This morning I was asked by Channel 4 to head over to their studios for a News at Noon segment about DJ Hero's launch (the game is out today in the UK in case you didn't know). Check out the piece below which appeared on today's News at Noon.

A quick look at The Beatles: Rock Band's confirmed track list reveals the exclusion of a large number of classic Beatles tracks. 44 of the 45 songs in the game have been confirmed, which means that all of these songs (bar potentially one of them) will not be included on the disc:

1. Hey Jude
2. From Me to You
3. Let it Be
4. Love Me Do
5. She Loves You
6. Help
7. The Long and Winding Road
8. Yesterday
9. We Can Work it Out
10. Penny Lane
11. Eleanor Rigby
12. All You Need is Love (available to purchase for Xbox 360 as DLC on day one, with proceeds going to Doctors Without Borders)
13. Lady Madonna
14. The Ballad of John and Yoko

All you need is 45 songs we've chosen for you...

While it's possible that some (or most) of these songs will appear in the long and winding road of post-launch DLC there's some huge tracks that have been overlooked. Some of these might be because they wouldn't work particularly well but given that they're all confirmed number one hits their presence will be sorely missed.

What do you think about the game's soundtrack and what has/hasn't been included? Are you just glad that The Beatles' songs are finally going to appear in a videogame, or were you hoping for a more definitive collection?

It's no secret that I'm a fan of limited-edition gaming gear, so when THQ announced a special Red Faction Xbox 360, limited to a 10 console run, I was a little intrigued. To celebrate the new Demons of the Badlands DLC, THQ is giving away one of these to a lucky member of the public, through a competition on the THQ UK site (UK residents only, alas).

GameSpot was lucky enough to be nominated for the 13th Annual Webby Awards in the category of "People's Voice Award for Best Games-Related Website," and thanks to your votes we won! Here's editor in chief Ricardo Torres' acceptance speech at the award night in New York (all acceptance speeches were limited to five words).

Okay so perhaps it isn't so subliminal after all. Actually it's an overt, cheeky in-game plug for Club Nintendo. Nonetheless it did come as an amusing surprise between rounds with the formidable Bald Bull. Punch-Out!! is out this Friday, check out our full review from Tom Mc Shea for the low down.

Voting closes tomorrow so head over to www.tinyurl.com/gamespotwebby and get your vote in! GameSpot is nominated for Best Game-Related Website and we need your help, GameSpot community! Here's more information from the Spam Filter community blog:

This year, GameSpot is honored to be considered for The Webby's People's Voice Award for Best Game-Related Website. We are up against some tough competition, and we need your help to win! Please show your support for us by following the simple instructions below and vote ASAP, as the deadline is April 30. The process only takes five minutes of your time, and every vote counts! As an extra special thank you gift, we'll be handing out a profile emblem to our supporters if we win!

Here's all you need to do:

1. Create a free account at the People's Voice Award page.
2. Login and click on Website - Vote Now!
3. Find the Games-Related section under Entertainment
4. Vote for GameSpot and leave a comment if you like
5. Sound off in our roll call thread to let us know you voted so we can award you an emblem if we win

It's as easy as that!

GameSpot has the best community out there, and we all here are incredibly thankful of your continued support throughout the years!

Konami is turning the grand old age of 40, would you believe? Althought I must admit, Snake is looking rather rough for his age (okay, so I know he's not actually 40, but just run with it). We got invited to their UK party this Thursday to celebrate (although, alas, I'll be back in Australia on holidays at the time).

Oh and look what just landed on our desks!

I wrote a brief story yesterday about how the PM's knife crime advisor has called for a special tax for violent video games (psst: check it out here).

I also wrote about a complaint The Independent Games Developers Association has lodged with the Advertising Standards Authority over the government's Change4Life campaign, which has the support of Cancer Research, the British Heart Foundation, and Diabetes UK. One of the advertisements in the campaign features a child holding a PlayStation controller and the words "Risk an early death. Just do nothing."

CNET.com's Don Reisinger raised an interesting point in a recent post Is the video game industry losing the PR battle? on his The Digital Home blog. He says that publishers need to work harder to defend our industry and break some of the myths surrounding games (ie. that most gamers are children sitting around getting fat by playing games).

Reisinger declares there's "no shortage of people who want to see video games killed. But I don't hear much from the video game industry when issues like this crop up. Sure, there are a few statements released by concerned developers. The occasional CEO claims to draw a line in the sand, but when will the video game industry start fighting back in a meaningful way?"

Do you think industry players are doing enough to promote the positive aspects associated with playing games?

