Is online gaming coming out of the bedroom and into the boozer? We went along to a pub in North London to investigate the new ‘Barcraft’ trend that began in Seattle and has spread throughout North America and Europe. Landlords are turning off the footy and streaming tournaments of strategy blockbuster Starcraft II instead.

Hundreds of fans packed out the Assembly House pub in Kentish Town last weekend for a marathon two-day viewing session. They watched pro players compete in the Major League Gaming Starcraft II tournament held in Providence, Rhode Island. At stake was a $50,000 first prize and a serious buff to their reputations.

Competition among elite Starcraft II players is fierce, with top-ranking gamers such as Huk, Idra and Leenock performing upwards of 300 in-game actions every minute. But putting in the hours to master the game can reap great rewards, with the best players earning hundreds of thousands of pounds in prize money and endorsements.

Barcraft London organisers say convincing pubs to show their sport wasn’t easy. They approached 40 establishments in the capital before they found one willing to put Starcraft II on their plasma screens. But the landlord who said yes is reaping the benefits — he says Starcraft fans are better behaved and stay longer than fans of other sports. Since Starcraft tournaments are screened free of charge, he can also avoid licensing fees.

But what is it about Starcraft II that makes it such a popular spectator sport? How do the pub’s regulars react when they stumble upon hundreds of fired-up fans screaming at a computer screen? And should traditional sports be worried about this new trend? Find out all this and more by watching the video. You can hear more on this week’s CNET UK podcast, where we’ll be discussing the future of digital sports.

And if you want to attend or set up a Barcraft event in your area, you can contact the organisers on Facebook or Twitter. Let us know what you think down in the comments, or over on our own Facebook page.

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The games industry is trying to save its business by strangling the second-hand games market. But if it doesn’t start treating paying customers with more respect, in a year or two there won’t be anything left worth saving.

Arkham City limits

Do you like Batman? I like Batman. That’s why, like 4.6 million other chumps, I paid about 40 quid for Batman: Arkham City in the first week it came out, happy to part with my cash in exchange for the opportunity to smack someone in the chops with a Batarang.

But while the game turned out to be cracking fun, there was something that soured my enjoyment before I even donned Batman’s pointy-eared cowl. To play the bits where you get to be Catwoman, I had to enter a 20-letter code printed on a bit of paper inside the box, and initiate a 250MB download.

That’s about 500 per cent more hassle than anyone who’s just thrown down forty sheets should ever have to endure. Being a naive soul, I asked Twitter why it was proving so hard to play the game I’d just paid for, and was promptly informed that making the Catwoman bits a code-reliant download are a measure taken by the game’s publisher to prevent second-hand sales.

For, you see, that code only works once. So anyone thinking of buying the game second-hand would have to pay extra to download the Catwoman missions, which take up what I (having completed the game) would judge to comprise a significant portion of the story.

In essence, any copy of the game that isn’t brand-new is a lame duck, only fit to be foisted upon unsuspecting nieces and nephews who won’t notice half the game is missing. And if you haven’t connected your console to the Internet, those Catwoman missions will forever lie beyond your grasp.

Thank you for buying our game. Now prove it

This isn’t an isolated situation, neither is it a new one. Battlefield 3 requires you to input a one-use code that comes with the game in order to play it online (ludicrous when the game is so online-focused in the first place), as does Uncharted 3.

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations has a similar setup, in which your code is tied to a single Uplay account, a separate service run by publisher Ubisoft you’ll need to sign up for in order to play online. And if you’re anything like me, seeing the words ‘account’, ‘sign up’ and ‘Uplay’ used in conjunction will have your enthusiasm levels gargling down the drain.

So to recap, having paid full price for a game, not only do you have to sit there like a loser, painstakingly entering codes to make your new game work, you’re then left with a physical lump of matter you legally own, but will struggle to sell.

If you’re the kind of person who likes to wait a bit and then buy a game pre-owned, you’ll have to go through the hassle of buying separate codes to make your games work properly. And that’s saying nothing of the fact that many blockbuster titles launch with expensive DLC ready to go live that really could have been squeezed on to the disc. Thanks guys. Thanks a bunch. Here, have another forty quid.

Second-hand smoked

With these measures games publishers are out to kill the second-hand trade. Should you care that it’s now much harder to lend a game to a friend, or sell it on once you’re finished? Yes you should, because despite introducing these restrictive measures, games are still very expensive to buy. Expensive to buy, hard to sell. A winning combination for them, but not for you.

When I download a movie from iTunes or play a song on Spotify, I know I can’t sell those things on or loan them to a buddy, but I don’t mind because the fact that they’re digital products, devoid of expensive physical materials and shipping costs, means they’re a darn sight cheaper than buying a DVD or a CD. But here is a situation where you’re paying full physical-media prices for something that basically exists in half-digital form.

