Split Second is a term that most women relate to men in the bedroom but for once, Split Second could be the best thing that could happen to your relationship. With your console that is. As many review sites get to put their hands on the juicy review code, we are left with a smattering of Split Second goodness, which is the demo recently released for 360 and PS3.

For those not in the know, Split Second is a racing game that takes a lot of inspiration from Burnout and then adds some special feautures of its own. After being introduced that this is a new reality tv phenomenon, the typical way to add reality to what seems a completely impossible idea (Deathrace, Manhunt,Gamer the film), Split Second explains to you it’s own idea of power-ups. Not to be confused with Blur that also displays its power-ups to you via the rear bumper of the car, SS (AS i’m lazy, from now on Split Second is SS) explains how you build up this power meter. Whilst the music plays in the background with the epic horns, you learn that by drifting, drafting etc you build up this gauge that allows you to release devastating ‘power-plays’ on your competitors in the vein of trackside objects. However, track side objects does not just mean a few blocks get on your way, o no, this is where the shit starts to go off.

The demo allows you to race around the airport track, the one seen in all the videos of Split Second so far and destroy it, but only if you are a good enough driver. Bringing the communications tower on top of a rival has to be one of the most creative ways to take down an opponent, an event that not only makes you clap and cheer but also makes Mario think his red shell is now a little inadequate. However, with there being only one track to race in the demo, the events do become rather samey and it does seem to easy to win.

I have played through the demo 10 times now, and I have won every time, maybe as it is on easy or maybe not but still even with these cataclysmic event going on all around me, I still managed to hold it together and win. Why was this? My only theory is if you keep up enough speed you can get past anything. An opponent attempted to smack me around a bit by landing the plane on my head. Sorry son, but I dodged that and the same can be said for the comms tower. This is the idea that the game is based around and if it is possible to dodge them with ease, maybe some fine tuning needs to occur.

The graphics are top notch, the whole feeling of speed is incredible. You really get that heart in the mouth moments when a right angled turn appears in the distance after you have been banging around at a constant speed for a lap or so.

Overall, I am looking forward to the game coming out, but then you come to the problem between getting SS or Blur. At the moment, my money is going on Blur.

Kleenex profits have just gone sky high with the release of Little Big Planet 2’s (does the apostrophe go there, I don’t know) teaser trailer. Many people around the world have been taking some happy time to enjoy this video of epicness.

Needless to say, Sony and Media Molecule may have taken the User Generated Content idea to a completely new level.

It was nice to hear a big thank you from Sony saying how us (the lovely attractive people we are) made the game grow from 50 levels to 2 million levels!!! That’s ridiculous, thats like starting a colony of one beaver and one chicken and creating a multi universe of stripy blind chickens. So what have we got to look forward to? Well…let me start with neon, lots of neon, so much neon Tron Legacy will look like a 1960’s black and white film! Secondly, Sony have given us the ability to create our own mini games. Sure it was fun making a massive ramp and pulling your mates sackboys down to thier imminant death. but now we can chase each other on rats, play Break-a-Block. Someone is going to make Bejewled aren’t they….my…life…is…over.

One thing that did bring me to an unexpected climax (yes i do love my sexual inuendos. (yes in your end-o) was a quick glimpse of the sub menu that magically appears out of your sack boys buttox. IT WAS MASSSSIVE! imagine all the stickers, imagine all the costumes, imagine all the other useless stuff that is included but somehow created hours of fun chasing each other with cow face stickers!!! This Little Big Planet is going to be just like the sticker collection…..HUGE!

One last thing before I leave you to go off and encounter your own magical big ass planet was when the words “digital puppetry’ were used. Is Little Big Planet 2 going to allow us to jump inside a robot and walk with it, does this mean we can get inside out favorite characters like terminator, r2-d2, war machine, Ariel from the little mermaid. Hey its my little big planet I can fulfill whatever personal fantasy I choose!!! But this aside this is going to be a great addition and hopefully lead to some great movie inspired levels created by, yes you guessed it, you!

