Pure bliss

Enter the Forum competition on eu.playstation.com and win a unique piece of Pure artwork as well as a copy of the game on PS3.

Pure is the thrilling title from Disney Interactive that introduces gravity-defying leaps and intense multiplayer action to the world of quad bike racing.

Set across 36 tracks in a number of stunning real world locations, take the helm of your fully customisable quad bike and race off against opponents on and offline.

Now, here’s your chance to win a stunning piece of artwork from the game’s developer at Black Rock Studio, as well as a copy of the game for PLAYSTATION 3.

To enter this competition, visit the Forums at eu.playstation.com and answer the following question in less than 200 words.

If you could take your Pure quad bike anywhere for the ultimate heart-pounding off-road race, where would you go and why?

All answers must be posted in the relevant Forum thread by 23:59 BST on October 10, 2008, where you will also find the full terms and conditions for this competition.

Up in the Club

Rockstar Games is looking to overtake the competition with the most recent entry to its racing game series. Midnight Club is back and gearing up for a LA showdown.

Hear that? That is the sound of Rockstar Games revving its engines and stepping inside one of the most popular Clubs in videogames. Unlike most clubs, this one has wheels, an engine and a whole lot of torque to go with the flash and music. Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines - and welcome to Midnight Club: Los Angeles.

Driving ambitions

The street racing series has gained a lot of fans over its eight-year circuit of the games scene, increasing its need for speed, intensity and fast cars with each iteration, while also plumping for glamorous locations. The setting this time (in case you didn't notice from the game's title) is the high life and lights of America's Los Angeles - a place previously visited by Midnight Club... and this time there's more. So much more.

Great pains have been made to map the City of Angels, allowing for one of the most accurate recreations of LA's mean streets, with some slight deviations to allow for more fluid and entertaining races. Add that to a day-to-night cycle, weather effects, traffic levels that vary depending on the time of day you race at and the ability to free-roam around the city itself, and you've already got the ingredients for an environmentally rich racing title.

Midnight Club would be nothing without its cars, however, and there's a feast of automobiles to drive your vehicular desires...

"Nice car..." [cue sensual music]

There are over 40 different vehicles - both cars and bikes - to race in Midnight Club: LA, with the likes of the Chevrolet Camaro Concept, Mazda RX-8 Shinka , Dodge Charger SRT-8, 1969 Chevrolet Camaro RS SS, Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder, Audi R8, 1979 Pontiac Firebird, Ford Mustang Boss 302, Lamborghini Miura, Mitsubishi 3000GT and Lamborghini Murcielago as a mere selection of what you'll be able to use across the classes of Tuner, Luxury, Exotic and Muscle.

Each of these beasts can have their performance and appearance customised in nearly every way, giving it a nice personal touch if you want it - although keep in mind that damage can be inflicted on your pride and joy if you're a tad too rough in your driving, which is more than possible when you consider the game's police presence. The dreaded fuzz will give chase if you come across them, resulting in a fine if you're unlucky enough to be pulled over.

A variety of modes are available, with a single player storyline letting you assume the role of a driver trying to gain a rep on the streets through a number of events that can range from one-off drives to specific missions where money and respect are the rewards as well as other racers' cars if you end up in a high stakes wager. There is also the option to compete online by creating customised races or taking part in any of the pre-set styles, such as checkpoint, circuit and landmark races or a range of capture the flag variants, which feature team and solo play.

"At Midnight, All the Agents..."

So far, Midnight Club: Los Angeles plays how it looks - beautifully. The glistening visuals of its bright and impressively drawn cityscape match the fast paced gameplay which manages to capture a great sense of speed and excitement that the series is known for. Throw in some special moves which allow you to use powers such as the ability to slow down time or even shut down rivals with an electromagnetic pulse and you have a racer to watch.

Midnight is coming, and faster than it's ever been before - better sound the horn...

Mega Man 9 video walk-through

Having trouble with the retro throwback title Mega Man 9? The blue-bomber's latest outing has more than a few gamers frustrated with its old-school difficulty. Fortunately, GamesRadar has you covered. They've created a video walk-through of each stage, beginning with Splash Woman all the way through to the bitter end with Dr. Wily. Some gamers consider the order you fight the Robot Masters to be spoilers, so we took the liberty of blocking out the order in the above picture. The videos, which are after the jump, ask you for your age before you are allowed to view them, but there is no inappropriate content in them.

LittleBigPlanet beta codes available on Joystiq

The opportunities to get your hands on those ever-elusive LittleBigPlanetbeta codes keep on coming. Joystiq is running a week-long giveaway, with ten to give away each day. Simply comment on today's post (read the post fully for specific rules) over at Joystiq and check back every day for a new one. It's not time restricted, simply post at some point during the day and you're in for a chance of being picked at random as a winner. Keep an eye on the Joystiq twitter feed too, as they seem to be using that to hand out the goodies, too. Good luck!

