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Sony has launched the PS3 online service, with access to the PlayStation Store where consumers can download the first batch of playable demos.

It's the one you've all been waiting for! Yes! THQ's Xbox 360 version of Cars is now available to demo on Xbox Live Marketplace. Phew.

Apparently there's some new console out in America today but at this point we're more interested in the news of a Rainbow Six Vegas multiplayer demo on Xbox Live.

Nintendo's Wii will launch across the US this weekend, but the console will be without web browsing capabilities and two of its proposed Channels.

Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto has revealed that Nintendo initially intended its next-gen console to go on sale for under US $100 - but certain features pushed up the price.

The manufacturing cost of the 20GB PlayStation 3 is US $805.85 (EUR 629.8), over US $300 more than the retail price, according to research by electronics specialist iSuppli.

The PlayStation 3 has launched across the US, with Sony's CEO Howard Stringer and president Kaz Hirai handing out consoles at the SonyStyle store in Manhattan, New York.

Microsoft is predicting that Gears of War, which goes on sale in Europe today, will accumulate sales of more than one million copies worldwide this Christmas, and become the fastest-selling original game for Xbox 360 in the process.

Why would they call the very prettiest thing to have appeared in games for over five hundred years, "Nail The Trick Mode"? It should be called, "Glistening Dew On A Spring Morning Mode", or "Kari Off Of Mythbusters Mode". Not Nail The Trick. The idiots.

This being a family publication, we can't really address the dark, deeply unhygienic things most of you would like to do with Sarah Michelle Gellar, but suffice to say for some of you, her absence from this game - both in voice and in spirit - will be enough to put you off your stake. But whether or not you like the show and whether or not you lust after the carefully constructed 25-year-old, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is very nearly one of the best Xbox exclusive titles we've seen.

Enclave, recently the subject of our loving attention, will be appearing on PC, PlayStation 2 and GameCube later this year according to the CEO of Swedish developer Starbreeze. However, one of the developer's crowning achievements with the Xbox version of the game was injecting distinctive, high definition visuals into proceedings, and whether they will be able to emulate them effectively on the lesser hardware of the PlayStation 2 and GameCube remains to be seen. The PC should be able to cope, but GeForce 3-level kit will doubtless be the order of the day. Related Feature - Enclave review (Xbox)

Enclave is one of the toughest games we've conquered in 2002, up there with Rogue Leader and 'getting your siblings to shut up' at family gatherings. And the prospect of having to slog through the whole thing for the second and third time on GameCube and then PlayStation 2 is a bit much for us.

Swedish company Starbreeze have announced a new project, an online first person shooter called Enclave which is due for release next year. The first screenshots and some background information are up on their website now.

A planned Metal Arms sequel has been rejected by Vivendi-Universal, despite the critical praise lavished on the Ratchet & Clank-esque original, released to little commercial success during the Christmas maelstrom late last year.

How annoying must it be to work tirelessly on a game for several years only to find that it gets released to virtually zero fanfare at a time of year when literally dozens of big name (EA) games are piled high on the shelves, elbowing everything else off regardless of quality? Very annoying, we'd imagine, for the developers at least. Christmas 2003's case in point no.75, Swingin' Ape's charmingly frantic klepto-blastathon Metal Arms - yet another game you won't play this year because of the screamingly annoying practice of failing to realise that the market can't cope with 300 simultaneous new releases.

Vivendi have announced a new robotic shooter for Xbox and GameCube called Metal Arms: Glitch in the System, developed by relative unknowns Swingin' Ape. The game sees Glitch taking on enemies across 30 levels, while solving puzzles, driving, and somehow taking control of enemy robots. The storyline apparently has a humorous slant, having been penned by a team of cartoon and television writers. The game is planned for release in the fourth quarter.

Riffing somewhat from current events, Freedom Fighters sees an irked young patriot defending his country against an invading superpower through a campaign of guerrilla warfare. Perhaps disappointingly, developer Io Interactive doesn't explore the underlying irony of the premise - that Russia has invaded America to "liberate" Americans from their corrupt capitalist rulers - to any significant degree, preferring instead to frame the player's actions with comedic news broadcasts, predictable NPC dialogue and stirring Russian music.