So LBP2 is going to be bigger, better, faster than ever before. Im sure my life will come to an end for at least 3 months when this is released and when this does happen, no one disturb me, or I shall cover your face with a cow sticker and try to drag you places!

Watch it on the main site or below:

The title of this feature for all that are musically unaware, is a homage to Ian Dury’s song, ‘Reasons to by Cheerful’ a dry look at the slightly boring world that surrrounded him. The same goes for my Wii. However, this sad, dust attracting box is leaving me for a new home at a slighty deprecated value than what I bought for it. But why am I selling it I hear the Nintendo fan boys shout? Why are you selling the party wonder that is the Nintendo Wii, a console based on bringing people together so they can fling arms and potentially destroy all objects within their radius. The reasons for letting go of my fandom and the chance to play potentially the best platformer of 2010 follow:

For those not in the know, 2010, the start of the tenners, has the return of Italian Plumber booked securely into its release schedule. However, here in lies the problem with the Wii, the central plight the Nintendo has yet to plunder.

The Wii Games Market

The Wii market is polluted with two types of titles. The first include the words ‘play’, ‘family’ and ‘collection’ whilst the second type of wii games try to incorporate the Wii’s motion sensitivity to do everything in the game. It is this overkill that in my mind killed any chance of the Wii ever appealing to more than just a casual gamer. This is has not done Nintendo and Mr Miyamato any harm as the sales figures of the Wii are astronomical compared to any other next gen system (Kerchinngggg). But what it has done is drive away proper gamers who have returned to their Xbox’s and PS3’s.

Games such as Madworld, No More Heroes were hit with news stories that centered around the violence and gore that they were bringing to Nintys kiddy system, so any chance of these games succeeded were grinded up inside the PEGI pepper mill. On the subject of Sega making another super mature game like Madworld, Mike Hayes, Sega boss, responsed with a possible umm and arr:

What’s your strategy as far as core games on Wii go after the problems you had with MadWorld? Are you reducing your presence in that area?

No, not at all – you’ll see that at E3. One of the things is whether they’re super-mature – that’s a different thing. But the Wii market is huge. Going for the super-hardcore? Probably, the answer is not. But do we think there are edgy games we can bring out on Wii? Yes.

But what does he mean by edgy? Will sega consider bringing out games such as ‘The Club’ on the Wii, heavily flawed yes, but is that what is meant by non super mature. Sega are very committed to trying to break the hardcore market on the Wii and have shown this commitment through the release of The Conduit, even though it was panned by the majority of reviewers (Zero Punctuations review is key) it still managed to do well, hence being a foundation for Sega to bring their core games to the Wii

Hayes: We actually regard The Conduit as a success. We shipped 300,000 units, sold through half of those and now it’s at the point where it’s selling consistently at a time when Wii sales are generally depressed in the marketplace. So what does that tell you? We still kind of don’t know.

What we can say is that we’ll still do mature games for the Wii market because with an install base of some 34 million in Europe and America (maybe half of whom don’t own Xbox 360s and PS3s)…. So even if you took half of those where they’re not into those (core) games, you’ve still got 8 million consumers to go for. So I think the sheer scale of the Wii allows a shooter, or a mature game, to be a niche but a successful niche. And because the development costs can be less on Wii, that means you can sell less to be successful…. We can take more risks on the Wii.

What is true, is that developing for the Wii is a lot cheaper, which leads me back to my central point on this section. Crap games. Like, would you ever play this for example without constantly thinking about Sarah Jessica Parker.

The wii has recently been at the centre of speculation of getting a successor, dare I say it, a Wii 2(gether), which brings another reason for selling it.

Wii-quel

We should all be aware by now that the Wii is not the only motion detecting device on the market, as Microsoft and Sony have released their bad boys into this lucrative ‘make a tit out of yourself’ business. Whilst these two giants planned out the first foray into the motion detection arena, Nintendo has been sitting out listening to what consumers would like to see in a possible Wii 2. Cue the over-enthusiastic rumour columns of Internet blogs as various sources came out flying with what was to be in the Wii 2. Below be a few rumours that I have found.