Yikes, it's been a while since I've given my blog some love! If you missed it all over the homepage, I posted my review of Halo Wars on Friday afternoon so check it out if you haven't already. Needless to say it's sparking a lot of debate among Halo and strategy fans.

Got a YouTube link from an anonymous Free Radical Design employee today.

The five minute clip, posted today on YouTube, features gameplay of Stormtroopers, Ewoks, Tauntauns, The Millennium Falcom, TIE Fighters, A-Wings and what looks to be Boba Fett's ship, Slave I, as well as a prominent FRD logo watermark throughout. According to the user who posted the video, "this video was taken in an internal show and tell Alpha meeting back in November."

Dead Rising was an early classic for the Xbox 360 and Wii owners will be able to get a taste for blood next month with Chop Till You Drop.

I'm always amused by Japanese pop culture and this latest video from Capcom certainly lives up to my expectations. They've just released a crazy videoclip of a Japanese band called GaGaGa SP singing about the game (zombies included!) Check it out below!

We received a nifty digital Christmas card from Rare this morning, but unlike 2007's slightly-controversial Killer Instinct-referenced card, the team played it safe this year with Banjo, Kazooie, Piņatas and Xbox Live Avatars populating the scene.

Click on the image below to download the full-sized pic for yourself, and have a great Christmas!

Sometimes hardware manufacturers make good accessories, such as Logitech's Driving Force steering wheel range. Sometimes they make bad ones, such as Microsoft's fugly "mushy pea green" Xbox 360 controller. And then there's some that are just downright disturbing. Meet Wrapstar Skins for Nintendo DS.

According to a press release that accompanied the DS protective sticker, "with a style that is directly influenced by Japanese art, Terratag takes elements from both Eastern and Western culture and creates a mash-up of manga, pop art and graffiti. The end result is an effect that is as much about Shoreditch as it is Shinjunkunot." Wow. Really? All I see is a bad drawing of a naked Asian girl on a beanbag!

Don't get me wrong, Wrapstar does (apparently) offer "tough, durable and sleek protection" for your DS. Unfortunately the sample we got sent is just plain offensive and tacky. But hey, the worst case scenario is you're sure to get a few surprised looks on the train! The rest of the Terratag range doesn't look too bad though.

I've been using Twitter for a while, but haven't gotten around to mentioning it on my GameSpot blog, so here goes. I now have a twitter feed (wow, that wasn't so hard!).

Anyway, if you want to track what I'm up to at work, what games and events I'm checking out, and general ramblings on a myriad of topics, my account is:
http://twitter.com/lukeando

Let's face it, videogame publishers aren't renowned for making the best advertisements in the world (those honours are usually reserved for beer, deoderant and car companies) but EA's 4-min long TV ad for FIFA 09 is actually an amusing watch, especially if you're a Man U or Real Madrid fan.

The ad was well-known around these parts long before it debuted in Sky Sports' half-time break between the Chelsea and Man United match on Sunday 21st September, after Wayne Rooney was spotted on location during filming for the ad, despite being reportedly too sick to play for the team. Watching the match at a friends ad I couldn't believe it went on for a whole four minutes, the longest ad I can recall. While unlikely to be as expensive as a half-time ad during the Superbowl, the match would've no doubt attracted a lot of viewers.

There's also an alternate ad featuring Ligue 1's Olympique Lyonnais (Lyon) and the Bundesliga's FC Schalke, which can be seen here. Fifa 09 is out tomorrow and Zavvi are hosting a midnight launch tonight for London's football faithful.

Last week I headed down to Apple's Regent Street store in central London to hear Will Wright give a presentation on Spore, just a few days before its launch (check out photos from the event here). While I was there I talked to Reuters' Matt Cowan about the game. Check out what I had to say below (from about 0:58 onwards).

Leipzig's over, the crowds have gone home, the currywurst and bier has long run out and the international press has moved on to more pressing matters (get it?) and gearing up for the next big show: Tokyo Games Show. But let's not forget the spectacle that was Leipzig Games Convention 2008.

Over on our London Calling blog you can check out some pics I took while hanging out in downtown Leipzig (okay, at the train station to be exact) and checking out the public halls at Games Convention 08.

I got the chance to sit down with the venerable father of Street Fighter Yoshinori Ono to talk about the upcoming console version of SFIV. Find out what the man behind the game has to say straight from Capcom's booth at the Leipzig Games Convention!

Late last week I was invited to join CNET.co.uk's Rory Reid, Ian Morris and Kate Macefield on the Crave podcast. While the GameSpot UK Podcast is a light-hearted, irreverent look at the week's news and trends in the gaming industry, Crave is much, much different. It's a light-hearted, irreverent look at the week's news and trends in consumer tech!

Head on over to the Crave blog and download the latest episode now!