Not too long ago I posted an article about the potential for a Warcraft fighting game. As other franchise games get fighting spin offs I’m beginning to see that my dream might not be as unlikely as I thought. First Castlevania had an (admittedly really crappy) fighting game and now Final Fantasy gives you the opportunity to bash up your favourite characters across several versions of the game.

Blazblue is for sale! Checkout Metacritic and see its amazing scores and gushing complimentary reviews describing a fighting game both deep and gorgeous with an animation style that looks like an anime show come to life.

Now run to the store clapping your hands like a seal with a learning disability and throw money at the clerk screaming ‘Blazblue’ over and over. Then drool in uncomprehending horror when he asks what you are talking about. Because there is no PAL release intended for Blazblue.

This week in Spare Change? we have a game that may lean towards the pricey option of the scale, pushing up to $30 or $40, but none the less is an essential game for any collection.

If you have not played The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, you sir or madam, have not lived.

Alex Mercer, your protagonist of choice in Prototype, is a monster. There’s no getting around it; he is a slaughtering, shape shifting horror that leaps and flies around the high rises of New York seeking bloody vengeance against those who have wronged him. There’s no happy place here, no black and white morale system to choose from, you begin the game as a subhuman killer and learn how particularly inhuman you are as the game progresses. Prototype doesn’t even penalize you for the collateral damage you do to New York’s citizens, hurl a tank into a helicopter and watch the resulting fiery wreckage fall onto a busy intersection? Oh well, my bad folks, by the way I need to consume your grandmother to regain my health, munch, crunch, burp. This lack of a morale compass is one of the more disturbing elements of Prototype, but it does make it a little easier to focus on the task at hand.

Terminator Salvation was a game that looked good, not great before its release. The screens that were released a while ago looked fairly promising and the cover system seemed to control nice and smooth. I was hoping that this game could curb my need for shoot big robots in a post apocalyptic world. Unfortunately this game is the biggest disappointment of this generation for me.

We all know we have been to that place, on your PC hooked up to your nice and loud surround sound playing some Call of Duty 4 or Counterstike and BAM! The Missus or the Parents are telling you to turn your bloody game down! You plead with them to no avail; you say things like “But I can’t hear people when they are sneaking up.” or “This game is all about the immersion.” But they never listen; but they will one day but not now. So you have to go back to playing with your stereo headset getting frustrated. For those with this conundrum I may have found a solution and for everyone else who has no idea what I'm talking about I have one simple statment for you. If you like sound in your games read on.

In this weeks episode, hosted by Kane and Serblander, we go ghost hunting in our review of Ghostbusters the video game, take a look at an updated classic with Space Invaders extreme, discuss what effect the recession is having on gaming.  We then take a look back at a Nintendo 64 classic goldeneye in a retro review. All this and more on episode 7 of Thumbpad!

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