Connery undecided on Indy 4

Actor Sir Sean Connery is still deciding whether to appear in the next Indiana Jones film, according to trade magazine Variety. Directors George Lucas and Steven Spielberg are hoping the 76-year-old will feature in the fourth instalment.
Sir Sean, who has not appeared in any films since 2003, has apparently said he would consider returning if he liked the script. Harrison Ford has already signed up to return as the daring archaeologist.

GTA4 Sparks controversy (already!)

Late last week, Rockstar Games showed its first trailer for its highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto IV. Though bare on gameplay details, the trailer did reveal one of the game's most asked questions--its setting.
Advertisements, store names, and other items in the simulated city read "Liberty City," the very same city featured in the controversial franchise's break-out hit Grand Theft Auto III and debut on the PlayStation Portable. The city's layout and character were influenced by New York City, and modeling each games' setting after a real-world city has become a bit of a tradition. Vice City from GTAIII's follow-up was a nod to Miami, Florida, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was set on turf reminiscent of Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
However, this new look at Liberty City featured some landmarks that look incredibly similar to places only found in New York (which is where Rockstar Games' US headquarters are located), such as the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Empire State Building.
While most gamers were excited about going on a virtual crime spree through a next-generation Liberty City, New York officials are already voicing their disdain for the game and saying the similarities are only cosmetic, reports the Associated Press.
"The mayor does not support any video game where you earn points for injuring or killing police officers," New York mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement. Are Rockstar taking a huge gamble with the setting or will the obvious outbreak of paranoia and screaming headlines of the press create tonnes of publicity just like the other games in the series. My moneys on the latter.

The best one liners in movie history!

Carry On tops one-liners
The Carry On gag "Infamy! Infamy! They've all got it in for me!" has been voted the funniest film one-liner.Kenneth Williams uttered the words as Julius Caesar in the 1964 romp Carry On Cleo.It was named the best one-liner in a poll of 1,000 comedians, industry figures and film fans by Sky Movies Comedy.
The rest of the top Top 10 was made up of:
"He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy." Terry Jones as Brian's mother - Life Of Brian (1979)
"Surely you can't be serious?" "I am serious, and don't call me Shirley." Leslie Nielsen as Dr Rumack - Airplane! (1980)
"Remember you're fighting for this woman's honour, which is probably more than she ever did." Groucho Marx as Rufus T Firefly - Duck Soup (1933)
"Don't knock masturbation. It's sex with someone I love." Woody Allen as Alvy Singer - Annie Hall (1977)
"Do you have a licence for your minkey?" Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau - The Return of the Pink Panther (1975)
"Is that, is that hair gel?" Cameron Diaz as Mary Jensen - There's Something About Mary (1998)
"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the War Room." Peter Sellers as President Merkin Muffley - Dr Strangelove (1963)
"Nice beaver!" "Thank you. I just had it stuffed." Leslie Nielsen as Lt Frank Drebin and Priscilla Presley as Jane Spencer - The Naked Gun (1988)
"When I met Mary I got that old-fashioned romantic feeling where I'd do anything to bone her." Jim Carrey as Lloyd Christmas - Dumb and Dumber (1994)

Fable 2 (360) preview

During a recent interview with gamespot.com Peter Moleyneux talked about how he wants Fable 2 to be something other than just "more" and "better" than the first game. "I set up Lionhead to innovate and push...that's why we exist. I hope that's why Microsoft acquired us," he said at one point, before talking about his most memorable moments in gaming (his favorite being the ending of Ico) and his desire to fill Fable 2 with equally affecting content. Not simply by penning an epic story, he wants to get you so emotionally invested in other characters that their happiness and pain become your own.
We've known for some time that one of Molyneux's goals for Fable 2 is to make you experience unconditional love, but at previous presentations, the only characters cited as examples were your offspring and, to a lesser extent, your husband or wife. The pet dog that was introduced during today's demo is, perhaps, a character that you're even more likely to bond with, because while your family will welcome you back with open arms when you return home from a quest, your dog will be fighting alongside you every step of the way.
Without wishing to give too much away, you'll acquire your pet dog (or it'll acquire you, at least) early on in your Fable 2 experience when you're still a child. Like you and your in-game family, he'll age as you progress through the game, and his appearance will change to reflect the way you're playing. If you play as a good guy, you might end up with a mutt that looks like a big, fluffy Old English sheepdog, for example, while those of you with a Molyneux-like mean streak will end up with a vicious-looking Doberman or something. Lionhead's self-imposed design rules when adding the dog to the game were that it must love you unconditionally, its presence must never aggravate you, and you must never be required to look after it. The game looks set to make good on the promises made about the first Fable title, whichto be fair was a slight disapointment after all that was promised. But hopefully with Fable 2 Lionhead will come through and blow the gaming publc away.