• Blu-Ray Drive
• 1080p so you can play Cooking Mama in HHHDDDDD
• Mind Control
• A new controller and nunchuckLink

I left one item off the list as I was flabbergasted by what it was stating.

a higher specification graphics chip than Sony’s PS3

What. Ex-f**king-squeeze ma second, did you ever read this? Army use PS3

Oh and this one. It’s about curing cancer

So it seems that the Wii will be getting a chip more powerful that *cue epic voice* the world!!!! *end voice*

Anywho,

This is a contributing factor to me selling my Wii as it is now starting to live in the past, a fact Nintendo realised when they released the Wii Motion Plus, or the most expensive bit of blue tac ever that you stick on the bottom of your controller to make it heavier. Duh. So why keep something that will be out done but the end of the year by its bigger and possible better older brother, hence another reason for the sale.

I just don’t use it, not even at paaarties

I do have friends, honest, I don’t give names to pieces of mould in my tea mug and ask them if they would like to play some games. I have real talking people friends, with personalities. However, shouldn’t we all be up for a game on the Wii when we are slightly drunkard, as that is what it is aimed at for those who remember the Pac Man Age? No is the answer here, as we have recently seen that party games on devices where you don’t have to see how fast you can waggle your hand are much more satisfying. Buzz is evidence to support this.

The Wii is marketed in the UK as being a console for ‘everyone’, the recent advertising campaign with Ant & Dec just cemented this fact even more. The premise of the advert was to show a group of people of multiple ethnicities having fun playing on the Wii. The thing is though, these adverts work, as the Wii is accessible for everyone. We all have stories of getting someone to play a Wii game who has never played one before, and then laughing at the consequences, so in that port of call it succeeded. But then, did that person every play the console again after their gaming cherry was popped? Probably not. It is a very expensive bit of equipment to use only when cheeky Geordies are in the vicinity of your television.

So why are we keeping hold of the Wii, a less superior device in this modern world of next generation consoles? Are we still held hostage to its motion detection niche even though more powerful techniques are appearing? Will we still buy the sequel to Carnival: Fun Games just because it is the latest game to appear on the console to hopefully bring us together, just like Ant & Dec hoped.

With the recent announcement of ‘The Conduit 2′, it does seem that developers are continuing the support of the Wii but for how long? Only time will tell.

Competition:

Become a Facebook Fan and write your answer on the wall to win a game from the Gamestation Wii sale:

How many i’s are in this article?

So heres that final run down of those top ten free games on the iStore. With the final five we’ll see if its all toss or whether these bad boys are worth a good ol’ banging. Heres 5 – 1:

AHMMM OH YEAH FREE (Pos. 5):
Man with bowels of fire waits by bus stop and continuously farts at attractive lady to the right. That description alone should indicate that this game is utterly ridiculous. The idea is you have to let off enough wind as possible without the your fellow pedestrian catching a whiff. You might assume your character has some serious bowel issues, but no, he thoroughly enjoys adding to the ozone layer. “Oh Yeah!” he declares with every gaseous addition, thus the name of the game is derived. Essentially rather repetitive and probably not worth spending money on, a cheap laugh at best.

Angry Birds Lite (Pos. 4):

Pure physics joy. Fire birds at stacks of glass and wood to destroy the green blobs within. You’ve got different types of birds which impact on the structures in differing ways. This in turn means you can adopt more than one tactic to complete a level. The physics engine is tuned to perfection and the graphics are top notch. The gameplay is wonderfully addictive and after you see out the 6 levels of the demo you’ll be straight onto the app store for the full version.

