Latest News And Features

This week on The GAP we go crazy and bust out our longest podcast yet - to make up for last week's short clash of the titans. We kick things off with a look at the relationships in Pac-Man before moving on to the Super Bowl, Metro 2033, Sins of a Solar Empire (and Master of Orion) and of course the BioShock series.

In the news and discussions we talk Nintendo's lock-down efforts, Sonic fan-fiction, AVP Classic MP and we discuss the price of games as related to the length. As always The GAP has a strong language warning. You can download it from our files library or subscribe to us on iTunes - if you're worried about your cap though, the iTunes podcast sync is a metered download.

Now that The GAP is kicking arse on iTunes we decided to do the ultimate collaboration - we teamed up with another prominent Aussie podcast and created a Mash-Up ep! To pad out the sides we invited Jeremy Junglist Ray to support GA - alongside Heath and myself - and Guy Yug Blomberg to lead the AG team, alongside Jae and Luke!

We talk talk Command & Conquer 4 and Battlefield Bad Company 2 Beta�s, Metro 2033, Mass Effect 2, iPad and more! And because it's a short episode - only 1 hour long - we don't even touch the discussion topics, though we'll hit them up in the coming weeks. You can download the latest episode from our files library or subscribe to The GAP on iTunes - where we're currently the number one video game podcast! Remember, The GAP has a strong language warning and if you do download it from iTunes it's not unmetered for BP users!

The R18 Discussion Paper has been released today, alongside submission templates to help concerned citizens submit their own views to the Attorneys-General about the topic. The paper outlines arguments both for and against an R rating classification and also provides some details regarding other country's classification systems - all while requesting the general public to come forward and detail their thoughts on whether Australia should have an R Rating for video games.

Head through to the page dedicated to the discussion paper to also get your hands on the templates for submitting your own views to the board. Just remember your submission must be in by the 28th of February 2010, and remember there are groups which oppose an R rating for video games, so make sure your arguments are intelligent and measured!

The cast for Mass Effect 2 has been revealed in a new trailer - head to our videos library to check it out. The names in the cast include Seth Green - reprising his role as Joker from the first game - Carrie-Anne Moss (Memento, The Matrix), Aussie Yvonne Strahovski (Chuck) and Martin Sheen (Apocalypse Now, The West Wing).

There are a load of others joining to voice BioWare's space opera, you can head through and watch it at our videos library or download the file to watch later from our files library. Mass Effect 2 is hitting Xbox 360 and PC January 29.

Andy kicks off this week's proceedings with a look at the big winners of the GDAA Awards from GCAP in Melbourne last week - Firemint and the recently closed down Transmission Games. Afterwards we get a look at what Academy Award winner Hans Zimmer thinks of composing music for games instead of movies - unsurprisingly he finds them very similar. The Bayonetta demo - currently on the PSN and the Xbox Live Marketplace - also sneaks its way into the update before Andy looks back at the year's worst marketing efforts.

Watch the latest Weekly Update now in our videos library, or hit the files library to download it!

As we explain early on in this episode of The GAP a critical error in the user destroyed last week's episode of The GAP - to make up for it we go a little bit longer in this episode. We're joined by an unnamed industry insider on this episode - the Jason Sensation comes on to talk briefly about what it takes to get into the industry.

We also talk Assassin's Creed 2, The Saboteur, Band Hero, Modern Warfare 2 from your average joe's perspective and we discuss frustration in games. Head on through to the files library now to download the latest episode of The GAP - if you have any problems trying to download it, let us know!

Andy gets his Avatar on this week with an interview featuring Brent George - Animation Director on the upcoming Movie to Game adaptation. He also scopes out the new Xbox 360 Wireless N Adapter - at only $30 more than its predecessor it seems like a smart buy for those who want their consoles without the wires. Andy also checks out the latest in the world of Music rhythm games - Band Hero and Ubisoft's Just Dance go under the microscope. Finally we get a tour of the GameArena server farms - and a bit of an explanation of how it all works!

Shoot through and watch it at the videos library now, or download and save your sneak peek at the GA servers forever from the files library right now!

Richie gets his groove back in this episode of the Benny & Richie Show - let's just say things get a little Monty Python at one stage during the episode. The guys hit the ARIA red carpet as well - watch around two thirds of the way through if you want to find out Guy Sebastian's GamerTag (so you can smash him at Modern Warfare 2). The musical theme continues with our dynamic duo talking to Hiroaki Yura from the Eminence Symphony Orchestra about everything from Diablo 3 to music rhythm games.

It's a fantastic episode - watch it in our videos library now, or download it from our files library to treasure for ever - something tells me you won't be able to use it to blackmail Richie though.

The new trailer for Red Dead Redemption which hit our videos library a little earlier has revealed the release date for Rockstar's open world cowboy game Red Dead Redemption - April 30 2010. Rockstar seem to have a love affair with the end of April - you might recall it confused many a gamer when they chose April 29 to release Grand Theft Auto IV instead of having it compete in the pre-Christmas rush.

You may remember we first got a look at the game in June this year where we compared it to Grand Theft Auto with horses. We had another look a short time ago - and we'll post our thoughts on how the game is coming along next week. For now you can watch it in our videos library or download it in our files library.

Persistent world based shooter game CrimeCraft was refused classification by the Classification Board late last week, meaning Vogster Entertainments game will not be released in Australia.

According to the classification board report the game "contains the option to manufacture, trade and self-administer legal 'medicines' and illegal 'boosts', which are made up of various elements and sold 'on the streets'. Boosts are sometimes referred to as 'drugs' both in the game and in the Applicant's submissions to the Board."

Essentially the title allows players to use drugs to boost their performance in the game - boosts include things like 'Anabolics' which improve the player's ability to cause damage. They inject their boosts via an auto-injector device "in a depiction reminiscent of an adrenaline shot" before the text "drug effect" is displayed on screen. You can also become "Addicted" - which instead of posing a negative effect on player gives the player a "global reduction in the cooldown timer of all medicines and boosts".

The summary of the report reads "In the Board's opinion, there is insufficient delineation between the "fictional drugs" available in the game and real-world proscribed drugs.

We'll post the entire board report for you to read as soon as possible. Thanks to Sly on our forums for the heads up!