Enjoying that game, are you? You know what you really need, don't you? That's right. Some lights. Some lights like the Mad Catz Cyborg Gaming Lights that approximate the colours on screen and illuminate the wall behind your monitor.

Well you're in luck. Cyborg's gaming lights can softly illuminate your walls for a measly £90. If the game you're playing supports the amBX technology that powers the lights, that is.

But don't worry about that, think of those colours! If the screen's filled with deep blue ocean, the lights go blue. If you're stalking through moonlit streets on screen… not much happens.

You should be fine though, as long as you play games that only use primary colours. And support amBX.

There are some positives. When something explodes on screen, the gaming lights respond with an impressive burst of light. They're built to a high standard, and relatively easy to get up and running.

It's just that, well, they're entirely useless. You need to play in a dark room to notice the effect at all, and even then you'll barely notice, because you'll be looking at the screen.

If this amBX tech came attached to a monitor for less money, we'd be interested. As it is, it's a monumental pile of cash for little reward.

The TwistDock is, put simply, a stand and controller charging port for your PlayStation 3. It's circular and twists around so you can reach the controllers, which sit hidden behind your PS3. It's designed to look good, feel premium, and keep things tidy.

However, you'll definitely pay for that high-end feeling. The dock itself will cost around £80, with the USB Hub and Cable Set add-on packs both coming in at around £30. We had the full set to play with, so let's see if it's really worth £140.

The basic TwistDock is a round stand with two controller holders in the back. To charge your controllers, you have to attach a little add-on to the top of them that slots into their USB port. This has some contacts on it that press against matching contacts on the TwistDock.

We can guess why they didn't just put USB plugs on the TwistDock: because it's premium. But it would have been simpler. Two lights on the front of the dock tell you whether the controllers are charged (which is actually quite good).

To charge your controllers. the TwistDock naturally needs some power. It comes with a European mains plug, which slots into a UK adaptor. The two really don't look like they've been designed to sit together. They're loose, wobbly and awkward, but didn't actually fall apart in our time using the dock, so escape total condemnation.

There are two USB ports on the back of the TwistDock, so you could charge two more controllers or… um, your phone? These USB ports don't do anything other than power, so they're no good for PS3 accessories that send information to the console.

The USB Hub pack, which adds data functionality (for more money!), actually comes with a new mains adaptor with more power than the TwistDock's original to give the necessary juice to the extra ports. Why didn't they just make the original stronger?

The hub was an absolute pain to get slotted into its hole properly, but we eventually got it in and working. The PS3 had no trouble spotting any peripherals we attached.

Now, the TwistDock's cunning plan to keep your PS3 tidy is to run all cables under the console, through the centre of the dock, under it and out the back. However, to make this really work, you'll need the TwistDock Cable Set, which includes an HDMI cable and a PS3 power cable, both with plugs at right angles.

Your PS3's normal plugs, being straight, will cause the cables to loop quite far out before they come back under the dock to be hidden. "Why, that's not tidy at all!" the TwistDock people probably said. "Let's provide alternative cables that don't loop out thanks to their right-angled connectors, and charge more for them."

There are two problems here. The first is that you have to pay more. Again.

The second is that the provided power cable is the two-pin figure-eight kind used by the PS3 Slim. The old-style PS3 uses the chunky three-pin kettle lead, making 50 per cent of the Cable Set totally useless to any original-style PS3 owners.

On the plus side, the HDMI cable is really well built, and works just fine. On the down side, jamming the kettle-lead cable through the whole in the TwistDock clearly meant for a smaller plug is a damn pain. Especially since the HDMI cable is so thick and covered that it takes up half the space itself.

Apart from this oversight, the TwistDock does work well for both flavours of Sony's machine. And, yeah, it looks good. It's a convenient way to hide your controllers and charge them at the same time.

It's also pretty expensive to begin with, and then you need to add two accessory packs if you want USB data functionality or cables that don't stick out.

The TwistDock is easy on the eye and nice to have around, but it only stays interested in you if you keep spending money on it. As far as we're concerned, it's just too fiddly and awkward to really be the premium product it wants to be and justify how expensive it is.

Sony PlayStation Move: Overview

It's surprising to think that the Wii has been on sale for nearly four years, and we're only now seeing true competition from Nintendo's rivals. Of course, considering the half-hearted motion controls of the Sixaxis, it's probably wise for Sony to have been cooking PlayStation Move slowly since its introduction 15 months ago.

The PlayStation's motion controller sticks much closer to the Wii's mould than Microsoft's Kinect, with E3's Move tagline being "This changes everything". Hyperbole aside, Sony is aiming to take the technological high road, as it does with all things PS3, and beat the Wii on precision and movement accuracy.