Racing Live – 28 Prestige Points (Pos. 3):
I’ve never been a fan of games that encourage you to spend real money to progress faster. After doing a little research I discovered this was the point of the prestige points system. Racing Live is essentially a street racing sim whereby you level up from competing in racers and upgrading and buying vehicles. No actual racing is involved, simply number crunching and making decisions in order to unlock new things and progress levels. Its a Mafia Wars style game so fans of that might take interest in this. However I am a developer who believes the pennies should be earned via creating good games and not by testing who has the most money to buy the most points.

iGrave Digger (Pos. 2):
iGrave Digger is an interesting idea. Zombies and undead elephants and such are swarming towards your house and you have to rapidly dig graves to stop them. Simple…. too simple. Essentially its a test of how quickly you can swipe the screen with zero tactics to it. Unless I’m missing something you can make a maximum of six holes and after that theres nothing more to do. The graphics are reminiscent of Doodle Jump and are decent. However there isn’t enough to this game and after one play you won’t be picking it up again.

Fingerzilla (Pos. 1):
Your finger takes up Godzilla’s role as you pound the scream in order to blow up buildings, vehicles and munch civilians. How much destruction can you cause within the time limit with 6 different levels to pit your skills against. Wonderfully satisfying, especially if you’re feeling a little angry and need to let out some aggression. Don’t break your iPod mind. We’ll forgive the slight repetitiveness of the gameplay for the sheer amount of explosions involved. However the game is rather tiring on the ol’ digits and you might get some weird looks whilst playing it on the bus.

So toss it is all not. There are plenty of decent freebie games out there but just don’t expect a huge amount of content within them. A large percentage are demos and a good way of finding out whether its worth digging into the penny jar. Not to sound too much like a sheep but a good place to look first is the top ten as I found some fun little bangers amongst the bunch.

You can’t get something for nothing. Or can you?

The App Store hosts a whole range of freebie games but the question is: are they all toss or are there any secret bargains amongst the bunch? In this two part article I’ll take the top ten free games (as of 08.03.10) and give them a run for their lack of money. Oh, and a toss-o-meter out of cabers only seems appropriate too.

Tap Fish (Pos. 10):
Fish Tank Simulator. Breed ‘em, feed ‘em, buy ‘em, sell ‘em and clean their tank. Essentially you’re trying to earn coins and experience. Max out that tank and any others you may purchase with marine life. This type of game is the new Tamagotchi. I’m unaware if your fish will die if neglected but it only takes a moment to check up on them each day. Nothing too compelling but what would you expect from fish? These water friends ain’t gonna fetch.

Line Up (Pos. 9):
Now this bad boy is a great little puzzler. Simple but addictive. In the same premise as Tetris you need to stop the blocks being generated on screen filling up to the top. You do so by pressing clumps of squares consisting of three or more blocks of the same colour. Lines of new different coloured blocks are constantly lining up at the bottom and as time progresses they push on to the screen faster and faster. With a couple of power ups and savable high scores thrown in too this game is bang on the lack of money.

Tap Farm (Pos. 8):
Farmville?! Is it Farmville? It sure looks like Farmvillie… Isometric, similar controls… Well either way it’s still quite a fun little farming sim. Though 7BitArcade does frown on plagiarism! If it is plagiarism… I mean its not an accusation or anything but they are very similar games. Maybe this came first? Maybe Farmville is the copy cat? Who was the chicken and who was the egg?

“Angela you do realise you’ve said nothing about this game and instead had a ponder fuck?”

Indeed. Well it’ll only kill a few minutes a day but if you like your farming sims this freebie is a good ‘un.

Icey Escort (Pos. 7):
Mother penguin has lost her offspring. Stupid bitch. They’re littered all over the place on raised platforms and such so luckily if you tap the screen the flightless bird will launch herself into the air. She’s constantly moving forwards too so no other controls required. A really decent puzzler and an absolute tonne of levels for the price tag. Excellent freebie. Did you know penguins wear suits too?