Okay, having to buy a game new, enter a code and sign up for some stuff you don’t want isn’t the end of the world. But it’s a degree of annoyance you shouldn’t have to put up with, and it smacks of easy arrogance and a level of complacency that the games industry can ill afford.

Because I can play games on my iPhone, and I can play them on the iPad, and if I don’t have the cash to splash on those devices I can play them on an iPod touch. Games for iOS and Android are good. They’re really good. And there are thousands of them. You can download them in seconds, and usually for less than a quid.

Mobile masterpieces

In the time that 250MB worth of Catwoman took to squeeze itself down the intertubes into my Xbox 360, I could have paid for and be playing Tiny Wings, Whale Trail, Jetpack Joyride or any of the other brilliant timewasters that populate Apple’s App Store.

Hardcore gamers will scoff, but they shouldn’t. Mobile games have come on leaps and bounds in the last few years, and with processing power in smart phones and tablets increasing at an alarming rate, it won’t be long before the only thing that separates console games from mobile games is the fact that you have to walk to HMV to buy the bloody thing.

Angry Birds, which debuted in 2009, has been downloaded 500 million times across its various editions. If you combine the sales of all the core Super Mario games ever made, they total about 262 million. As former Escapist editor-in-chief Russ Pitts writes for GameSpot, “Think about that while you’re spending your Q4 reading and writing about AAA ‘blockbusters’.”

Kings of convenience

People will tell you games publishers are only protecting themselves with these measures, that when you buy a game second-hand none of that cash goes to the game-maker, and that these tools are a valuable weapon in the fight against piracy.

But try this one: I don’t care. And neither will the hordes of gamers out there who are increasingly used to having their entertainment delivered conveniently, fast and affordably. Because those are the factors that matter to people, not a publisher’s bottom line.

Apple’s gadgets are awfully convenient. And here’s something else — Apple takes a 30 per cent cut of all sales through the App Store, a cost that I suspect many games publishers would struggle to cope with, should Apple become the dominant force in gaming. So unless publishers want the future of videogames to be fruit-shaped, I would suggest it’s time to treat gamers a little better.

Downloads and digital technology offer consumers convenience, choice and affordability. But while so many companies are embracing this (Amazon, Apple, BBC, Google, Netflix, Spotify, Valve, to name just a few in alphabetical order), it feels like many games publishers see the digital revolution as an opportunity to restrict gamers, and find inventive new ways to bleed them for every last penny.

And that’s the behaviour of a jerk. Games industry, don’t be a jerk.

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If you’d have told us 10 years and one day ago that Microsoft would be dominating the world of gaming, we’d have called you a damnable liar and punched a hole in the top of your bowler hat. But the company best known for interminably dull things like Microsoft Office and Outlook managed to pull it out the bag with the Xbox console, released in 2001 and followed up in 2005 with the even more brilliant Xbox 360.

What propelled Xbox to the forefront of the interactive entertainment world? Massive piles of money, of course! And games, lots of great, exclusive games. Here, in no particular order, are our 10 favourite Xbox exclusives ever.

Fable 2 (Xbox 360)

Who’d have thought pottering about a colonial-era fantasy land and setting people on fire would be so much fun? We did, because that sounds like the most fun it’s possible to have. And fun by the barrelful was a feature of Fable 2 — the strongest game in the series to date, Fable 2 gave you freedom to develop your character, letting you choose to be male or female and good or evil.

The game is constantly throwing moral choices your way, but once we found out that being evil made your character grow horns, it was fireballs here, fireballs there, fireballs everywhere. Other treats include a refreshingly flexible approach to character sexuality and the best dog in video games ever.

Halo: Combat Evolved (Xbox)

Released in 2001, Halo: Combat Evolved was the game that made the original Xbox a success. Introducing Master Chief, the Clint Eastwood-inspired green-suited faceless hero of the franchise, players were let loose on a gorgeously rendered hoop-shaped space world, with the express purpose of eliminating the Covenant alien threat.

Halo fans will be keen to point out the story isn’t that simple — indeed it’s massively complicated — but Halo deserves praise for simplifying the shooter genre in terms of gameplay, and making it fun to leap around frantically, running and gunning as you fought increasingly huge hordes of otherworldly foes. It had longevity too, thanks to different difficulty settings that significantly altered gameplay.

The first Halo was so popular that Microsoft has decided to make it again, releasing the remastered Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary for the Xbox 360, in a cynical money-spinning exercise that nevertheless has us excited about returning to the game we fell in love with a decade ago.

