Happy New Year

Happy new year guys, hopefully in 2009 Game Lick will improve, with competitions, more frequent reviews and more fans :D
Please bookmark this site, and use Game Lick store to buy all your new year goods!
cheers, Game Lick

Register for a Newsletter

Now, Game Lick has its own newsletter page, where you can sign up for a newsletter. Just enter your name and email in the column to the right of this post. I may be busy, but will send you a confirmation email on the day you sign up. I will try to get special offers, news, and a round up of the weeks news into one easy email for everyone who signs up.

Game Lick Store

Go to Game Lick Shop today guys!
Well, everyday to be honest. For every purchase on the Amazon-run Game Lick Store, a percentage of sales goes towards Game Lick. You could also find some very unique, special offers inside too, meaning a win-win for us all. So instead of just going to amazon.co.uk, buy your goods here, at the Game Lick Store. All purchases are greatly appreciated.

Website of the Week

Well, over the past weeks, i have been using a very popular and very useful website that i would like you all to bookmark. It is called giveaway of the day. Their site hosts files and applications each and nearly every day, available for a free, full download, which are on time limited offers to its visitors. Anyone, even people who are not members of anything, can download useful applications. The variety of software posted for all to use is of great use to anyone, a must for just about anyone really, and best of all, its free. Click here to go to Giveaway of the Day.

Xbox Reviews

Well since i got an xbox 360 for xmas, with a load of games, xbox 360 game reviews will be coming soon, watch this space.

Mobile Game Review - Guinness World Records

Guinness World Records is a record breaking game of which that includes high score boards and many mini games for you to beat, such as melon breaker, where you break melons with your head, and sheep shearer, where you have to shear as many sheep as possible in a minute. There is even a mini game that is a real world record if you beat it (text as fast as you can).
Guinness World Records is well presented, with clear, easy to use menus and controls to allow any old folk lay the game version of the well known book. Instructions are presented after you choose the event to compete for, with the fact of the actual record below. With every event, you can qualify for different records when you achieve certain amounts, think of it as gold, silver, bronze and steel..except its not its.....world record, national record, regional record and household record.
Controls are very easy and intuitive to use, and with the use of easy controlling, can allow new players to get their own household record.
This is a quality game, that has obviously had a lot of effort put into, but is not the best game for a hardcore gamer that wants to feel as though they have achieved something. Guinness World Records is a great game for the casual mobile gamer, possible those of you who are Nintendo owners.
Guinness World Records gets a good, 7/10.

Apology over no posts

Sorry people, ive had christmas and boxing day to get over my gadgety excitement with. Gamelick will be up and running again once i have played on my new xbox 360 and all of the games i got :D.
Hope you got what you wanted and you can comment on what you got below, even if you are not a member of blogger.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Merry Christmas Game Lick fans!
Hope you all get what you wanted.
For those of you who are desperate to keep a track on santa(so you can get to bed before he arrives, or if you want to shoot him down), log onto google and download the application. The application for Google Earth can be found here.

Zavvi Down The Pan

Zavvi, a relatively new high street technology shop has gone down with woolworths and the like due to the credit crunch.
Zavvi had been badly affected when Woolworths went into administration due to Zavvi having Woolworths Unit Entertainment UK being a main suplier. Which when Woolworths went into administration also forced zavvi to stop taking new orders via its website.
Zavvi, going into administration, means a sad day for us all. It was only the previous week when Game Lick found out that they were selling an Xbox for under £100.
So down goes another high street shop, whos next?

Xmas Gaming Charts

So which game has claimed the top spot for the all platform game for xmas 2008 top spot?

Well, the main contenders for the title were:
Call of Duty:World at War - Bookies favorite, been at top spot for five weeks!
Fifa 09 - A very popular football game that has been highly rated by every review about how it is better than PES.
Mario Kart Wii - Could be the best Nintendo Wii game on the market? Impressive game play for hardcore gamers and those at Christmas time.

The Winner is...
Fifa 09 - Against the odds, Fifa 09 has moved up from 3rd spot in the charts up to 1st, beating off Mario Kart and knocking off Call of Duty from its reign.

The top ten in full:

1. (3) FIFA 09 (Electronic Arts)
2. (1) Call Of Duty: World At War (Activision Blizzard)
3. (2) Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo)
4. (4) Need For Speed: Undercover (Electronic Arts)
5. (5) Dr Kawashima's Brain Training (Nintendo)
6. (7) Wii Play (Nintendo)
7. (13) Quantum Of Solace (Activision Blizzard)
8. (-) Professor Layton And The Curious Village (Nintendo)
9. (10) Tomb Raider: Underworld (Eidos)
10. (8) Wii Fit (Nintendo)

Leisure software charts compiled by Chart Track, (C) 2008 ELSPA Ltd.