The technology used is actually pretty similar to Nintendo's, but on steroids. The Wii's sensor bar sits by the TV and gives out infrared lights that a camera in the remote picks up in order for the pointer to function.

Move flips this around, with a camera next to the TV picking up the glowing ball on the end of the controller. The PS3 can then measure distance from the controller using the size of the ball as a reference.

The Move controller also has all the movement sensing bells and whistles of the Wii remote and MotionPlus attachment, demonstrating that Sony's thinking was obviously that they weren't attempting to reinvent the wheel so much as make it a little rounder.

Move controllers are available alone for £35, or with the PlayStation Eye camera for £50. The Navigation controller (the equivalent to the Wii's nunchuck) is £25, though we haven't included it in our testing it here.

Sony PlayStation Move: Design

The most noticeable thing about Move's primary controller is the glowing ball on top, unsurprisingly. When the controller is off, the orb is white and softly translucent, and looks remarkably like a ping-pong ball (it's about the same size as one, too).

When the controller's in full use, the ball lights up in a range of colours, so it can be tracked by the PlayStation Eye camera. While the ball might seem to be a weak point should the controller ever make contact with your wall/lamp/friend's skull, it's actually squishy, and just pops back into shape after an impact.

The rest of the controller has a more organic look than the Wii remote. It's round, and becomes slightly thinner in the middle, presumably to be more ergonomic.

On the front, you have the four familiar PlayStation face buttons, though the fact that they're arranged in a square, rather than a diamond, makes it a little hard to remember which one is where for a while.

Between those is the Move button, a thumb-sized new addition, clearly meant as Move's version of the Wii remote's big A button.

Beneath those is the PS button, which serves the same function is it does on the DualShock 3 or SixAxis controller of bringing up the XMB. It sits in a concave, which avoids accidental presses neatly.

The underside of the controller is mostly clear, but features a trigger, known as the T button. This is analogue – like R2/L2 on the DualShock 3 or the left and right triggers on the Xbox 360 controller – in contrast to the crisp, clicking B button on the Wii.

The left-hand side features the Select button, which is quite hard to hit, but is rarely needed.

On the right side, you find the Start button, which can be pressed accidentally depending on you hold the controller, though it only happened once or twice.

At the base of the move is a micro-USB port for charging, a slot for the provided wrist straps, and two mystery connectors that could be used for accessories in the future.

At first, the Move controller feels a little more comfortable than the Wii remote. It's not that Nintendo's controller was uncomfortable, but the roundness of Move goes some way toward helping it sit neatly in the hand.

That said, we found that we started to feel the effects of prolonged use faster with Move, and we think it's to do with the shape. The tapered middle means you're often gripping harder than you would have to with the Wii's controller, especially when playing something with hard swings, like Table Tennis on Sports Champions. Discomfort in the wrist crept in earlier than it did during an equivalent session of Wii Sports Resort.

Let's be clear, though: We're not saying Move is painful, uncomfortable, bad for you, or anything like that (assuming you have no joint problems to begin with). After all, we were playing for quite long periods during our review time, though not unusually long for a committed gamer.

We're not even saying it's definitely less comfortable than the Wii remote – as we said, it's actually a bit nicer just to hold – but we do think that the shape isn't ideal for long periods of the more wrist-bending games.

There are a few other things about the Move's design that seem a little odd to us. Why add a new button with the Move logo (which is, let's remember, just a squiggly line, and so doesn't jump out at you on-screen), when Sony could have just used X or Circle?

Of course, the most contentious design decision will always be that orb. We don't deny that accuracy that it brings (more on that later), but it really does look silly. We're not going to make the laboured sex-toy joke, because all of your friends who see it will. Seriously, it's not just a meme – it's the first thing that people who've never even heard of Move say.

The light is also quite distracting. If you're trying to do something else in the room while someone's playing a game with two controllers, your eye is constantly drawn. The Wii remote was designed to be inconspicuous – the shape fits in with your TV remotes, and it almost disappears into your hand when you hold it – but this can be borderline gaudy.

That said, motion-controlled gaming always has and always will make you look a bit weird. It's not like the wild flailing was dignified before the glowing ball was added, so maybe we should just be happy with the extra accuracy and possibilities it offers.

Sony PlayStation Move: Performance

In the games Sony provided us to test with, we were able to get a feel for much of what's possible with Move, but we also became aware that these tests are somewhat limited by the way the games are programmed.

This has always been one of the Wii's biggest caveats, and the worry is always that games will use motion sensing in a way that really should have just been achieved with buttons.