Ferrell film skates to top spot

Will Ferrell's figure skating comedy, Blades of Glory, has topped the US box office, early figures show.
The film, which follows two rival ice skaters who pair up as the first ever male figure skating duo, took $33m (£16.7m) in its first three days.
The figure is more than half of the film's $60m (£30m) budget.
Last week's number one, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie TMNT, slipped to fourth place while Disney's Meet The Robinsons entered at number two.

US/CANADA BOX OFFICE
1) Blades of Glory ($33m)
2) Meet The Robinsons ($25.1m)
3) 300 ($11.2m)
4) TNMT ($9.2m)
5) Wild Hogs ($8.4m)
6) Shooter ($8m)
7) Premonition ($5.1m)
8) The Last Mimzy ($4m)
9) The Hills Have Eyes ($3.9m)
10) Reign Over Me ($3.7m)
The Robinsons, which took $25.1m (£12.7m), centres on a nerdy orphan who is whisked away to a goofy futuristic world in a time machine.
Former number one 300 took third place, adding $11.2m (£5.68m) to its takings. It has now grossed $300m (£150m) worldwide.
Mr Bean claimed the top spot at the international box office,Disney's Wild Hogs completed the top five, slipping one place with $8.4m (£4.31m).
After a month where takings were up, the North American box office was down 13% from the same weekend last year, when animated comedy Ice Age: The Adventure was at number one.

Review Command and Conquer 3 (PC)

If you're a fan of the Command & Conquer series, three small words are bound to get you excited: Kane is back. Indeed, so are a good number of beloved series hallmarks, like a huge amount of full-motion video and intense strategic combat. But Tiberium Wars is a lot more than just lip service to franchise enthusiasts, and you don't need the rose-hued glasses of nostalgia to appreciate its polish and intensity. It's simply a superb game that's fun and exciting to play both online and off.
No matter which of the two main campaigns you start off with, you're rewarded with a whole lot of live-action video in between missions, featuring familiar actors getting hammy in near-future command centers. There's never been anything subtle about C&C's full-motion video, and, true to form, the campaigns are loaded with wonderfully overblown sequences filled with intrigue and suspense. Yes, Joe Kucan has returned as Nod figurehead Kane, and he's as irresistibly creepy as ever. He and other familiar actors serve up a heap of extravagant solemnity against a backdrop of flashing lights and important-looking video screens.
If you think it sounds over the top, you'd be right--but it's cheesy in the good way, and it won't take you long to get involved in the story and the characters that drive it. The narrative is structured well, with the Global Defense Initiative and Brotherhood of Nod campaigns telling the same story from opposing viewpoints. There's also a new player in the mix: the alien Scrin race. At this stage in the series, the mineral tiberium has propagated over most of the Earth, but it's more than just an environmental plight--it's a key to future technology. It'll take you a couple dozen hours to get through the campaigns, and just when you think you've finished, there are a few surprise missions in store, and they are well worth the time it takes to unlock them. There are also plenty of reasons to return to the campaign once you're done, since the game rewards you with medals based on your performance and tracks a good number of statistics for you to chew on.
Overall C&C 3 is a return to form for the series and bodes well for future releases. Go get it!
CGM score: 4/5

Review: Shivering Isles

This is the expansion pack to the Elder scrolls Oblivion and if you can put up with waiting for 3 hours to download the thing from Xbox live then this is for you. To be honest though it's well worth the wait as this expansion adds plenty of new quests, items and a whole land to explore.
The Shivering Isles is the home of the prince of madness Sheogorath, and he brings you to the isles to stop an apocalyptic event called the Greymarch. The Isles itself are amazing to look at and offer a far more alien and magical looking world to that of Cyrodil. The game offers an extra 30 hours of gameplay so with that added on to a game that offers well over a 100 hours is quite mind blowing. The voice acting of the characters is impressive a much better improvement than those found in Oblivion and some of the script is laugh out loud funny. Overall the shivring Isles is a great expansion adding plenty of new stuff to an already massive game. Definately worth waiting through the download time.
CGM Score: 4/5