Forza 4: Motorsport (Xbox 360)

Everyone likes fast cars, but driving them in real life can be terrifying, not to mention expensive. You’re much better off racing virtual cars we reckon, and virtual cars don’t come any more beautifully realised than the roster of motors in the superb Forza series.

A game for racing connoisseurs, Forza 4 offers a refined motoring experience that’s a million miles away from smashing your opponent with a red shell in Mario Kart, but feels no less rewarding.

Okay, it’s slightly less rewarding, but if you’re more of a casual gaming fan there’s something for you here as well, because Forza 4 works with Kinect, Microsoft’s motion-tracking peripheral, so you can ditch the controller if you fancy.

Crackdown (Xbox 360)

Grand Theft Auto is all well and good, but it’s a shame it’s not set in the future, with biologically enhanced characters leaping across rooftops and tackling crime using oversized weaponry.

Ambitious and great fun to play, Crackdown’s success was party due to Microsoft Game Studios bundling the game with Halo 3 multiplayer beta access codes. Your job is to police Pacific City, taking down crimelords and harvesting the experience orbs that drop from defeated foes. Clambering to the top of the highest building and jumping off delivers a giddy thrill, as does hopping into your friends’ game using Xbox Live.

The sequel Crackdown 2 sadly wasn’t quite as good, but the original game remains one of the Xbox’s most dearly treasured gems.

Ninja Gaiden (Xbox)

Resurrecting a franchise last spotted in the nineties, Ninja Gaiden is a hack-and-slash adventure that has you blasting through waves of enemies with an assortment of weaponry, including flails, shuriken, swords and staves, helpfully relieving your unlucky foes of their blood. And heads.

This is another game where you’ll quickly stop following the story, focusing more on the bloody business of battle — blocking where required and raining down punishment the rest of the time.

Ninja Gaiden is infamous for being incredibly hard. With a difficulty curve that looks more like a sheer brick wall, casual gamers might be put off by the amount of practice and finger dexterity needed to succeed. But if you’re able to battle through the whole game, your reward will be a warm inner glow, and the prospect of tearing through the similarly excellent Ninja Gaiden 2 for the Xbox 360.

Trials HD

Not all the best games come in boxes, y’know. Trials HD is a downloadable title on Xbox Live Arcade, a place where indie developers can give their game a fair shout.

Trials HD is arguably the best XBLA title out there, and involves ramping a motorbike through side-scrolling levels, controlling the bike’s speed and direction to ensure your brave rider is able to stay in the saddle.

Trials HD is utterly addictive, and will have you coming back again and again to beat your best times, but another reason it’s made it onto the list is that the Live Arcade is one of the best things about the Xbox 360, and deserves a proper mention. Games industry take note — some of the coolest games of the last few years have been indie titles popping up on XBLA, iOS or Android.

Knights of the Old Republic

You can’t help but love Star Wars (try as you might). And Xbox owners were treated to BioWare’s magnificent slice of lightsaber-swinging action ahead of anyone else when Knights of the Old Republic came out in July 2003.

The story takes place 4,000 years before the Galactic Empire rises to power, making it even longer ago than a long, long time ago. Combat is divided into rounds, and the game will figure out whether or not you’re more Jedi or Sith by tracking your conversational habits, and responses to other characters in the game, changing your appearance more subtly than Fable.

A truly great slice of entertainment, Knights of the Old Republic is a must for RPG and Star Wars fans alike.

Halo 3 (Xbox 360)

The first Halo game may have kick-started the Xbox revolution, but it was the release of 2007′s Halo 3 that cemented Microsoft’s place at the forefront of gaming.

While the game itself was incredible fun, and really pushed the Xbox 360 in terms of what was graphically possible at the time, Halo 3 was amazing value for money because its multiplayer mode kept gamers going for months after they’d ploughed through the single-player campaign.

Microsoft went nuts with the marketing for Halo 3, and it paid off — more than 1 million people played Halo 3 online during the game’s first day on sale.

Dance Central 2 (Xbox 360)

If you’re a hardcore gaming nut, you’re probably already scrolling furiously toward the comments section, to let us know exactly what you think of us including a dancing game in this roundup. But it would be churlish to ignore Kinect, Microsoft’s casual-friendly, camera-laden sensor bar, and Dance Central 2 is probably the best Kinect game out there.

Dead easy to play, hitting the dance floor involves little more than trying to follow the virtual onscreen dancer. But the game will have you twisting around like a maniac to Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance before long, and issuing the smack talk to your fellow dancer in two-player mode is a rare pleasure.

Gears of War 3 (Xbox 360)

Second to Halo, the Gears of War series is the Xbox’s biggest exclusive franchise by a country mile, and rightly so — this third-person action adventure series has been a blast since the first game landed.

