OnLive is either the future of video gaming come early, or snake oil dressed as cloud computing. What will determine which it ends up being is up to you, the user, and with the service now live, is anyone using?

The switch on the service was flicked earlier today, meaning anyone that wants to use OnLive can now do so. They're even encouraging early adopters with a "free" one year's subscription, which will cover the cost of the service, but not the games you play on it.

I've my doubts as to whether this thing will work for any game that requires precise timing or accuracy. Can anyone who's signed up prove me wrong?

Welcome to OnLive! [OnLive]

Suicide Girl Dice on the hood of the APB mobile.

Xenoblade, the new Wii role-playing game made by the people who made Xenosaga, is Japan's top selling game, dethroning previous champ Super Mario Galaxy 2, which crosses a milestone of its own.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 owners in Japan now number more than half a million, putting the Wii game on its way to great success. The game is followed on the charts by the episodic release of Grand Theft Auto IV, which joins Just Cause 2 as the only other Western developed PlayStation 3 game in the top ten.

What else... oh! Since I'm sure you were wondering, Hisshou Pachinko * Pachi-Slot Kouryaku Series DS Vol. 5: Shinseiki Evangelion - Tamashii no Kiseki for the DS still managed to land in the top 30. The rest of the week's new additions and bestsellers, courtesy of Media Create, follow.

01. Xenoblade (Wii) - 83,000 / NEW
02. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii) - 73,000 / 519,000
03. Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City (PS3) - 64,000 / NEW
04. Mega Man Zero Collection (DS) - 22,000 / NEW
05. Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2 (DS) - 20,000 / 1,142,000
06. Just Cause 2 (PS3) - 19,000 / NEW
07. Fairy Tail: Portable Guild (PSP) - 14,000 / 49,000
08. World Soccer Winning Eleven 2010: Aoki Samurai no Chousen (PS3) - 13,000 / 106,000
09. Tomodachi Collection (DS) - 12,000 / 3,263,000
10. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii) - 12,000 / 3,885,000

11. Soccer Tsuku DS: World Challenge 2010 (DS)
12. Lost Planet 2 (PS3)
13. Wii Fit Plus (Wii)
14. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (PSP)
15. Medarot DS: Kabuto / Kuwagata (DS)
16. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
17. World Soccer Winning Eleven 2010: Aoki Samurai no Chousen (PSP)
18. Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City (Xbox 360)
19. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (the Best) (PSP)
20. Hisshou Pachinko * Pachi-Slot Kouryaku Series Portable Vol. 1: Shinseiki Evangelion - Tamashii no Kiseki (PSP)
21. World Soccer Winning Eleven 2010: Aoki Samurai no Chousen (PS2)
22. Wii Sports Resort (Wii)
23. New Super Mario Bros. (DS)
24. Just Cause 2 (Xbox 360)
25. Wand of Fortune Portable (PSP)
26. World Soccer Winning Eleven 2010 Play Maker: Aoki Samurai no Chousen (Wii)
27. Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2010 (PSP)
28. Hisshou Pachinko * Pachi-Slot Kouryaku Series DS Vol. 5: Shinseiki Evangelion - Tamashii no Kiseki (DS)
29. Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Masou Kishin - The Lord of Elemental (DS)
30. FIFA World Cup South Africa 2010 (PS3)

As one E3 ends, planning for another begins. Circle your calendars, kids. If you already have a 2011 calendar, that is. And if you do, well done. You're organised.

Two things described by J.R.R. Tolkein in his Lord of the Rings trilogy haven't been seen yet in video games: Bloody, brutal violence, and the War in the North. An action RPG due out in 2011 will deliver both.

The Lord of the Rings: War in the North is the first M-rated game for the saga, after a slew of games rated between Everyone and Teen. It will be a canonical inclusion of The Lord of the Rings saga, with the full license and blessing of the Tolkien estate, and actually being mentioned by Tolkien (albeit briefly) in his works gives the game some intrigue for fans.

Snowblind Studios, the outfit behind Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, showed us two boss battles that test different aspects of the cooperative play the game will demand. In a 20-minute demonstration, we saw the three main characters - elf, dwarf and human mage - flying over Myrkwood on grey eagle. There they were waylaid by - forgive me, this guy's name escapes me, but he rode a dragon and has some magical affinity. And a really evil-looking helmet. The battle demonstrated the need for a human mage's Sanctuary spell (depicted above). It casts a bubble that repels ranged attacks. This was key as Whatsisface rained down attacks on the poor elf trying to revive the downed dwarf. They came so frequently that revival was impossible, until the mage arrived with the Sanctuary. Ultimately they prevailed.

The second boss battle against a troll featured more brutal action than the first, and action befitting an M-rating. Characters left the scene spattered in blood. The dwarf took one hell of a beating in the troll's grasp. Then again, he did stab the troll in the eye.

Teamwork is brought out in the three classes racial abilities. Elves, being trackers, will spot illuminated trails that neither dwarves nor humans can notice. Humans can find herbs and other substances and, with a crafting skill, turn them into healing or other potions and compounds. Dwarves can spot weaknesses in subterranean walls, which expose alternate routes or treasure rooms.

At all times you will be adventuring with two companions, even if you are playing single-player. The other two will be run by bot AIs. I noticed in some melee combat that some stun attacks put foes into a bullet time, but I couldn't track fast enough to see if it was represented that way to others in the party, too. Snowblind says a final determination on this has yet to be made.

