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The words "game design" tend to get bandied about rather a lot, but usually when people talk about game design what they actually mean is level design. While there's certainly an art to crafting a level in such a way that players are challenged, encouraged and thrilled in an agreeable ratio, the skill that goes into creating the overall experience outside of the actual gameplay is less understood. I'm talking about overall structure, pace and reward - that arcane art of understanding the audience, delivering the right encouragement at just the right time and still managing to offer up delights and surprises along the way.

HMV has boasted that its Oxford Street store in London will be housing Metal Gear Solid 4 creator Hideo Kojima this afternoon.

Xbox Live VIP Larry Hryb has promised a Western Ninja Gaiden II demo by the end of this week.

After a rather limp and short Hanabi Festival and the launch of WiiWare, I'm pleased to report that the Virtual Console seems to have pulled its socks up, straightened its tie and put its nose to the grindstone with some elbow grease. It's making an effort, in other words, and the past two weeks have offered up four games of commendable quality. Don't worry though, I'm sure I'll find something to grumble about.

LucasArts has told Eurogamer that it plans to offer a Fracture demo either in August, or alongside the full game in September.

First things first, we should all thank whatever combination of MTV, Harmonix and EA employees kept us from Rock Band for six months. European gamers crave misery, and we've been deprived of it recently: Halo 3, GTA IV and Meta Gear Solid 4 have all been given simultaneous worldwide release dates, and Nintendo has even released a few things here first, like Mario Kart Wii. That was unimaginable a few years ago, so being forced to wait six months for the most anticipated music game ever, pay twice what the Americans have to and only get it on one format is much more like it. We can properly despise that and moan about it forever. Thanks guys.

More good sales news for the newborn MMO Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures - and this time it's not from a Funcom press release.

Crytek has told its fans there will be no more patches for Crysis because it has its hands full making something that "will be appreciated by the community".

Codemasters has said it is busy working on a patch to stop stuttering issues in the Xbox 360 version of Race Driver: GRID.

A good bluff single word name is what every up and coming new action game needs to properly project its masculinity. Doom, Quake, Rage, Prototype, Fracture, Prey, Crackdown, Condemned, F.E.A.R., err... Turok. You know what you're getting with a name that blunt and muscular and it doesn't involve moving virtual furniture or petting polygonal dogs.

New game Fracture looks great and everything but there's only one question you want to ask LucasArts when you've got the chance: are you ever going to make a graphic adventure again and why at least can't you just re-release them?

Published as part of our sister-site GamesIndustry.biz' widely-read weekly newsletter, the GamesIndustry.biz Editorial is a weekly dissection of one of the issues weighing on the minds of the people at the top of the games business. It appears on Eurogamer a day after it goes out to GI.biz newsletter subscribers.

Shaun White Snowboarding creative director Trent Ward believes the Wii Balance Board offers developers "worlds of possibilities".

The best thing on the PlayStation Store this week is Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix.

Sony will be planting its very own gardening game on the Japanese PlayStation Store on 26th June.

Sony Europe has declined to comment on suggestions the latest PS3 firmware update will include the highly sought after XMB.

Buku Sudoku and Warlords join the happy Xbox Live Arcade throng today, no doubt hoping to be spared the indignity of averaging less than 65 per cent on Metacritic.

The teaser trailer for the new Prince of Persia game was one of the highlights of this year's UbiDays press conference. It introduced us to his new sidekick, Elika, and revealed a little more of the game's unique visual style. Unfortunately it was all we got to see of the game in action, as nothing else was shown during the event.

Capcom has said the freshly confirmed console versions of Street Fighter IV will have more characters plus an online mode.

Ubisoft has told Eurogamer that you will be able to use voice commands to order your squad-mates around in Tom Clancy's HAWX.

Last month we started a Developer's blog, only to not write anything on it. I'm glad to see that our professional blog works in the same way as our personal ones - sporadic updates with intermittent apologies about not writing much. This is probably the point at which I promise to write more updates, then.

Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot has said Beyond Good & Evil 2 will be "more accessible" so more casual gamers will want to buy it.

Hideo "This is the last one no it's not yes it is oh go on then" Kojima has said he may lend a hand with the next instalment in the Metal Gear Solid series.

Three new titles have been released on the Wii's Virtual Console. Hello Pokemon Puzzle League, goodbye weekend.

You've played the game, read the book, now watch the film? If you're a Brothers In Arms fan, the bloody adventures of Matt Baker and the 101st Airborne could be coming to a cinema near you, with the series' military expert revealing that talks are already underway on a Hell's Highway flick.

The PlayStation Portable was the best-selling games console in Japan again this week week with 64,449 units sold, according to Media Create.

So, it turns out that Tom has been receiving angry letters from PETE, People for the Ethical Treatment of Ellie. Apparently forcing her to constantly review the dregs of the Wii barrel is cruel and inhumane, and PETE activists have now helped Ellie escape from her mini-games dungeon by building a special tower out of Boom Blox. Clearly, this is political correctness gone mad. Not that I'm bitter or angry. No, I'm quite happy to take Ellie's place while Tom hunts her down with his high-powered drug gun. It's fine. This stack of new Wii games looks...interesting. Right? They can't be that bad. And it's not as if the shackles are that uncomfortable. There's even some hay on the floor, which is a bit like a cushion. I'm sure it'll be fine.

At Valve's mini-summit on the state of PC gaming in Seattle today, president Gabe Newell revealed that the company is not concerned about the threat of piracy in the PC market.

Speaking to a select group of journalists about Steam and the future of PC gaming today, Valve president Gabe Newell revealed that the company will soon be making more money from digital distribution of its games than traditional boxed sales.

At a conference on Steam and the future of PC gaming at its Seattle headquarters today, Valve announced that it would be introducing a new feature to its digital distribution platform that allows remote storage of all game data for Steam games.