Stair Dismount Lite (Pos. 6):
Amusement can be found in the title of this little number. The word dismount implies control but never fear you are just kicking a dummy down a flight of stairs. Watch him roll in this physics game demo. The full installment boasts a whole host of different stairways to try and get your dummy to dismount. The whole thing is in glorious polygon 3D too. However I have a funny feeling this game could be a case of one tactic solves all. The full version will tell if this is the case.

How annoying, not a toss game among them. I was in the mood for a good rant. Maybe the top five will reveal some travesties. Part two coming soon…

..is like the death of a friend.

So there you are….It’s 10 minutes past midnight, some fox is getting raped outside and your sitting in front of your beloved PS3 just 7000 XP points away from “prestige-ing” on COD MW:2.

You’ve waited weeks for this moment and just as you are blitzing the last few seconds of Terminal…..*beep, beep, beeeeeeeeeeep* The little known, “Yellow Light Of Doom” (or YLOD for short) and your PS3 says it’s last goodbye with a whimpering succession of beeps. Basically the YLOD indicates a major hardware problem, causing the system to refuse booting up until the issue is fixed.

Honestly, It’s like losing a friend, we’d been through a lot together, GTA IV, endless games of COD, Pro Evo and of course who was always there for me when i needed to escape the nagging of my ex? That’s right good old Old P.station. From the day of release there was some kind of weird connection going on between us, and now it is over!

My initial deep sense of dread was toward my saved games. I knew for a fact that every PS3 HDD is formatted on insertion into the machine and is at that point paired with that systems unique ID, in other words that HDD isn’t going into anything else without being re-formatted due to Sony’s overly extensive encryption. So essentially, all my saved games are DOOOOOOOMED! As you can imagine this is a terrifying prospect, with hundreds of hours of Fallout 3 and varying incarnations of COD played through, it was essential I get to the bottom of just what I can do to retrieve my data.

So after a lovely conversation with a Sony representative, who to be frank was about as useful as my PS3 currently; I discover that it is infact “impossible to decrypt the PS3 HDD onto any other device be it PC or another PS3″ This leaves me with one option, repair the PS3 long enough to firstly recover my copy of Modern Warfare 2 and of course vitally, back up my save games in preparation for a new system.

So what do you do with an out of warranty PS3 that according to a Sony representative is “pointless repairing to be honest, sounds like its dead” ?
YOU REPAIR IT YOURSELF!!

This process involves the following:

1 x PS3 complete with YLOD
1 x HeatGun
1 x Sachet of Heatsink Thermal Compound
1 x Torx screwdrivers
1 x Lump of Bravery
1 x Pinch of stupidity
1 x Electronics expert who shares his knowledge on YouTube

Basically in brief what will happen is The complete dismemberment of my PS3, removal of dust etc followed by the re-flowing of the cpu and gpu, basically the main cause of YLOD is the melting of the solder on the main board due to multiple overheating, so the reform of that solder is 99% sure to fix the issue.

So the adventure begins, i’m about to rip apart a loved-one, its like performing brain surgery on my dog. If it works I will be delighted. If it doesn’t I will have A LOT of explaining to do.

Wish me luck

YOUTUBE EXPERT

Hey gang, I’m back to conclude the epic list of iconic music gifted to the world by video games. Last time I counted down from 10 to 6, and probably pissed off some people with a few left-field choices. Don’t worry though, the top 5 should leave everyone feeling warm and cosy inside, and is probably quite predictable.

5. Metal Gear Solid

Anyone who has played any game in the Metal Gear Solid franchise is aware that Hideo Kojima would probably be more suited to directing sprawling epic films than his current pursuit creating the world’s longest cutscenes in games. Luckily the upside to his cinematic leanings is a beautifully crafted soundtrack to each game that really fits together with the mood and gameplay.

For this list I have decided to pick on the main theme music from MGS1. It is a powerful, stirring and instantly recognisable melody, alternately charged with adrenalin and yet also deep emotion. In my opinion it really defines the essence of the MGS franchise in auditory form and is every bit as iconic as the games themselves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECjDfQd8QVc

4. Sonic and Pacman

It’s a cheap move I know (and technically makes this a Top 11), but neither game has a theme tune long enough to really class as a tune. They are both really ditties, if that even. Nevertheless, both games are iconic watersheds in gaming history and both have instantly recognisable theme… ditties deserving of inclusion in this esteemed list.

