The "Team Pack" adds a Co-op Split Screen mode as well as the incredible Versus Mode. While the concept of Versus Mode remains very simple, the menus add depth and a huge amount of variety to the experience. At your disposal are several gameplay modes, similar to many other multiplayer games' gameplay arsenal, including deathmatch, king of the hill and grab-and-run. This whole mode has been built specifically with party gaming in mind.

Up to four players can play against each other on the same planet, but the "layout" of the planet can be changed before the game commences. This allows you to overlay a maze of rocks onto the planet's surface in various shapes which players will need to navigate through. These rocks can be destroyed and, depending on the options settings, can either harm players who come too close or simply ignore them. For people who prefer a less restricted battlefield, there's an option for a clear level layout too.

Gallery: Super Stardust HD

Similarly to Singstar, the Buzz! series hasn't really hit its mark in the US. In Europe, however, the series is a big hit. With PS3 versions of both franchises heading to America this year, Sony plans on using the internet to expand the feature set into something much more appealing to American tastes.

At first glance, Buzz! Quiz TV looks just like any other Buzz game on the PS2, but watching the game on a 40 inch TV really shows off how much of a facelift the game has undergone. Due to the relatively simple nature of the scenes shown on screen, the game's transition to Hi-Def looks great. All the characters have been remodeled for their HD debut and as a result the game is much more pleasing to the eye. Not that it's what Buzz! is really about.

Gameplay-wise everything's the same (just like Singstar) with the biggest change being the buzzers; Buzz! Quiz TV will ship with wireless controllers. Other than being wireless, they're no different from the PS2 versions with the big red buzzer on top and four colored buttons below. Classic gameplay modes are still around, such as "Pass The Bomb", and are mixed in with new variations exclusive to the PS3 version.

The last time we saw Haze, it was being shown off at the Leipzig Game Convention and, not too long after, the Penny Arcade expo, with both appearances garnering mixed receptions. Seven months and a long delay later, the public were finally able to get their hands on the game again at the Play.com Live event in London. With eight pods for the game set up in two groups of four, Ubisoft missed a trick by not linking them up to show off the much-anticipated co-op play. Instead, the company presented an underwhelming single-player demo which never managed to really amaze. With so much time out of the public eye and with a less-than-stellar last showing, Haze needed to impress.

We spent the majority of our time inside one of the game's vehicles, driving around some sparsely populated cavern environments whilst avoiding explosive mines and enemies. Using Nectar -- a drug ideally suited for this kind of trip -- we were able to see the mines more clearly, making them glow against the dull texture of the rocks.The environments didn't seem particularly inspired and boasted only a minimal level of destructibility. Knocking over fences (evil fences, possibly) was the best we could manage.

The UK government's recent budget announcement shows that it has turned a deaf ear to the many calls for financial incentives by the video game industry. In response, UK developers have taken up arms and started a petition to go directly to 10 Downing Street. Or, at least, its online home. With British talent being enticed out of the country by Montreal's tax breaks and cash handouts, the petitioners are requesting similar incentives as development prices and team sizes continue to grow larger.

Companies affected by this petition include Rare, several Sony studios (WipEout, Home, Singstar), Media Molecule, Free Radical, Ninja Theory, Evolution Studios, Bizarre Creations and Lionhead Studios, and many others. UK citizens, particularly those interested in getting into the industry in the future, have been asked to sign the petition that aims to help save UK developers some cash and remain in the country.

[Thanks, George]

Devil May Cry 4 is only a month away from release and we were itching to sit down for a few hours and try out the final build. From what we've seen, the game has been polished so much we could almost see our faces in it. It's clear that DMC4 has benefited from being pushed back to early '08, if only because it now has the Q1 stage all to itself.

The gameplay hasn't changed much since Devil May Cry 1, but fans of the series should see no problems with that. Having said that, numerous new features have been added, with Nero's crazy arm (used for grabbing, throwing and slamming, natch) reminding us of Evil Dead 2. That can only be a good thing, right? Its ability to cling onto nearby floating objects in order to reach higher places is ripped straight from Onimusha 3, though the timing based jump puzzles seen here make things a little different.

One such puzzle requires you to hop across a spike-filled room by grabbing jump points that can disappear and reappear at random. Grab at the wrong time and the spikes will damage you, causing you to plummet into a room full of marionettes (those being the things trying to kill you most of the time) below. Did we fall? Maybe. Maybe we fell three times. So what if we did?

Adrian Hon, ex-Director of Play at Mind Candy, has been suspiciously quiet since Perplex City's disheartening suspension. It now seems he's been sneakily setting up new companies with his brother Dan and starting new projects. Let's Change The Game is the first of these new projects and sees Adrian joining forces with Cancer Research UK in order to raise money for a good cause and give someone the opportunity to design their own ARG.

Teams around the world are required to submit a 500 word Alternate Reality Game concept to the panel of judges (including Heavenly Sword story writer Rhianna Pratchett). The winning team will receive £1000 to develop their game as well as the full resources of Cancer Research UK at their disposal for marketing purposes. This includes 600 retail stores, TV adverts, live event fund raisers and mail outs to 20 million people. Not to mention behind-the-scenes help from some of the most prolific ARG designers in the industry. Think of it like Dragon's Den, with less chance of being shouted at.

The due-in date for entries is the 16th of November. More information, including what an ARG actually is, can be found on the Let's Change The Game website. There is also a discussion board for anyone interested. Ultimately, you have the chance to raise money for a good cause and get your ARG developed. How can you say no?

