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People in the US and Japan may be confused by the title but Wii owners in Europe and Australia know exactly what I’m rambling on about. Super Smash Bros. Brawl for PAL Wii’s has yet to be announced and has left Australian’s and European’s angered.

Super Smash Bros. was set to be the release of the year for the Wii. The new features such as Snake and Sonic joining the team, updated graphics and the plain awesomeness that the title “Super Smash Bros” brings with it makes me nearly twitch with excitement when the game was announced in 2005, which was seemingly eons ago.

It’s now three years later and I have yet to play the game while our American and Japanese counterparts are throwing boxes with Snake and absorbing powers with Kirby.

This is the first bad experience I have ever had with Nintendo and sure is hitting me deep. The idea that they haven’t even confirmed a date and the game has been out in America for over a month is disgusting. We need to show Nintendo that we will not stand for such discrimination.

And I’m going to get angry. Gamers around the world should unite and be angry. I’m going to start the anger campaign with a petition. So get signing and get angry… ’cause Uncle PAL needs YOU!

Click this to sign the petition: http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/ssbb

We all know of the battle between the consoles of late, the high-tech Playstation 3, the classic style Xbox 360 and fun, little Wii but now since each of these consoles have been out for at least a year, I think it’s time to hand a verdict down.

Let’s kick it off with my favourite console, the Wii. I bought one of this babies on the opening day hoping for a bundle of Nintendo trademarked happiness. After playing all day the next day, telling my school I had a Wii infection, I found that Nintendo had really outdone themselves and given us a great new, innovative console. They had motion sensors, cartoony games that showed the idea off well and it was multi-generational; my Dad even started playing on a regular basis. Then, the hole in the Wii’s armour, the only good games that were released for the Wii were by Nintendo and none of them were hardcore. Sure, Wii Sports and Mario Party 8 are awesome but the only in-depth game I could get out of the system was the Gamecube port of Zelda! As much as I love my beloved Wii, until Nintendo decide to announce the date for the PAL Super Smash Bros. Brawl the Wii will always be lacking games.

As for the oldest of this generation, the Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 was criticised for jumping the gun on seventh gen consoles but this gave it a slight advantage. It kept classic and true to the original Xbox gameplay but updated the actual way the Xbox runs. The UI changed and is quite nice, the graphics look awesome especially with a HD telly and it has a base of good games. The 360 is favoured by most serious gamers as it was something that most of them were already familiar with and had great titles to go with it. Now, I can jump on and play great titles like Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, Assassin’s Creed and Devil May Cry 4. The downfall is what I called an advantage some people think is a bad thing. It is much of the same with nicer graphics and this leaves people wanting something new rather than what they could be playing on their original Xbox.

The Playstation 3, I’m not sure about you guys but wherever I go all I hear is people bagging this console. It is overpriced, it is high-powered but after playing one for the first time, they really aren’t that bad. The games are fun, the controller is comfortable as always and the games I played are pretty awesome. I did miss out on seeing Resistance and Ratchet & Clank in HD but it still looked pretty nice. It was fun to sit there and play as well, Resistance had an amusing multiplayer even with only three players. There are some things going for it though; it has a BluRay player built-in, it can store music and videos making it an ideal home entertainment system. The games are an added bonus as the Playstation brand has many great titles backing it such as Ratchet & Clank and the Final Fantasy series.

Well, we’ve heard the evidence and the jury is ready to present their verdict. Each console has it’s pros and cons but inevitably the Playstation will never be going as far as the 360 or Wii just because of it’s price. AUD$999 is just like buying another computer and not everyone can afford that. The Wii is cheap and has all the great Nintendo titles but it needs to get some other great titles to keep it alive. So, drum roll please, the 360 has it for this generation. It kept classic and familiar but added a sense of “new-ness” to it all. It has great game titles backing it up and isn’t too hard in your pockets at AUD$500. Good job guys, can’t wait for the next generation in five or six years.

EA’s announcement that it is going to make another game in the epic series that is Command and Conquer made for some exciting news in the gaming world. Red Alert 3 will hopefully live up to the standards of it predecessors and make a great continuation of the series.

“It’s been too long.” said Chris Corry, Executive Producer at EALA. “Fans have been waiting for a new Red Alert game for seven years, and we’re working hard to ensure its well worth the wait. The team is staying true to the series’ roots while adding new elements like a co-operatively played story-driven campaign, an astounding new faction that will shake-up the Red Alert universe as we know it, and units that will help make Red Alert 3 everything our fans have been waiting for. And by bringing naval combat into the heart of the game design, we’re transporting that fast, fun and fluid C&C gameplay to the high-seas in ways that you’ve never seen before.”

The Red Alert series has an interesting story. The first game is about Einstein travelling back in time and killing Hitler to try and stop World War II. The plan goes sour and results in a Soviet invasion of Europe. Red Alert 2 continues with a Soviet invasion of the US by using mind-control to disable their nuclear weapons. The player is then transported back in time to fight Yuri, the leader of the Soviets.

The third game’s story begins with a desperate Soviet Russia who go back in time to change history and restore the glory of Mother Russia. The mission is a failure and when they return it creates an alternate timeline where technology is completely different. A new superpower has appeared, The Empire of the Rising Sun, and the super-powers are fighting a World War III sporting crazy and wacky technology such as Tesla coils, heavily armed War Blimps, teleporters, armoured bears, intelligent dolphins, floating island fortresses and transforming tanks.

The RTS game is going to be on PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 which is an interesting mix for an RTS game. The developers, EA Los Angeles, are trying to add new features to this game such as co-operative campaign, a new twist for the RTS genre, and naval capabilities, something not seen in this series before.

Being an RTS fan myself, I will be interested to see how the whole co-operative campaign works out. It could be a cool feature or it could epic fail…only time will tell when we can find out what the actual game is like. Check out the main site here.