, people were more worried about the dangerous precedent it set. These are clearly part of the original game, not some expanded content, so why were they expected to pay more? Polarised views arose with at one extreme Sarcastic Gamer going totally over-the-top in promoting a boycott of Bad Company (now apparently vindicated by its success), while more rational posts tended to be attempts to justify EA's decision to charge that largely missed the point.

Attempts to rationalise it centred around this being a trade-off for the rising cost of development, while comparisons arose with games in the Far Eastern market that rely heavily on DLC for revenue while giving the basic game away for free (largely in an effort to curb the effect of piracy). Let's be clear: this was no brave new attempt at an alternative finance model - this was a full priced game with the DLC cost on top.

EA simply wanted two bites at the cherry and the uproar arose because this is the clearest example yet of content intentionally being held back for DLC. People were not unwilling to pay for the game, nor were many entirely averse to DLC - the complaint is effectively being asked to pay twice: once to finance development of the game by purchasing it (at full price) and again to buy content already created in that process.

Perhaps more interesting is that the hugely negative reaction was enough to change EA's mind. DICE released an official announcement that they were removing the original concept and all weapons would be unlockable within the game. Perhaps the Kane & Lynch fiasco has warned publishers that such a community reaction can have serious negative financial implications. For the gaming industry, the days where there was no such thing as bad publicity have swiftly vanished.

I really enjoyed Ninja Gaiden (Black - having missed it first time around) on the original Xbox, being impressed by its unforgivingly brutal difficulty despite some frustrating amounts of backtracking. As a result I have long been awaiting a proper sequel (i.e. not just the same game with an arbitrary colour or Greek letter tacked onto the end!), watching Ninja Gaiden 2's progress with considerable interest.

As a result the wonderful Devil May Cry 4 very nearly passed me by. Fortunately seeing it for a ridiculously low £19.96 @ Amazon convinced me to pick it up. It shares many of the same characteristics with fluid action and highly impressive graphics. The art styIe in particular has won me over. While Ninja Gaiden seems to be taking a rather dreary, stereotypically "next-gen" approach, DMC4 appears far more vibrant. It is true that it shares washed out colours in some of its architecture but the colourful highlights and vibrant outdoor areas really bring the scenery to life.

I worry now that by comparison Ninja Gaiden 2 may underwhelm. I still expect better gameplay and a more nuanced combat system with suitably insane action, but I get the impression the overall experience will simply be less fun. It is quite possible that they have been holding back the better level design to show off nearer to release. A demo is due next month that will hopefully allay my fears, because otherwise I can't see myself needing another combat-heavy action game so soon if visually it's just not arresting - I'll probably end up leaving it alone and catching up again sometime next year. The danger is that it'll be Black all over again, with people only playing on its second release...

Xbox Live Arcade was a great concept when first announced: smaller downloadable games that allowed Xbox 360 owners to play smaller chunks or casual games between those inevitable marathon Halo sessions (see what I did there?). Meanwhile what we ended up with was something slightly different. Swiftly flooded with direct regurgitations of old arcade games, nothing quite lived up to the promise of early release Geometry Wars and so one can sympathise with the recent outburst of the N+ developers. A couple of years and over 100 XBLA releases later there are several standout titles, but I await each week's release with more trepidation than anticipation.

Several sites have run retrospectives of the service picking out their favourites from the past 2 years, but it's such a personal choice that none of them seemed quite right. As such I thought I'd highlight my purely personal top 5 (in no particular order) and then discuss several other important releases afterwards.

1. Catan - not only was this was a perfect translation of a very compelling strategy boardgame as players attempts to develop their settlement on the island, it also set the bar for visuals in this sort of endeavour. The "living world" skin brought the board to life in 3D and fully animated. While it may take slightly longer, this is the way board games should be translated to videogame, taking full advantage of the medium. This is hardly a new lesson - after all what made battle chess so popular was less about the chess and more that the rook ate people.

2. Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords - despite it's horribly unwieldy title, this RPG puzzler hybrid proved the most addictive release ever to hit XBLA, and managed to perfectly straddle the traditionally vast chasm between the hardcore and casual gamer. That my girlfriend and I were both equally addicted, often finding ourselves awake at 3am with no idea what happened, speaks volumes. Although at its simplest merely a bejeweled clone with an awfully cheesy story, it was definitely more than the sum of its parts.

3. Rez HD - the most recent title on the list, Rez is really just an HD update to a fairly old game. Yet the original was arguably before its time and for a game designed around the audiovisual experience, it hit its prime on XBLA. The bizarrely inspired ability to make spare controllers vibrate in time to the music gives you an idea where this trippy title is going, but there is a depth to the experience not visible in other "stoner game" examples like the mess of Jeff Minter's Space Giraffe (apologies to its fans, but that one was not for me).

4. UNO - I felt strange putting this on here, because its strength lies solely in the underlying, well-crafted but incredibly simple card game. Virtually nothing was added in the translation here, yet it has clocked up more hours than any game bar Puzzle Quest in our household. There is something to be said for straight translation with smooth animation and soothing ambience, even if it doesn't blow you away.

5. Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved - the oldest game on the list, many argue has been superceded by other games, but to me this still highlights all that XBLA should stand for. A stunningly simple idea taken from Bizarre Creations' PGR series, this was visually impressive and infuriatingly challenging. If only all simple ideas worked out this well.

Those are my favourites and I hope I've justified them reasonably well but I'd love to hear your picks. Meanwhile I just want to highlight a few other games that I think taught us something about the downloadable game market...