With that in mind, we can safely say that we came away hugely impressed with what Move can do, but it still needs a careful, measured implementation.

The controller's ball certainly seems to offer an accuracy of pointer movement that goes beyond what the Wii remote is capable of. The idea that it could be as accurate as a mouse is probably a bit ambitious, but it's good enough that we could see it giving real-time strategy games, and a few other genres that do better on PCs, a new lease of life on consoles.

When you navigate the XMB with the Move controller, you point it at the screen, hold trigger, and then point it up, down, left or right to move in that direction in the menu.

Interestingly, the ball stays dark during this time, so it seems to be using only the motion sensing capabilities, but it's so fluid and accurate that you wouldn't know the difference.

When the ball is being used as a pointer, we found that it often only operated in a very narrow field compared to the Wii, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it makes navigating some menus a little more fiddly than we're used to. On the other hand, it works perfectly at much further distances than the Wii remote is capable of.

There are several games where the orb needs to be visible to the camera, even when you'd think the control would be all motion-sensing based.

With the Wii, you could walk into another room and bowl if you wanted, but that's rarely the case here. In fact, leaving the camera's field of view with the active controller seems to stop all functions from working – including the buttons.

While one of the criticisms of Kinect that's going around is the space needed to use it, this is actually also an occasional problem for Move. Sports Champions demands that you stand eight feet (2.5 meters) away from your TV, and then it still expects you to be able to step backwards, and swing your arms all around.

For some people, this won't be a problem, but in our case it meant shifting a sofa back a couple of feet every time we wanted to play (not to mention getting rid of the coffee table). Yes, we always needed to make some space when playing on the Wii, but nowhere near as much as this.

Of course, we're just talking about living rooms here. These space restrictions will just about rule out Sports Champions for bedrooms.

Why is this an issue for Move when it isn't for the Wii (some of the most energetic Wii games be played sitting on your sofa or standing up without too much of a penalty)? It's the restriction of the ball and camera system. You need to be able to swing your arm well out occasionally, and still be on camera.

This restriction follows through into some of the multiplayer games. We only tried with two people, which was fine once we'd made enough space, but if you were playing four-player Volleyball, where everyone has to be on camera at once, it would be absolute carnage.

Annoyingly, Sport Champions wasn't the only game that caused us a distance problem. Our sofa was too close to the TV for us to be able to play that game, but when we popped in Start the Party!, we were too far back!

Start the Party! uses the camera and Move controller for augmented reality (AR) WarioWare-esque party games, so each active player needs to be quite close to the camera to be the right size on-screen. This distance inconsistency is another sacrifice for the accuracy on offer, but it's simply a problem that the Wii doesn't have.

The AR in Start the Party! is very impressive though (and it actually makes an occasional appearance in Sports Champions too). Giant foam hands stick like glue to the end of your controller, wobbling convincingly with the momentum of your swings. Tennis rackets twist in your hand, meaning that you have to careful to hit with the strings, and not the rim.

Win one round in particular and the controller becomes a pencil, enabling you to deface your opponent's image – all with incredible accuracy, though the fact that you're seeing yourself from the other way makes it a little confusing when you're rotating things, or moving them to and from the camera.

Naturally, there's a horror story too. Kung Fu Rider – a kind of Tony Hawk's meets Pain, with a Crazy Taxi heart – is a classic early-Wii case of unnecessary waggle. Thrust the controller up to jump, but to accelerate you have to shake it up and down, resulting in numerous accidental jumps. And yet, when you actually want to jump, it's frequently unresponsive.

It's a perfect example that the Move technology can only be as good as the software harnessing it.

Sony PlayStation Move: Head-to-head

With Sports Champions sitting happily alongside Wii Sports Resort on our shelf, the obvious test for Move was to put it up against Nintendo's offering. There are several like-for-like games here, so how do they compare?

Table Tennis

A tricky one. The Wii version offered a huge amount of control over the spin on your ball, but you still had control over your Mii's movement, and the accuracy of your swing didn't matter as long as the timing was right.

Move couldn't be more different. By stepping left, right, forwards and backwards, your character will do the same, enabling you to get in close for smashes, or to get back for a powerful top spin return.

You also need to think about the height of the ball, because it's quite possible to just swing at air underneath it.

Serving on Sports Champions is a nightmare, though. Not a single one of the people we got to play could get the hang of it.

Of course, adding elaborate physics to a sports game just means it can go wrong. Attempts to put slice on the ball can result in it pinging off at ridiculous angles for no discernible reason, probably in part due to the precision the game demands from you and Move. Precision that is there, but is hard to master.

