EA’s Rock Band was going to be the shining light in an otherwise dull summer (GTA excluded). I say “was” because unless I feel like remortgaging my house or taking on an extra paper round the price tag of £180 assocated with it is somewhat mindboggling.

Whilst I understand that shipping the guitars, drums and microphone peripherals is no doubt a costly business, how many people are going to walk into their local Woolworths and walk out with something that costs four, nearly five, times as much as other new releases. It is as much that psychological effect that is going to stop people’s wallets from opening than any material evaluation of worth.

Just to put that into context, you could buy a Wii for the same price as Rock Band. That’s a whole console, plus waggle sticks and a damn fine game to boot.

It all comes down to whether you think the experience is worth it, and for me the price is simply too high. There is no way I could justify to myself dropping that large a portion of my wage on a single game, let alone Ali who would also want to know just exactly where that large plastic drum kit was going to live.

So, does anyone out there feel they can drop a few ponies on this?* *Translated: whose house can I invade to try this beast out?

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When the Government launched a study into video games back in October, I must say that I was worried about the outcome. With Labour’s own Keith Vaz only last month telling us all about the “virtual rape” that can occur in such things, you could be forgiven for thinking that certain quarters were out to get the industry, but the report which emerged today seems to be very positive and indeed sensible.

There are no cries for the banning of violent titles simply because little Timmy’s mum is too stupid to realise what the large “18″ on the front of the box labelled Manhunt means, instead there is a call for a unified classification system - combining the BBFC and PEGI system that currently operate side by side.

Whilst I don’t think that either of the these systems are confusing, I can see why parents who are suddenly presented with a box by their offspring could be confused. The BBFC variant maybe familiar too them but the vast range of symbols that can be seen on PEGI games are not always that straight forward.

To confuse things further, I also hear of kids telling their parents that the age on the box actually means the recommended skill level rather than a restriction.

Given all of that, their recommendation to increase parent understanding of whatever ratings are forthcoming are welcome. Having also worked in retail, I know that there are reasonably adequate laws surrounding this area but so often parents either used to waive advice or simply didn’t understand.

I’ve never been against the classification of games, I don’t think many people have, but a few have often thought that it may lead to more censorship as their titles are more highly scrutinised. That I doubt, a higher rating for your game, maybe, but given the BBFC’s history on banning games I don’t think two in ten-years could be counted as extreme. Ultimately, if it can help drag the reputation of this form of entertainment up then I’m all for it.

At the time of writing the official Byron Review website currently shows the Interim Update but I am hoping the full report will appear soon.

Despite coming out last November, it has taken me this long to plug Call of Duty 4 in and get online to experience the game that is keeping Halo 3 off of the top spot of Xbox Live’s Most Played chart.

I was too engrossed in being a Spartan to switch to this more grounded combat but having seen my office-mate Errrm constantly play CoD at lunchtime, I thought now was the time.

At first I hated it. As is always the way when you switch from nice comfortable surroundings to somewhere a bit foreign, everything is out of place and just wrong: sound effects seemed as though they had no origin; you died every twenty seconds; maps were disorientating; and all the weapons seemed unresponsive.

The problem was obviously I was bringing my adventurous Halo play into a game that required a bit more thinking before throwing yourself into harm’s way. Two bullets could easily send you to the respawn screen and once I had accepted that, things started to get better.

A good marksman will be able to pick you off very quickly in the open so camouflage and cover are key. You’ll never find a fire fight out in the open (or at least, one that lasts very long) and so it hearkens back to my Rainbow Six days of caution and constantly edging around looking down your sights.

Behind the main game you’ll also find and RPG. Not Rocket Propelled Grenade, as it could easily have been, but a Role Playing Game, because for every good thing you do, i.e. assists, kills, recon activation, you gain XP which will allow you to gain promotion through the ranks, unlocking guns and abilities as you go.

It feels slightly cheap that the better players will have the better guns when you first begin but, as with all XP games, even those less-than-average players will be able to grind their way to the top to gain some loot.

Some of the abilities just feel cheesy, like the ability to drop a live grenade just before you step into the light, but most allow you to balance of your stopping power with your own sturdiness.