Website of the Week

Well, today, the people at Stuff Forums have helped this website to gain more hits, be more attractive and much better in general for you lot.
A big shout-out is for Chapmanmania and Oooodz who have both contributed generously. Chapmanmania has his own blog,Tech Me, which deserves a plug and is a recommended link from Game Lick.
So the website of the week is Stuff. It is a great website that gives you reviews and updates in gadgetry. It is the official website of the Stuff Magazine, which can be bought monthly in all good retailers for £4.00.

Mobile Game Review - Bejeweled

Yes, now each Sunday, there will be reviews of mobile phone games.
So stay tuned so you know which games are hot, and what are not.

The first mobile game reviewed on Game Lick is Bejeweled, which i am playing on a Nokia N96.

Firstly, i must say, that the graphics and sounds of the game are amazing. Such a simple game should really hit with a great style, which Bejeweled does magnificently.
For those of you who are not familiar with the franchise, Bejeweled is a game where you have to move different coloured shapes and symbols on a board so that you get a line of 3+. The longer the line, or the longer the automatic combination of lining these up, the more points you get as they dissappear from the board. There are two mode types to the game,the first is normal mode, where you have to just keep on going until you run out of go's. A progress bar is shown at the bottom to indicate when you are going to reach the next level of the game, when a new board is set up for you to try out and defeat. This mode can keep you going for hours, making the game really fun and have a purpose to get onto the high score board. However, as you progress to higher in the levels of the game, this can seem a bit of a long time wasted on such a game.
The other mode in Bejeweled is Time Trial. This is when there is a tme limit on the user to progress onto the following level of the game. Your progress bar is half full when you start the game and it steps back bit by bit each second, makting you have to comlete the board as quickly as possible. This can be a really fun, wuick game of the PopCap owned game. However, the annoying thing is that the board seems to get really hard as you have less and less moves to go, until you have ran out of moves. There is no major difference between normal mode of Bejeweled and Time Trial, so PopCap could improve this factor.
Despite the annoying habit of wanting to progress in the game, the clever use of technology can allow you to exit the game and save, meaning you can return at a later date to resume from where you left off. There is no major bad points about Bejeweled, it is a suprisingly simple game, which can take anyone ages to complete.

I rate this game 9/10. A must for any phone, this game will defo drain your battery to the last drop.

Coming Soon

Each saturday, games that arecoming soon will be posted.

1. Lord of the Rings:Conquest; PS3; 16/01/2009
2. Wheelman; Xbox 360; 27/02/2009
3. Killzone 2; PS3; 27/02/2009
4. Empire: Total War; PC; 06/02/2009
5. Lord of the Rings:Conquest; PC; 16/01/2009

Timesplitters & Haze Developer Shuts Down

Free Radical Design, the guys who developed Timesplitters (PS2) and Haze (PS3) have been effected by the credit crunch, seems like no one can hide.
The workers of Free Radical Design turned up to work today, based in Nottingham, expecting a normal day, but found the building shut and a notice saying to meet in a nearby hotel, according to Eurogamer.
They were working on Star Wars Battlefont 3, but now has been shunted over to another rival designer company, Rebellion.

Review - World Tour Soccer

So here it is, World Tour Soccer, the first official review on GameLick.

Ive been playing World Tour Soccer for a while now, on the original fat PSP. Getting the game in a bundle with the PSP, i wasnt expecting much from this football game. World Tour Soccer is cheap in basically every high-street shop, nevermind the internet shops that usually have every game at a bargain price. This is not due to the game being so bad, but its because its such an old game that most people have it by now.
Anyway, back to the game;
World Tour Soccer is a challenge game, that is about trying to break challenges and win cups to unlock new teams and unlocks, including unlocks to progress further in the game. Besides the challenge mode in the game, where you have to get a certain amount of points by full time to get cups, there is a 'Cups' mode. You have to compete against other teams progressing from group stages upto the final. There are 7 cups to compete for, and depending on the difficulty you choose, the different colour cup you get at the end.
The game is really simple to use, with the traditional football controls of 'square to shoot and circle to tackle', and also has a great user interface consisting of simple to use menus and a good combination of music you may not have heard of to get you in the mood for the big game ahead.
Despite all of these, there are some major drawbacks with World Tour Soccer. Firstly, there simply are'nt enough game modes for hardcore gamers to enjoy. Only the cup mode and challenge mode are provided. It would have been better if the developers had inserted more modes than just two (never mind the exhibition mode). The load times can seem a bit slow after a while, upto 30 seconds at times and you may have to restart your PSP a couple of times when playing the game due to it freezing your console. Another bad point of this game is that there is no infrastructure mode for people to play around with, battling people online and creating an online community. If the PSP wants to try and get better reviews from its critics, this is where it will need to show off its online capabilities - in its games. The only multiplayer available for World Tour Soccer is Ad-Hoc (local). This means someone else will have to own the game and have it in their console and then you can play against each other.
However,here are 200 licensed teams and four difficulties to complete the game on which can be used to show off to others how you are doing in the sports game and to have great replay value. This game is definately not for the hardcore gamer, who loves Gears of War. But instead, someone who has just bought a PSP or someone who just loves football.
This is a good game, especially with it being at such a low price these days! However, if paying the full price (£19.99 upwards), this is a bit of a rip off. The main disadvantages of the game - no online and only 3 modes are a real put off for me, so World Tour Soccer gets a good,
6/10.

