Did you remember Mother’s Day this year? I did, and was prepared to act on such information when, yesterday, it became apparent that I had in fact accidentally pre-empted the right day by an entire week. Oh well, I guess it is a lot better than forgetting it entirely I suppose! Apart from that I spent a great deal of time dealing with a highly confused cat and also getting some quality time with my new shiny DS XLi whilst playing through Zelda: Spirit Tracks (review tomorrow!), so it’s been a somewhat entertaining few days.

This week would have been exciting to me had I still been 21 or so; SquareEnix drop Final Fantasy 13 on our heads. See, I am certainly looking forward to playing it, but my excitement for the series took a hit due to me finding myself completely and utterly bored by 12 a few years ago. This latest title certainly sounds interesting, if not for the story then for what it seemingly does; hardly any sidequests, real-time battling with you controlling only one character, no towns or shops... mmm. It certainly sounds like a bit of a reboot for the series; only time will tell if I find it a step in the right direction or not. Chances are that both Jay and I will be looking at this one, so expect arguments.

Last year, Jay found that he was a bit so-so when it came to Dawn of War 2. This week there is an expansion campaign in which you take control of a squad of Blood Ravens and have to fight off all sorts of Chaos Marine attacks. It comes loaded with new level perks and such as well as some upgraded multiplayer offerings, so if you’re a bit of a fan then look out for Chaos Rising this Friday.

People of a certain age (i.e. me and people a couple of years older) will no doubt pause when they spot the Sonic Classic Collection for the DS and be transported into some wonderful rose-tinted memory world where consoles took cartridges, people wore shell suits and Vanilla Ice was all the rage. It contains Sonics 1 – 3 and Sonic and Knuckles for good measure, and promises to fill a little gap for the most of us before Sonic 4 hits a bit later in the year. That reminds me – I downloaded Sonic 1 on my iPhone this past weekend. Please excuse me while I remind myself why I love that game so much.

*An hour passes*

Yup, still as good as ever. Talking of revisiting things, Capcom release Resident Evil 5: Gold this Friday, which is a compilation of the original game and all the additional add-on packs all on one handy disc. I’m rather indifferent to the fifth instalment in the main series if I am honest; what 4 had in terms of atmosphere and general fun, 5 kind of lost when it decided to come flying out of the blocks as a more action-based sunshine romp. Can’t say I was surprised when a head Capcom bod came out post-release and said that the sixth game would see the series undergoing a major reboot.

A couple of other titles worth possibly spending a wedge on this weekend are Yakuza 3, the third (well, duh) in the action-based series from CS1 Team (for PS3 only, folks) and Way of the Samurai 3, which also seems to be a similar kind of thing, except set in olden days Japan rather than the present. Both should provide reasonable entertainment if previews are anything to go by, so keep an eye out for how they fair critically.

That’s pretty much it chaps – quite a few heavy-hitting titles scuttling out onto the shelves as we head up toward Easter and the glorious 4-day weekend it gives us. Also, the new Formula One season kicks into life this weekend – yay! Time for a brilliant prediction: Massa wins from Alonso, Hamilton third, Schumacher 4th and ‘our boy Jenson’ 5th after a battle with Rosberg. Prepare to be astonished as I am proven completely and utterly wrong!