Review: Catrap (3DS Virtual Console)

Think of great Game Boy games, and you’re not likely to be thinking of Catrap. It’s not a classic puzzler but it is well worth the download, especially at the bargain (by eShop standards) asking price.

Review: A Game of Thrones: Genesis (PC)

I was very excited to get my hands on A Game of Thrones: Genesis when I heard that it was marrying George R.R. Martin’s universe to the RTS genre. I’m a huge fan of A Song of Ice and Fire series and strategy, so what could go wrong?

Sonic the Sketchhog races to the App Store

Many have accused Sonic the hedgehog of having sketchy games in the past, but such is literally the case with Sega’s latest release. Following the blue blur’s recent 20^th anniversary, Sega has launched a new application, “Sonic the Hedgehog 20^th Anniversary”. Despite its vague name, it includes a brand-new game developed exclusively for iOS called "Sonic the Sketchhog".

Review: Tiny Defense (iPhone)

What is about the iOS that lends itself to the tower defence genre? Is it the touch screen? Or the nature of the stages that makes them short and readily playable? Is it just that the addictive nature of the genre translates so well into pretty graphics on a handheld device? It's probably a combination of all those things and more, and Tiny Defense incorporates all these elements in a pretty package to make a game that exemplifies the genre and will keep gamers going for hours.

Review: The Dark Meadow (iPad)

It was inevitable that the first ultra-hit iPad/ iPhone exclusive game, Infinity Blade, would attract clones. The Dark Meadow is the first. It looks the same (same Unreal engine, in fact), plays the same, and is very nearly the same game.

VVVVVV is coming to 3DS eShop

Good news for indie fans; the very highly regarded PC game, VVVVVV, is coming to 3DS' eShop download platform, courtesy of Nicalis.

Review: Arkedo Series - 03 Pixel! (PSN)

Third time lucky, as the saying goes. It applies to the Arkedo series of retro-style games, too, because while Jump and Swap were good games in their own right, Pixel is just awesome.

Review: Isle of Tune (iPad)

I’m not entirely sure why Isle of Tune is being classified as a game, because it isn’t actually a game at all. It’s a hugely charming little music toybox that has a surprising level of depth and reward as you get a handle of the tools at your disposal.

TV? Yeah it's totally transformed on Xbox LIVE

Today Major Nelson unveiled the next big entertainment addition to Microsoft's Xbox LIVE service- Television.

“Today’s announcement is a major step toward realizing our vision to bring you all the entertainment you want, shared with the people you care about, made easy,” said Don Mattrick, president of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. “Combining the world’s leading TV and entertainment providers with the power of Kinect for Xbox 360* and the intelligence of Bing voice search will make TV and entertainment more personal, social and effortless.”

The voice search and Kinect functions sound different. In any event, they'll certainly provide for an interesting TV watching experience. More after the break-

Screens: Of Orcs and Men: The 2012 RPG to look forward to?

So, we've played through The Witcher, the reputation of Dragon Age took a hit with its poorly-received sequel, and Skyrim is out this year. What's to look forward to in 2012 on the western RPG front?

Great news, Europeans, MonkeyPaw has launched on the PlayStation Network!

MonkeyPaw Games is a great little niche publisher; it brings some of the weirdest and most Japanese Japanese games possible to the west, completely unaltered.

Rhythm/ RPG hybrid, Sequence, coming to Steam

Way back in May we reviewed a little XBLA Indie game called Sequence. It was a great little game, we scored in 3.5/5.

R.I.P Steve Jobs

As everyone who uses the Internet has just seen, Steve Jobs has passed away at the too-young age of 56.

Review: Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes of Neverwinter (or, holy crap a really real Facebook game)

I think we can chalk this up to one of those great ironies of the gaming industry: Atari loses the license for Dungeons & Dragons, and then produces, by some considerable margin, its most honest and truthful Dungeons & Dragons experience.

Crysis, Orcs, B-Ball, and some Sega classics hit XBLA

Xbox LIVE has been having some pretty big weeks since the Summer of Arcade Promo ended. Not skipping a beat this week either, the Xbox's download service plunks down bunch of downloadables for your gaming dollar.

