It’s Games Radar so who knows how accurate this is, but still, that would suck a lot. To some degree, I understand the games publisher’s line here - there is no other entertainment medium (DVD, books, music, whatever) that you can buy second hand, from the same place you buy it new, mere days after release. But at the same time stopping people selling second hand games at all is certainly a draconian step too far. It’s one thing for Valve to stop people selling on Half Life 2 using Steam, an entire platform holder doing it would surely cause a much bigger fuss and likely harm their reputation, something Sony is increasingly short on right now.

In related news, Famitsu readers in Japan are more hyped for the Wii than the PS3. News item half way down this page, translation here. They’ve got enough PlayStation brand strength to survive but week by week I’m increasingly convinced Nintendo and Microsoft are going to take major share from Sony. Aside from the lovely little truth that no one has dominated three generations in a row, they’re coming across as so complacent and cocky recently.

Admitedly many of those were mobile titles, but even so, Tose is probably the largest games developer you’ve never heard of. 27 years in business, 1000 staff, 9 studios and 1100 games, yet they almost always insist that their name not appear on the box. Gamasutra has an interview with this massive, secretive games company.

Sadly, we’ll have to wait a little bit longer to find out anything beyond the name of this new property from the makers of the uniquely excellent Farenheit. Given their strong focus on (mostly) quality stories I can’t wait to hear more about this one.

Supreme Commander gets better every time I see something about it. Here is some early shaky cam footage that shows off the astonishingly epic battles and the powerful zoom feature. GameSpot seem impressed by it too so far.

What was promised:

The final result:

Ya, I think that’s what you call bullshot, something Sony have long been rather too fond of doing. They should honestly be ashamed, it’s almost getting offensive how they hype the hell out of something with what basically amounts to lies. (Thanks Henric)

Well then, what a let down. A few surprises but nothing hugely shocking to be honest. Tilt sensing in the pad is nice, though it’s clearly a last minute (and inferior) response to the new Nintendo controller. They showed a pretty cool demo of a game with the new Eye Toy which senses real-world cards and places corresponding 3D characters on screen to fight it out. It’s like paying for a computer game and a Magic the Gathering addiction all at once.

The Eight Days trailer was Kill Zone all over again (blatantly pre-rendered) though the Naughty Dog game and Heavenly Sword looked fun. The quick demo of the PSP as a rear view mirror in an F1 game was neat too. Ish.

€499 just for the 20GB model though? €100 more for the 60GB one? Yeah, good luck with that Sony.

Update: More interesting controller news. It also senses acceleration in each direction which is neat (though still not as complete as the new Nintendo controller) and they have finally added analog triggers (welcome to 1999 Sony). They’ve dropped rumble though - apparently it interferes with the motion sensing, and is probably a battery drain too. Definitely nothing to do with the Immersion lawsuit then.

It’s also nice to hear that it’ll be as quiet as the slim line PS2 - the vent holes on practically every surface but the top one probably help though.

Despite the great reviews, despite the great community buzz, despite the great talk from one of the devs last year, I passed on Lego Star Wars, probably stupidly. Thankfully it’s getting a sequel, this time set in the superior Original Trilogy era. The new trailer looks utterly brilliant with a strong sense of sheer fun about it. Sign me up.

Remember when SGI were relevant? Their machines were synonymous with cutting edge computer graphics creation, rendering incredible CGI for the time. Sadly it seems their time may be at an end after years of irrelevance thanks to far cheaper solutions from elsewhere. Hardly surprising but still somewhat of a shame given their past glories. Plus as someone pointed out to me, they’re a cornerstone of OpenGL which could have implications.

Yes, again. Much to my shame I didn’t get round to trying it when I downloaded it before. Well, the new beta is rock solid and a classic in the making. You see, it’s the first multiplayer game absolutely loaded with scary movie moments. You think you’ve spotted the invisibile killer, unleash some gunfire, briefly feel relief when you see a corpse before realising it’s a beheaded squad mate and you’re next. Sometimes you’ll fire at what you thought was the Hidden only for your panicked friends to join in while the hunter sneaks round and stabs one of you in the back.

It’s one near-invisible killer with a knife and three grenades against a fully armed SWAT team, and it ain’t a fair fight. Actually, as it currently stands it can be a little too hard to win as The Hidden though that’s probably down to practice. It’s a stonking mod regardless and there are plenty of servers around. Try it, I insist - very few mods seem worth the effort these days but this one absolutely is.

Rogue Trooper is an interesting beast, and I don’t just mean because he’s blue. It generally feels really well adapted from the comic, both when it comes to the gritty setting and the unique abilities of his equipment (complete with talking personality chips from fallen comrades). Gunnar can be deployed as a sentry gun, Helm can hack terminals and project a holo decoy and you take scrap metal from dead enemies so Bagman can manufacture ammo, upgrades and health at your request. All fairly unique then, except on normal mode most of these extras prove largely pointless since you can waltz around soaking up bullets and endlessly taking easy head shots. Even so it’s still an enjoyable romp with some quality cut scenes.

Notch it up to Massacre though (unlocked after completion) and it’s a whole new game. Snipers must be fooled with the holo decoy or you’re toast and the use of suppressing fire from cover, Gunnar-as-sentry, stealth kills, laying traps using micro mines and carefully rationed ammo means suddenly the game feels wonderfully challenging. All those toys you mostly ignored the first time round become invaluable and a joy to use successfully. I rarely bother completing a game twice but something compelled me to do so here and I’m not regretting it.

Certainly pick this one up if you like a bit of third person action mixed with stealth, strategy and a good story straight from the pages of 2000 AD. In fact it’s almost good enough to make up for the dreadful (ahem) Dredd vs. Death, though sadly it barely charted. Do play it on Hard to fully enjoy it, especially if you grab the PC version which is a mere 18 quid on Play. In the mean time, I might just track down a few Rogue Trooper compilation books.