Welcome to another Video Thursday… on a Friday! Didn’t expect that did you? No, thought just as much.

This week we got rhythm. Lots of rhythm. Rhythm in pockets you might say, or cups if that makes any more sense. Either way, we got rhythm aplenty (for lack of a vowel-less quantity) plus it’s in brand new shiny controversial Youtube Widescreen (or not if our technical wizardry fails us. Damn you technical wizardry).

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The year is 2277, and for some reason everybody is from the 50s and has better technology than us. At least we can revel in the knowledge that they probably can’t pull off any funky moves on the dance floor. Wait a minute…

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Major UK video-game retailer, GAME have revealed a new, interesting take on competitions. They are currently hosting a flash game called Console Wars in which the player engages in Command & Conquer style RTS battles either defending for the Retro Alliance, or the invading NxtGn Elite.

In order to take part in the competition, you must hold an account on the website (free of course) and then you’ll have to click "Win Prizes" in the game. After submitting your email address, you should go and set up your wish list. Your wish list is what you’re playing for. Everything you put on it will become your prize later on so if you don’t set it up, you’ll get a measly nothing if you win. Just so you know, the maximum total value of your list is £1000, so don’t try putting 20 PS3s on there as it won’t work.

The game itself isn’t bad for a flash game, and it’ll hold your interest for as long as necessary to enter the competition. This is for UK residents only and the competition closes on the 31st of December. You must take part in the game to enter and have a chance of winning, and your chance of winning increases, the more levels of the game you complete. If you have a few minutes to spare in the office, and they don’t regulate your Internet usage with strict filters, then there are much worse ways to kill time than Console Wars. It’s reasonably fun, and winning stuff is always fun.

Source: Console Wars

Steam are running a fantastic deal for all of you money-savvy audiophiles out there. For this week only, you can pick up Audiosurf for just $2.49 (£1.60 in real money). It’s more than worth it in my opinion, even at $9.99 it’s a great deal and it’s without a doubt one of my favourite indie games that I have played ever (up there with the other five I’ve played).

You thrifty music fans need to head over to the Steam store (yep, you’ll need Steam installed, is that really such a bad thing?) to get your copy. If you’re really as cheap as I presume then you’ll already have hundreds of illegally downloaded tracks on your computer (yer thieving bastards!) so you’re only paying a cheap fare to enhance your music experience.

What I’m trying to say is, get this game. Get it while it’s cheap. Get it while it’s expensive. I don’t care, just get it. It’s great. Honest.

Audiosurf $2.49 this week only

I’ve been a big fan of Prince of Persia since the beginning of the previous generation’s remake series (I’ve never completed a Prince of Persia game, but I am willing to live in blissful ignorance of that fact). Needless to say, I was excited at being able to try out the new game a few months before release, and also needless to say, it is a worthy successor to not only the previous series, but the originals to.

From that, I mean that the game holds features more common to the original Prince of Persia than the previous series, while still including the acrobatic thrill the last-gen games offered. In this, you might argue that it feels a bit like Assassin’s Creed (it does run on the same engine after all).

In the new Prince of Persia, the time-shifting TiVo system of old is replaced by a new gimmick. Her name is Elika. She is magic. That’s about it.

While you might expect Elika to be the star of the new game, she factors into the gameplay as little more than a weapon - being assigned to one of the buttons much the same as acrobatic attacks, or sword attacks are. This plays into combat interestingly as you jump around using deadly combinations to surprise and defeat your foes.

Talking of combat, in the new Prince of Persia you only fight one enemy at a time (an homage to the original? Or perhaps an example of the limitations of the Scimitar engine). This means that you need to think a lot more about every move you take, as you face death after one connecting strike to your vulnerable body and means that blocking is key to the game. Blocking is also key for the enemies, which is why the variety of attacks becomes so important to  surprise your enemy and get through his defence. It also makes for tactically engaging boss battles.

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It’d be a mistake to say that it was a good idea to cart upcoming 360 exclusive, RACE Pro along to Eurogamer for public viewing. Really, it would.

RACE Pro is developer SimBin’s (developer of many a GTR game) new project aimed at weaning Forza fans away from Microsoft’s own published effort get them feeding on Atari’s (sinister) bottle. I’s a game which looks promising, yes. It features pretty graphics and realistic in-car views for all vehicles featured (amounting to a decent 48 different types). Question is, will RACE Pro - without all of Forza’s bells and whistles of complex car customisation and realistic physics - be able to entice fans of racing simulators?

From what we saw at the Eurogamer Expo, it would be safe to say that - in its current state - the answer is a resounding “no”. The game itself appears to have great gameplay which has a brilliant physics system of its own, along with better-than-Forza visuals. The AI can be realistically irritating, as rival cars slither around you, and the locations boast more detail, as well as more interesting settings, than Forza. The comparisons to Forza don’t stop there though, as it even borrows the advice beam seen in Forza (which advises the player where best to drive on the track to maximise placement on the track and to prevent you from skidding into barriers, as well as at what speed you should be driving).

