Wii Play, what at first seemed nothing more than a glorified demo disc bundled with a Wii Remote, has apparently turned out to be one of the most successful Wii games yet, having already sold over 10 million copies and still going strong. Or to put things into perspective, Wii Play is a more successful game than Halo 3. Impressive, right?

Now, as the whole Wii Play thing does indeed cost (marginally) more than a Wii Remote, and as the public doesn’t really always know what’s best for it, the question is, is Wii Play worth your time? Is this selection of mini-games any good? Well, in a nutshell, yes. You get a selection of nine high-score oriented, action-heavy, mostly multiplayer and at times suitable for parties mini-games, for something more than a fiver. Happily most of them are both good and addictive, though admittedly they all could use a bit more depth. Here’s a breakdown of what’s on offer:

-Shooting Range: This is a direct descendant of Duck Hunt and the first time the Wii showed its prowess in lightgun games. Players go from shooting balloons, frisbees, and cans to UFOs, whereas the occasional duck can be targeted for a small score boost. An excellent game with a descent amount of levels.

-Laser Hockey: Air Hockey with neon-lights, where the Wii Remote controls really shine. Fantastic fun and impressively realistic physics. Also a personal favorite.

-Pose Mii: If you’re looking for a weird and truly frenetic two player game that really works well with alcohol, this one’s for you. Not much fun in single-player mode though. Oh, and the thing has you rotating, posing and positioning Miis in psychedelic bubbles.

-Fishing: Totally unlike fishing in Zelda and devoid of any entertainment value whatsoever.

-Billiards: A rare chance for some excellent billiards fun. Gamers play 9 Ball Billiards using the Wii Remote as a cue stick and it really feels right. Quite an elaborate attempt really, that -provided you actually enjoy pool- never truly gets old.

-Charge!: The player rides a cow and over scarecrows in a surreal yet brilliant racing game where high-scores are all that matters. The control method is not unlike the one used in Excitetruck and it really works. Unfortunately there is only one track to race around.

-Table Tennis: Pong with fancy (well, relatively speaking) graphics. Great, mindless, simple, classic, reflex-based fun.

-Tanks!: Theoretically this is the deepest game in the collection and the only one that benefits from the use of the Nunchuk. On the other hand, it’s just an updated version of the ancient Atari Combat, with 100 missions (80 of them must be unlocked) and a few new gameplay tricks. Moderately fun, though oddly addictive.

-Find Mii: Here, crowds of Mii characters will… err… crowd on the screen and the player must pick out the ones matching a certain description. Pretty pointless.

Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, the flawed but ambitiously mature in tone & style PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 game, will apparently be getting a selection of free goodies. Actually, make that four free maps. Better yet, a selection of four downloadable maps. Said maps will become available sometime this month and will come wrapped in a lovely pack Eidos chose to name The Dope Bag. How very cute, really.

I guess you could start by taking a bath and buying a new chainmail bikini, but I’m afraid Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning will need much more than that. It will need patience (yes, more), fast preordering skills (to secure the beautiful collector’s edition pictured above), a desire to pay monthly fees, above average hand-eye coordination, a working mouse, a decent PC and a combination of MMORPG and Warhammer skills. Then, having covered the basics and in order to make sure you stand a chance of rising as one of the greatest heroes of the digital online version of the Old World, you’d better follow a few simple preparatory steps. These simple steps actually:

a) Make sure your love of Warhammer is as deep as ever. Better yet, make sure you remember how good Warhammer video games can be, preferably by playing the excellent and highly atmospheric RTS that is Warhammer: Mark of Chaos. Retro offerings like Shadow of the Horned Rat might come in handy too.

b) Start working on your PvP skills making sure you focus on the realm-vs-realm side of things. Warhammer Online’s key strength after all will be the extended RvR options, mechanics and arenas. Sun Tzu’s Art of War would probably be of some help, though flexing your MMO combat muscle is better achieved through playing the brilliant Dark Age of Camelot MMORPG. Mind you, them Dark Age of Camelot developers are the same people that will be responsible for the Age of Reckoning and -not surpisingly- DAoC has the best RvR battles yet.

c) Try to stock-up on free time, as you will quite frankly need it. Getting fired, entering a monastery, finishing any remaining PhDs, Mscs, term papers, etc, or preferably getting some paid vacation time are all acceptable solutions.

d) Catch up on your proper pen & paper Warhammer knowledge. Grab the latest edition (7th) of the rules, flick through the RPG book, browse the multitude of forums available online, tidy your Army Books, paint the odd miniature and re-read those yellowy Black Library novels you’ve been hiding in the basement. There, you’re ready for WAR!