PS3 banned from UK prisons

The home secretary John Reid has banned PS3s from being used in prisons as the home office feels they are a security risk and could allow inmates to get in contact with he outside world. The fears come from the PS3s built in wi-fi capability that can connect to the Internet and other consoles wirelessly. Ive a question, just what the hell are the home office playing at giving games consoles to prisoners there supposed to in jail suffering and atoning for there crimes not sitting in a comfy chair playing Grand theft auto!!

Turtles top the U.S

The mighty 300 has been knocked off the top of the U.S film charts following the release of the Teenage mutant ninja turtles movie (crap in a half shell). The film took $24.4 million on its opening weekend. 300 was pushed down to 2ND place, but seeing as the film has grossed more than $160 million in the States alone.
In third place is the action flick Bullet with $14.5 million, fourth is Wild Hogs with $14.3million, fifth is The last Mimzy with $10.2million and in sixth is the terrible (candidate for worst film of the year)Premonition which took $10.1 million taking a total of $32 million. Seriously who paid to watch that nonsense.

Review: Splinter Cell Double agent (PS3)

Sam Fisher returns to the PlayStation in Splinter cell double agent. The first thing is, this is a direct port of the 360 version with slightly better graphics. To be fair though even the graphics aren't much more noticeable. As this is the same game as the 360 version it also has the same problems. The plot is still poor with the story not making much sense, unlike the one found in the original xbox's version. The cut scenes are impressive as is the action, but for some reason Ubi soft has decided to set many of the missions during the day, most likely to show off the graphics no doubt. Because of this the difficulty is increased as now you can be spotted by the enemy a lot easier. Just why would a spec-ops soldier decided to sneak about in broad day light is any ones guess. If you compare this game to the third installment of the series the brilliant chaos theory then its flaws become obvious. Overall the single player is a fiddly and frustrating experience with a plot that most of the time doesn't make sense.
The games saving grace however is the online multi player which is fast frantic and a lot of fun, a co-op mode would've been welcome as that was one of the best things about chaos theory.
Overall Double agent is a good attempt at putting new life into the franchise, but it pails in comparison to earlier titles. For the next one lets hope Ubi-soft go back to basics.
CGM score: 3/5

CrackDown Review

Sometime after the release of Grand Theft Auto III, the popular term used in the game industry to describe open-world, mission-based games became "sandbox." It's kind of a dopey term, but it makes sense and properly conveys the sense of freedom that these games tend to have. But even with the freedom offered by this style of game, most of them tend to have a pretty rigid structure for you to follow if you want to see the game through to its storyline conclusion. Crackdown, from Microsoft and Real Time Worlds, tends to get away from that aspect. The result is an open-world game that feels more open ended than any other game of its type, but that lack of structure makes the game feel half finished and shallow in a few spots.
There's a bit of backstory to the action in Crackdown, but all you really need to know is that you're a new type of supercop that can evolve very quickly, which means your skills improve as you play. You're out to clean up the streets. There are three gangs, each with seven leaders. You can take on any gang leader at any time, but there's a logical order laid out for you that makes the progression scale as your skills increase. There isn't much difference between each individual gang leader--you just need to get to where that gang head is by either working your way through, around, or over the gangsters that surround the leader, then open fire on the boss and take him or her down. Once you eliminate all seven leaders of a gang, a "final crime" occurs, which is really just a mess of street soldiers wandering around in one specific area. When you take all of them out, the gang is vanquished and you'll no longer run into any resistance in that part of the city. Once you've repeated this process through all three parts of the city, you're done cleaning up the city. It's got an abrupt and disappointing conclusion, overall. But before you can have a plot twist, you have to have a plot, and Crackdown has neither.
The weird part is that none of the story really matters, because the whole point of the game is to provide open-ended freedom and a large, interesting city to explore. And on the gameplay side, Crackdown works. The city might not seem huge when you first start moving around, but that's more because you're not thinking vertically. As a man with superhuman abilities, you'll get stronger, faster, and more powerful as you play. The plainest representation of this is your agility rating, which you increase by collecting orbs that are hidden around the city on rooftops. As your agility increases, you can jump higher. So what initially seems like a high, but unimpressive, jump at the beginning turns to your agent flinging himself through the air, from one rooftop to the next, or scaling buildings by clinging to window ledges and jumping up the side. The range of movement you get once your agility is up is really impressive and makes moving around the world a lot of fun. Also, firing from the rooftops or jumping in on your enemies from above is a great way to clean up the opposing gangs, so it's got tactical considerations, as well.
Overall Crackdown offers a fun but often limited experience, with such a short life span its a shame that the developers didnt focus more on the games back story and varyed the gameplay a bit more.
CGM score 3/5