Gears of War 3 is the latest (and some would say the best) of the Gears games, proving once more that nothing beats the feeling of taking your chainsaw bayonet to an alien’s face, or hiding bravely behind a waist-high wall while your co-op buddies do all the hard work.

Great competitive and co-op multiplayer modes are the icing on a gory cake. If you’re a fan of from-cover shooters and enjoy peering at the shoulders of impossibly muscular men, Gears of War 3 is essential.

What have we missed? Did we omit some Xbox classics? Or are you hopelessly devoted to the PlayStation? Tell us what’s what in the comments, on our Facebook wall or on our Google+ page.

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The Xbox is 10 today! Happy birthday, Xbox!

Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, we want to know — is the Xbox 360 still suffering from those infamous hardware meltdowns? Help us find out by answering our Facebook poll on the subject.

Two years ago we conducted a spot of research that showed an astonishing 60 per cent of UK-based Xbox 360s had managed to bork themselves, flashing up the terrifying red ring that indicates a hardware failure. Compared to its rivals, the PlayStation 3 and Wii, that’s an astonishingly high figure.

That was two years ago though, and since then have things changed? The Xbox 360 Slim that came out last year has a front display that means it can’t technically display the Red Ring of Death that has horrified gamers for years, but is it still failing regardless? Or has Microsoft managed to confine the 360′s unpleasant failure rate to the history books?

We want to know: if you’ve bought a new Xbox 360 in the last two years, has that console suffered from any hardware failures? Or has it been devoid of hardware hiccups, bringing you many hours of uninterrupted gaming bliss?

Both options are covered in check-box form in our poll, so head on over there and tick a box. And feel free to leave any additional thoughts you might have in the comments box on the poll itself.

We’re big Xbox 360 fans — nothing pleases us more than to settle down for the weekend with a brand-new game and a steaming mug of hot cocoa. Although we inevitably end up scalding ourselves with said cocoa while trying to remove that irritating layer of plastic wrap on the game, seriously, what’s with that stuff?

If you’re not a huge Facebook fan you can also tell us about your experiences with Xbox reliability in the comments below, via Twitter, or on our Google+ page.

Vote in our Xbox 360 reliability survey

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 sells more than 6.5m copies within 24 hours of its launch, earning an estimated $400m in sales – and beating Harry Potter’s box office

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has set a new record for the biggest ever entertainment launch. The game’s publisher, Activision Blizzard, has claimed that in the US and UK alone, the military shooter sold over 6.5m units within 24 hours of its launch on Tuesday, raising $400m in sales revenues.

The figures are based on data from Charttrack as well as customer sell-through information.

It is a third consecutive sales record for the Call of Duty series. 2009′s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 sold 4.7m copies in 24 hours earning $310m in revenue, while last year’s Call of Duty: Black Op hit 5.6m copies in its first day.

“We believe the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is the biggest entertainment launch of all time in any medium, and we achieved this record with sales from only two territories,” said Activision Blizzard chief executive Bobby Kotick.

“Other than Call of Duty, there has never been another entertainment franchise that has set opening day records three years in a row. Life-to-date sales for the Call of Duty franchise exceed worldwide theatrical box office for Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, two of the most successful entertainment franchises of all time.”

By contrast, the highest grossing movie of the year so far, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, made $80m in one day on the global box office – a record figure for the film industry.

Activision claims that 13,000 stores worldwide opened at midnight on Monday to allow queues of gamers to buy the title. Reportedly, Modern Warfare 3 has also set a record for the largest numbers of concurrent players on Xbox Live, the console’s multiplayer gaming service.

“Call of Duty is more than a game. It’s become a major part of the pop cultural landscape,” claimed Activision Publishing chief executive Eric Hirshberg. “It is a game that core enthusiasts love, but that also consistently draws new people into the medium.”

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Gamesblog reader and PES expert ‘Goody’ provides his guide to the football sim’s challenging online management mode

A while ago, Gamesblog reader and Chatterbox regular Goody emailed to ask if he could write up a guide to PES 2012 for us. It seems that, in an era of Fifa dominance, PES is still the football sim of choice for many of our readers and it seemed like a good idea to let Goodson pass on his wisdom. So here it is.

“Master League Online mode can be one of the most daunting yet rewarding online experiences you will have,” he claims. “There is nothing quite like building a world-beating squad from scratch. But to the uninitiated or to late-adopters, starting up and playing against a team full of Rooneys and Ronaldos can be extremely intimidating.

“So whether your’re inspired by the free-flowing football of the 1974 Holland team, or the multi-million pound galacticos of Man City, this little guide will help virtually anyone enjoy one of the most satisfying modes available – even if your chosen side currently has about as much quality in depth as the 2010 Stockport County squad…”

Be patient.

