Platforms: Sony PS3 and Microsoft Xbox 360
Price: R600
Verdict: A rootin’ tootin’ good time.

Red Dead Redemption is easily the best game I’ve played this year. It features cowboys, guns, horses and hot chicks – the ingredients of a good time.  The title was developed by Rockstar Games, makers of the Grand Theft Auto series and features the same sandbox-style, go-anywhere-do-anything gameplay of its stable partner. (more…)

I have become a highly demanding gamer. New titles have five minutes in which to grab me. If the intro montage is too long or the gameplay anything less than spectacular, they’ve lost me. Gone are the days where I had hours to spend in front of a console after school or between classes. What I need now is short, potent doses of escapism, delivered without prelude, so I can get back to work.

Alan Wake is one of the few titles in the last year that gripped me from the get-go and kept me glued for longer than the gameplay tutorial. And that isn’t because it delivered on premise, but rather because it didn’t. (more…)

The UK press are smoking something serious when they publish kak about machete gangs roaming the streets of South Africa. But an epic fight is about to break out all over the country – albeit a virtual representation thereof.

Legends of Echo is a new location-based mobile game developed by the guys at The Grid (a Vodacom subsidiary). It combines massively multiplayer online gaming with location-based services and runs exclusively on mobile phones.
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Exclusive distributor of Nintendo in South Africa, The Core Group says that the Nintendo DSi XL portable gaming console will be available locally by the end of April.

The DSi XL has two 4.2″ screens that are 93% bigger than the screen on the Nintendo DS Lite. It also has a larger pen-like stylus whereas most of the DS Lite left you feeling fat-fingered as it was clearly developed with 5-year-olds in mind.

Core says it will launch the DSi XL in two colours – wine red and dark brown, with a glossy sheen on top and matt finish on the underside for gripping onto tables and other surfaces.

The new console also comes pre-loaded with two Nintendo DSiWare software titles – Dr Kawashima’s: Little Bit of Brain Training: Arts Edition and Dictionary 6 in 1, as well as the Nintendo DSi Browser.

The DSi XL also has a camera that can be used for video chatting and putting your mug into games, amongst other things.

Core has not confirmed pricing yet.