So, the new Pro Evolution Soccer is out, and the general consensus seems to be that the series is on the wane.

Apparently, the decline started a couple of years ago with PES 2008, which is odd as it’s the latest one I bought and I’m still playing it now. It’s got one or two problems, and the speed of play is perhaps a bit quicker than I might like, but to me it’s the same solid and enjoyable PES that I’ve come to love over the years.

Of course, if I were to express such an opinion in an internet forum, I would no doubt be accused of being a PES ‘fanboy’, which would in itself provoke frenzied debate as to the relative merits of Konami’s series and close rival FIFA.

Looking at some of the reviews doing the rounds, it appears FIFA now has the edge. Frankly, I find it hard to believe. If that makes me a fanboy, so be it, but I certainly hope I’d be open-minded enough to admit EA’s superiority once I’d played their latest effort.

It’s something that’s not going to happen though, because I play my games on PC these days, and EA doesn’t bother to release their shiny new next-gen FIFA on PC, instead spewing forth a barely-polished port of the PS2 version, which has remained largely the same since 2006.

As if they didn’t give you enough reasons to hate them already. F*ck you EA, I’m keeping my head in the sand and buying the new PES (which, incidentally, is exactly the same on PC as on the consoles).

I’ve enjoyed a few games on DS, but few have been as good as GTA: Chinatown Wars.

I have to admit, when it was first announced I wasn’t sure whether the DS was the right platform for GTA, and part of me dismissed it as a half-hearted knock-off of the early PC efforts.

I was wrong, wrong, wrong. It’s pretty bloody brilliant actually, and the first GTA game I’ve finished, er, ever. They’ve really put some effort into making it a great, original, title for DS and I particularly like the way they’ve integrated the stylus/touch screen into the game, which can often seem contrived.

In a word: awesome! If the pro reviews haven’t convinced you, allow me to add my recommendation…

Okay, so if you didn’t manage to catch it last week, just a quick note to say that Charlie Brooker’s Gameswipe is on again tonight, BBC4, 10.50pm (or you can catch it here on the iPlayer).

While most of us were looking forward to Brooker returning to the world of gaming, where he first made his name, it seems some were disappointed with this one-off special (which may become a series in 2010, depending on ratings, apparently).

Personally, I quite liked it, it did what it said on the tin (ie a variation on the format of Brooker’s Screenwipe, but with games) – the main criticism seems to have come from hardcore forum dwellers griping that a couple of the games he reviewed weren’t bang up to date, and some other stuff to with the fact that they’re the kind of people who will never, ever, be satisfied with anything, ever, except the almost infinite number of opportunities to complain about things that the internet continues to offer them.

Check it out (if you’re in the UK) – I particularly liked the clip of a scared-looking teenager asking the disembodied head of Sir Patrick Moore how he could get better at European Club Soccer on the Megadrive (yes, this was once our number 1 gaming show, GamesMaster).

If you’re in the UK, The Fast and the Furious will just have been on telly. The fourth film is out on DVD on Monday (er, I didn’t know that, a friend told me).

Plus EA have just given their Need for Speed series yet another makeover in the form of SHIFT.

It’s almost like we planned our review of Need for Speed: Underground, with exquisite timing, for this very moment. But you know us better than that.

Hello.

Just a quick one today – a review of the futuristic racer Trickstyle.

Hey. It’s been a while. I’d like to pretend I’ve been on holiday, but that would be a lie.

Here’s something good for you all – or at least a review of something good, anyway – we’ve finally managed to cover the much-loved Grim Fandango.

It’s so good it makes me feel bad about all of the other dross we reviewed ahead of it. For fans of the dross: don’t worry, there’s more to come. And soon.

I recently came across the blog of the RAM Raider.

It’s basically the thoughts and rantings of a seasoned UK-based gaming journalist who seems quite angry about the way things are in ‘the industry’. None of the stuff is a massive surprise – PRs are dickheads, getting an ‘exclusive’ means promising a high review score, magazines aren’t selling as much as they used to – and so on, but it’s still worth a read.

‘Rammy’ likes to slag off reviews and those who write them (who then post angry replies in his ‘comments’ section), which always has a certain voyeuristic entertainment value, but in between the copious amounts of bitchiness and coarse language, there are a few more thought-provoking pieces and interesting tidbits.

Such as why most of the staff of PC Zone suddenly disappeared from their pages a short while ago. Or how New Games Journalism (NGJ) is a load of self-indulgent wank.

Not that I agree with everything he says but, speaking mainly as someone who buys, and is increasingly disappointed by, games magazines (rather than someone who thinks his own collection of amateurish ramblings qualifies him as a ‘writer’) he’s certainly got a few good points about the state of games journalism at the moment. The main one being – things aren’t as good as they used to be.

EDIT: Plus, he hates Edge magazine. Which is always a good thing.

So I’ve been playing the Monkey Island special edition a bit. It’s a very close remake – puzzles, dialogue and location all exactly the same. In fact even it’s even closer than that; it feels like the original game re-skinned, matching the animation frame-for-frame. You can even flick between the old and new versions of the graphics on the fly.

This approach does lead to some oddities though. Like, Guybrush has about four frames to his walking animation. Also no-one’s facial expression ever changes, and people bob their heads around while talking in that way that conveyed liveliness in 1991 but would look really weird in real life.

Maybe i’m being picky here – it was probably necessary for the graphics switching. And the new artwork is itself great, moonlit melee island is as atmospheric as ever in high-def. It just feels a bit disappointing in motion – I think i had just been hoping for the fluid style of Monkey 3, The Dig, Broken Sword etc.

As a cheapskate with an interest in older games and a massive pile of untried titles sitting in a cupboard under the stairs, I don’t tend to buy too many new releases these days.

Sports games are an exception, however. More specifically, a new cricket game will more or less represent an essential purchase on the day of release.

Unlike football fans, who can count on a new FIFA and Pro Evo per year, followers of cricket normally have to wait a couple of years for a new title. Which means that almost as soon as a new title is announced, a dedicated hardcore of fans begin speculating what the game might be like, and as details start to trickle through, speculation begins to grow about whether this one might turn out to be quite decent.

By the time the game is released, there’s feverish excitement and a great clamour for a verdict on whether this game is indeed ‘the one’. Cricket games aren’t really a priority for ‘the professionals’ and magazine reviews are normally brief and ill-informed, so you’re left with a choice of either finding out for yourself or trusting the word of forum dwellers.

So, Ashes Cricket 2009 is the latest, released tomorrow. Already people are on Planet Cricket sharing initial thoughts based on relatively little gameplay time.

I’ll wait until I’ve played it myself, but it already sounds like it’ll be the usual mixed bag of half-decent ideas on the one hand, and bugs and oversights on the other. (Sigh).

From something relatively shiny, new and complicated, to something old, ugly and simple: it’s Micro Machines 2.