Wii Sports Resort is the arcade version, wanting you to put crazy spin on the ball, but this Sports Champions is all simulation. If you want to put tonnes of side spin on, you'd better get some damn practice in.

Winner: Sports Champions

Disc Golf

Though there's no proper golf on Sports Champtions, which is a bit of a shame (though perhaps not unexpected, with Tiger Woods 11 already out), we do have a good ol' Frisbee to toss about.

There's barely anything between these two, in terms of the control system. Sports Champions seems to be a tad more forgiving in that it's slightly easier to throw the disc straight in front of you, but both games have totally convincing curves and wind effects in flight.

Winner: Draw

Bowling/Bocce

Okay, so this isn't exactly like for like in terms of the games, but the control scheme is the same for the pair, so it's a good comparison.

In Sports Champions, how much momentum you get on the Bocce balls from a throw can occasionally be a bit inconsistent. Throw the pallino hard and low on the S-shaped course and it occasionally only travels about 10 metres, while other times it rockets round the course, though you're sure you threw it pretty much the same.

It's also hard to really get the hang of left and right spin on the Move game, especially compared to Wii Sports Resort's bowling. We've always found that the Wii bowling game produces exactly the same slight left spin that we have in real life, and that adding a different spin is a just a matter of subtle wrist action.

Winner: Wii Sports Resort

Archery

To keep this fair, we compared the Wii remote-and-Nunchuck Archery game to using two motion controllers at once on Sports Champions.

The Wii version was always one of the most impressive MotionPlus demos, with every twitch and sag of the your arm translated to the screen. At first, Move really disappointed us. Control was laggy and accuracy was very tough.

However, it was then pointed out to us that, while we had made some effort to adopt a correct archery pose, we weren't doing it properly. So we turned fully 90 degrees from the TV, outstretched our arm all the way and tried again.

Suddenly, movement was perfect. Going from target to target is smooth (though you get more of an aiming aid from Sports Champions than from Resort), and using the second controller to bring arrows into the bow yourself gives you a great Robin Hood feeling.

The only thing we missed from the Wii version is a way to readjust where the centre of your aiming is (for example, you can aim slightly below the TV as your centre, so you're arm doesn't get in the way). This would be even more welcome on Move, due to the distraction of the glowing orb.

Yes, it's less realistic, but real archers don't have lights on their bows. However, this doesn't take away from the accuracy of the controls.

Winner: Draw

Swordplay/Gladiator Duel

The addition of shields in Gladiator Duel makes Sports Champions offering a little more elaborate than Resort's, but it's still swords.

Alas, the Swordplay game on the Wii was always a bit of a disappointment, because the actual hits tended to be restricted to vertical vs horizontal swipes and blocks. Despite the appearance of attacks at different angles, it pretty much boils down to those gestures, wasting the accuracy of MotionPlus.

Gladiator Duel makes good on these promises, especially with two controllers (for the sword and shield respectively). Attacks do more damage if you hit harder, but there's still the classic situation where a casual swing suddenly deals a huge amount of damage and you're not sure why.

To be honest, the swing strength detection is kind of inconsequential because everyone always swings hard anyway. The trick here is in careful use of your shield and timing and angle of attacks. In this, it's hugely impressive, and Move's accuracy enables truly tactical bouts.

Winner: Sports Champions

Sony PlayStation Move: Verdict

The biggest takeaway from our time with Move is its incredible accuracy. Augmented reality instruments move perfectly with the controller, Frisbees fly with the gentle curve you give them and you can select things with superb precision.

As we said, the controller is comfortable, but not for really long sessions of hard-swinging games. The glowing ball is undoubtedly ridiculous, but is the price you pay for accuracy. You'll get used to having it there, even if anyone who sees it for the first time will raise an eyebrow.

Move has advantages and disadvantages over the Wii remote. The orb enables a higher level of accuracy than the Wii can manage even with MotionPlus in some cases, but also seems to occasionally restrict Sony's controller.

Being able to operate only within strict confines of the camera is fine for one or two people, but when there are more of you, it's handy not to have to worry about such things. We suspect future game programmers can avoid an over-reliance on the camera (and the plethora of motion sensors should be able to compensate for this).

Similarly, while the accurate detection of depth that Move has is fantastic for some games, the inconsistency of sitting four feet away for Start the Party! and standing eight feet away for Sports Champions is irritating.

In fact, our single biggest concern is the space required to really go at the games. It won't be an issue for games like MAG and SOCOM, but it could be the difference between whether this or a Wii is more appropriate for your space.

Somewhere, in the gap between the Wii remote with MotionPlus and Move, is an ideal motion controller. But what we have is mightily impressive, even with its flaws. It's not a revolution of motion control, but a refocus from being unassuming and family-friendly to being all about precision and adding options.

