Robot ninjas. Robot. Ninjas. If the world was fair and just we could end this preview now confident in the knowledge that we’ve said all we need to say about Plain Sight. But convention dictates that we continue, so here we go.

Plain Sight is the debut title from UK-based indies Beatnik Games. It’s a competitive multiplayer game with a stonkingly awesome aesthetic and a wonderfully conceived central conceit. And robot freakin’ ninjas!

Taking control of one of these beautifully designed little fellas, you are charged with taking out as many enemies as possible, deathmatch-style. You’ll do this by leaping around the sleek minimalist environments, leaving a neon Tron-esque trail and a string of vanquished foes in your wake.

The ‘map’ we played - although it seems odd calling them maps as they are fully-formed little worlds - was a giant, dizzying, unraveled tape loop. As the action takes place in space (and because it’s fun), you can leap onto and off of any surface, with a gravity system in effect that is most easily described as similar to Mario Galaxy.

The shooter aspect of Mass Effect was lacking a little and was perhaps too rooted in RPG mechanics. Fortunately for us BioWare is making sure to make the shooter part more shooter-like and keeping the RPG elements very RPG-like. “The advantages of starting with all the technology is we can focus on just making the shooting fun. There’s always a delicate balance of the RPG elements,” explained Dr. Greg Zeschuk of BioWare.

Dr. Ray Muzyka, another BioWare solider, further explains that the new and improved Mass Effect 2 “really feels like a new genre: a shooter/RPG. There are not too many examples of games that would put in that kind of choice that would have the same depth of exploration. The progression system, the story and the narrative, and all the choices, but also have a shooter combat experience that feels very precise.” We’re happy to hear that, oh yes we are.

In our minds there was very little wrong with the first ME and the shooting mechanics was one of those things. It’s really good to hear once more how confident they are of the reworked shooting aspects. Now, what of that space rover crap?

Good news for the Modern Warfare 2 fans in the United Kingdom. Those who ordered the game from The Hut and, by proxy, LoveFilm have been getting an early delivery on their doorsteps lately, but not by design.

“We are dedicated to getting products to customers on release. We use Royal Mail as our preferred courier and were advised to dispatch on Thursday for delivery on Tuesday due to the impending strike action. This was called off on Thursday evening and we have contacted Royal Mail to hold the product until Tuesday,” said The Hut when talking with GamesIndustry.biz.

That being said, High Street retailers have been found out to be selling copies early from within their retail stores. While the game is not set to be sold until next week, which HMV, GAME, and Gamestation say they will adhere to, it does not seem too hard to get your hands on an early copy if you really want.

Microsoft has announced that Sky Player, the TV and movie streaming service, is now available to “100 per cent” of Xbox 360 owners across the UK and Ireland.

The service was pulled shortly after launch 10 days ago after consumer demand overloaded the system. A revised rollout plan was promptly devised, getting under way last week. Now that process is complete.

“As you may know we have been implementing a gradual rollout of the Sky Player on Xbox 360 service since our initial launch,” said the Microsoft announcement. “As of today, 100 per cent of the Xbox base can access Sky Player, and tens of thousands of new users are accessing the service daily. The quality of the service remains of the utmost importance to both Sky and Xbox, and as such we will run further testing over the weekend and continue to monitor the service closely.”

Sony Cambridge artist Laura Dilloway told us plenty of great things about LittleBigPlanet PSP and the system itself at Eurogamer Expo 2009 last week, but we recently interviewed her again and were curious if she thought fitting a mammoth game like LBP onto the PSP was the closest the system would get to a home console experience. Her reply gave an interesting new perspective on the handheld.

“Actually I think that the PSP can offer much more than a home console,” she began, ”After all, it is designed to be something portable, that you can carry with you at all times, and so you can play it wherever you are whether you are in or out of the house.”

Sure, you can enjoy the graphical delights of Gears of War 2 or Uncharted 2 on your huge screen at home, but that’s obviously useless on the bus. “The PSP also has such variety of games that you can have anything from a quick five minute blast at something, to an epic five hour epic session – creating an awesome LBP level for example!”