The first thing that jumps out of you when you start is how unimpressive your squad is. You will find that virtually no one has the ability to pass straight or run for more than 10 yards without getting out of breath. It may be like watching Wrexham on a Saturday afternoon, but even these teams have the potential for moments of glory. Ask Mickey Thomas. As tempting as it is to wield your chairman’s axe, you will need your squad. A great team takes time.

Understand fatigue.

In MLO, players will accumulate fatigue. This is the little bar underneath your form arrow and energy gauge. Fatigue will build up after each game, and subsequently, your energy bar will fall. Once that energy bar is gone in a game, your players will not be able to sprint. And, yes, they may not be able to sprint very fast at the best of times, but that is better than nothing, especially when you are fighting for every ball in your first games. So rotate your squad, and keep those bars down. There is no benefit to an expensive yet tired squad over a larger average one.

Keep your side’s Ettori.

You may want to sell off a couple of pieces of dead wood and trim the fat (you don’t have to mix your metaphors in football management, but it helps), however Ettori is the one player who can actually compete in your team. He can pass, score and is good under pressure. Other players also have their qualities and get to know them. Cotsload is a relatively pacey centreback, Jaric is also solid and can take free-kicks, whilst Maqualao can hit the target from distance. Ruskin and El Moubarki are bog standard full backs, but good enough not to sell.

Renew Contracts only if necessary.

When you first start, all your players will have different length contracts (in games) remaining. You may want to sell them off, but you need to maintain good squad depth. However, renewing a default players contract is so expensive you’d think he’s got Kia Joorabchian negotiating. It is often cheaper to wait till contracts run out and then sell, buying a new, better player as a replacement. Often their contract will be a third less. It’s a relative no-brainer.

Understand form and watch the markets.

When you buy a player, their form will vary (the coloured arrow). A player on form will run faster for longer, and demand a larger price. This is because people want players in form so will pay more. However, form goes up as well as down, so make sure you buy low, and sell high. Depending on how often you play, you can buy a Heskey, then wait a few days to a week to see him turn in to Drogba (diving and theatrics optional). In theory, it is possible to accrue a great team by just buying at the right time. The regular players may buy on a green arrow knowing that he’ll come good in a few days. The less regular may buy the players on grey form, and come back a week to see him ready and waiting.

Be frugal and listen to the community.

The masses decide who is worth buying. In the community you are able to search who is increasing in value or who is owned by the most players. You will come up against these players time and time again because they have something to offer. Aim to develop your team, start with the 70 rated players, progressing up to 75 and higher. If you see a player you like but their form is decreasing, add them to your favourites and come back in a few days. Take time to scale the market. The biggest name isn’t necessarily the best.

Low divisions are your friend.

Your first week is the hardest. You won’t be put in any division, so you’ll come up against teams better than you. Even the best players will lose. Regularly. It may pay just to play a few games, wait for the leagues to be announced each Tuesday, be stuck in division and change your settings so you ‘play people of the same ability’. It’s the most effective way of avoiding the ‘worst’ type of player.

Competitions pay but be careful.

The great thing about competitions is that they are all based on ability. So you will always be playing people similar to yourself. They can also make you more money at a faster rate. You do have to dedicate an hour of your time to plough through five minute matches (about five or six usually), but your progress is the best sequence of three games, so you’ve got time to overcome a loss. The most important thing to remember though, is that your contracts can run out during the event, and renewing them means wasting time coming out of the competition. You don’t want to get to that must-win game only to realise your star striker won’t come on because his contract hasn’t been renewed.

Practice makes perfect.

The bread and butter. Complete the training challenges to help you learn how to defend. You will need it – it will be the one thing you will be doing in your first dozen games more than you think. Until you are able to buy a few players to compete, it’s the one thing that can nulify a better player and be extremely satisfying. Keep your formation tight, change your team style to ‘technique’ to improve those touches, reduce your slider settings to stop players swapping positions (reducing fatigue) and be as ambitious as Sam Allardyce at the Emirates. Park that Bus.

Be patient.

We’ve already mentioned it, but it’s more important than you think. Unless you’re a wealthy businessman willing to invest £600m to buy Konami, forcing through your own team of world beaters, whilst dismissing the long, hard yet rewarding slog of slowly establishing success, history and respect, then PES MLO can be a frustrating place. You will come across people willing to exploit the need for pace (Shaun Wright-Philips at Defensive Midfield anyone?), and spam the same attack again and again. But slowly, it can start to click.