However, it's not cheap. The starter pack containing one Move controller and the PlayStation Eye camera is £49.99. We think Sony would have been wise to include a game with that – Wii Play made buying a second controller far more palatable for millions of Wii owners.

At £35 each, the controllers alone aren't that expensive, but they're all /extra/ cost on top of what you've got already.

As a piece of technology, we heartily recommend Move to PlayStation 3 owners. The motion gaming bandwagon is growing and growing, and isn't going to disappear any time soon. Move won't be for everyone, if only because of its steep price as an optional extra, but those that do invest will find an excellent piece of gaming technology.

There's no other way to play a top racing game with any vague sense of realism than with a wheel bolted securely to your desk and a set of pedals sat on the mess of wires under your feet.

The difference in satisfaction and visual realism is immediate; so much so that you'll never want to race without a wheel again. But how much will you pay for the privilege?

That's a question that Logitech is asking again with its new top-of-the-line racing wheel, the G27.

Sure, it's tricky to get the hang of hurtling around in-game with a steering wheel when you're used to the mouse/keyboard combo or the analogue sticks of your favourite gamepad, but when you manage to drift around a corner with just the right amount of throttle and opposite lock to make you look like a Finn you'll be grinning like a loon. Which will make you look even more like a Finnish rally driver…

DiRT 2 is the perfect example – I can't imagine playing the game on a gamepad having reviewed it using a wheel. But what do you really need in a decent racing controller?

Force feedback is the most essential thing and here Logitech and the G27 rule. With good force feedback you can actually feel the way the car is handling, enabling you to react much faster than if you had to rely on visual cues alone.

Need for speed

But do you need a proper six-speed gear shift to get the most out of your wheel? If you want the ultimate in race-driving realism then the answer is probably yes, but then you also need a racing seat and one of those frames you can build a PC and screen into to make you feel like you're in a proper simulator.

And if you want all that then it's going to cost you a couple of grand anyway, so you might as well get a £330 steering wheel…

This is definitely a wheel for the enthusiast; the casual racer isn't going to get enough out of this leather, plastic and metal monster to justify the outlay.

The problem here, though, is that the previous Logitech beastie, the G25, is available for about £160 if you shop around – half the price of this latest wheel.

So what do you miss out on with the older model? Strangely, all you seem to lose are six programmable buttons. That said, the G25 has a switch to change the gated gear shift to a simple sequential shift, which the G27 oddly lacks.

I'd hoped that the G27's finish would be better and the clamps more secure, but it's still disturbingly easy to wrench either the shift or the wheel from the desk on a tight turn, and the gear stick is as lightweight as ever.

The G25, then, is still a fantastic racing wheel and at £160 it's a bargain for such a serious simulator setup. By comparison, the G27 brings little to the table for its somewhat crazy price tag.

Sky Player on Xbox 360: Overview

All hail the Sky Player for Xbox. As well as being a video-on-demand system online, Sky Player has been streaming live channels for over a year to PC users, and Sky Player for Xbox tries to replicate that experience on a games console.

It's a nice idea – and it effortlessly makes the best possible use of the Xbox 360's luscious new interface to create a service that's lots of fun to use.

It's expensive to non-Sky subscribers though and certainly a niche product in the mass market, but for Sky converts it's essentially a VoD solution for the home (or a second home) that beats Sky Anytime hands-down.

The look and feel of the interface is stunning. 'Xboxy' is the only way to describe it; sweeping between the icons for live channels, VoD content and movie listings is familiar and effortless.

There's no way to personalise the service and it doesn't make recommendations about content it might think you like, but it's so easy to use and the on-screen menus are mostly lightning quick.

Sky Player on Xbox 360: Features

Most Xboxy of all the features is Party mode, which only works with live TV channels.

The screen shows your avatar watching a huge TV screen, which fills most of the space. Send invites to your friends and if they accept, their avatars appear next to yours, and interact using an E-mote; a small dial appears on the screen and you can play your avatar like a puppet, making him shout at the screen or clap ferociously.

Back to the serious stuff. Scroll to live TV and you'll find a thumbnail playing the last live channel you visited (with sound) alongside a stack of other channels and a TV guide, though it only gives listings for the next 48 hours and can't handle reminders.

In terms of content, Sky Player is an exact copy of the online version, but unless you already have access to (or stump up the cash for) the Entertainment or Sky Sports packages, it's not much to get excited about.

The 16 free live channels comprise GOLD, Sky Real Lives, Sky Arts 1, MTV, Sky Sports News, Eurosport UK, Sky News, Nat Geo, Nat Geo Wild, History, Eden, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel and Nick Jr.

