"If you are looking for pleasant distraction and entertainment (which, by the way, is an entirely reasonable thing to look for in a game) Galcon is probably not for you. But if you are looking for a new hobby, one that will reward hard work, deep thought, and patience, then Galcon is a stirring reminder of how videogames have the capacity to transcend pleasant distraction and entertainment and achieve something altogether more complex and wonderful." Having read this, I installed it: I'm not sure if I'll be able to make the leap to three-stripe admiral, but I'm glad I tried.

Cal wins, if only for the interlocks. Now, I wonder how much it'd cost to build this? (Probably Too Much, but still.)

'"Almost every teen we've talked to feels that they know everything about issues like online privacy, identity and security," explains Adrian Hon, co-founder and chief creative officer at the British company that created Smokescreen, Six to Start, "and the fact that most adults they've heard from insist on scaremongering about paedophiles means they're no longer interested in what adults have to say."'

"Thursday's noticings are in, and now you can filter the dashboard by just your contacts/friends and family. Lovely."

Here's the website for the CCTV monitoring game/scheme as reported in the Times earlier today. It doesn't look incredibly professional.

This is maybe the second for-pay app I've bought for my touch, and it's wonderful. My only criticism is of the scrolling (especially in the level I'm currently stuck on, navigating the Prince through the fire canyon), but, frankly, given the fact it costs a fifth of what a DS game does, but has a similar level of polish, that's really picking nits. Recommended.

Uses the acceleramoter to control the katamari. $8/£5, but apparently a bit slow later on. (I didn't like the Xbox version much, but it might be worth a pop.) (Edit: Tom says it's not just slow, it's positively sluggish. Caveat emptor.)

"The free 130Mb taster lets you try your hand at building the ground floor of something called a ‘haus’. Grab a wall or roof section from one of the waiting lorries, then lower it into the required position as quickly as possible. Bumps and dithering cost points."

The people behind Professor Layton - which I played through earlier this year and thoroughly enjoyed - are working with legendary Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli on a DS game, due out next year. Joy! Rapture! Hopes for an early English translation!

Charles Jade reviews "a platformer/puzzle game for iPhone" which Tom Insam recommended to me last week. Sounds like it makes better use of the accelerometer than some naive twitch games, and that it does the nice "teaching through play" trick (March of the Minis 2 failed a bit here).

Everyone wanted the Korg DS-10 even though they're not Japanese, and the good news is there'll be an international release. Hurrah! No dates or prices yet though.

"Wolpaw referred to this philosophy as achieving a 'low story delta,' meaning that the gameplay and the plot were so carefully intertwined that one simply wouldn't work without the other."

Could be a horrible waste of time. But fun. Or maybe just a horrible waste of money. Waiting for a Eurogamer review.

Rather insane sounding Japanese DS game. Only on import. Possibly for ever.