“With the latest developments in PSP-PS3 connectivity, allowing you to access your PS3 system from anywhere in the world; coupled with the extra features that the PSP offers such as Skype and a portable internet connection, I already find the PSP ideal in many ways – and it’s still evolving.”

This is just a taster on what she had to say on the PSP, so make sure you check back Monday for the full interview.

This might come as a surprise to some, but 2010 will bring a new wave of Call of Duty and Guitar Hero games. Those shocking revelations come straight from Activision during an earnings call, which also mentioned a new Spider-Man game due out next year. Who would have thought?

No details were given, just a list of things due out that we could have guessed without the conference call. We can only wonder what number Guitar Hero will hit before next year’s end, or what band will soak up the royalties from their own rhythm game.

It does not really matter, we just cannot wait to see where the next Call of Duty is set so we can smile smugly and say we told you so.

In case you haven’t heard, a lot of people are pretty ticked off over Infinity Ward’s decision to cut dedicated server support from Modern Warfare 2. Like 185,000 of them. Because of this, maybe id Software co-founder John Carmack could’ve picked a better time to say, “It’s not cast in stone yet, but at this point no, we don’t think we will have dedicated servers,” when referring to the PC version of Rage, which is set to drop sometime in 2010.

By the time you read this, I’m sure the internet will be ablaze with 4000 word message board posts talking about how id is slapping their fan base in the face and dancing on their mothers’ graves, but if PC gamers are looking for a reason as to why this is happening, a mirror is all that’s needed. When games like World of Goo have an estimated 90% piracy rate, it’s hard to expect PC developers to keep taking it in the pants and not change the way their online infrastructures work to curve this downright disgusting trend. It’s either this or big budget PC games will probably slowly cease to exist.

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime is a confident fellow. A very confident fellow. Confident enough to put New Super Mario Bros. Wii up against Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2, aka the pre-order record setting, most anticipated game of the year and possibly the biggest entertainment launch of.. oh.. ever.

“Absolutely,” he said when asked on GTTV if Nintendo’s new multiplayer-oriented side-scroller is going to outsell Modern Warfare 2 on a single platform, meaning either on the PS3, 360 or PC. “… I do believe so.”

“… you’ve got to give me the entire holiday selling season. So let’s take it all the way through January NPD data … I’ll put that stake in the ground,” he said, later adding, “Modern Warfare [2] is a great title. As a gamer, I look forward to it … I think it’s going to be a fantastic title.”

There’s nothing like a good old-fashioned console bashing from a developer to fan the eternal platform flame war. Today’s flame-baiting comment comes courtesy of Valve’s Chet Faliszek. In an interview with CVG, Faliszek says that the Xbox 360 community is “head and shoulders above the PS3.”

“Right now for Left 4 Dead 2 we’re looking at PC and 360 because the community aspects really fit the game - it’s all about playing with your friends,” Faliszek said. “But that’s the short term. What we’re looking at for the long term… if it works out, it works out. Right now don’t not buy it on the 360 because you think it’s coming out on the PS3 - it’s not going to. Right? It’s coming out on the PC and 360. It’s going to be exclusive for that.”

Faliszek has provided some more ammunition for the PC and 360 camps, leaving the PS3 camp scrambling to retaliate. The pieces have been set. The comment section below is the battlefield. Have at it.

I think everyone agrees it’s been pretty exciting reading the news about the next Zelda for Wii using MotionPlus and how “gorgeus” the visuals will be, thinking 2010, and thus getting our hands on the game, is right around the corner. Aye?

Yeah, that might not be happening.

“We haven’t committed to Zelda for 2010,” Nintendo’s Reggie ‘Soul Crusher’ Fils-Aime said on last night’s GTTV, “… so we’ll see how that continues to develop.”

But a new Zelda or not, Fils-Aime points out there’s plenty to be excited about in Nintendo’s line-up next year, “Sin and Punishment 2 is going to be something that the Nintendo fan can get really excited about … Galaxy 2 … what can you say? Mr. Miyamoto himself is very excited about it. He thinks that it adds even more to that great title. And then Other M … that is another franchise that I’ve personally got great memories of, back to a side-scrolling Metroid title.”