If this DVD release proves one thing it’s that you need not look far to find a few favourable quotes. I happen to find the following favourable quotes for True Blood to be somewhat misleading and I will take this opportunity to address each of them.

 ‘Stylish, scary and darkly comedic. A modern classic.’
The Guardian

‘Story lines that would make Sarah Michelle Geller blush’
The Times

‘HBO’s biggest hit since the much-missed Sopranos’
The Telegraph

‘Addictively pulpy Vampire raunch’
Time Out 

I suppose “stylish” is accurate as obviously low-lighting + vampires = stylish but True Blood isn’t “scary”, nor is it “darkly comedic” whatever that means, and “modern classic” is a term thrown around too often without much thought. I can’t tell if the story lines would cause Sarah Michelle Gellar to blush. She could be the kinkiest girl on earth for all I know. What I can tell you is that I’ll also be comparing this show to Buffy but in a less than favourable way. This may very well be HBO’s most watched show since Sopranos but as far as quality is concerned it doesn’t even come close to that show. I will concede that True Blood must have something about it as I watched the entire season in two consecutive nights but I wouldn’t describe it as addictive as I won’t be in a rush to give those episodes a second viewing. I like to think of “pulp” as a word for a piece of work which pushes some boundaries and will be copied by others. This offers nothing inventive and I dread the day a critic describes something as being “a True Blood clone” since the earlier works which heavily influenced this show are vastly superior.

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I remember the original MechWarrior game from way back in the day. There’s just something satisfying about building a huge-ass robot covered in weapons and stomping around until you find other huge-ass robots, and then blasting the crap out of them.

I lost my way somewhere along the way, and although I was aware that they’ve been churning out MechWarrior games all this time, I’m ashamed to admit that I didn’t make the effort to keep up with them. But now I can repent my sins and redeem myself – because MechWarrior 4 and all its add-on content will soon be available for FREE from MekTek!

We’ll keep you posted, robo-combat fans!

‘Splosion Man received a title update this morning that finally added the avatar awards that were announced a while back, making it the first game to include the feature.

You will unlock the first award when you smash your first pane of glass in the game, nice and easy, the other one however will require you to complete the entire co-op campaign…  A little bit more taxing.  If you have already achieved either of these tasks then the new items of clothing will unlock as soon as the update is downloaded.

The update also fixes the lag reported by some players in the games online multiplayer mode in certain network setups.

See a full gallery of the rewards after the break.

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There is a distinctly Halloweeny theme to this weeks Rock Band DLC, starting with a 3 song pack from former White Zombie frontman turned film director Rob Zombie.  Included in the pack are “Dragula” and “Superbeast” from his debut solo effort, the classic Hellbilly Deluxe, alongside “Burn” from his forthcoming album, unimaginatively titled Hellbilly Deluxe 2.  Also coming this week are 5 tracks from Aussie rockers Wolfmother, including GH2 favorite “Woman”, “White Unicorn” and 3 songs from the bands brand new album Cosmic Egg.

Away from the Halloween theme, this week will also see Liz Phair and Morningwood making their Rock Band debut, whoever they may be…  As a small consolation the 2 Morningwood tracks will be available at the budget price of 80/£0.60 each, whereas the Wolmother pack will cost 680/£5.25 and the Rob Zombie pack the usual 440/£2.49.  Of course all of the tracks will be available individually for 160/£0.99 each when they are released on Tuesday via Xbox Live and Thursday via PSN.

Full tracklisting with video links (where possible) after the break.

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This massive (6ft!) Mario statue was crafted by dutch site Game Mania, and is currently up for auction to support a children’s chairty in the Netherlands. Current asking price is €2550 (although I’m not sure that includes delivery), which is a bargain considering that it took 175 hours and over 40,000 bricks to build. It’s even been glued and reinforced internally for strength!

Unfortunately Luigi isn’t included (has he actually been Photoshopped in!?) but the statue is cool enough without it.

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Ah, FarmVille. Some see it as a glorious waste of time, some as an amusing little game. The makers see it as a huge source of income – when you’re selling in-game items to millions of players for tiny amounts, it all adds up.

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Here’s a little video that allegedly shows footage of a beta of the Xbox 360’s new Sky TV service which is due to launch on October 27th. I say allegedly, but it seems pretty comprehensive, so I’m going to assume that this is the real deal.

If you think the interface looks bad at first, just hang in there until the second half of the video where a much better option is demonstrated.

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Zippo have introduced this limited edition SEGA Megadrive (known as the Genesis in the US) and Saturn lighter combo in Japan, and they can be yours for a rather expensive ¥10,500 (£70 / $115) apiece. As a bonus, the Saturn version features a teeny tiny version of the console’s legendary controller.

Buy yours here from November 6th for delivery in December. Rumour has it that more classic consoles will be getting the lighter treatment too!

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How about this pixellated Mario rug? Not only does it score mighty high on the awesome scale for being a whopping 7ft x 7ft hand-crafted beauty, but it’s also good to see that our hero’s also kitted out with the legendary flight-enabling tanuki suit. Of course, we also know that the tanuki is legendary in Japanese folklore for having a big-ass pair of balls.

The rug took 15 days to make, and was created by Craftster user enemyairship. Good stuff!

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Hot off the press, here are some lovely shiny new Perfect Dark screenshots which landed in my inbox earlier today. They showcase the N64 conversion’s graphics overhaul, and a new look “Elvis” (no, not that one). The re-release is going to have online play over Xbox Live and improved visuals, but Rare are keeping Mum on whether any other new features will be added. A release date would be acceptable too… Throw us a bone here!

Looking good!