Add an Entertainment Pack and you'll receive both the Sky Screen channels, which show the latest blockbusters on a loop – though that does seem decidedly old fashioned in the age of VoD.

Buy a Sky Sports Pack and you'll get Sky Sports 1, Sky Sports 2, Sky Sports 3, Sky Sports Xtra, ESPN and ESPN Classic.

The movie VoD section is excellent and surely the backbone of Sky Player's appeal. Stuffed with 421 movies (to be exact), you can browse via A-Z, genre, latest additions or most popular.

Choose one and you get a synopsis and information on the length, file size (for a future download service perhaps?) and, best of all, a list of related films, which makes navigation even easier.

Aside from movies, there are repeats from Sky Sports, and a mix or free and paid documentaries from Sky, Nat Geo and the History Channel (at £0.98 an episode).

Some material – and occasionally, the interface as a whole – can be slow to load. Once it's playing, you can call up a FF/RW/pause control and speed through content at 2x, 4x, 8x and 16x speeds.

Sky Player on Xbox 360: Verdict

We used the service on a 2Mpbs broadband line and the service struggled, buffering constantly, though upped to 6Mbps it worked without a hitch. If you do struggle, medium and low quality settings are available, but picture quality is very poor.

The advice is clear; don't think about getting Sky Player on Xbox unless you always have upwards of 2Mbps.

What you'll actually be able to watch on Sky Player depends on your regular Sky subscription.

If you already subscribe to the Sky Sports package via the satellite service, you can watch those same channels on your Xbox360 for free, wherever it's used – though Xbox LIVE Gold membership is a prerequisite.

If you're not a Sky subscriber and are looking at this as a way of getting live Premiership football into your life, you'll need an Xbox LIVE Gold membership (£39.99 per year), a £15 Entertainment Pack for the movies, and a £19 Sports Pack.

That works out at £468 a year, though there is a £29.99 introductory deal that gets you three months of Xbox LIVE Gold and Sky Sports for a month.

If Sky Player and Xbox want to rival the BBC's iPlayer as well as the PS3's VoD service, it's going to have to be super-slick, easy to use – and affordable.

In typical Sky fashion, Sky Player on Xbox fulfils those first two criteria with aplomb. Equally typical is its premium price for non-Sky subscribers, but if you're already signed-up to its satellite service, Sky Player for Xbox is an innovation that introduces VoD and multiroom in the smoothest way possible.

Update: check out our first impressions of the new Nintendo Wii U console here: Hands on: Nintendo Wii U review

From the cheesy ads and the mocking YouTube parodies, you could be forgiven for thinking that Nintendo's Wii Fit and Balance Board would be overly-worthy, not very entertaining, or just plain silly.

But, of course, it's made by Nintendo, a company which is fast becoming a master of turning mundane of tasks into fun activities (accompanied by vast amounts of profit).

The Wii Fit pack contains the software, the balance board and four AA batteries. Set-up is dead simple: load the Wii Fit disc, sync the board with your Wii (as you do with Wiimotes, switch the board on and you're good to go).

Body Mass Index

When you first use Wii Fit, it works out your body mass index (BMI) and then suggests what your ideal BMI should be based on your weight and height. This becomes your new target BMI, giving you something to aim for over the course of your Wii Fitting, with various graphs enabling you to follow your progress.

This portion can also be stored as a Wii channel so you can perform daily measurements without constantly having to load the Wii Fit disc.

Wii Fit's activities are split between Aerobic Exercise, Muscle Conditioning, Yoga Poses and Balance Games. The Balance Board is neatly integrated in that it monitors your stance during yoga, for example, and measures reps during exercises. You could perform most of the training without it, but it wouldn't be quite as engaging.

But naturally it's with the games that Wii Fit really shines. Mastering a ski slalom with your feet is way harder than it sounds, and provides a challenge the whole family can enjoy. It also levels the playing field: teen joypad junkies are just as likely to be rubbish as Mum or Dad who've never touched a videogame before. (And if the old man's a keen footballer, he'll probably have better balance and control than his rotund rug rats.)

Ski jump

The Balance Board is used ingeniously, too. Alongside the obvious balance-related games – steer the ball across the wobbly platform, walk a tightrope – there's a ski jump game. You have to crouch as the skier starts his descent, then stand up sharply at take-off. By maintaining your balance, you remain airborne for a greater distance. It's bizarre, you look an idiot doing it, but it's totally effective and maddeningly addictive.

Ultimately, how much you get out of Wii Fit depends on how much you're willing to put in. Some people get utterly addicted to Brain Training, for example, while others tire of the repetition after a week or so. And this is supposed to be exercise, remember.