Unfortunately, there are a couple too many “cheesy” ways to get kills; given a good enough kill streak players can actually call in attack helicopters and air strikes. It is certainly something to reward players but I can’t decide whether this is madness or genius on behalf of the designers. Sure it mixes a standard shooter up but the majority of the time it just feels cheap as you die at the hands of an unseen enemy.

Having said that, CoD does a lot more right than it does wrong. Whilst I didn’t think its more considered pace would be my cup of tea, the added extras of unlockables and the sheer challenge of adapting to the environement have won me over.

This may not replace my Halo, but it sure is a good compliment to it.

Already this morning I’ve spent twenty minutes battling with a neighbour’s wind beaten garage door in a bid to get it open and get their car out. Not good, especially when my Weetabix hadn’t kicked in and only the night before I had been doing exactly the same thing in a fraction of the time by effortlessly hammering Y.

Why can’t real life be as easy? Rather than a car, the garage last night contained some stink bombs, a nerd and some Jocks beating up said nerd. It was in the world of Jimmy Hopkins and Rockstar’s Bully and, of course, I stood up to the Jocks and wedgied them all.

As with many of my games recently, I bought Bully because other people had said some very positive things about it, rather than my own enthusiasm. My apathy, however, is now gone and I’ve found it a very solid game; the best comparison I can make is that it’s like its stablemate GTA but set around a New England boarding school and with the added daily structure of lessons.

Whilst GTA may have more of a sandbox feel to it with its cars, guns and cops combo, the structure gameplay within Bully I feel is far better. There are many more options open to you at a single time as aside from the main storyline, lessons are ongoing, fellow pupils frequently ask for your assistance and there are always ladies to woo.

What I always find a good sign is that you’ll be running around the school and the local town constantly getting distracted from what you originally intended to do as something new and shiny crops into view.

Unfortunately, the little voice in my head keeps saying is, “if this is GTA in a school, are you going to want to play an actual GTA when it comes out next month?” We’ll see. With the improvements in narrative and structure from Rockstar’s crime simulator to Bully, any further progression and they seem to be going along the right path to make IV a very tempting prospect.

As threatened, I picked up Beautiful Katamari last weekend. A simple game where you role is to roll a giant sticky ball around the world, picking up objects so that it grows from the size of a marble to the size of a planet.

Several people, those who dislike fun, have already raise an eyebrow at my purchase but I can’t emphasise enough how pure this game is when it comes to enjoyment. At the basic level it’s just silly, true, but you’ll find out it’s actually a puzzler as growing your Katamari against the clock is no cake walk.

After a few sessions of rolling, interspersed with giggles upon capturing a lolloping bunny in my ball of doom, I began to notice a certain depth to the game, too. Peeling back the layers you find that it’s got a quite complex scoring mechanism as for really high scores you must be selective about what you roll up. This severely ramps up the difficulty level as not only do you have to be choosy about what you pick up but one eye is still on the sands of time.

The craziest mode, however, is surely co-op. At first seemingly a gimmick, two of you control the same Katamari and if you’re both not pushing in the same direction then it’s not going anywhere. After a while, though, something sparks and you get a real sensation of team work, manhandling a giant, sticky boulder round the cosmos.

Genius.

I still don’t have broadband at my place. Not only is this annoying because I’m missing a healthy dose of Halo practise but all my Xbox Live Arcade games are locked out to me.

For those of you who don’t know, when you buy and download a Xbox Live Arcade game the license that comes with it is tied to your console. If you move your hard drive to another machine then you are effectively blocked from playing your games unless you can connect to the internet so Live can verify that you do actually own those titles.

With this in mind, as I have upgraded to a new hard drive, copied all my games across to the newer model and have no access to the internet, I basically have a couple of dozen games that I have bought and yet cannot play. Whilst I can see why they want to do this to avoid piracy, this doesn’t half suck for someone who is legitimately in this situation.

Come on Eclipse! Sort out my broadband! I want my Rez back!

Supposedly, the Games Developers Conference is for learning. Or, at least, that’s what the entourage from Rare attending the event told me as they jetted off, chinking their martini glasses. And yet throughout the week there has been unveilings from publishers, rhetoric from platform holders and business men telling everyone why they should buy their middleware.