After a dozen games or so, it will all come together. You’ll begin to anticipate and predict each player’s form, punching above your weight as players peak at the same time. Soon, you’ll come in to a match seeing you’re up against a new inexperienced player, confident your frontline of Heskey and Bendtner will rip him apart.

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The stakes couldn’t be higher for Sony’s PlayStation 4. The original PlayStation set a ballsy precedent, doing away with cartridges; the PS2 threw Sonic and his Dreamcast pals under a truck, forcing Sega out of the console game for good.

But the PS3 and its hardcore gaming attitude wasn’t prepared for the family gaming revolution. Its high price led more parents to buy their favourite sprog a Nintendo Wii, and many traditional gamers were enticed by the ever-improving Xbox lineup.

The PS3 lost billions of yen for Sony, and it was only after going to the gym to slim down and offer a lower price tag that its fortunes took a turn.

We think Sony has been given enough of a boot up the rear to make the PS4 a real showstopper, and now we hear several internal Sony studios have begun developing games for the next-gen machine.

So how long until Sony unleashes its new console upon the world, and what will be able to do?

Graphics

Call us shallow, but if there’s one big priority on any gamer’s mind it’s the graphics. The PS3 is capable of outstanding visuals — witness this year’s big hits Uncharted 3 and Modern Warfare 3 — but some developers are starting to feel the digital squeeze.

Graphics company AMD claims the next generation of consoles will allow for visuals as lush as those in Avatar. If that seems hard to believe, watch this tech demo by developer Epic for a sign of things to come:

If you think that looks swish, you’ll wet your kecks when you see what Final Fantasy maker Square Enix has been working on. It’s been grinding away at something called the Luminous Engine, which promises photo realistic gaming for the first time.

Try guessing which of the following images are real or computer generated:

Pretty close, eh? The top one is the original photo, and the bottom one is pure digital wizardry. The trick is to simulate the way surfaces reflect every grain of light, and it looks marvellous. Gamers could finally play in a virtual world that looks better than real life.

Of course, the PS4 will need some serious processing testosterone to offer those photo-quality graphics, as well as 3D. Sony will achieve this by simply expanding the PS3′s 8-core Cell processor to as many as 32 cores, Kotaku reckons, rather than spending oodles of boodle inventing another new chip from scratch.

But there’s more to a game than fancy graphics, and a beefed-up processor will allow for realism in other ways too. One notable area is in artificial intelligence, where the wits of enemies will be vastly improved. Imagine those non-playable characters in Grand Theft Auto having a mind of their own, each reacting independently rather than running from your grenade launcher all at once like a herd of sheep than a panicked mob.

Launch date

The PS3 was unleashed on the world in 2006, and Sony has long boasted of its 10-year lifecycle for the console. Of course, that doesn’t mean a new iteration won’t arrive sooner. After all, the PS2 was born in 2000 and it was still selling millions in 2010.

When should we expect a new machine capable of those tantalising photo-realistic graphics? Power geeks know that high-end PCs are already capable of that kind of processing, but you’d need a wallet made of gold to make it a casual purchase.

A top-spec PC weighs in at almost £1,500 these days, according to the Tech Report buyers’ guide. Chips and bits tend to cost half as much each passing year, thanks to trusty ol’ Moore’s Law — so you’ve got a fairly plausible £375 price tag for a comparable machine by 2013.

Sneaky sources at Taiwanese manufacturers think it will arrive even sooner, going as far as saying the PS4 is already in production for a 2012 release.

Take these 2012 claims with a pinch of salt, because industry observers think it sounds like bobbins. The handheld PS Vita is coming out early next year, and Sony staff will need a breather before unloading the future of living room entertainment upon the world.

Having said that, tech leaks do tend to come from the factories that make them. It could be that some kind of upgrade to the PS3 is in production to compete with Nintendo’s Wii U, and to get a foot in the door ahead of a new Xbox. Whether another updated PS3 would offer a boost in graphics ability or just a slimmer case is anyone’s guess.

“I think we’ll see a game of chicken between Sony and Microsoft,” industry analyst Billy Pidgeon from M2 Research told Kotaku. “Sony definitely isn’t launching a successor before 2014 and could stand to benefit by having Microsoft launch first.”

He’s quite right. If Sony waits an extra year, it could offer a better console for a more competitive price — something it completely fluffed last time around. But this game of cat and mouse goes both ways, and the stand-off between the two companies could be the factor that leaves us high and dry for a few more years.

What about the supposed PS4 ad which did the rounds just before the E3 gaming event last June?

Sadly, a Sony PR rep quickly made a statement to Game Informer to say it was a fake. So who made the well-polished trailer? 24-year-old Han West cast his classmates in the starring roles and built the set for less than $500. We wish it were real, but bravo nonetheless.

