A new year and a new game at Number 1.  ‘Fifa 2009′ has regained the top spot at the end of last week meaning ‘Call of Duty: World At War’ drops a place.  ‘Far Cry 2′ re-enters the top 10 but ‘Tomb Raider: Underworld’ leaves it and is now sat at number 14.  Take a look below at the top ten games in the UK for week ending 3rd January 2009.

1 - Fifa 2009 / EA Sports (up 1 place)
2 - Call of Duty: World At War / Activision (down 1 place)
3 - Need for Speed: Undercover / EA Games (no movement)
4 - Guitar Hero: World Tour / Activision (up 3 places)
5 - Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games / Nintendo (up 4 places)
6 - Wii Play / Nintendo (down 1 place)
7 - Far Cry 2 / Ubisoft (up 4 places)
8 - Mario Kart Wii / Nintendo (down 4 places)
9 - Quantum of Solace / Activision (down 1 place)
10 - Sonic Unleased / SEGA (no movement)

Courtesy of ChartTrack

After all of the debates last year about which console ‘is the best’, Microsoft has just revealed that sales for the Xbox 360 during the Christmas 2008 period, were almost double those of Christmas 2007 in Europe.  The gap between the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360 has grown significantly due to the increase in Xbox 360 sales up to the end of 2008.  Factors which have affected the growth spurt include the releases of more family games, such as ‘Lips’, ‘Scene It: Box Office Smash’ and ‘Rock Band 2′ and the launch of the New Xbox Experience.  GfK-ChartTrack data shows that the Xbox 360 was the fastest-growing console in 2008, beating the Playstation 3 and the Nintendo Wii.

Chris Lewis, Regional Vice President, Interactive Entertainment Business EMEA, said “With eight million consoles sold since we launched, and consistently out-selling PlayStation 3 in EMEA, we’re poised to build on this success in 2009.”

Ontop of this success, new figures have just been released that show the Xbox 360 was the second ‘most played’ console last year.  As you can see below, the Xbox 360 was the ‘most played’ next-gen console last year, and Microsoft’s first console the ‘Xbox’ was even more played than the ‘Playstation 3′!

Source

With the birth of the Xbox 360 came achievement points and that in my opinion changed what the majority of gamers thought finishing a game entailed. Simply starting a game and killing the final boss is considered being a partial completion these days, we now have “side missions” to contend with. Don’t forget if we don’t do a certain side mission we can’t continue or we get a certain percentage of the game we didn’t complete.

What about the online play that games give us these days? You can’t finish all online games so where does that leave you at completing a game? Can you ever finish World of Warcraft or Runescape? How many RPG’s can you play differently each time? Perhaps my article should be about how the Achievement Point changed the way we game because in an essence it did. Some of us strive to get that very last achievement just so it says we did.

Can we put all the blame on achievement points for making us feel as though we haven’t finished a game? There were always games that wanted us to find that extra map, a secret door, take a key or a package to someone or other on an island. So is the achievement point just another way for developers to make us play the game a little longer do they believe that because we haven’t reached 1000 it’s not complete?

Whatever their reason is I hope your reason is the same as mine, enjoy the game play often and with friends the achievements that unlock themselves won’t be found in the game you just bought inserted by the developers, but from the people you enjoy playing with and the games themselves.

Well after taking the Christmas Number 1 spot, ‘Fifa 2009′ has fallen to number 2 at the end of last week, meaning that ‘Call of Duty: World At War’ has regained it’s number 1 spot.  There have been some more climbers this week, including ‘Tomb Raider: Underworld’, ‘Guitar Hero: World Tour’ and ‘Sonic Unleashed’ which has somehow jumped 10 places and now sits at number 10.  ‘Prince of Persia’ sits at number 16.  Take a look below at the top 10 games in the UK for week ending 27th December 2008.

1 - Call of Duty: World At War / Activision (up 1 place)
2 - Fifa 2009 / EA Sports (down 1 place)
3 - Need for Speed: Undercover / EA Games (up 1 place)
4 - Mario Kart Wii / Nintendo (down 1 place)
5 - Wii Play / Nintendo (up 1 place)
6 - Tomb Raider: Underworld / Eidos (up 3 places)
7 - Guitar Hero: World Tour / RedOctane (up 4 places)
8 - Quantum of Solace / Activision (down 1 place)
9 - Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games / SEGA (up 3 places)
10 - Sonic Unleased / SEGA (up 10 places)

Courtesy of ChartTrack

Ah, but only if you live Japan. The service is reported to be partnering with the Demae-can.com online food ordering service to allow you to order a meal right through your Wii.