I’m not denying that somewhere within San Francisco that some lectures may be taken place but for an academic and industry event there seems an awful lot of media and salesmen infiltrating the schedule. Just looking through the frontpage of any gaming site shows there are plenty of hands-on and previews being rustled up to warrant their trips out there.

Whilst these stories may be great for the gamer, the fact that GDC is supposed to be an event for the development does worry me. In a world eager to try and fill the gap left by the old E3 I really don’t think a gathering based around sharing ideas with the rest of the developer community is the place to do it. Already several of the seminars seem to be presentations pimping a new game or attempting to flog a new bit of tech but how much can actually be learnt from them?

Hopefully my cynical question will be answered next week when Robot Minion and Pirate Steve return armed not only with peanut brittle but also their own views of the show.

And, yes, I am bitter about not going.

Whilst they may not be able to make me want to live it up whilst I’m going down, the announcement of an Aerosmith edition of Guitar Herodoes fill me with hope. For if Activision are planning on doing themed versions for everyone’s favourite plastic guitar, then it opens the doors wide in terms of possible future content.

Right now we have to wait for the dribs and drabs that reach us via downloads but if they embrace the Sing Star model we could have a new compilation pack every couple of months.

Since 2006, Sing Star have launched over twenty different versionsaround the world. Every one is specialised in a different genre, national taste or decade but each of them are there to broaden the appeal of the series to snare in yet more unsuspecting singers. From Bollywood to Norway, Rock to Pop, Sing Star tries to supply everyone with something and no one could argue that’s a bad thing.

So could we see the Guitar Hero brand being associated with more bands and genres? Hopefully. Not only would it be a good way to retain its presence at retail and differentiate itself from Rock Band, but as it stands that they have already done an 80’s edition and seemingly have various trademarks lined up, both giving further credence to this possibility.

Here’s hoping for an Ocean Colour Scene version some time soon.

A comment last week started me thinking about how I try to get through my pile of games. At this time of year, coming off the back of Christmas’ usual glut of releases, I always have a reasonable stash to play through, but how to go about it?

Do I play each one through until the end credits, getting the most for my money, or do I sample each one a little and pack in more over the year? I’m sorry to disappoint the completists amongst you, but it is definitely the latter.

Whilst this system may mean there’s a chance of getting distracted and never finishing a truly great game, I would rather give a variety a try and get a wider range of experiences than just concentrate on a single release. After all, if a game really is that good it should bubble back up through my pile.

Admittedly things have changed over time; when I was younger, pocket money was a cherished resource and birthday presents were to be appreciated, meaning that games lasted far longer as you never knew when the next one would come.

Now the flipside is true as I definitely have more disposable income but my free time is somewhat reduced. Oh, the irony.

One of the games that I’ve failed to be mentioned from my festive haul is Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed. In between Halo practise and demon slicing I’ve been scaling the holy land in search of truth, justice and tall buildings that I can swan dive off of.

Set around Jerusalem and the Crusades, the main bulk of the game sees you scampering around after a handful of nasty men. You learn their whereabouts by eavesdropping on, interrogating and pick pocketing locals, allowing you to the get close enough to then dispatch them.

As you first search out your leads in the bustling streets, these core features are at interesting and novel, however, when you realise that you must do these same three actions over and over again for each of your targets things start becoming a chore.

The saving grace is the exploration as within each city you can climb or traverse anything that you can get your hands (or feet) on. Every sill, beam and brick can be scaled, letting you rise above the streets with ease and cross the beautifully conceived city via the rooftops.

Combat, too, can be an enjoyable affair as you can take on hordes of guards at once. Although the skills earned throughout make things far too easy as time progresses, the ability to throw guards through market stalls or vault walls effortlessly means you can execute fights scenes straight out of Hollywood.

For me, though, not even the free-running can disguise what is an interesting concept but stretched far too thinly. The depth is simply not there and the storyline, although intriguing, is not enough to make me want to continue this repetition.

Sorry, to clarify, one of the storylines is intriguing, the other infuriating. This dual thread is wholly unnecessary and only serves the purpose of allowing Ubisoft to stamp the word “franchise” all over the product and shatter any sense of immersion the player had in his world.

Having said all of that, though, I did like what it tried to do and so for the highpoints that Assassin’s Creed achieved I think it should be commended. Put this one down as a damn good first try.

7/10