Barely a couple of bars long, each is succinct and totally nostalgia inducing. I really don’t have much more to say about either beyond that they are inclusions which have little to no musical worth in and of themselves (unlike many other pieces in the list) but merely piggy bag to celebrity through the uncontested classic-ness of the games they introduce.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qYziluDD5I – Sonic (its like 10 minutes long but the bit you want to hear is right near the beginning. Finding a clip of just that bit was taking ages so I decided to slack instead.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGy8evJsK0s – Pacman (again, its longer than just the theme, same issue as with Sonic. Silly short themes.)

3. Halo (2)

It wasn’t the first console FPS but it seems like it was the first one that really popularised the genre on consoles, and for many gamers who never played the classics on PC (like Doom, Unreal and Half-Life) it became the benchmark by which all FPS games were measured. It is synonymous with Xbox and, with the almost ubiquitous nature of the 360, it remains one of the most gargantuan behemoths of all gaming franchises. Although I personally believe all the Halo games are vastly overrated (blasphemy, I know), they are still a good laugh in co-op and I cannot say a word against their soundtracks which are both epic and exciting.

The pinnacle of the Halo sound experience is surely the rocked up version of the main theme tune that introduces Halo 2. The more orchestral version from the first game had a great melody and was memorable, but from the moment that guitar starts shredding in the Halo 2 version you just feel an intense sensation of kickass-ness and I doubt you will find many gamers today who wouldn’t recognise this belting tune.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om0M6Ol8FjQ

2. Tetris

Tetris exemplifies the puzzle game genre and is perhaps the pinnacle of the mantra “easy to learn, hard to master” that so many game designers mutter under their breaths between shooting up with coffee and snorting lines of crushed Pro Plus. Just as classic as the game is the music that almost anyone anywhere in the world will recognise as soon as you play it.

No-one can deny this is surely one of the most well known, most remixed and most loved pieces of music in the video game world. The two tracks are equally awesome and nostalgic, but it must be Theme A that is the more iconic of the pair. Listen now to this glorious piece of Cossack composing, in 8-bit and then again covered by a full orchestra.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmCCQxVBfyM – Original

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBmZAg8HxfY – epic orchestral version

1. Super Mario Brothers

As if there was ever any doubt in your mind, there can be no video game song more well known, more iconic than the opening tune from Super Mario Brothers. Although pretty much all the music from the early NES and SNES Mario games was awesome, it is THAT track that I’m on about. You know the one. Probably the most covered piece of music in the world; to make a list of every Youtube video someone has made of themselves remixing or covering this piece of music would require 78 miles of paper. Ok that statistic is made up, but take my word for it when I say there are lots and lots. And lots. ‘K?

There really isn’t anything more I can say, as the song is so ubiquitous that you already know everything about it. Instead listen to it, and think of the long line of gamers stretching back into the mists of antiquity for whom this piece of music is the very definition of GAME.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLEMXt9Lk0E – THE original

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX5V_9s0Gfw – the same song, but played WITH LIGHTNING BOLTS

We are giving away a copy of ‘Heavy Rain’ the murder opus that is a benchmark for thriller games. To enter, do one of the following:

Twitter
Tweet the following:
@7bitarcade I want to win heavy rain, Chocolate Rainnnnnnn! #7bitarcade

Facebook
Join the Facebook group and write:
I want to win heavy rain, Chocolate Rainnnnnnn! #7bitarcade

It is that simple. Do it now> Boring stuff follows:

1 Entrants must be resident in UK and over 18 at time of entry.

2. No purchase necessary.

3. No alternative cash prizes.

4. To enter the Twitter competition you must Tweet “#7bitarcade” during the prize draw week on http://www.twitter.com. If the # has not been used, the entry cannot be considered.

