Ah, to be healthy and well. Sorry about my absence last week, those of you who read our forums (which I recommend you all do and tell your friends!) will know I was taken by a rather awful illness. I won’t go into too much detail but suffice to say a bucket was always handy.

But enough of my personal ailments, what of the news I missed? Well I’d like to kick off this week by saying that I’m very excited for “Comic Jumper” also known as “The Adventures of Captain Smiley.” It’s the latest game announced by Twisted Pixel, the guys who brought you the XBLA classics “The Maw” and “ ’Splosion Man” both of which are really, really impressive games. Suffice to say that the new game contains excellent humour, a great art style and looks to be one of the more original games to come out this year, with the protagonist jumping between various genres of comics and gaining new powers as he does. It’s good, light-hearted, all round fun. I can’t wait.

Other announcements come from Midway, who announced a sequel to the arcade game “Hydro Thunder” which will also find its way to XBLA soon. I am afraid I have to hang my head in ignorance here, but the screenshots and footage make it looks both beautiful and fun. I’ll be giving it a shot for sure, the game looks astoundingly pretty and seems to be a cross between F-Zero and water, something that can only end well. Apparently fans of the previous game are grinning ear to ear, so I’ll let them push their positive attitude onto me.

Zooming and splashing, life's greater joys.

And yet MORE Xbox 360 news, sorry if this seems like a biased article but they’ve had a lot to show off recently, the 360 will FINALLY be allowed to use USB flash drives as memory storage, as opposed to hard drives or memory packs. What fun this shall be, as you save your gamer tag and Castle Crashers to a USB, take it round your friends and watch it require you to STILL recover your gamer tag and take a good half hour doing so. A nice additional feature Microsoft, but the PS3 has been doing this for a while it feels more like a “late to the party” than a great new feature. Still, it’s nice to have and I might find a use for it. Somehow.

Perhaps time for some multiplatform news? Well fear not my friends, the multiplatform game Modern Warfare 2 will be getting a “Stimulus Package” on March 30^th and will… wait… what’s this? That’s ALSO exclusive to the 360!? Mother f-… never mind. Yes, it seems the 360 is getting a spot on everything this week, and so why shouldn’t this also be included? The pack contains 5 maps, 2 old ones from Modern Warfare and 3 new ones, and is going on sale for the staggering price of 1200 Microsoft points, about £10 in the UK and $15 in the US! Wow! That’s about £2/$3 a map! That is absolutely outrageous! There are full games on the XBLA that cost that much! Castle Crashers costs that much! PS3 owners won’t have to fret about being fleeced by this pack as the exclusivity is merely timed, so you’ll all get a shot at buying this later down the line, but whether you’ll want to is something 360 gamers can find out for you.

Looks nice doesn't it? Whether it's £10 nice is up to you...

Right… really need to find something that isn’t 360 related now… erm… oh! This is pretty big news! Oh wait, we’ve already covered the Nintendo 3DS in a separate article. Damn. I wanted to talk about how I think it’s great and all. But until we see some solid games for it, I’m just “interested” not “frothing”. I’d also like an Elite Beat Agents 2 on it. Not to use the 3D on it just… I’d really like an Elite Beat Agents 2. Please. I’ll beg.

I suppose the best place to go then is to the releases for this week (and a few from last). Here’s a list of the most interesting:

God of War 3: RAH! The MANLIEST game ever brings the MANLIEST trilogy ever to a close. Huge, brutal and MANLY! Recommended for sadists, like myself.

Just Cause 2: Really fun, really stupid, 1000 square miles of sheer explosive fun. Why does everything explode? Just ‘cause.

Red Steel 2: I have this and IT IS AWESOME! I’ll do a full review for the site at a later date, but highly recommended, possibly the most improved sequel ever!

Pokémon Heart Gold/Soul Silver: It’s Pokémon! That… that’s it really. You know exactly what to expect. Go enjoy! And remember, walking is good for you AND your Pokémon!

Metro 2033: Hardcore apocalypse game. Looks to be more harrowing than fun, but still something at least worth looking at. Made by Russians so it’s insanely hard.

Command & Conquer 4: Hooray! Base building RTS fun… wait… what the hell is this? No bases? Instant units? I have to ALWAYS be online? Way to swing-and-miss EA…

Dragon Age Awakening: Expansion to an already huge game. Like ordering a second Big Mac.

That about does it for this week. Check out episode 3 of the Zippy Gamer UK podcast going up soon, where we talk Bioshock 1 and 2 as well as level up FPS’s and Just Cause 2! This is Lewis Dunn signing out.