Avatars, photo sharing and hopefully fewer service outages await 360 owners with "New Xbox Experience", which carries with it the ugly acronym of "NXE".

At least according to Sony. And they'd very much like to market to the other four houses.

The best of this year's joypad twiddlers, revealed.

Can price cuts make the difference for Microsoft's console? Does Blu-Ray still count? See how the console prices stack up.

Microsoft's bold claim with Halo Wars is that it'll finally cure the curse of the console RTS - namely that it won't have controls that suck compared to a PC's keyboard and mouse combo.

But how does it stack up? We look at the big N's latest gaming release in context. The verdict? Not as expensive as Sony's priciest.

Large demos no longer a quota problem. While online gaming will eat up a small portion of your quota, it's in the field of game demos and add-on packs that this could offer significant value

Epic plot and an intruiging mix of RPG and FPS make Mass Effect worth a look, though we can't help but see some similarity with Knights of the Old Republic.

The scope of events in Beijing 2008 is somewhat admirable, given that many previous Olympic titles have tended to concentrate on running and swimming events