5. Only one entry per person per day into each prize draw will be counted as a valid entry. The Promoter accepts no responsibility for entries not successfully completed due to a technical fault.

6. Closing date for entries is 5pm on each day of the competition. The competition will close at 5pm on Friday 5th March. The winner will be selected by random on Monday 8th March.

10. Winners must claim prizes by noon on Monday 29th March 2010. How to claim details will be provided with winner’s notification.

11. In the event a winner fails to claim a prize within the time limit or is otherwise disqualified from the draw, that prize will be withdrawn and the entry will be void.

12. Events may occur that render the prize draw itself or the awarding of the prizes impossible due to reasons beyond the control of the Promoter and entrants agree that no liability shall attach to the Promoter as a result thereof.

13. Winners may be required to take part in post-event publicity.

14. All entries become the property of the Promoter. By submitting an entry entrants acknowledge and accept these terms and conditions.

15. Promoter’s decision is final and no correspondence or other communication will be entered into regarding the draw other than as specifically contemplated in these rules.

17. The PROMOTER: 7bitarcade, 30 Dean Park Road, Bournemouth, United Kingdom, BH1 1HY The Promoter is a registered data user under the Data Protection Act 1998. No provisions of these terms & conditions shall affect any statutory rights of entrants.

The title is pretty self explanatory. Iconic music from iconic games. We all know em, and we all love (or hate) em. There have been so many amazing games with fantastic music over the years that this list was pretty hard to come up with. There are, of course, some no-brainers; but there are also more than a couple of spots that many of you might disagree with. There will be some inclusions and omissions that will no doubt spark debate and many calls of “hey jackass, you don’t know a damn thing about iconic video game music” from you lovely lovely readers.

I can only hope that your love for me is not ruined by any difference of opinions we may have. Especially you sexy console jockeys who may have missed a couple of the classics which never made it to a Nintendo, XBox or Playstation. PEACE!

Enjoy this run down of positions 10 to 6.

10. Civilization 4

Universally loved by critics and fans alike, Civilization 4 is an iconic PC game from an iconic series, and while previously music was not a really core feature of the game the newest incarnation really changed that with possibly one of the most beautiful and stirring main themes for a game in memory. I have sat staring at the title menu more than once, just listening to that belting tune, and I know I am not the only one to have done so. Featured on the Video Games Live tour (which is a huge orchestra playing loads of classic video game tunes), it is truly a modern masterpiece. Have a listen here and see for yourself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb-jk6Ftx7o

9. World of Warcraft

I reckon this might draw some contention, but I like to think I am pushing the bounds of challenging e-journalism here. Or whatever. Ahem. Whether you believe WoW is a blight on humanity or a fantastic and immersive gaming experience, the fact is that 12.5 million people play WoW, a truly staggering audience for any medium. The theme music for a game so prolific cannot be anything else but iconic. Also featured on the Video Games Live tour, which I can only kick myself for not going to see when I had the chance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-MEuBRMxxI

8. Duke Nukem 3D

I think anyone who hasn’t played Duke Nukem needs to be forcibly reeducated in some kind of concentration camp. He has balls of steel and he came to kick ass and chew bubblegum. Many people forget the original Duke Nukem sidescrolling platform shooter, but I don’t think anyone can forget his far more iconic outing in Duke Nukem 3D. The original video game mysogynistic badass, with an unforgettable headbanging theme which has even been covered by the likes of Megadeth. A true video game legend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v5tkJuJ368 – original Midi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUCbflBkIgo – Megadeth version

7. Bionic Commando

Bionic Commando has come in several incarnations, all of which share the same fantastic theme tune. The 1987 8-bit original had some cracking music and was possibly one of the most difficult platform games ever conceived. It was fiendishly challenging even by the standards of those halcyon 8-bit days when games were meant to last a whole summer, and not just a paltry 8-12 hours over a weekend.