Now, for the bad points. RACE Pro is riddled with issues. I started the game from the main menu, where I chose my car and track in which I wanted to race. I next waited for a tedious 7 minutes for the track to load. 3, 2, 1, GO! Wait a minute… I attempted to go, but the excessive lag wouldn’t let me go without a fight. I raced for a further few minutes, trying out the controls and different camera angles before my patience snapped, then I stopped playing as my car ploughed into a wall. Ouch.

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What with all the good games around at the expo, we unfortunately didn’t have time to wait in line to play SVR 2009. We did, however, see some live gameplay for ourselves.

What can we say? It’s very much SVR 2008, but with a different UI. The HUD’s changed to a more gritty ink-splotch style design, and the character selection now boasts a larger quantity of wrestlers with ridiculous expressions on their faces as they strike pantomime-esque poses. Short sentence. Other differences, while meagre, include: an awesome sounding finisher-creator, “enhanced” tag team matches and finally the inferno match. Wrestling… with fire (apparently). None of the aforementioned new features were seen in our preview, but we can expect that they hardly warrant a new game.

Differences aside, what you have here is a minor update to a solid game. The feature list is almost identical to its predecessors (previous issues, such as dodgy collision detection and dated graphics remain) and the new features, as always, aren’t likely to be worth a new purchase if you own any of the previous games in the series.

Die-hard fans of the series should check it out, but it’s hard to recommend DLC quality additions at a forty pound price point, while the previous game in the series (SVR 2008) can now be picked up at a measly £24.99 new.

Pinnacle Software, UK publisher of few discernable titles, announced on Friday a new PSN project from Guildford based DoubleSix Games (new developer who are also working on the upcoming XBLA South Park game). Burn Zombie Burn is an old-skool top-down shooter, much like the 1997 Raven Software classic - Take No Prisoners (or for you youngsters, Assault Heroes).

You play as the indistinguishably named Bruce Campbell, who’s looking forward to making ’sexy-time’ with his girlfriend. Unfortunately for Bruce; he’s looking for love at the same times as this new Zombie craze/virus sweeps America turning everybody into stumbling fools, hungry for braaaaains.

The game looks to bring arcade-style shooter fun to the Playstation Store, featuring coop play, as well as an interesting B-Movie roster of environments. If you’re looking for some frantic top-down shooter action with added zombies then check out Burn Zombie Burn, due early 2009.

Full press release over the break…

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As part of HMV’s initiative to expand further into the gaming market, they are offering an exclusive deal where if you preorder Far Cry 2 with them (due out this Friday), you get 4 exclusive missions for free with it. These missions promise to set the scene for Far Cry 2 and act as a prologue to the game, giving you some extra background information on the scenario in which you will play.

It is to be assumed that the game will come with an unlock code which you can enter on Xbox Live, PSN store or whatever they’re planning for the PC. The missions will presumably be available as DLC further down the line.

This is a UK exclusive for HMV so you won’t get it anywhere else. We do not know whether this is being offered in other territories, but keep an eye out.

Details on the individual missions over the break…

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If you preorder Saints Row 2 from one of a number of stores at the moment then you’re getting a lot more than you bargained for. No, you’re not going to receive a sharp poke in the eye… this surprise is much better. If you preorder Saints Row 2 from just about any retailer at the moment, you’ll be getting a nifty code for two free, exclusive in-game vehicles to cruise around the streets and skies of Stillwater in.

I’m not usually a big fan of companies doing this sort of thing, but this time it’s special… as if you preorder Saints Row 2 from one of numerous retailers then you’re also getting…

A REALLY TINY MOTORBIKE!

and a Gyrocopter which nobody cares about. Oh, you also don’t need to preorder to get this special little freebie as it’s redeemed via use of a cheat code - so don’t worry fellow cheapskates. Hit the jump for a video of the Pee Wee in action.

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For King or Country is a total-conversion for British RTS, Medieval 2: Total War. Only fitting then, that somebody releases a modification emphasising an important part of Britain’s intricate history; The English Civil War.

This Medieval 2: Total War modification adds an entirely new campaign, allowing you to side either with the right-wing loyal Royalists, or the democratic Parliamentarians within an accurately realised 17th Century Britain. Unit types, towns, buildings have all been changed to suit the new period of time in which you will play, ensuring an entirely different campaign experience. Battles have changed too, delivering what Total War aficionados may contemplate as a stepping stone between Medieval 2 and the upcoming Empire: Total War with the inclusion of thoroughly reprogrammed AI in order to reflect the new approach to battlefield tactics at the time.

We at GameOnYou wouldn’t of course be talking about this game if we didn’t either anticipate it or highly recommend it and for FKoK we proudly broadcast the latter. Hit the break for the interview with creator, AlphaDelta.

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