Oh, my, Need For Speed! Every time I hear about it, I have to get through a wave of sadness. No need to explain why. If you've been playing Need for Speed since the first game in the series, I am sure you fully understand. Anyway, NFS World Online may turn into a very good game, or not, that depends on a lot of things. After all, a lot of people who said the latest NFS games weren't so great in single player praised the multiplayer action...

... and NFS World Online may be exactly what they need - 100% multiplayer fun, without any lame story or repetitive single player boredom. According to Jon Niermann, president of EA Asia, "Need for Speed is one of the world's best-selling franchises, and is especially popular among gamers in Taiwan and Hong Kong," so this explains a lot. Just think about the popularity of online multiplayer games in Asia, and you'll get the idea!
<-300x250 Medium Rectangle - center->
Yes, yes, NFS World Online will be a free-to-play PC only game, but I am sure we'll have some interesting in-game ads, or maybe some unlockable "gold" features, I have no worries about how they'll make money with it. The only thing I am worried about is the real value this game will provide to gamers...

"We're thrilled to bring this EA-owned property to Asia and to begin our self publishing model in Taiwan and Hong Kong. We look forward to the results of this testing phase for continued improvement in providing the best service to online gamers across Asia," concluded Niermann, so we should wait until March, when the first phase of testing for NFS World Online will begin.

I hardly wait to see what they'll come up with this time... maybe I'll get lucky enough to take part in the early beta testing stage, who knows? Wish me luck!

Do you know what is the MP3 player? Yeah, sure, I am not taking you for a fool - we all know the little gadgets able to play MP3 files(and at least 2-3 other audio formats, in most cases), but I am thinking about a completely different meaning to this expression. The idea simply came while enjoying Burnout Paradise and its outstanding soundtrack, making me remember those good old Destruction Derby days...

The MP3 player I am thinking about is the gamer playing a game powered by the soundtrack before anything else, and when it comes to Burnout Paradise, MP3 players we are all! I know, there may be a rather long list below, and 50 Cent fans will surely hate most tracks here, but I can tell you that Burnout Paradise is PURE GOLD!

Speed, awesome music, great graphics, speeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed!!! Ehem, here's the largest part of the Burnout Paradise soundtrack, except those tracks taken from previous Burnout games, and the classical masterpieces(Vivaldi, Mozart, and a few others):

Adam And The Ants - Stand And Deliver
Agent Blue - Snowhill
Airbourne - Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast
Alice In Chains - Would?
Army Of Me - Going Through Changes
Avril Lavigne - Girlfriend
B'z - FRICTION
Brain Failure feat. Dicky Barrett - Coming Down To Beijing
Brand New - The Archers Bows Have Broken
Bromheads Jacket - Fight Music For The Fight
Depeche Mode - Route 66 (Beatmasters Mix)
Faith No More - Epic
Guns N' Roses - Paradise City
Innerpartysystem - Heart Of Fire
Jane's Addiction - Stop!
Jimmy Eat World - Electable (Give It Up)
Junkie XL feat. Lauren Rocket - Cities In Dust
Jupiter One - Fire Away
Kerli - Creepshow
Killswitch Engage - My Curse
LCD Soundsystem - Us V. Them
Make Good Your Escape - Beautiful Ruin
Maxeen - Block Out The World
Mexicolas - Come Clean
N.E.R.D. - Rockstar (Jason Nevins Mix)
Never Heard Of It2 - Finger On The Trigger
Operator - Nothing To Lose
Permanent ME - Until You Leave
Saosin - Collapse
Seether - Fake It
Senses Fail - Calling All Cars
Showing Off To Thieves2 - Everyone Has Their Secrets
Skybombers - It Goes Off
Soundgarden - Rusty Cage
Sugarcult - Dead Living
Swervedriver - Duel
The Photo Atlas - Red Orange Yellow
The Pigeon Detectives - I'm Not Sorry
The Styles - Glitter Hits (J.J. Puig Mix)
Twisted Sister - I Wanna Rock

Now, all you need to do is sit back and compare deals on a Sat Nav, pick the best one, and turn your city into Paradise City... without the crashes and stunts, of course! In the end, we're all MP3 players, no matter if it's about computer gaming or real life, and as long as we play it safe, there's nothing to lose!

Oh, yeah, one more thing - our Burnout Paradise PC review is coming up in a few days, so be sure to subscribe to our news by email if you haven't done that already - you don't want to miss this one, believe me!

I got tired of those UK and US game statistics. Really! On the other hand, in Japan there's nothing interesting, since Nintendo reigns supreme, so some game statistics from Australia should be more interesting, don't you agree? Well, no matter what would you reply to that question, here's today's aussie console statistics...

After all, Australia is far from the US, pretty far from China and Japan, and since no local game console is being manufactured or designed there, all consoles should have similar chances of hitting the jackpot. The interesting part is that one of the 3 easily outrun the other two, combined.
<-300x250 Medium Rectangle - center->
Just look at the console sales statistics:

Nintendo Wii - 685,000
Xbox 360 - 237,000
PlayStation 3 - 213,000

Nintendo Wii OWNAGE! Should I say more? Well, here's the short handhelds "top" - first place goes to Nintendo DS, with 800,000 units sold, while the second(?!) goes to Sony's PlayStation Portable, with an undisclosed number of units sold!

Do you think it may be possible for the PSP to beat the DS? I am sure that's not the case, if we take a look at thos console numbers, and since Sony has chosen not to make public the sales number, I guess they are ashamed...