Third-person action - it's synonymous with "bleh". If there's one thing this generation of consoles will be remembered for it's foisting endless desperately unoriginal concepts on the poor old third-person action game, which these days basks like a pruning octogenarian in the glare of RTS and FPS style wheel reinvention. Hitman creator IO Interactive is attempting to work against these unwanted staples of the genre with its latest project, Freedom Fighters. It's third-person, it's mostly team-based and it's dripping with mindless gun-based slaughter. So far, so 'me too'. Except� it's good!

As with so many games, people and situations, Grabbed By The Ghoulies reminds us of an episode of The Simpsons. It's the one that starts off at "Bi-Mon Sci-Fi Con", with Mark Hammill knocking cardboard cutouts over with a plastic lightsabre and a Star Wars take on Guys and Dolls ("Luke be a Jedi toniiiiight!"). Anyway, the specific bit we're on about is when the camera pans to a totally abandoned booth with two guys sat behind a table waiting to sign autographs. These men are Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong. But nobody cares, much to the exasperation of a suited PR man who exclaims, "Folks! Folks! These men have actually been in outer space!", his voice rising an octave with each syllable, at which point a nearby huddle glances in his direction and makes a collective "meh" noise.

As a number of you have spotted over the Easter weekend, Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge will feature Xbox Live support for up to 16 players, with a range of game modes which sound new but probably aren't. Dogfight and Team Dogfight obviously aren't fooling anyone, and Flag Heist sounds familiar too, but as for Wild Chicken, Keep Away and Team Keep Away, we're not so certain. However, even if they aren't anything new, the idea of proper online aerial combat is still very enticing - as is the promise of downloadable maps and planes post-release.

High-flying fans of Crimson Skies will be pleased to learn of new content available for the game over Xbox Live - a new plane and multiplayer map to be precise.

With its simple controls and flight model, swashbuckling storyline, beautiful graphics and fanciful aircraft designs, Crimson Skies could have been tailor made for the Xbox. It wasn't, but the sequel is being. Yes, Microsoft have this week confirmed that Crimson Skies : High Road To Revenge is headed exclusively to the big black box. Once again you will take on the role of dashing air pirate Nathan Zachary, he of the tall tales and many lives, as you romp your way through an alternative 1930s America. Ten different planes will become available to your anti-hero throughout the course of the game, along with a range of bizarre weaponry such as napalm missiles, magnetic grapples and the intriguing sounding "sandstorm cannon". As always there will be bonus points for pulling off flamboyant stunts and all manner of aerial insanity as you work your way through the game's missions, and you will be able to use your surroundings to full effect, triggering landslides and destroying bridges to catch out your enemies and taking dangerous shortcuts to escape pursuers. Related Feature - Crimson Skies Xbox screenshots

Plug yourself in to Crimson Skies on Xbox Live today and you'll discover a hangar-full of new content ready to wing its way towards you. Microsoft has released three new planes (the Vampire, Firebrand and Hellhound), two new maps (canyon/cave-based Badlands and the night-time ruins-hopping Lost Plateau) and two new gametypes unto the masses this week, and the best bit is that it's all free.

Oddworld Inhabitant's next title, provisionally titled 'Stranger' has been signed up by Electronic Arts and has been set a worldwide release date of 2005 for both PS2 and Xbox.

Xbox exclusive Oddworld Stranger is now known as Oddworld Stranger's Wrath, Electronic Arts advised this week, claiming that the revised title "better reflects the spirit of the game".

Last week the Discovery Channel in the US ran a documentary called X-Factor: Inside Microsoft's Xbox, which delved into the workings of a few companies developing for the black box. Amongst them was Oddworld Inhabitants, whose upcoming Oddworld game on Xbox came under close scrutiny.

Electronic Arts has revealed that Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars is coming to Xbox 360 as well as PC next year.

Reports emerged last night that Oddworld Inhabitants' long-awaited sequel to Munch's Oddysee, known as 'Stranger' has 'gone alpha' and that an announcement on the game's publisher is set to be revealed in the next two weeks.

Californian developer Oddworld Inhabitants is seeking a new publisher for its next Xbox game in the Oddworld universe, tentatively titled Stranger, as Microsoft no longer has any involvement with the title.

Electronic Arts has confirmed that Oddworld Inhabitants next title, Oddworld Stranger, which is picked up the rights to last month, will debut on PS2 and Xbox next spring.