Review: 300

Ive just two things to say before i start this review, 1. How the heck was this film classed as only a 15 and 2. this film is absolutely brilliant! The film tells the story of the battle of Thermopylae, an event that took place in 480BC, a battle in which the Greeks led by 300 Spartan warriors faced down the vast Persian empire and that is where the films relationship with historical accuracy ends except for the names and places used. If your expecting an historically realistic epic then you'd be disappointed, but this film never claims to be that. Its inspired the Frank Miller graphic novels and is shot in a style that makes the movie appear more as a cartoon than a regular picture, and it does this with great affect. The visuals are stunning!.
Now back to the question of its age rating, the battle scenes are brutal and when the Spartans go into battle they don't hold back on the violence, with their swords swinging limbs are lobbed off and heads go a flying, blood sprays all over the place, in a sense the director has captured the brutality of battle in all its horror. So to all those critics who say this film glamorises violence id have to say to you, you guys must be a bit sick because what is shown is by no means glamorous and as for this film supposedly being a meaning for American dominance over the east i say that is utter tosh.
This film, although more stylised and fantasy based is a tribute to the 300 who stood their ground and does a good job of showing its audience just how tough the Spartans really were.
Overall if you want to see a fantasic looking film go and see this now, you wont be disappointed.

CGM score: 4/5

Shivering Isles

Shivering Isles features more than 30 hours of new gameplay and allows you to explore an entirely new plane of Oblivion – the realm of Sheogorath, the Daedric Prince of Madness. Shivering Isles adds to the existing world of Oblivion so you can continue playing with your existing save game/character, or create an all new character just to explore the new content.
“We’re thrilled with the response that Oblivion has received to date and feel that Shivering Isles will offer a whole new and different experience to anyone who played and enjoyed Oblivion,” said Todd Howard, executive producer for The Elder Scrolls.
Within the Realm of Sheogorath, players can explore the two extreme sides of the god’s madness – the sublimely creative and the completely psychotic. Something is happening to the Shivering Isles and Sheogorath himself looks to you to be his champion and defend his realm and its inhabitants from destruction. Do you have the strength to survive his trials, tame a realm fraught with paranoia and despair, and wear the mantle of a God?
The Shivering Isles features a bizarre landscape split between the two sides – Mania and Dementia –filled with vast, twisting dungeons mirroring the roots of the trees they are buried within. You’ll encounter more than a dozen new creatures including hideous insects, Flesh Atronachs, skeletal Shambles, amphibious Grummites. Throughout your adventure, you will discover all new items, ingredients, spells, and more, and have the talented craftsmen of Crucible and Bliss forge new armor and weapons just for you.
Xbox gamers will be able to download the Shivering isles from the 26th of March and it will be on retail sale for the PC on the 30th.

Mass Effect delayed!

The highly anticipated sci-fi RPG Mass effect has been put back once again. Originally listed for release in the middle of February by on-line retailers it has suffered a string of delays. It was pushed back to March and now according to Amazon it wont be out for general release until the end of July. Ideal for killing some time over the summer holidays, lets just hope it doesn't get put back again!

The Devil turns to 360

Yet another PS3 exclusive has jumped ship and landed in the lap of the Xbox 360. This time its the amazing Devil may cry series. Good news for xbox owners but a massive kick in the pants to Sony. Capcom revealed that Devil may cry 4 will now be released on the same day for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. According to Capcom "each version of the game will be maximised to take full advantage of each platforms strength". Mysteriously theres been no info on what this might entail.
The loss of DMC is not the only former exclusive Sony has now lost, at E3 last year it was confirmed that Grand theft auto 4 would also be appearing on both formats. Whats next to lose its exclusivity Metal gear solid 4 perhaps? 360 owners live in hope.