Posts By Mat Growcott

Americans "saving the world" during World War II isn't a new thing in entertainment. If you believed the Hollywood version of events, the bravest of the brave all came from the US and everybody else died rather embarrassingly or wouldn't have saved the day without the help of said US soldiers. Even games like Company of Heroes 2, which hints at something vaguely fact-based, isn't above painting certain people in a very good light.

Since Ratchet and Clank propelled Insomniac into the role of "Masters of Weaponry," they've done everything they could to hold onto the title. Fuse is the video game form of their attempts. From the very beginning, mad weaponry is not only a feature of the game but the game itself, embodying not just your actions and means of attack, but the plot and design as well. Unfortunately, this isn't enough.

Target have released an advertisement for the Wii U in which the console on show is anything but. If you haven't yet bought one, you'd be forgiven for not knowing what a Wii U console actually looks like. Nintendo spent most of their time advertising focussing on the pad and on the improved visuals over the Wii. If you're a major company trying to sell a bunch of these devices, however, it might make a little sense to actually check your advertisements ...

The next Tomb Raider game (Tomb Raider 2 presumably, although it seems a little late in the day for that) is already "well into development" and will be available for next-generation consoles. Although nothing specific has been said, it's fair to presume it'll at least end up on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.

The 3DS has been out for over two years now, and has yet to succumb to the wave of piracy that the R4 and similar devices brought to the DS. That, however, is about to change very shortly, as a new 3DS flashcart is about to be released that will allow users to play 3DS roms on their system.

Rise of the Triad is one of those success stories that just don't happen enough in the gaming industry. Essentially a fan game, it was created by people who loved the original Rise of the Triad (released in 1994), people from across the world who worked from their homes, put money in just for the love of the project.

If you're a Trials fan who has yet to buy the rather excellent Trials Evolution, and if you're sporting a Nvidia graphics cards, you might want to hold off for a little while longer. The latest graphics drivers don't much like the motorbike-based bone breaking sim, with plenty of people claiming they can't even boot it up.

The ERSB have released their rating for upcoming Wii U exclusive Sonic Lost World, and it's almost surprising what they found. Although it still managed to get a 10+ E for Everyone rating, it's in the description that things seem to take a turn for the more adult. While some of these phrases might not have batted an eyelid in a kid's product thirty years ago (and even then, it'd be pushing it), by today's standards they're positively vulgar.

ASDA have announced that they will no longer be stocking Wii U units in stores, nor will they stock games or accessories. To those of you who didn't buy a Wii U at launch, this might be news. To the rest of us, it's been a long, slow, predictable road with only one conclusion. And the worst thing? The small amount of shelf space, the complete lack of display, the mixed interest... it could easily all happen again when the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One ...

Take this one with a pinch of salt, but a number of developments around EarthBound might indicate that something big is on the way. Why take it with a pinch of salt? Because there's nothing definitive here. There's nothing that out and out says "expect Mother 3 to be localized very soon," but at the same time, there certainly does seem to be something happening on the EarthBound side of things.