The TGN Blog

• Game: XCOM: Enemy Unknown
• Format Reviewed: PC
• Other Formats:Xbox 360, PS3
• Developer: Firaxis Games
• Publisher: 2K Games
• Genre: Turn-Based Strategy

Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars was the hidden gem of the 3DS launch line-up and one of the best games of 2011, but at the time it also seemed like the closest thing we would ever get to a new X-COM game. It may have had a completely different setting and a focus entirely on ground battles, but it was the only modern game even close to the style of classic 1990's X-COM, and following 2K's then-recent announcement of the technically-not-even-in-name-only reboot XCOM it didn't look like we would see a worthy revival of the series anytime soon. A lot can change in eighteen months...

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As a pack of gamers, I'm guessing some of you are already aware of the huge brouhaha currently engaging a large swathe of ...

It's the end of an era. After 20 years, five-and-a-half titles and 247 issues the UK's longest-running independent Nintendo magazine comes to an end. On Thursday the 6th of September 2012 the final issue of Nintendo Gamer will go on sale, before disappearing from the shelves forever on the 1st of October - 20 years to the day after it first launched as Super Play.

It could be said that the magazine's demise was inevitable; it's certainly not the first long-runner to come to an end, with the news following hot on the heels of the announcement that venerable US publication Nintendo Power will shut down after 24 years. Print media has long been fighting a losing battle against the web - a monthly release schedule can't possibly keep up with the speed stories are brought up, argued out and forgotten online, and £4.50 an issue has to compete with the low price of £0 for thousands of websites - but still it's sad to see an end to something that has been so consistently well-written, funny and influential for such a long time. After the jump, a look back at what made Super Play and its progeny so memorable.
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Do you know what happened this week?
Gamescom happened.

And with it a slightly more bulging, throbbing and pulsating Weekly Update to wave in the faces of your friends.
Continue? Y/N
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It's Monday, and apparently that's the day that I compile the weekly round-up of gaming news from across the 'verse.

Gaming highlights mentioned below involve NASA's Mars rover Curiosity touching down on the red planet, the Olympic closing ceremony and Blur playing their "final" gig in Hyde Park.*
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It's been a week (almost), so lets have a look at what has perspired transpired in the world of gaming...

Warning - may contain a list.
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What's hot in the gaming world right now?
Ronan attempts to gain some perspective on the latest news (which would go nicely with a bottle of Cheval Blanc 1947).

Go, go, gadget quick-fire news reel!
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It's that time of year again, the Electronics Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles is here to show off all the big games of the next year and beyond. Microsoft once again kicked off the show with the first pre-E3 press briefing of the three big console manufacturers (albeit with their thunder stolen somewhat by Nintendo's Non-Specific-Action-Figure-tastic pre-pre-E3 briefing briefing).

Out of the big three Microsoft have the least on the line this year - with no major incoming hardware like the Wii U, and no recent releases like the PS Vita they were free to concentrate on the already well-established Xbox 360. Of course the same was true last year, and that lead to the horrible train wreck that was the E3 2011 Xbox 360 briefing and its obsession with barking instructions to your character like some sort of Cyrano de Bergerac simulator. After that it would seem that Microsoft had no way to go but up; maybe so, but that didn't stop them from valiantly searching for an alternative.
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Many people have long suspected that 8- and 16-bit videogames were hard, but up until now this was merely a hunch based on personal experience and anecdotal evidence, which as we all know are essentially useless for divining truth. Fortunately, the issue has now been settled in the only sensible way: advanced mathematics.
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