Controller

Sony researchers have been dancing their glasses off trying to improve on Microsoft’s hands-free Kinect interface.

Sony has published a patent (right) describing plans for a floor sensor and controller loaded with gyroscopic sensors, a mic for voice control, and even an ultrasonic sensor to track your distance from the TV and other players. Expect the family-friendly fun of the Kinect, but with the accuracy of a joypad.

Disc-free?

It’s hard to believe the PS4 will ship with a hard drive big enough to replace a full collection of 50GB Blu-ray games, but smart phones have proven that digital-only stores are more convenient and cheaper — a tasty business model.

Blitz Games CEO Philip Oliver agrees, telling Eurogamer that Sony and Microsoft would be crazy to stick with physical media for the next generation of consoles.

Removing the disc drive would certainly make the console much cheaper, and when you consider that the lifespan for the PS4 will run into the 2020s it seems a future-proof option. Cloud storage will be the norm, so you could save your library of older games online. Sony has invested vast sums in the Blu-ray format, however, so we can’t see the next PlayStation without a Blu-ray drive. Besides, we’d miss breathing on a grubby CD and rubbing it on our t-shirt.

Summary

Early tech demos promise an exciting future for gaming, and we’re giddy at the prospect of Avatar-quality graphics. Throw a 3D telly and motion controls into the mix, and you’ve got a pretty good reason to give up on society and stay at home. With full digital downloads you won’t even have to go out to buy games and movies — bliss.

There are rumours that Sony will release an improved PS3 in 2012, but it seems too early for a bona-fide PS4 to be affordable. If it can wait out the Xbox 720 and release a competitor with a better balance of price and ability, it could reclaim the console crown over the long term. Just don’t expect it to be the cheapest toy in the shop.

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Recent news:

Game download service Steam has been hacked, with intruders getting access to a Steam database that contained gamers’ personal information.

Steam is run by Half-Life maker Valve, whose co-founder Gabe Newell confirmed the breach in a statement, saying that the company was “truly sorry this happened.”

Newell said the database that was compromised contained user names, encrypted passwords, details of game purchases and email addresses, as well as billing addresses and ‘hashed and salted’ passwords (hashing and salting are techniques for making passwords difficult to crack, and also make our stomachs rumble).

Credit card information was also contained on the database, but it was encrypted. Steam says it has no evidence of credit card misuse, but advises customers to “watch your credit card activity and statements closely”.

Gaming services are still working, but the Steam forums have been shut down for now. Anyone using the Steam forums will have to change their password next time they log in, and customers have been advised to change their passwords on other accounts, if those accounts use the same password.

We have to applaud Valve’s response to the situation — issuing what appears to be a frank account of what happened, as well as an apology, goes a long way to mending broken hearts.

Sony came under fire for failing to quickly notify its customers during the PSN breach and subsequent outage earlier this year — an attack that saw millions of gamers’ personal data nicked and, almost more importantly, the PS3′s online services unavailable for a considerable length of time.

Does this latest breach shake your confidence in Steam? How well do you think Valve handed this situation? Let us know in the comments below, or on our Facebook wall.

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Nick Cowen talks to Eiji Aonuma, producer of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

It’s Zelda’s 25th birthday this year. What do you think has allowed the series to survive for so long?I think – and I think Mr Miyamoto would agree with this – that since Ocarina of Time, our aim has always been to produce something different, something you’ve never seen before in a video game. To that end, a lot of our past innovations have become something that can only be seen in a Zelda game.

Zelda’s not really a genre in itself, but it should never limit itself to one genre. With Zelda we’re always trying to do something unique. I think this, and the fact that we continue to push ourselves to come up with new ideas for each title has kept the series fresh over the years.

So you’d say that malleability is the franchise’s key feature?I think if players look at it like that I’d be very happy (laughs).

What do you think have been the most important titles in the series and why?Well, the original, obviously! (laughs). There’d be no 25th anniversary without the first Legend Of Zelda! The big turning point in the series, though, was Ocarina Of Time because that’s when we went 3D.

The third most important title is Skyward Sword, which is the best realisation of what we think Zelda should be on the current gen of console and for the current audience of players. It’s what we’ve been striving for all these years.

How do you begin a new Zelda title? Does it start with a story or a gameplay mechanic? And is the development cycle a democratic process?Well, in all it took five years to make Skyward Sword and at the beginning of the development cycle there was a very long process of sorting out the basics of the game. When we started, we began with the game’s core features – the items and how they’d be used, the sword and how that would be used with Wii Motion Plus. Everything needed to be fun and needed to be easy to play with the Wii Motion Plus, from the combat to the menus and how you select items.