A wide variety of cuisine selections will be available including pizza, sushi, Chinese food, Japanese food and Western food. Mood music to match your selection will play in the background during the ordering process. Can’t decide what to eat? Let your Wii decide! The service will have a roulette mode that will randomly make a selection for you. Hmm does that remind you of the iPhone commercial when trying to find a restaurant?

One also has to wonder how this fits in with Wii Fit?

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In the latest issue of Japanese gamers magazine, Famitsu, Capcom have announced another Monster Hunter title for the Wii called Monster Hunter G! Apparently, this is not the Monster Hunter G released in Japan only, before the confusion sets in, but a port of the PSP title Monster Hunter 2 Freedom!

This Wii version of Monster Hunter 2 Freedom is, apparently, 77% complete and due for release in early Spring, 2009. So if you have the PSP verrsion already, and you have Wii, this title will be released before the new Monster Hunter 3 which will be exclusive to Wii. Now, we all know the Wii is appears to be perfect for old games to be ported on the machine, we have seen old PS2 titles, shovelware, and other titles ported and the question needs to be answered why? Maybe to renew the interest in the Monster Hunter series in the West as it is such a hit in Japan especially the online component. Will the Wii Speak peripheral be used? It would certainly be useful for this title and personally I see the control system and screen size will be make a huge difference to the game that we seen on the PSP. No online fee has been confirmed as yet. If you think Capcom are doing a port as cheap cash in on a title already popular on a handheld is understandable and I see the point. No doubt I will be purchasing this title before the acclaimed Monster Hunter 3 makes its debut so Monster Hunter 2 Freedom in 480p on my HDTV would be a welcome port in this case. So, all Monster Hunter fans out there, expect to be playing Monster Hunter G (Monster Hunter 2 Freedom) again on the Wii next year! If you dont ahve the Wii and just the PSP then no regrets, in my case, it will be buying the same game again, but in extra large mode and hopefully an easier to control system before we get the new Monster Hunter 3. Confused? You bet I am! Pleased? You bet I am!

Source: http://kotaku.com/5117519/capcom-announces-monster-hunter-g-wii

There is a free download on XBLA for you all if you want it. It’s called Doritos Dino Dash. You can either play a delivery truck trying to get through levels and make deliveries or you can play the T-Rex trying to stop the deliveries. It’s fun for the most part, it is a free game after all to promote a food product.

Either way you can earn an embarrasing amount of gamerpoints if you wish.

Are you as surprised as I am?  It seems ‘Fifa 2009′ has knocked ‘Call of Duty: World At War’ off the top spot and just in time to be crowned the Christmas Number 1 for 2008.  ‘Fifa 2009′ has surprised everybody by jumping two places from last week to take recognition for the Christmas Number 1.  Okay, so it doesn’t really mean much when a game is called ‘The Christmas Number 1′ but it’s still good news for Fifa fans, and of course the team at EA Sports.  ‘Quantum of Solace’ has also climbed afew places and now sits comfortably at number 7.  Unfortunately, ‘Fallout 3′ has once again fallen out of the top 10, dropping 8 places.  Take a look below at the top 10 games for week ending 20th December 2008.

1 - Fifa 2009 / EA Sports (up 2 places)
2 - Call of Duty: World At War / Activision (down 1 place)
3 - Mario Kart Wii / Nintendo (down 1 place)
4 - Need for Speed: Undercover / EA Games (no movement
5 - Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training / Nintendo (no movement)
6 - Wii Play / Nintendo (up 1 place)
7 - Quantum of Solace / Activision (up 6 places)
8 - Professor Layton and the Curious Village / Nintendo
9 - Tomb Raider: Underworld / Eidos (up 1 place)
10 - Wii Fit / Nintendo (down 2 places)

Courtesy of ChartTrack

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Nintendo is finally giving back to it’s loyal customers with Club Nintendo.  If you sign up now you can get up to 1250 stars  that you can swap for goodies such as games, animated wall papers, plush toys and even the Super Mario Galaxy sound track.  You can earn stars by playing games and taking survey’s there is one survey that will extend your DS and Wii warranty.

I know, I know you thought it was Christmas when you heard there was more content coming for your copy of Fable 2.  Well sad to say that Microsoft has announced it will not arrive on December 22, instead look for it in January.  Now we have something to look forward to in the New Year.