Reviews of PSP games coming tomorrow

Yes people, the reviews of games are just starting, and each and every Thursday from now on, will be dedicated toward having a PSP game review.
Please boomark this page!

Metal Gear Solid, iPhone Style.

Metal gear solid, boy, whatta game. On any sony console, metal gear has popped up with some great hits. PS1 - Metal Gear Solid. PS2 - Metal Gear Solid 3. PS3 - Metal Gear Solid 5. PSP - Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops.
But, Konami have recently announced that they will be releasing a range of games for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Metal Gear is to be released onto the iPhone and iPod Touch. The metal gear game is to include 8 stages, which are controlled by the user with the touch screen interface. This goes against Konamis loyalty to sticking to Sonys products, especially as they have said countless times that they are not even thinking ever going to move onto the xbox. However, the brand are moving onto the revolutionary phone.
Other games to be included in Konamis package for Apples products are:
Frogger,
Silent Hill,
and Dance Dance Revolution.

This is starting to look very positive for the iPhone 3G at the moment and Apple in general, with more and more big name companies falling for the delight and uniqueness of their products.

Apple iPhone 3G about to go across the board

Apple iPhone 3G has long been on contract and Pay As You Go (PAYG) uniquely to the o2 network. However, iPhone Dev Team has just announced that they are about to let the iPhone 3G free.
The iPhone 3G is to be released from the held of o2, allowing users not having to jailbreak their smartphone anymore. The update/hack of the iPhone 3G is to be released to its owners in the UK on the 31.12.08, New years eve to be exact. However, there are some drawbacks. The iPhone must be updated to 2.11.07, so those of you who have updated, your going to have to wait. This seems promising to the iPhone 3G customers, as they are potentially ruining their warranty when jailbreaking their phones, which could in effect, mean high amounts of lost money and a broken phone to say the least.

Reviews

Reviews will be coming soon people,
when this site is up and running, GameLink will provide you with the quality, must buy games, and games that you really should steer clear of.
Please become a fan of this blog to come back and know what games are worth it, and those that arent.

PSP2 on the way?

Well, Sony have kept their mouths shut about even hinting upon a release of an update of the PSP 3000. However, inside sources say that sony are well into developing a new PSP, to be named the PSP2. No details of the new psp2 have been released or leaked out yet, but it is known that the PSP2 is due to be out in 2009. Could this be the PSP phone?!
So is this just another rumour that will soon die out? or is PSP2 a reality?
Is the psp worth yet another update?

Warning to all Internet Explorer users!

Warning! Warning!
For those of you using the default web browser in windows OS, please change to a rival quickly!
Seriously.
Microsoft has admitted today that they have a major security flaw in the most popular web browser in the world.
The one which i recommend is Mozilla Firefox, which is in my eyes, better than Internet Explorer, with its wide range of add-ons and customizations.
You can download it here>> http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/firefox/
The download is free, reliable and much faster than Internet Explorer. Mozilla is an open-source program that does not benefit from profits, and on their website has a comparison of both internet explorer and firefox. It proves to its visitors that the browser is much better.
Safari is another alternative, which is the default browser for MAC users. Which can be found at http://www.apple.com/safari/
I personally, do not find this browser better than any of the other two main competitors in the market.
Opera is the final major alternative, but i have never tried this due to the awesomeness of firefox, the browser can be found at www.opera.com
For those of you that have problems with mobile browsing speeds, i recommened to you to download the opera mobile browser. It speeds up the internet for your mobile, and is much faster than traditional browsers on mobiles, even smartphones. Which can be found at http://www.opera.com/mini/

Virgin Shows off Next-Gen Broadband

Virgin Media has been advertising alot these days, about how it is better than competitors, such as Sky and the like. However, today in a speech today, Virgin Media have now launched the fastest, and the most high tech Internet speeds today. The speed of 50mbps mean that full albums can be downloaded within seconds, and films within minutes!

A Virgin Media representative, Neil Berkett, congratulated the 50Mbps service, which will start from £35 per month, as "a revolution". Now, with Virgin Media leading the way for other competitors to follow in the Internet bandwidths, is the Internet about to get revolutionised? So far, the closest competitor to Virgin Media is Be Broadband, who offers 24mbps for £17.50 a month.




In other news..
Parents out there whose annoying, expensive, children want to get an Xbox 360 for Christmas, don't fumble away and cry yourself to sleep that you cannot afford one. Instead, cry to sleep because shops are sold out, well Zavvi anyway.
Zavvi, a technology shop, are now retailing its Xbox 360 Arcade for just under £100!Pop down to your local Zavvi shop today, or visit for more details.

Welcome

GameLick is a new, upcoming blog of where you will find daily updates on all gadget news. GameLick is hosted from the UK, but should still be of interest from geeks internationally.
Please bookmark this page for future reference