We had the opportunity to catch up with the father of Loco Roco, Tsutomu Kouno, and ask him a few questions about his newly released sequel, Loco Roco Cocoreccho. The interview was conducted along with Spencer Yip from Siliconera. We ask him what his inspirations were, why he decided to develop an "interactive screensaver" and whether there will be any downloadable content in the future. Find the full interview after the break.

What was your inspiration for the Loco Roco franchise?
I carry a PDA around with me wherever I go and I draw out any ideas that I have. Several years ago I found myself drawing Loco Rocos on the train in various forms. Around that time the PSP had first been announced so I started to think how I could turn my little characters into a game. I thought to myself: "there must be a way to have the shoulder buttons of the PSP control the movement."

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles for the Gamecube was a bit of a hit-and-miss title. Touted as a multiplayer roleplaying experience, the game required you to have access to four Gameboy Advances (and three friends) to fully enjoy. The lackluster single player mode meant many were put off before they even started calling through their little black books looking for GBA owning friends.

The franchise has survived, however, and has moved onto the Nintendo DS in the form of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates. We took advantage of the strangely short line (the game being out in Japan might have something to do with it) and played a 4-player multiplayer game with the Square Enix booth attendants.

Multiplayer seems to consist of co-operative dungeon crawler, with no sign of story or non-battle gameplay. Players can choose their character class, which affects their base attack style. Magic can be used by all players by picking up giant materia orbs, just like in the original. The action all takes place on the top screen while the bottom screen contains your stats. The bottom screen also shows how many of each materia you have and allows you to change between the different magics by tapping the desired orb on the screen.

Scouring the show floor at TGS is hungry work, but when all the eateries are full of the Dreaded Public where can you get the sustenance you require? We tried our luck at the Cooking Mama 2 booth, just in case they had some tasty swag to give away. Sadly, there was none. While we were there, however, we did get embroiled (which kind of sounds like boiled) in the game.

The first thing we noticed about the game, once we'd finally worked our way through the main menu to some actual gameplay, was that the touch controls are much more responsive than in Cooking Mama 1. Whereas previously success in the game relied as much on the DS being your friend as it did on your skill, now the game plays with much less frustration.

The game itself is more of the same. More of an upgrade than a sequel, Cooking Mama 2 has extra recipes to produce as well as more diverse methods of cooking. During our play session we were challenged to scale a fish, open a sea urchin and empty an oyster. All without getting our hands covered in sea ming (that is, ming from the sea).

Patapon, a PSP title which we've seen very little of so far, is proving a great hit at the Tokyo Game Show. With a line that was sometimes longer than Metal Gear Online we were curious to see what all the fuss was about. Finally we braved the Dreaded Public and got our hands on the goods.

Stepping into the Patapon enclosure a Sony booth attendee talked us through the gist of the game. We couldn't understand some of the Japanese, though we did enjoy it whenever she sang instructions to us. "Pon pon pata pon ... pata pata pata pon." Lovely.

Your tribe of one-eyed worshippers are required to go from one end of the level to the other (with two levels in the demo on the show floor). The only method of getting them there is to command them to act by performing different beats with the circle and square buttons, which correspond to the sounds "pata" and "pon", respectively. By stringing combinations of these two sounds together your minions will perform different actions.

Square Enix's upcoming cute-em-up dungeon crawler, Chocobo's Dungeon: Toki-Wasure no Meikyuu will be released in Japan on the 13th of December. We managed to drag ourselves away from the giant Chocobo guarding the entrance to Square Enix's booth long enough to check the game out.

Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon is, essentially, a sequel to Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon 1 and 2 for the PlayStation. While those games didn't do as well as perhaps they should have (only Mysterious Dungeon 2 was released outside Japan) Square Enix seem to be giving the franchise one more chance on the Wii.

This latest iteration maintains much of the cuteness of the previous titles, keeping a consistant art style with all past Chocobo based games, whilst using a softer palette of colours throughout. The world of Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon is now full of pastel shades, as opposed to the bright primary colours used in games such as Chocobo Tales.

Surprisingly the line for Metal Gear Online was relatively short, even for a press day, so we took advantage and got our hands on the upcoming online stealth shooter. Twelve PS3s were set up so that a constant rotation of players could fight together, six to a team. As each match began the next set of players were sent to a mysterious back room. Finally it was our turn and we could discover what was going on back there.

The door opened onto a tiny room filled with chairs, a projector and a Japanese woman with a pointer who sternly (though she was talking in Japanese so we can't be sure) gave us our briefing. Undoubtedly hilarious if you understand Japanese, we were sadly left staring at the lady's beret. We did, however, learn the basic controls via the enthusiastic pointing at the handy images that were being projected onto the wall. These will be familiar to anyone who's ever played a Metal Gear Solid game before. After a short talk on the skill system and an overview of the map we were sent out to fight.

White Knight Story is a game we've kept in our peripheral vision since we first saw its trailer at TGS last year. Today we got the chance to get a hands on with the game. The demo guides you through leading a giant ox creature, and its suspiciously Taru-Taru-like owner, down a road filled with dangers. The dangers come in the form of evil armoured humans and animated vegetation. Similar to Mandragoras. We're drawing a couple of parallels to Final Fantasy XI but, thankfully, the similarities stop there.

The slightly cel-shaded nature of the earlier trailer has been toned down a bit so that now the world looks more realistic, whilst still maintaining its obvious anime inspiration. The game dropped jaws with its incredible stylised JRPG graphics when it was revealed at TGS last year and is still graphically stunning.

The first thing we noticed when we started the first combat segment was what first appears to be an aiming circle. This is what we affectionately call the "Wait Circle", which has a loading bar elongate along its circumference. Once it finishes the circle you can perform your next action. The Wait Circle also helps you out with your combo timings.