JOE’s Gaming Round-up

JOE's round-up continues with Nintendo's incredible Wii Remote figures and the much anticipated release of Fable III.

JOE

Welcome to another week of JOE’s videogame round-up. As always, we’re looking to provide you with up-to-the-minute news, download reviews, weekly charts and forthcoming release dates on a weekly basis. So if thereâ€™s anything you think weâ€™re leaving out, or would like us to shine a spotlight on, feel free to leave a comment below.

News

John Lennon’s entire ‘Imagine’ album coming to Rock Band 3

Here’s Lennon digitised in 2009’s Beatles Rock Band

Dead rock stars are a notoriously tricky proposition when it comes to music videogames, as Activision soon discovered when Kurt Cobain’s widow Courtne Love threatened legal action of the ability for players to use an unlockable Cobain character to perform any of the tracks available in Guitar Hero 5. The 2009 Beatles Rock Band release brought a similar storm from diehard Beatles fans, who claim the deceased John Lennon would never put his name to such a product.

With the keyboard peripheral an integral part of this week’s Rock Band 3, Beatles fans may be dismayed/overjoyed to hear that, while ‘Imagine‘ appears on the game disc, the entire collection of songs from Lennon’s 1971 ‘Imagine‘ album will soon be available via downloadable content.

Nintendo announce incredible Wii Remote sales

Having never played Starcraft myself, I have no idea what’s going on

If there’s one thing Nintendo loves to do this generation, then it’s sending out gloating press releases – not that we can blame them. This week the Kyoto giants announced that they have sold a whopping 65.3m Wii Remotes for their console, with 30.4m of the Remotes sold at retail. As for the Wii Remote-packed in title Wii Play, 12.92 of the Remotes at retail come from that game alone, over one third. With figures like that, maybe Microsoft should try introduce as many peripherals as possible for their controller-free Kinect future.

Download of the Week

Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 (1200 MS Points, â‚¬15 on PSN, 1500 Wii Points)

What’s going on? Oh wait, it’s Alan Wake… nevermind

Yes, that’s right, it’s the fourth game in the Sonic franchise, Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode 1. Not that we’re complaining, after all I think we would all like to pretend that the 3D versions and the ever-expanding cast (we’re calling you out again Big the Cat!) never happened. A deliberately old school reimagining for the franchise, Sonic 4 is the first of a planned four-part installment that will encompass the hedgehog’s latest adventure. Although we’ve only sampled the title on the iPhone as yet, critics have been largely impressed with the retro return of Sonic, although many reviews have been quick to point out the relatively short completion time for the game. If you aren’t a huge SEGA fan, perhaps you may want to hold out until an Xbox Live sale crops up.

Friday Releases 29/10/10

Fable III allows you to occasionally shoot things, as can be seen above

Have a look at Friday’s releases below – can there possibly be a busier game release week all year? With everything from The Sims 3 on console, Rock Band 3, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II and Super Scribblenauts to choose from, it was surprising that our pick of the week came so easily. With Fable III, we think Lionhead Studios have created the best Fable adventure yet – we’ve been lucky enough to spend the last fortnight in the company of the game and posted our thoughts in our 4.5 star review. With the success of Halo Reach last month, it’s great to see another AAA Microsoft exclusive that lives up to the hype.

Xbox 360

Bakugan Battle Brawlers: Defenders of the Core

BlazBlue: Continuum Shift

Bloody Good Time(XBLA)

CSI: Fatal Conspiracy

Deadly Premonition

Fable III

Forza Motorsport 3 Ultimate Collection

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition

Rock Band 3

Saw II

Shaun White Skateboarding