In the same absurd way Sony felt as though the general public would be happy shelling out north of £450 on a console at the launch of the PS3, the company now has a ‘feeling’ that it will have more motion controlled games than Microsoft’s Xbox 360 when both consoles go head-to-head in the Wii’s arena later this year.

SCEA’s Senior VP of Publisher Relations, Rob Dyer told IndustryGamers today that “My feeling is that we’re going to have a lot more games, a lot more innovation.” So what does Dyer base these predictions on?

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So as a cost-cutting measure after the Christmas bank balance fallout, I decided my resolution would be to reduce the number of games I was buying on a monthly basis and rely more on game rental services for the non-urgent titles I wanted to play.

I chose LoveFilm as my rental service of choice, using its one disc at a time deal at £10.99 per month, mainly because I spied a free month’s trial voucher code lurking around Google at the time.

It appears that most online rental services cover all consoles (both standard and portable) however lack support for PC. I find this a little frustrating as it’s just as easy to copy games for a modded PS3 or XBOX 360, but oh well.

So back to LoveFilm. The service centres around a rental wish-list, to which you add games that take your fancy as you stroll around the site, LoveFilm then selects and ships titles on your wishlist as they come available. Renters can have a maximum of three discs at home at any one time (if they are on a premium subscription) and are able to hold onto the game for as long as they like, just as long as it returns in working order.

To use the service to its full potential, LoveFilm advises subscribers to queue up ten or more titles on their lists to ensure a quick turnaround when returning a game – I have now done this three or so times now and I’ve had a new game within 48 hours each time. The service also allows you to prioritise your rental list between high, medium and low to make sure you’re more likely to get the titles you want to play most, sooner.

The games catalogue LoveFilm hosts is decent; you are likely to be able to get any popular game over the past couple of years – so far, I have not yet run a search that hasn’t returned exactly what I was looking for. I was kinda surprised to see less well known games such as The Last Remnant on there to be honest, as I was always under the assumption that games were simply a tack-on to LoveFilm’s film rental service.

I don’t think I’ll stop buying games any time soon, but the rental service does give you the chance to play around with games you otherwise wouldn’t try; be it for poor reviews or simply a genre you are not used to. Big AAA games such as Mass Effect, Final Fantasy and Metal Gear will still be showing up on my VISA statements for many more years, but I’m seriously considering retaining LoveFilm for those smaller-splash games that I would normally never get around to buying.

If you can get a free trial through one of the many voucher sites, I would thoroughly recommend giving a rental service a go.

Most of the cheats below can be entered or obtained at the Cantina Bar the game starts out in – just punch in the codes or satisfy the prerequisites listed below to activate them.

Characters/Vehicles

• Admiral Ackbar – ACK646
• Battle Droid Commander – KPF958
• Boba Fett – LA811Y
• Boss Nass – HHY697
• Captain Tarpals – QRN714
• Count Dooku – DDD748
• Darth Maul – H35TUX
• Darth Sidious – A32CAM
• Ewok – EWK785
• General Grievous – PMN576
• Greedo – ZZR636
• IG-88 – GIJ989
• Imperial Guard – GUA850
• Imperial Shuttle – HUT845
• Indiana Jones – Go to the Bonus Room in-game and watch the new trailer for the upcoming Indiana Jones game
• Jango Fett – KLJ897
• Ki Adi Mundi – MUN486
• Luminara – LUM521
• Naboo Starfighter – Complete Anakin’s Flight (see below)
• Padme – VBJ322
• R2-Q5 – EVILR2
• Sandtrooper – CBR954
• Slave I – Collect every MiniKit piece
• Stormtrooper – NBN431
• Super Battle Droid – XZNR21
• Taun We – PRX482
• TIE Fighter – DBH897
• TIE Interceptor – INT729
• Tri Fighter – AAB123
• Vulture Droid – BDC866
• Watto – PLL967
• Zam Wesell – 584HJF
• Zam’s Speeder – UUU875

Missions/Levels

• Bounty Hunter Missions - Buy all “Bounty Hunters” or “Bomb Throwers” in the shop to grab Jabba the Hutt’s Bounty Hunter Mission room outside of the cantina (over the sandy yard)
• Lego City - Collect ten gold bricks
• New Town – Collect fifty gold bricks
• Anakin’s Flight –  Collect thirty gold bricks. Furthermore, if you complete this hidden mission, you’ll get the Naboo Starfighter as a prize to use elsewhere in the game.

Easter Eggs

• Stud Fountain - collect all 160 gold bricks. This will give you an infinite supply of studs.

Skills

• Disguise – BRJ437
• Force Grapple – CLZ738

Joining the crazy three-dimensional hype bonanza, Konami has created a 3D online installment of the Metal Gear series exclusive to Japanese arcades.

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Engadget’s Joshua Topolsky has kindly provided the internet with some of the first screenshots of the gaming element of the new Windows Phone 7 Series mobile OS. Pulling in elements of Xbox Live such as avatars, game/friend requests and Xbox Live Marketplace updates, the platform looks well-equipped for gaming, even though no titles have officially been announced yet.

Check out some of Engadget’s first photos below:

[View with PicLens]

The tech/gadget world has been flustered today around a sneak peak of a possible upcoming Microsoft phone at Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress.

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Ubisoft have given us, the wonderful public, a Q&A with Creative Director of katana-wielding Wii game Red Steel 2, Jason Vandenberghe to give us a little insight to the game before its general release on 26 March.

Take a look below for all the details on the anticipated sequel to the Wii launch title.

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We’ve been experiencing some issues with the blog’s contact form over the past month, so anything you have sent through may have disappeared into the ether.

This issue has now been resolved, so if there is anything you wanted to ask/tell us, go ahead!

Final Fantasy VIII – my personal favourite in the series – originally released for PlayStation is now available to download for PlayStation 3 and PSP system from PSN, priced £7.99 and sized at 1.7Gb.

Though it received high critical acclaim at its original release, including a 10/10 review from Official PlayStation Magazine, the game has (rightly or wrongly) always lived in the shadow of its predecessor, Final Fantasy VII.

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My relationship with Sonic The Hedgehog has been a turbulent one. Back in the (very) early 90′s, Sonic was my 2D platformer of choice – I loved the speed, the colourful environments and huge levels presented in each game. The games since then have disappointed me greatly – Sonic Unleashed’s nighttime levels were probably the greatest example of how to wreck a great series.

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