Apparently, this roaring success lead to a 20 percent increase in revenue for PS3 games. In one of the biggest Christmas shopping weeks.

Those of you who can’t abide horrendous pro-Sony propaganda might want to skip the following shameful article, published in “industry magazine” MCV. It’s particularly disappointing to see a trade magazine publishing quotes like this as news without questioning the facts.

Alan Duncan thinks that one game going in at 28 on the charts (Uncharted) constitutes a “rush” for PS3 games, and that Singstar not getting into the top 40 is a “great start”. He is quite clearly suffering from delusions and ought to seek psychiatric help.

A 20% increase at Christmas and number 28 is not “soaring”. Ask Nintendo what soaring means. Singstar not charting and Uncharted going in at 28 DOES NOT BODE WELL nor could it be considered “encouraging” for 2008. It is, in fact, a total disaster for PS3.

Most people slack off and let the quality slip a bit in Christmas party week. So did we. It’s part of the good old UK tradition of stopping to care on about December 12. Here are the updates we did for elsewhere that stood above ‘mediocre’ but slightly below the required ‘satisfactory’ level.

This thing which totally enraged PS3 “fanboys” and sent them predictably berserk – mission accomplished.

This thing about Tomb Raider Underworld, because we are totally heterosexual for Lara Croft especially now she’s in hi-res.

This thing about an iPod dock, because sometimes a man just has to write about iPod docks as it’s still better than having a job that involves raw meat or shovels.

This thing about a mentally unstable loner’s android companion.

This thing about Gemma Atkinson launching a bra range, because you can’t not use (and we mean USE, repeatedly) pictures like this when they come along:

With Gemma and her bra – 10/10. Without Gemma and her bra – 6/10.

She is disappearing later and later into the TV schedules, on channels with higher and higher numbers. Hopefully she will soon “clock” the digital TV system and will appear on BBC1 in prime time.

FROM HIM, NOT US: “Spotted at 11:45pm on deep, deep digital. In fact it was on Nuts TV which I didn’t know existed before tonight and appears to be staffed entirely by the people who were deemed too boring to be the faces of phone in scams. All of a sudden, slumming it on Channel 4 at 1:30am seems a thousand miles away.”

“I couldn’t remember if you’d actually asked for Emily Booth sightings but a quick search shows that you didn’t and also that the general consensus in the comments appears to be that this sort of thing is deeply sad and singles you out as a disgusting loser. Well, who could say no to that now the actual taking-the-photo-and-resizing-it-in-photoshop work has been done?”

A while back we did a disappointing and incoherent round up of some SEGA coins, as used in SEGA arcades around the world. Well here’s another one, from Xujiahui in Shanghai. We’d be lying if we said we’d always wondered what SEGA World coins from SEGA World in Xujiahui in Shanghai looked like, but let’s just pretend to be all excited so there’s something to smile about today.

It’s a very hi-res photo, although there is a disappointingly large amount of table in shot. The submitter also sent in too many words to describe it, but that’s to be expected of people for whom writing is still fun rather than a endless challenge to stop smashing your face into the keyboard from boredom.

FROM XUJIAHUI IN SHANGHAI: “Attached is a mighty high resolution image of a coin from Sega World in Xujiahui, Shanghai. I tried to take a picture at a lower resolution, but the coin is literally TOO AWESOME to be photographed at anything less than top-level. Notice that it says “For Amusement Only” on the coin: this is no ordinary coin, you can’t go and buy socks with it, that’s just not allowed. You are ONLY allowed to have fun with it. If you try to use it to pay for your dry cleaning or buy a book on physics maybe the coin turns into a spinning disc of death and you get eaten by a mad goat. I have no idea, I’m too scared to try. I’m going to take some pictures of the Sega World (along with Mario Kart GP shame) tomorrow, provided that I can get a girl to come with me. That way I’ll look like less of a Paedophile taking pictures of small, sweaty children in a public place – Iun.”

You know how different countries have different rules about how you’re supposed to treat your women? Like, in Chile it’s OK to keep them in boxes until you want dinner or sex?

Dubai would seem to be operating on an acceptably mild sexist level:

FROM DINO: “I’m not sure if this is funny or not but I thought it best to send it ‘in’ just to be on the safe side. I took the picture (digital photograph) at a shopping mall in Dubai – Dino.”

We will leave you to decide which of the following things is “the good” and which one is “the bad.”

Which one is the bad?

Is it this? The dreamy PAL box art which looks lovely and just like the Dreamcast box art we spent several years imagining appearing on Gamespress?

Or is this the bad thing, in which NiGHTS speaks and seems to have the voice of a small girl? It’s NiGHTS and SEGA so we’re not allowed to be negative. Not even in private or inside our heads.

This was sent in by a reader. Now, we’re not experts on sick internet pornography terminology, but we’re fairly sure this might be what certain sad individuals might refer to as “HOT UPSKIRT ACTION.”

This was sent in by a reader. We’re not sure what’s going on at all.

This was sent in by a reader. We haven’t gone painstakingly through a video frame by frame looking up the skirts of game characters since Cream The Rabbit made her appearance in Sonic Heroes.

It shows a remarkable amount of thought, care and design attention, for what is basically a really cheap bit of disposable plastic.

“I’ve included some pictures of a Sonic The Hedgehog air-freshener that I found in my loft.”

“I remember badgering my dad to buy it from Halfords in 1992. I knew that once it stopped freshening the air, my dad would give it to me.”

“The fucker lasted ages though. It still smells now. The only reason my dad gave it to me was because he was sick of the headaches the foul scent gave him every time he drove anywhere. It smells like a tramp’s foreskin – Phorenzik.”

Thank god for the detailed description. Writing four captions about the various sides of a plastic Sonic air freshener would’ve been rather challenging.

Here’s a list of some of the other stuff we have done this week for the betterment of the internet. Some of it was lovingly crafted, some of it was hurriedly and uncaringly churned out to hit various targets.

See if you can tell which was which!

This thing about Condemned 2 which is quite an awful piece and one of the top ten things we’re ashamed about having put on the internet.

This thing which was a factual update about energy production!

This thing about an iPhone PlayStation emulator which was quite boring, but fucking Engadget linked to it so it inadvertently took on some sort of major global importance for about 24 hours.

This thing which is a lazy review of the Xbox Live Video Store.

This thing in which we took great pleasure from slagging off PS3 on a site that’s essentially ‘about’ PS3.

This thing about a widescreen projector, because you can’t not use pictures like this when they come along:

We had fun, even if most other people were left just a bit bewildered as to why we’re allowed to continue. 7/10.

Don’t worry, Sony fans. This is clearly all part of that amazing ten-year plan everyone at Sony sketched out back in 2004. Well done. It’s going brilliantly.

US HARDWARE SALES FOR NOVEMBER 2007

NDS: 1.53 MILLION
Wii: 981K
360: 770K
PSP: 567K
PS2: 496K
PS3: 466K

It’s definitely OK that two toys, a PC in a noisy box, a handheld PS2 no one buys any games for and a seven-year-old console now aimed at the pre-school market is outselling PlayStation3. This was planned, no doubt about that.