PS3 Fanboy hands-on: Eternal Sonata

Eternal Sonata will be out in North America in a little over three weeks from now. Those of you who've held out getting the original title on the 360 are probably looking forward to that Oct. 21 date, but how does playing the game right now on your PS3 sound? Sounds good, doesn't it? Well you can download a newly released demo off the Japanese PS Store if you wish and see how things look on the PS3. While you wait for your 600MB download to finish, why not have a short read of our demo impressions to help get you through it?

Anyway, if you've been interested in this title, you might have played it on a friend's 360 or perhaps tried out the XBL demo previously. If you've played it before, you'll notice right away that the game on PS3 looks exactly the same as the original. In other words, it still looks incredibly beautiful with its rich colors and crisp, sharp graphics. Also, if you've already tried out the 360 demo, you'll notice that this new Japanese one is practically a carbon copy -- it follows Allegretto, Polka and Beat on a trip through Tenuto Village and the Heaven's Mirror Forest. So if you've tried it out before, then there's nothing new here for you -- unless you want to make comparisons between versions. For those who've never played Eternal Sonata, you should definitely make some time to try this demo out and continue reading after the break.

Gallery: Eternal Sonata

Now if you've clicked on through the break and are still reading this, chances are you're still wondering on how to get through the demo. Well don't worry; we'll guide you through the experience. All right, when you start up a "new game" you'll be brought directly to a field area. You'll have to start walking around, and since all the text is in Japanese, don't bother talking to anyone you come across. Note that monsters will be visible on the field map, so you can dodge them whenever you're not in the mood to fight.

Speaking of fights, this is where the game really shines -- its battle system. So, perhaps you won't want to dodge too many fights. Moving on, it's a mixture of real-time and turn-based battling that plays out in a little battle arena of sorts. When your character's turn appears they will be given a set amount of time -- represented by a timer on the lefthand side of the screen -- to execute their actions. Actions are assigned to specific face buttons: circle is to attack, triangle is a special attack, square is for items, and 'x' is for blocking. You can make combos by spamming circle and finish off nicely with a special attack. Blocking happens when it's the enemy's turn, and right before they strike you'll see the word "chance" blink; this signifies that you must tap 'x' to block properly and take less damage. Enemies can block too ... so, while attacking, you might want to position yourself at the backside of an enemy to avoid incurring damage penalties.

As for items, you obviously press square to use one up. However, if you're looking for a specific item you'll need to use R1 and L1 to cycle through your in-battle inventory. Now, keep this in mind: your general inventory and the items you can use in battle are kept separate, so you need to open up the menu while on the field to restock your in-battle inventory in case you use up all your healing potions. To open up the menu, just tap triangle while on the field. Your general inventory is the leftmost icon, while the in-battle inventory is the second from the left. Talking again about the field, you'll find question mark bubbles appear overhead as you search around. This means that there is something to interact with at that location -- it could be a hidden item or a clue to something.

That's pretty much all you'll need to know to keep yourself alive. If you're good enough, you might make it all the way through the Heaven's Mirror Forest and face off with the boss there (we won't say who). Presentation-wise, the game is true to the original -- still looks fantastic and there are no hiccups whatsoever. Hopefully, the full game will hold up the standard and we'll have another solid RPG to look forward to playing this fall season.

Canada gets Nariko LBP pre-order from Future Shop

People who pre-order LittleBigPlanet in the United States already know where to go, but the Canadians up north ... they're still wondering what's to become of the second half of their early-payment campaign. While it's been know for some time now that Canucks could get the adorable Kratos Sackboy from EB Games, it's only now that we find out that Nariko Sackgirl will be available via Future Shop.

That's all according to the Future Shop website as pointed out by one of our Canadian readers. Now all that's left is for Media Molecule to confirm this and it's solid as gold.

[Thanks Andrew!]

Could you create a trailer for Resistance 2?

To be in with a chance to win £1000

PlayStation have teamed up with Current, the world's first truly interactive TV channel to to unleash the creative talent amongst the nation's gaming and creative communities via its pioneering VCAM initiative, where you get the chance to make ads for TV.

Current is a channel unlike any other. Its programming is made up of short films from around the UK and the rest of the world, across a wide range of topics...

From art to abseiling; grime to global warming; politics to pop culture; cheese rolling to chivalry, gaming to game fishing; it’s designed to offer a snapshot of the times we live in.

Viewers have a unique stake in the direction of the channel and website, and are able to submit news stories which matter to them, create films for broadcast, as well as getting involved in creating channel promos and ads.

For full details on the brief, more details on VCAM and how you could win a grand if your ad is picked to air on TV, go to www.current.com/resistance2