Once we had those core elements, we then started to build the story around them. So because the combat revolved around the sword, we thought it would be a good opportunity to present the Master Sword and explain the history of it, which is why Skyward Sword is a prequel to Ocarina Of Time.

As far as the development cycle went, there were five or six people in the beginning, including the director, and once again, this is where the core features are decided. Then, all of a sudden a lot of people joined the development team, and these people obviously have a ton of ideas too. But the five or six project heads are the “gatekeepers”, if you will, of the entire game.

Has the Wii Motion Plus shifted the focus of the game? Is the emphasis now more on combat than previous games in the series?The combat is definitely a key part of the game. In the past you could fight almost any enemy by just button-bashing, but in this game, because of the Wii Motion Plus, the fights are almost puzzles in and of themselves. You won’t be able to beat the game simply by doing the same movements over and over again for each fight. You need to take each enemy separately. You need to find each enemy’s weak spot.

How did you settle on the visual aesthetic of the game? It’s been said Miyamoto-san is a fan of impressionist painters. Did that influence it? What other factors are important?(Laughs) Actually, that comment from Miyamoto-san is a retrospective quote. He was looking back on the game and saying it looks like an impressionist painting.

Our basic starting point was about the fact that Skyward Sword is a fantasy story – after all, how else would you have an island in the sky as the starting point?

There are some interesting new items in Skyward Sword, such as the Digging Mitts and the Beetle. How do you deal with the challenges of adding these new items with their new capabilities? And are there any ideas for equipment didn’t make it into the game?Every time we introduce new items and capabilities into the game, they’re very important. They allow you, as a player, to grow within the game and have new abilities. We had many ideas for new abilities in Skyward Sword. Some of them didn’t work and so we abandoned them. Some of them, though, we’re keeping. Even though we couldn’t make them work in this game, we felt they’re still good ideas. Maybe we can make them work on the Wii-U. It’s possible you might see them in another game we make in this series.

Speaking of the Wii-U, can you tell us about any of the plans you have for that platform? We were all blown away by the Zelda demo you showed on the Wii-U at E3. What can you tell us about that project?We’re definitely excited about the Wii-U and its capabilities as a platform (laughs). Of course I can’t really tell you any details about that at this point. However, I should say the demo you saw at E3 is more of a starting point at this time, especially from a graphical standpoint. You should expect many changes, because as I mentioned earlier, our starting point is the gameplay and how we can make it work. It’s possible the game will look very different by the time it comes out.

Can you tell us anything about your future plans for Zelda on the 3DS? We all loved Ocarina Of Time, but do you have any plans for any new titles for the Nintendo handheld?(Laughs) I really can’t talk about that! We are working on something, though. There was the Ocarina of time, which was an adaptation of that title to the new platform. The new 3DS game will be a continuation of our efforts on that platform. (Laughs) I’m sorry, I can’t say any more.

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Nick Cowen

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It was only a year ago the Xbox Kinect hit the UK and turned the entire human body into one inept giant controller, but new research could take gaming to a whole new level.

The human brain remains the most complex piece of biology in the universe, and scientists have spent years trying to find ways to use it as an interface with modern technology.

That research took a huge leap forward this week, when scientists at the University of Minnesota demoed a game where players directed a virtual helicopter through hoops using only the power of their mind.

Players have to strap on a silly cap which can pick up brain waves, but the secret is converting the baffling range of signals into on-screen actions.

Medgadget says it takes some practice for players to imagine using their arms, leg and tongue, which the university boffins use to calibrate the system. Our brain waves all behave differently, but once the computer knows what to look for, the helicopter can fly with precision. Players were able to send their chopper through 85 per cent of randomly positioned hoops, which is probably enough for an achievement.

It’s not the first time video games have been controlled using only the power of the mind, but in the past it was only possible on 2D levels.

This is the first proof of brain control in a 3D game, which leaves us giddy at the prospect of brain control on proper consoles in the future. Give yourself a slap, because this is really going to happen.

The scientists behind the helicopter research hope to revolutionise the lives of disabled people, but we’ll bet our last penny the military will eventually get in on the action too. There’s nothing apart from health and safely laws to say the same science won’t apply to a real helicopter, given the right equipment.

Brain-control isn’t necessarily an expensive field of science to get into. A home-brew team of developers called B-Reel recently used the open-source Arduino platform and a special headset to control a Scalextric track using only the power of their minds.

Having said that, using brain waves will never be as cool as that crunchy feeling you get from a proper Scalextric controller. Some things are irreplaceable.
Are you excited at the prospect of sitting back and giving your thumbs a rest? Speak your mind in the comments, or on our telepathic Facebook page.

Image credit: Medgadget

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