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There have been so many Sonic games over the years that few of us consider the few that got away. That's probably fair, as most of them were either terrible ideas or so early in development that we'll never really know anything about them. Still, there was one that constantly got media attention, and that was the SEGA Saturn's Sonic X-treme. Now, almost 20 years after it was supposed to release, everything that was finished is finally going to see the light of day.

I hate aftermarket products. I always have. If what I'm gaming with doesn't have the official Nintendo seal, I'm not interested. That is how I've always been. I've always paid more for the official products; perhaps I'm stupid. After all, not every third party peripheral is garbage. I guess it is just a perception I have. When I heard and saw the Smash Bros Fight Pad from PDP games I had one though: those look cool, but they are probably just gimmicky, sub part GameCube knockoff controllers.

We all know that beautiful New 3DS and New 3DS XL will be coming to the west in 2015. We just weren't sure if it was going to be region locked, a practice which most hardware makers are passing on now. Well, not surprisingly, Nintendo has no plans to ditch region locking.

If you have no idea what Amiibo is or why you should be excited about it, you probably are not alone. I was in the same boat. Sure, I had seen all the videos and images, but I wasn't 100% sure what purpose they were going to serve. Obviously, it was going to be implemented with the launch of Super Smash Bros, and would be compatible with Mario Kart. Aside from that, I didn't know much else.

Nintendo's move towards DLC has been surprisingly great. Their content is aaggressively priced, generally making it hard not to purchase it when available. I assumed the Mario Kart 8 packs would come in at 12-14$ each, but fortunately that isn't the case. What Nintendo hasn't done - until now that is - is do the number one thing gamers hate about DLC.

A few weeks ago I wrote an article about Nintendo's new download options. Most interesting was the ability (finally) to download games from a computer and push them to your Wii U. This was great, and frankly overdue. What wasn't announced at that time was a pre-download option for digital title. Apparently Nintendo is ready to deliver that as well.

November's PlayStation Plus is getting closer and Sony will be about to announce the firm details of it. Instead of posting about it on the blog, they accidentally released a video which was quickly grabbed by fans. This is for the American version of PS+, but EU users may want to start hoping for something a little meatier.

With a new Star Wars film of the horizon and the Battlefront series well on its way to a revival, it's a good time to be a fan of George Lucas's sci-fi classics. Even better news is that it will be getting full support from publisher EA, who have said that it'll be their big first-person shooter of 2015.

Today is the start of a new partnership between Disney Interactive and GOG.com that will bring more than 20 classic Lucas Films games to the digital provider. The new partnership begins today with six classic titles for fans to purchase and play, all DRM free. Available now are Star Wars™: X-Wing Special Edition, Star Wars™: TIE Fighter Special Edition, Sam & Max Hit the Road, The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, Indiana Jones® and the Fate of Atlantis™ and Star Wars™: Knights of the Old Republic™.

Gabe Newell is the billionaire head of the company behind PC distribution platform Steam, and is likely working hard overseeing projects that will very literally define the future of the gaming industry. He also manages to reply to emails sent to him by fans. It doesn’t take a team of secretaries and it doesn’t mean Half-Life 3 is knocked back for each message sent. In an email, Newell explains how he stays in touch with fans. It usually means I’m…