Certainly a family playing Wii Fit together will have more fun competing for a lower BMI rating and higher game scores than the solus player simply going through each workout.

But the short answer is: it works, it's fun and after building up a real sweat jogging round a virtual park, there's no reason why it shouldn't help to make you fitter and slimmer – assuming you don't celebrate every session with a bar of Cadbury's finest.

Footnote:

In all honesty, the score is of little real relevance because you either already want Wii Fit – in which case you've pre-ordered – or you've no real interest. Which is fine, because on launch day there won't be any stock anyway.

Despite going up against GTA IV, Wii Fit is pretty much already sold out. At the time of writing, of 17 major retailers only four were still taking pre-orders; the rest were out of stock. And analysts expect stock to be in short supply through till 2009. The Nintendo Wii: license to print money.

This is, as far as we can discern, an enchanted black box that takes a single VGA cable from your graphics card or laptop, performs witchcraft upon it, and allows you to increase and divide the output to a frankly ridiculous 3,840x1,024 across three 1,280x1,024 monitors.

With the TripleHead2Go you can either utilise more desktop space than you've ever seen, or play a game in what can only be described as 'surround-ovision'. After using it, you should promptly bury it by the light of the moon before it turns into a cat.

The results are pretty impressive, and, heretical ravings aside, it's actually an extremely simple system. The TripleHead2Go does the job of a monitor's video controller, fooling Windows into thinking it is dealing with a single enormo-screen.

Even on a laptop with an average mobile GeForce 6800, the performance was surprisingly stable. Clearly shifting 3D across nearly four million pixels is not as strenuous as we'd been led to believe.

We tested the setup with a variety of titles, from our preview copy of hardcore driving sim GTR2 to office stalwart Quake IV, and most were entirely playable. The game that suffered most was Oblivion, but playing Bethesda's epic is a bit of a compromise on most systems anyway, and with a decent SLI rig everything barrels along nicely.

Peripheral vision

Also, some games are more suited to an increased field of view than others - GTR2 was hugely enhanced by the added peripheral awareness, whereas Quake IV left us feeling nauseous.

If you've completely lost your grip on reality, you can even use a laptop's existing panel as a fourth screen using XP's multiple monitor support, so you can play your super-widescreen game and have your MSN contacts and icons visible as well.

The only drawbacks are a lack of DVI and the financial one - few of us can afford two extra monitors, plus the cost of the unit itself.

With the included Surround Game Utility (which edits the config files of popular games so that they support the greater resolution) it's clearly aimed primarily at leisure rather than business use, but only the most ambitious flight sim fanatics will be able to justify the total outlay. Mike Channell

What, exactly, is immersion? And do we really want it? If you're playing Theme Park, for example, would the smell of cheap frankfurters and the feel of water splashed in your face create a more compelling experience, or does it misunderstand completely what gaming is about?

Philips hasn't quite gone as far as that, but with amBX it could. Essentially, this is a simple XML- like scripting language that can be used to add environmental effects into games. Compatible peripherals - so far only available from Philips, but it's a licensable platform - will then generate those effects around in the player's room.

In the premium kit you get everything currently available, barring a set of rear satellite lamps. So that's a 'wall washer' for painting light behind your monitor, a powerful 2.1 speaker system with LED arrays built into the top of the two small variable speed fans and a wrist rumbler strip for your keyboard.

The idea stems from Philips' involvement with LED lighting. This is the future - it's environmentally friendly and can produce 14 million colours from an RGB array. As a result, the lights are definitely the strongest aspect of this kit. They change colour to reflect on-screen action even in games which aren't programmed to support amBX, and the effect is far from unpleasant - although if you're staring too hard at the screen you may not even notice it.

Where they really come into their own is when they're used counter-intuitively to the principles of naturalistic immersion: when the lightings strobes to signal an alert in Defcon or when they count down from red to green in TOCA 3. It's moments like these that show off what fun devs can have with it.

They can also be programmed to flash when you have a new IM, for example, and if you're using Media Player switch to a discotheque mode. These things are all good uses of amBX which we can see a future for - although not at the current price.

It's impossible though to be enthusiastic about the more inventive peripherals. The tiny fans are so loud as to be distracting even before the blast of air hits your face, and the wrist rumbler doesn't really work since one hand is away with the mouse most of the time.

So don't rush out to buy this first wave of amBX kits, but don't write off the levels of creativity it's possible to achieve with it. Games don't really need anything to reinforce the fourth wall and fake 'real' experiences, but amBX peripherals that do something new and interesting - if used in the right way - could be quite cool. One day.

