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Another week, another list of games half of which I know very little about. Such is life (especially when your editor skives off to go to Alton Towers with his girlfriend, and your neighbour accidentally locks herself out and goes for a wander so you decide to stand outside waiting for the bike courier her husband's sent with the keys to turn up for half an hour). Fortunately we've reviewed enough of them already that I can fudge through my word count. Ah, the magic of games journalism. Hey, at least I'm not just copying IGN.

After a night of historic significance (I convinced my sister to buy a Nintendo DS), those of us living in the UK awake this morning to a country transformed. Yes! It was a robot in disguise all along! Now we march on the US, the Atlantic swirling round our robotic ankles (formerly Cornwall) and a maniacal Mancunian cackle emanating from our lips as our twirly arms (East Anglia and Wales) batter their missiles out of the air and we hurl council estates and Dorset at coastal defences and smother the White House in that frickin' Millennial tepee! Hahaha!

The following is an extract from the introduction to Difficult Questions About Videogames, a book we very much enjoy, followed by an extract from chapter two. The book was edited by James Newman and Iain Simons, and published by Suppose Partners. If you take a shine to it yourself, you can find details on where to get hold of a copy on its homepage, PublicBeta.org.

So then. This is the new Eurogamer. It's quite a change, isn't it?

Tokyo-based developer Idea Factory is taking its popular Generation of Chaos series outside of Japan for the first time with a PSP version. You can see some screenshots here.

Earlier today we learned that special forces piposarus have taken control of Metal Gear, and from their impregnable Fort Banana are demanding 10 billion bananas in 72 hours or else.

In an announcement that has about as much capacity to surprise as the revelation that there will be a Christmas Day this year, Konami has revealed that Winning Eleven 9 will be released in Japan on August 4th.

You could see this coming a mile off. Platform gaming specialist reaches the logical conclusion of its successful trilogy and works out how it can extend the brand while it gets to grips with next gen technology. Answer: churn out a cutesy racing game in 12 months featuring "all your favourite characters from the gaming universe".

A wide range of Hollywood talent has been announced for Vivendi Universal Games' forthcoming adaptation of gangster movie Scarface, with Al Pacino's likeness - although not his voice - set to be used for the iconic central character.

Publisher Namco Hometek has announced that it is set to publish team based first person shooter Stargate SG-1: The Alliance in North America later this year on PC, PS2 and Xbox.

Swedish developer Digital Illusions CE has announced that it is to close New York based Trauma Studios only nine months after the acquisition of the company, with all of its remaining staff to be offered positions in Stockholm.

New trailers for some forthcoming PSP games are now available on Eurofiles. You’ll find one for Ridge Racer here, Pursuit Force here and World Tour Soccer here.

Capcom is set to bring two of its classic PlayStation titles (can we call PlayStation games "classic" now? Too soon?) to the PlayStation Portable later this summer, according to Japanese retailers who have begun listing the games on their release schedules.

Last Thursday night, I spent the best part of eight hours sat at my PC watching Xbox 360 launch, continually gossiping with some of you about the various rumours doing the rounds, getting excited about leaks, scans and previously unseen details, and eventually erupting with delight as the whole picture became clear and I had J Allard marching around my desktop waving his disco fingers and telling me that everything I'd thought was true for weeks and months was, in fact, true.

There was a point, at Microsoft's pre-E3 conference four years ago, when a lot of people began to believe in Xbox. I can pinpoint the moment almost exactly - it was the point when the video of Dead or Alive 3 rolled, and the jaws of the audience slackened as the best in-game graphics they'd ever seen suddenly graced the screens ahead of them. Back when Halo was just another unproven first person shooter, a single swoop over Team Ninja's beautiful, sun-kissed beach was enough to convince many people that Xbox was worthy of attention. I know; I was one of those people.

"Daddy, where were you when Microsoft was swallowed whole by its own out-of-control ego?"

It's easy for you to sit there and think "Cuh, those ligging tossers are all out sunning themselves whilst being fed grapes by Hideo Kojima in a bikini and being pleasured by a bevy of paid-for harlots," but it's easy to forget that we're not all at E3. Some of our staffers are stuck in Blighty waiting for one of us Los Angelic dossers to pick up the phone and give them their daily helping of abuse. So we thought we'd give them a chance to whinge about it. Enjoy.

UPDATE - ZOO Digital sends word this morning, Wednesday 25th, that the Alien Hominid - Eurogamer Signature Edition has now sold out completely. Thanks to all who bought one, and sorry if you were out of luck. All the orders will be shipped today so that you get hold of them in time for release date.

As regular followers/detractors of this column may have lamented/enjoyed, there wasn't one last week. This was down to a combination of factors, some of which were, variously, that I was in Los Angeles, I was very busy writing about other things, and that I am rubbish and should be burnt down and moulded into an Xbox 360 faceplate where I can live out my days spinning through space like those folks from Superman (one of whom had a beard) until someone hits me with a nuclear weapon.

A (cunning and deceitful) reader emails: "Given that when I met you at E3 last week you described Ridge Racer DS as 'the worst threat to the integrity of the wheel since the invention of the exploding clamp', will you be re-reviewing it to give it less than the 6/10 you somehow decided it was worth when you played the American version?"

With just a couple of days to go until Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is released on PC and Xbox, Rockstar has unveiled two new trailers for the game.

Blizzard has announced the release of the first two player-vs-player battlegrounds for PC MMORPG World of Warcraft.

Capcom is considering launching a legal battle over decisions taken by local government officers in Japan to ban the sale of Grand Theft Auto 3 to under-18s.

A new expansion pack for PC MMORPG The Saga of Ryzom has been announced by developer Nevrax.

When Cold Winter producer Ian Stephens told us a few months back that the Swordfish-developed first person shooter is "for the European audience... it's a pat on the back for you guys," it struck me as a slightly odd, self-deprecating thing to admit, as if maybe we'd somehow get it more because it's got Tom Baker's menacing, booming, leathery voice narrating the cut-scenes or something. While, yes, Baker's nostalgic tones could pin us to the spot if he was the speaking clock announcer, there's nothing particularly uniquely British or European about Cold Winter. It's a polished, competent, traditional first-person shooter with the usual web of evil conspiracy to unravel, entire armies of minions to execute, exhausting amounts of stuff to blow up and some purdy physics to play around with. Things we're all abundantly familiar with.

Fire Emblem's quite popular in this house. So much so that last week I decided to resolve important life issues in the style thereof. Asking Kristan if he wanted me to pick anything up from Sainsbury's involved striking a heroic pose whilst peering out of the window, humming the theme music, and holding up bits of paper with flowery motifs bordering nobly worded guff about journeying to the merchants in the north in pursuit of sustenance. Getting into a turn-based bar fight was more challenging. [One of these anecdotes is actually true. Guess which. -Ed]

Plans for a high-budget Halo movie are being pushed ahead by Microsoft, which delivered copies of the Alex Garland-penned script to Hollywood studios earlier this week - with a high price tag and tough conditions attached.

US publisher Lucasarts is committed to supporting all of the new console and handheld platforms, according to company president Jim Ward, who has confirmed that the firm "will be on all platforms."

SEGA has flat out denied that a Sonic the Hedgehog online role-playing game is in development, despite clues on the website of US multimedia developer Panovation that suggested otherwise.

Earlier today I wrote an introduction (which, thanks to the magic of Internet publishing, you'll very likely read after you've seen this one) in which I implied that women might be slightly put off getting to know me based on some of my slightly odd habits.