7.5; seven and a half out of ten; seventy five percent. In the United Kingdom, it equates to achieving an A grade in any standardised school test, which would suggest that the work was made up of content that was at least three quarters excellence. Which seems pretty fair. With that in mind, why is the internet up in arms over a review of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword by GameSpot, which has awarded the game an overall score of, you guessed it, 7.5?

The answer lies in our general attitude to review scores and our expectations of what constitutes a “good” rating – and how we’ve been spoiled on 10/10s.

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Stocks and shares: they’re usually a boring thing responsible for causing financial meltdowns across the world and occasionally bringing in a small fortune following a timely gamble. Very, very occasionally I’m pretty interested in watching them, the investor predictions and seeing how they affect stuff. Generally, they’re a good marker of how exactly a company is doing, if they’re floated publicly (i.e. stocks and shares can be traded).

So, uh, with Nintendo’s Tokyo Game Show presentation over, let’s have a look at the history of Nintendo’s shares over the past decade or so. It might be interesting, and will contain some speculation of my own.

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Every month, when that electric bill shows up in the mail, I have to wonder where all of my money is going.  I try to turn off the lights when I leave a room, I never let the air conditioner run while no one’s home, and I no longer cook entire turkeys in my microwave.  So why am I still paying so much each month? Could it be because of my game consoles?

I looked into the energy consumption of my game systems to see if they were the culprits.  Follow me past the jump to see what I found out.

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Resident Evil 5 got it right.  Dead Space 2 got it right.  Alice: Madness Returns got it right.  Why can’t every game get it right?

I hate playing through a game, earning cool weapons and upgrades, and losing all of that stuff when I start a new game.  If I don’t have the option to take my upgrades, cash reserves and weapons into a new game, then, as a game designer, you’ve messed up.

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Seriously. This exists. I don't know why.

OK, OK.  I must admit, news is a bit slow for us over the pond who can’t make it to PAX (and if you are, get your PAXtra Life tickets!) and are still waiting for Deus Ex to hit the shelves.  Regardless, this Wii accessory simply made of equal measures of ‘WTF?’ and comedy gold that I thought I ought to give you lot a chance to poke fun at it.

Anyways, it’s my dubious pleasure to present to you the Inflatakart Wii Racing Game Peripheral from those chaps (who clearly have nothing better to do) from NordicGames.  Now, I know what you’re thinking – a lot of Wii accessories are full of hot air.  Well, this one’s different.  You fill it up with the air in your lungs, so it’s merely full of tepid air.

Find out more after the jump!

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I love music, and I love video games. In my view, the  two combined are even more sublime (and less fattening) than peanut butter and chocolate.

Writing up this 5-part series on the best video game soundtracks has been an enriching experience for me, as I have discovered how much thought, resources and talent are poured into making these games both pleasures to play and listen to. I hope that you too have enjoyed checking out these tunes and have found a new appreciation for them.

Now put on your headphones, and let’s complete this journey.

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On June 8th, after the three major console developers concluded their press conferences for E3 2011, I made the colossally stupid decision to write an article suggesting that Microsoft came out ahead from a short-term business perspective.  My article wasn’t colossally stupid because it was ill-informed, missing facts or poorly written, but because I dared to suggest that Microsoft, the most hated console developer that has ever developed a console, might have gotten something right.

The funny thing is that throughout the article I explained over and over that I was not stating that Microsoft had won in the eyes of gamers, but rather ONLY in the minds of the business people who were looking at these companies from the perspective of investments.  Yet this couldn’t stem the tide of fanboys who came screaming for my head on a stick.

That brings us to today, a mere 51 days later, and the business world has already made their decision.  Was I right?  Or were the fanboys who screamed and screamed and screamed the ones who were vindicated? (more…)

You don’t play main-console Zelda games looking for massive innovation. There are items and dungeons and so help me you’re going to sit there you’re going to like it. What Zelda is good for is incremental improvement. Skyward Sword has methods that really streamline and improve the experience.

What kind of methods? I’ll tell you if you shut up for a minute and stop interrupting me. Jeez.

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Calling a game “Kirby Wii” when there’s already a Kirby game on the Wii is a little disrespectful, right? It’s like a new kid showing up at school for the first time and being told that someone’s already called Edward so they need to be “Ted” instead.

No one wants to be called “Ted”.

Thing is, Kirby Wii is probably the best title for the latest upcoming Kirby game. It’s more traditional than the last entry and, woah, it’s on the Wii!

It’s also pretty great! Let me tell you about how great it is!

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Seriously, this is NOT a joke.

I know what some you are thinking and no, it’s not true: running your car in reverse will not turn back your odometer, Ferris Bueller lied to you. You may also be thinking that nobody would be dumb enough to make a motion-controlled dance game based on the work of only one musical group, or that any group with a shred of self respect would whore themselves out in such a blatant manner. You’d think they’d at least demand their game be of the utmost quality as a sign or respect to their fans and humanity in general. You might think all of those things but the reality is so much worse.

This is no joke. The Black Eyed Peas Experience IS real and coming to Kinect and Wii. Boom Boom Boom. (more…)

When those summer storms start brewing and you find yourself stuck in the house with five kids and nothing to do, the local Redbox and it’s $2 a night game rentals starts looking really appealing. Last week we picked up the Family Party: 90 Great Games Party Pack for the Wii. You would think that with 90 “Great” games this would have kept the kids entertained for hours, or days even. Well, as I’ve learned, more isn’t always better…like having five kids instead of just one. Check out my one night rental review of this game and save yourself two bucks.
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