Screens: The Testament of Sherlock Holmes

The Testament of Sherlock Holmes is a surprisingly good looking game. It's an adventure game (we hope/ assume heavy on the puzzle elements) for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC that is due to hit the market early next year.

Ten rare PS2 games that we'd love released on the PlayStation Network

So it was big news on the PSN front this week, with Sony trickling a few classic but less well known PS2 games, completely unmodified, to the service (including the rather brilliant God Hand).

Of course, the PS2 was a console with many, many, many good games that flew under the radar. Some are being remade with HD and trophy support, and this is a good thing, but the idea of "PS2 Classics" for those games that have potential audiences too small for a full remake is just as good to us, especially as these games can also be played on the Vita on the go in the future (something the HD remakes can’t).

So, rather than a games we’d like to see made into HD list (which we've already done), here’s 10 games that we’d love to see just quietly released to PSN, unaltered in any way; so we can play them on the Vita as well as the PS3:

Time to preorder Orcs Must Die, folks

One of the games we're more than mildly excited about, Orcs Must Die! is now available for prepurchase on Steam. Preordering the game comes with a bonus, too.

Victoria II: A House Divided expansion announced!

The fine folks at Paradox Interactive are releasing an expansion pack for Victoria II the grand strategy game set in the American civil war era.

NBA Jam: On Fire edition coming to Xbox Live and PSN next week

NBA Jam: On Fire Edition is launching next week for Xbox 360 and PS3. This is a downloadable version of the ridiculously over-priced retail version that came out last year. Now you can have some nostalgic fun with this classic for $15, which is a more reasonable price for a game of this type. EA claims that they have been using the time since last year to make some gameplay tweaks and the standard 2-on-2 mode is back and better than ever.

Review: escapeVektor: Chapter 1 (WiiWare)

See, if Nintendo was serious about this whole digital download thing, it really should be giving Nnooo a whole lot of money and asking the small, Sydney-based indie outfit to make a lot of games. It did a great job with the original Pop on the Wii, and Pop+ Solo on DSiWare, as well as a bunch of cool little of applications under the MyLifeCollected brand, also on DSiWare.

Spiderweb Software RPGs go cheap

Get your hardcore old school RPGs cheap and on sale, thanks to Spiderweb Software.

Play iPad Atari games with a joystick and real buttons

Keen to get into Atari Greatest Hits on the iPad, but worried about the lack of physical buttons? Well, that’s not a problem any more.

PlayStation Network about to get a bunch of exclusives, and PlayStation 2 classics

The fruits of Sony’s $20 million investment in exclusive PSN games will start to show up all through October, as a whole bunch of exclusive games hit the download portal under the brand "Only on PSN."

Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes of Neverwinter open on Facebook to everyone!

Atari's last Dungeons & Dragons project, Heroes of Neverwinter, is a Facebook game that promises a "deep RPG experience." Which would be a first for Facebook, but now everyone has a chance to test it out to see if that's reality, or just hype as it's just entered open beta phase.

First Impressions: A Game of Thrones: Genesis

Whenever a game with a license attached to it comes out, you would do well to be wary before you buy it. Licensed games have a certain reputation around them -- the fact is, they tend to suck, especially games made under movie licenses. But there are rare gems in-between that shine ever brighter than the rest.

Preview: Magic the Gathering Online expansion; Innistraad

Magic the Gathering Online is soon to receive a new horror themed set called Innistraad in a couple of weeks. This release comes only a fortnight (or so) after the paper version makes its long awaited incursion into the geek realm.

Last chance to score a free copy of Rugby 2011!

On October 5, our competition to give away five codes for the PSN Rugby 2011 game (generously supplied to us by 505 Games), closes.

It's an easy contest to enter, so don't miss out on your chance! Just log in to our forums, and let us know in this thread who you think is going to win this year's World Cup. Best entries win!

Don't miss out!

Review: The Sims Social (Facebook)

Frankly, The Sims should work as a Facebook game. The “real” game is little more than a Facebook game after all; it’s a game of daily routine, collecting virtual stuff and populating a little space with it.

What it lacked to cement itself as a Facebook game proper is that aggregating social aspect; the endless stream of “hey look, we have stuff” posts on friend’s Facebook streams, endless “gifting” of useless goods, and experience points that rank you against how much time your friends have wasted in the “game.” Enter The Sims Social.