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - despite being graphically inferior to many of its peers this straight port was the first game to breach Microsoft's strict filesize limit, and showed just how good value for money an XBLA game could be with just masses of content to this huge RPG. It also made us realise how Microsoft had shot itself in the foot by releasing the "Core" (now "Arcade") system without a hard drive.

Pac Man: Championship Edition - while I generally despise the mass of lazy arcade ports that fill up XBLA (they should be free browser based games, and many of them are) if you must do it then this is how. Work out why people loved the original and recreate the vibe with completely new visuals and find something - anything - that you can tweak just enough to keep it fresh.

Prince of Persia CIassic - but really when it comes to bringing over old games, this is what I hoped to see more of. It faithfully recreated the 2D gameplay of the original PoP game but with completely new 3D-rendered graphics. The power of the Xbox 360 is wasted by pure ports, when this shows how fluid old-school gameplay can still be preserved with lush visuals.

Undertow - Microsoft's peace offering for some patchy service as Xbox Live expanded, this was an example of a pretty good original title that just didn't sell. Partly it's the danger of multiplayer focus an XBLA title, since no one can be certain which games will take off, unlike the AAA major console releases. Partly it's the fact marketing is so limited for downloadable games. Partly it's that people don't view the service as one reserved for high quality content.

I love choice but personally I would much rather see 1 release a month if they were all of the quality of the games listed in this article. With money pouring in as people continue to buy these cheap £4-10 games, there's little incentive to stem the tide, so it looks like we'll have to keep digging around to find those few worthwhile gems.

Dr Tanya Byron's report is out and is actually far more even handed than many in the games industry had feared. She approaches the debate without the emotive bias that tends to surround the arguments, but she doesn't exactly tell us anything we don't already know. In fact we've raised all these points on the forums every time these issues have been discussed.

First off, here are the salient points regarding videogames from the executive summary to her report:

She acknowledges that the age rating cIassifications are adequate and robust but suggests that parents need to be educated in their usage. This is true up to a point. PEGI ratings are unfamiliar logos to many parents despite how clear they are to children. However the BBFC ratings are immediately recognisable from films yet parents still fail to heed these. This, I would argue, is less about education and more about a fundamental social change where parents need to become more involved with their children's entertainment passtimes.

And it is here her suggestions are fuzzier. Yes we must pool the resources of all involved but to do what. Her swimming pool analogy is interesting, and "teaching children to swim" in the ocean of choice before them in the digital world is vital. The problem, however, is that parents respect the dangers of drowning but many do not respect the dangers of unsupervised access to digital entertainment. Scare tactics used by the media in covering the dangers have simply caused greater confusion.

So we can be relieved she has acknowledged that the cIassifications board does its job and that the retailers must be careful (with legal penalties as appropriate) in upholding the age ratings. But we all know this does not prevent games getting into the hands of minors. Without a practical strategy for a fundamental shift in parental perception the rest is irrelevant.

And yet we have ignored the ultimate solution: wait. It's far from perfect and doesn't help kids now. However with gaming becoming a mainstream activity in the current generation, those about to have children actually know all about this and are far more aware of the risks and their respective responsibilities. While I generally decry hiding one's head in the sand, I am hopeful that this is one of those rare problems that might actually just go away.

To date my community involvement with GameSpot has been restricted to the forums. At level 25 and nearly 3000 posts later, it's clear that I've spent quite a while here, but having just renewed my Total Access membership yet again I feel I should be making better use. The blog feature is one I've barely touched aside from some comical bits of box art to alleviate boredom (GTA: Cloud City remaining my favourite!).

The primary reason is that I actually have my own site at meewella.com with a blog that I've been keeping since some time in 2003. The problem is that only around half of my core readership are gamers, so in-depth game-related posts are divisive and I tend to keep them sporadic, avoiding some interesting stories entirely.

So that's where my GS blog, The cheese was innocent!, steps in. It won't be a general blog (though I'll point to interesting posts on my main blog now and then) but will let me express my passion for gaming with a totally likeminded audience rather than risk alienating readers over at my site. Equally I can point interested readers over there to articles here as necessary.

So it's something of an experiment to begin with: we'll see how it goes and with luck there'll even be the odd piece of amusing box art in store...

• Real-Time Peaceful Protests On a Massive Scale


• A legion of more than 250 new and unique protesters split over 21 movements, each with their own new special abilities that open up a wealth of intuitive hunger strike tactics


• Advanced Protest System: Zoom to the frontline and witness the slow, visceral peaceful confrontation enhanced by new spectacular animations. Protesters sit and accept attack moves and string together placating combo responses and finishing statements before scanning the area for their next act of civil disobedience


• Advanced Lighting and Richer Environments: A newly enhanced graphics engine brings the environment to life like never before. The
  stunningly realistic landscapes feature detailed vegetation with sprawling settlements. Newly detailed dynamic weather effects beat down on new terrain types illuminated by enhanced lighting that captures every glint and spark as you hunger strike under a gleaming sun


• Enhanced Multiplayer Protests: New multiplayer protest modes will ease the player's conscience and keep the online community peaceful


• A New Overcoming-All-Odds Campaign: A huge campaign spanning from the years 1869-1948, that will take the player beyond caste discrimination up until the dawn of women's liberty. An extended campaign map will allow passage in the Dandi March and Swaraj - self-rule for India


• New Agreement and Settlement Types