When they remade the game as a 2.5D homage in 2008 they kept all the old tracks and gave them a 21st century makeover, keeping that awesome 8-bit vibe (somewhat reminding me of the last Prodigy album to be honest). The last remake, which was a little more comprehensive turning it into a proper 3D action game, also fully revamped the iconic theme tune into a big swinging orchestral piece with strings and t’ings. Listen to all three versions here and if you have missed out on this classic game, I can’t recommend Rearmed (the 2008 remake) enough.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hl5UCCBCXI – 1987

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1r7TrYZwJ0 – 2008

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBzJrrBLrJ0 – 2009

6. Portal

Portal is without a doubt a watershed moment for gaming. Beyond its fantastic mind bending physics and amazingly stark yet nuanced form of narrative delivery, it is almost certainly most remembered for that fantastic tune which accompanied the credits, if you got that far. Of course, even if you didn’t, the song (called Still Alive) was so amazingly prevalent on the internet in the months following the game’s release that you almost certainly have heard it. In fact I have to admit, the way I discovered the game was because the song was everywhere. I heard it, loved it and then wanted to find out about where it came from. I have never looked back. Listen now, if you haven’t already, and then go play this game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6ljFaKRTrI

That about wraps it up for the first (and in many ways more exciting, less predictable) half of the iconic music video game  Top 10. Be sure to let me know what a douchebag I am for omitting your favourite games in our handy comments section.

Piracy is a big deal these days. Somalians have taken piracy to the next level by taking down boats and holding innocents for mass amounts of money. Pirates have recently been raiding our screens in the form of Johnny Deep’s swashbuckling ways. More soooo though, piracy of media is now on the rise so much that it has become a crime that brings with it a fine that is higher than GBH and Abduction. Only this week, did global hacker superstar George Hotz find a way to hack the PS3 so that it was possible play hacked games and also homebrew games. With all this in mind I want to take a look at piracy and how it is, or isn’t damaging the games market.

Piracy has been curved through the introduction Steam as it has made the downloading of games through legal methods much easier and its success is shown through how many games were bought from it last year. The accessibility to these games and the pricing of these games has not brought piracy to a stop, it never will, but it has helped. Steam has been plagued with those who download and then go on to allow those to torrent the game. Various methods have been tried to curve this, including the controversial use of DRM. Steam is a step in the right direction for making it easier to stop piracy of PC games, but the big problem is how to stop the piracy of console games.

It is reported that piracy has a direct impact on companies and in essence their ability to make games. If the company cant pay its staff, then it can’t make games. Simple as. Torrent Freak reports the Modern Warfare 2 was the most pirated game of 2009, but it was not just the PC version that came into this. Modern Warfare on the XBOX 360 joined the PC version as the most downloaded 360 game, however it is the Wii that suffers a severe hit when it comes to downloads.

Games companies suffer severe consequences of piracy and the loss of revenue through it could lead to the closure of various studios. Pandemic was shut down last year with 200 employees losing their jobs, a decision made by EA but possibly contributed to by piracy.

In this current climate, we suffer from lack of money because of bank piracy is rising, but then developers are trying to fight this in many ways. One of these is to pay as you wish for a game, which was done by Championship Manager last year, which allowed fans who pre ordered the game, a chance to pay what they saw fit. This was a success for Eidos but overall will this be a good idea to keep pursuing. Can you imagine MW2 breaking the $1 billion mark for sales if users were asked to pay whatever they like.

The games industry is in a healthy state however, even with the growing concern of piracy. This cannot be said of the movie industry, which can lose around $6.1 billion in revenue because of it. Yes, piracy is a crime but one believes that is a crime that does not deserve a higher fine than child abduction. Those in power really need to pull their fingers out and concentrate on what is actually damaging society. Downloading a video game is definitely not worse than murder of the 1st degree.

Now please enjoy some piracy adverts that are pure quality, my favourite has to be the one from I.T. Crowd. Never go to the toilet in a policeman’s hat.