It's a very handsome game with well voiced cutscenes, and places the compelling Lord of the Rings realm in the hands of a developer with solid RPG credentials. Fans of both have good reason to look forward to a unique entry in the series.

You can't see it any of these screen shots, but the star of God of War is pretty good with a spear and shield, one of the angry Spartan's newest tricks in his new PSP adventure.

God of War: Ghost of Sparta is the follow-up to God of War: Chains of Olympus, a PSP game that somewhat remarkably captured the intense action and epic story of Kratos' struggle against the gods. Developer Ready At Dawn has upped the ante in the PSP sequel, set after the original God of War, with bigger bosses, like the massive Scylla, supposedly bigger in scale than anything Chains of Olympus could muster.

While Kratos still has his trademark chain blades, which I used to dispatch the Scylla in a multi-stage boss battle, he also has a new Spartan shield and spear at his disposal. The shield, of course, can block incoming attacks while Kratos has it raised. It also slows his walking speed, so you may want to use it sparingly. The shield can also reflect projectiles, a trick that will be employed in solving some of the game's puzzles.

The spear can be used as a stabbing weapon, or it can be charged and thrown (in energy form) at foes at a distance.

Kratos will also pick up new weapons and artifacts throughout his journey. In the demo I played, he found an Eye of Atlantis. A tap of the PSPgo's crosspad to the right and the Eye would fire a bolt of energy. That bolt could be aimed while moving around, making it easier to take out a group of foes.

In addition to a new arsenal, Kratos has a new set of attacks dubbed "Combat Rush." It'll let Kratos pummel his foes to the ground and throw them around. All of these varied combat moves have been well implemented onto the PSP's smaller button count, with weapon switching and spell casting performed on the crosspad.

God of War: Ghost of Sparta looks visually improved over its predecessor. In the waterlogged level I played, rain slicked across the floors of a ship and rooms filled with enemies, all of which animated smoothly.

In short, if you like God of War and loved the PSP take on the series, Ready At Dawn is giving you more of what you want. It looks sharp, plays well and adds some new tricks to the franchise. Plus, it may skip the tiresome harpy riding from God of War III! That's a bonus!

God of War: Ghost of Sparta will hit the PSP and PSPgo this fall.

While we've seen pictures of the Nintendo 3DS in black, red and blue, there are two other colours on display on E3's showroom floor: a garish shade of orange, and a garish shade of purple.

They look more like the kind of colours Sony would use on a Japan-exclusive PSP, but then seeing as these are just display units - with a final, retail colour range expected to be both smaller and more basic - I suppose they can get away with it!

[Image credits: Famitsu & Randorn]

It's tough to beat the wow factor of the dizzying dictionary of usable words in last year's Scribblenauts for the DS. This year's followup: Super Scribblenauts, doesn't try to outdo that as much as perfect other aspects of the game.

For starters, the controls. A loud, frequent request of Scribblenauts devotees, Maxwell gets D-pad controls, and the DS' stylus plus the D-pad moves the screen's camera. He also won't take off at a dead run to a stray touch on the screen, because A) that control has been disabled and B) developer Fifth Cell have slowed him down.

"Some of the improvements were things that we knew were in the last game and had no time to fix, some of it came from feedback from the community," Fifth Cell's Brett Caird told me in my 15 minutes with Super Scribblenauts.

Adjectives are the big upgrade, allowing Maxwell to summon even more creative items, animals and personalities to help him solve the puzzles. Modifying something with an adjective requires you either to use the adjective when it is summoned or, after it's summoned, creating a potion that imbues it with that modification. (A winged potion gave my astronaut a set on his back). Yes, you can create an Atomic Ninja. You probably won't want to. Mine stood around pinging off radiation until he exploded, annihilating everything on the screen.

A more sensible application was demonstrated in an easy level - Maxwell standing at the back of a very long line, needing to create a distraction for everyone standing in it - in this case gifts that would appeal to each one. The first one I approached was a delivery person (as described by the game's identify tool.) What would she want? Stamps? A box? A dog whistle? Caird suggested that "postal" plus anything would do the trick.

I gave her a set of scales - which looked like traditional desk-ornament balance scales but because they were "postal," she was happy and got out of the way. The next character was a soldier. I could have put a military adjective on something (military binoculars?) but tried giving him night vision goggles instead.

Caird said the game features 120 levels - 100 of them the puzzle variety, 20 of them the platform-style action levels that he vowed are much harder than in the original. Caird said they wanted to get the game away from summoning God/T-Rex/Cthulhu to get out of every jam. The modifiers are a nice touch but what I saw was just as simple in execution.

There's nothing to suggest it's not as good or better than the first game. Given more time (it's amazing how put-on-the-spot you are trying to think of a gift for a soldier) I'm sure I could have come up with some zany objects to solve the level and serve the Scribblenauts spirit. Ultimately, this looks like a sequel delivering more levels and better controls. To be fair, it does have a tough act to follow when it arrives in October.

Initial estimates had the amount of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico at 25,000 barrels a day. This clip, made using the same engine that powers many of today's biggest games, shows how much oil that really is.

And that's only 25,000. When you consider that, a few months later, the best guess is that the total is at least twice that amount, things get really scary.

[via Gizmodo]

Real-world size comparison, sent in by early-bird purchaser DigitalHero. Maybe we should call it the "Xbox 360 Shiny" instead?