Okay, so Tetris DS was never really that overlooked, but I just felt such an adjective would sort of help this post’s title achieve an almost dramatic effect. Apparently it didn’t. Oh, well. It’s still better than plainly calling the thing Tetris DS (a brief review), isn’t it?

Anyway, on to the game, then. Well, as I’ve already mentioned, Nintendo’s Tetris DS is an excellent way to entertain yourselves with a DS and enough of a time sink to help your average gamer battle dementia on a desert island. Then again, Tetris has always been an immensely addictive offering, that has managed to entertain gamers for the past 20 or so years in all its myriad adaptations. Even my non-gaming parents parents enjoy it, you know. Have been doing so from the forgotten age of the AT PC.

This very portable DS version of Alexei Pajitnov’s classic, besides offering some of the best pixelated 16-bit era 2D graphics, a score of new game modes, fantastic Nintendo themed levels covering everything from Mario to Metroid, a points based rating system, a few cute tunes and a variety of interesting stylus-based additions, also comes with some truly impressive multiplayer options. With just one cartridge, you see, up to 10 players can go head-to-head and win nasty Tetris battles. Alternatively, using this Wi-Fi thingy, up to four players can compete online.

Now, two more words: buy it !

There are many ways to decide which games are true gems and interestingly each one of them seems to be at odds with the others. Is it innovation we’re looking for in a good game or is it the refinement and evolution of existing concepts? Is fun (whatever that means) more important than an interesting plot? Which are the objective values of game design? Do value and price enter the equation? Length? Oh, and if graphics don’t really matter, how come we’re still playing Dragon’s Lair after all those years? More importantly, how can I suggest 15 top games for your monolithic PS3?

Well, I guess the best way to do it would be to a) go for the 30 top-rated games as selected by the top review sites and magazines, b) add 10 games as recommended by gaming connoisseurs and/or bloggers I more or less trust, c) subtract the games that have lost their way to Europe, and d) select 15 games from the above according to personal tastes and a divine -dare I say- sense of justice. So, what follows is said list in no particular order and even including the ridiculously well received CoD 4, which I personally detest.

- The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
- Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune
- Unreal Tournament 3
- Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock
- Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
- Virtua Fighter 5
- MotorStorm
- The Eye of Judgment
- Burnout Paradise
- Ninja Gaiden Sigma
- Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
- Devil May Cry 4
- The Darkness
- Pro Evolution Soccer 2008
- Condemned 2: Bloodshot

The ancient Greek way of life was rather brilliant and probably the most enjoyable ever, provided of course you were born a man, and more precisely a free man, in which case you’d probably spend your life fighting some non particularly lethal battles, philosophizing, not working, thinking, creating art, eating healthy stuff and having lots and lots of very imaginative sex. Kratos, on the other hand, being less of a historical figure and more of a product of an americanized view of Greek mythology, chose to go for a more slaughtering everything vaguely humanoid lifestyle, though admittedly he still bothers himself with a bit of sex here and there. Apparently, the ladies love him.

Other than that, Kratos also tends to star in hugely popular and incredibly polished video games for the PlayStation 2 and has just made the jump to the PSP, which you’ve probably noticed. The God of War: Chains of Olympus was, after all, one of the more heavily hyped games of those last few months. Well, in Greece it was.

What’s really impressive about this game though, is the fact that the hype was almost justified, or, to be fair, as justified as these things go. Chains of Olympus is an excellent addition to the PSP game library, and if you’re into this sort of action-adventure fetish, I guess you could easily say this is the best PSP game released to date. Now, I would disagree and go for Pirates! or Lemmings, but I’m a retro gamer at heart and a grumpy one at that too. Still, even I have to admit that Sony’s effort really is impressive. Very impressive, actually.

First of all, you see, Chains of Olypmus is a worthy addition to the God of War series and can easily be considered on par with the ultra-successful original God of War on the PS2. It might be on the shorter side of things, but it sports the same level of gore, atmosphere, excellent gameplay, fantastic set-pieces and rudimentary puzzles, all tweaked for gaming on the go and made to fit in one of those tiny UMD discs. Then there are the graphics. They are easily beyond what you thought the PSP was capable of and beautiful from both artistic and technological points of view. Happily, the same thing applies to the audio.

Oh, and it’s even got a decent though quite banal plot. Something having to do with Kratos murdering a bit, then seeking absolution, then murdering some more, cursing the gods, murdering, spicing up his erotic life, murdering and finally killing something truly big. But really, who cares for detailed stories when you got such a polished, fun and addictive game? Hmm…