This was the first 'proper' HD DVD player to go on sale in the UK late last year, and Microsoft's £130 deck is still the entry point into hi-def movies for many gamers.

You will need to own an Xbox 360, but the combined cost of a 360 premium pack and this drive is a piffling £410. That's far cheaper than any Blu-ray player, including the PlayStation 3. This could be something of a steal.

The drive comes supplied with an Xbox 360 universal media remote and all necessary cabling to attach it to the Xbox 360. And it's a cinch to get it up and running. A disc goes into your Xbox 360, updating the firmware, and then you connect the drive to the console's rear USB port. If that port is already taken up with something else (most likely the official Xbox Wi-Fi adapter), the HD DVD drive itself has two extra USB ports that work as if they were on the Xbox 360.

There's no direct connection from the drive to your TV or projector: everything goes through the 360's component video or VGA cable (depending on which you use). Lacking HDMI support, its audio outputs are also limited to digital optical and analogue stereo.

Sounding out

Sadly, there's just Dolby Digital 5.1 and no way to get Dolby TrueHD or DTS HD lossless 7.1-channel surround working - something that is unlikely to impress home cinema buffs. There's no guarantee of these formats ever being supported, but an Xbox 360 Elite should arrive in the UK soon, complete with HDMI, 120GB of memory and gloss black styling.

The real buzz about HD DVD's picture quality proves justified using this drive. King Kong on HD DVD outputting at a resolution of 1080i on a large 1920 x 1080 screen looks spectacular, although no Full HD 1080p pictures are possible with this drive.

The fight between Kong and the trio of T-Rex's is spectacular, with every strand of the huge primate's fur crisp and visible and no sign of digital noise or macro blocking. If you skip to the sequence at the end of the film you also get some eye-poppingly detailed views of 1930's New York: a fine example of what HD DVD can do.

We also watched Batman Begins, Mission: Impossible III, Superman Returns, The Last Samurai and The Bourne Supremacy, and happily, the quality remains high, although not quite up to Kong's standards.

As well as impressing with pictures, the drive is also a breeze to use: it's the quickest next-gen disc player we've yet seen.

Unfortunately, the 360 makes about as much noise as a projector, which won't go unnoticed in a small room. If you already have an Xbox 360 and a 42in or bigger screen, it's a must-buy, but true home cinema aficionados won't appreciate the limited audio, fan noise and the weird look.

If you already thought Samsung and Panasonic's Blu-ray decks were expensive, that opinion can only be reinforced by the arrival of an HD DVD player costing just £130.

Of course, this stunningly low figure comes with a catch, as the product in question, Microsoft's HD DVD drive, is actually an Xbox 360 games console accessory rather than a stand-alone product. So if you don't already have a Xbox 360, you're looking at a full cost of around £410. This is no longer cheaper than Toshiba's entry level HD DVD player, which sells for between £250 and £350.

The Xbox HD DVD drive doesn't start well, though, by being stingy with its connections. All you get is USB connection to the Xbox 360 console, and two USB expansion ports. The lack of audio line outputs coupled with the Xbox's current lack of an HDMI output cable option means you can't enjoy the next-gen Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD sound formats.

The lack of HDMI cabling options also means the HD DVD drive can't deliver purely digital video signals to a TV, since the digital source material has to be converted to analogue for output via component or VGA cables.

Upwardly mobile

On the upside, the HD DVD drive can output pictures in 1080p as well as 720p and 1080i, is very easy to set up, and proves simple to use on a day to day basis.

It also, amazingly, produces absolutely excellent HD pictures from the King Kong HD DVD disc bundled with the drive. For instance, despite the digital to analogue video conversion and the fact that the pictures have to run through the Xbox 360's engine, every hair on Kong's body, every leaf in the jungle and every window in New York is rendered with total high definition accuracy - and without attendant noise.

The colour palette is richer than you see from the DVD of the same movie, especially when it comes to delicate skin tones. Furthermore, Kong rumbles through the jungle with complete fluidity of motion, and the overall purity of the presentation makes for a truly cinematic experience. If the Xbox 360's processing is causing any problems, we can't see them.

Dynamic duo

On the downside, colours are perhaps not quite as vigorous as those experienced with the Panasonic Blu-ray player, and the drive's sound is merely average, lacking some of the dynamism of the dedicated Blu-ray players. The 360's cooling fans can also occasionally sound distractingly loud, too.

Still, while the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive might not be the very last word in next generation performance terms, it's still ample good enough to do HD DVD technology proud. And in doing this for just £130, it's simply one of the biggest AV bargains of all time for anyone who already owns an Xbox 360.