Here we are again for another weekly update. If you care about my gaming life, chances are you’re likely to click the link to continue reading this. If not, please accept my apologies and enjoy this delightful picture of the character “Boss” from the video game “Catherine”…

This week I spent most of my gaming time playing Catherine, the anime-styled relationship-puzzle game from Atlus and managed to complete it. It didn’t take too long, approximately 10-12 hours, but I only completed it once – there are supposedly eight different endings available, which are dependant on your actions throughout the whole game. Without giving too much away, I’ll just say that the game takes some pretty drastic turns the deeper into it you go, and despite the puzzle part being pretty damn infuriating (even on easy) it’s the sort of challenge that is worth overcoming for the rewards.

The anime cut-scenes and the anime-styled gameplay graphics are just delicious and totally add to the feeling that you’re participating in an interactive movie. Even though I found the puzzling really hard at times (well hard for my brain, at least), I loved playing this game and am definitely going back to it at some point later this year to re-do the game and sweep up some more achievements, but for now I’ve moved on to Mass Effect 2.

Despite owning all the DLC, I haven’t actually played this game since February 2010! So obviously I played the shit out of it when it launched and never went back, it must have been the anguish of losing so many members of Team Douchebag to the evil Reapers. Determined to finish off all the side-stories, I’ve created a new character – a femshep to boot – and decided to progress through the game being a goody little two shoes, just to see how different a Paragon plays from a Renegade.

Obviously I intend to get this all done before the release of Mass Effect 3 on March 9th, so I’m playing on Casual and totally forgetting that I have an outstanding achievement for completing the game on insanity – fuck that! My achievement ratio continues to make positive gains, though slowly thanks to Catherine having so many possible outcomes it’s impossible to make a grand sweep of them in one playthrough ,but clearing up the DLC for Mass Effect 2 should help.

In other news, this week I picked up a PlayStation Vita and a copy of WipEout 2048. This is my first Sony handheld I’ve actually owned and I’m sure I’ll be paying the penalties for being an early adopter, but so far I’m hugely impressed with the graphics and gameplay, it truly feels like a home console experience but in your hands. The only thing I’m not too impressed with is the handling of some of the online components, but I’ll save that anger for the next episode of The Monkeychunk Show.

And here’s where I leave you folks, I have lots to do this weekend and I can’t spend all my time warbling on about games – I’d have no time left to play them! Have a good’un, whatever you’re up to.

It’s another mashup from the wonderful Cassetteboy, if you’re not familiar with his superb cut+paste skills, now is your chance to catch up. My personal highlights are the The Apprentice and The Hairy Bikers videos, but there’s plenty of good stuff on his page.

Hey boys, hey girls, superstar podcasters, here we go! Yes in case you haven’t been following the trending topics on twitter you may have missed the fact that the latest and greatest episode of The Monkeychunk Show is available for download now. Of course this is just one of the “Monkeybyte” shows so we don’t devote more than a half hour to waffle on about the #stevevsjohn challenge, give away a copy of our “App of the Week” and all that funky music and giggles you’d expect.

If you want to get hold of the show, you can subscribe on iTunes or just directly download it. If you enjoy it, please let us know by adding an iTunes review or simply getting in touch with myself or Steve. Enjoy!

If you’ve ever had a one night stand, chances are you’ve woken up with a reaction matching that of Catherine’s protagonist Vincent Brooks. Perhaps you intended to, perhaps it was the happenstance of a night abusing your body with alcohol, but either way you must learn to deal with the consequences. This week I’ve been learning all about it by playing a video game…

In case you haven’t been listening to The Monkeychunk Show, you might not have heard me waffling on about the shiny anime goodness of the video game Catherine, from Atlus, the creators of Persona. I’m still only a few hours in but already struggling to survive the puzzle sections. As with Dark Souls, it doesn’t seem like the game is being unfair, I just need to learn the varying construction techniques to survive. If you’re wondering what Catherine looks/plays like, here’s a video I snapped from my Xbox of the opening 15 minutes…

Catherine is not the only game that I’ve been playing this week, as I’ve been making a lot of progress in Dead Island, now on the final half of the game with my chosen main character, copacetic rapper Sam B. I was starting to regret choosing him as his special fury move is a flurry of devastating melee attacks, but I kept ending up in compromising situations with too many zombies.

With a little help from my brother and some other Xbox Live randoms, I’ve entered the third act (of four) and am finding a much more steady supply of guns – pistols, shotguns, machine guns – which are helping no end with my zombie/bad people problems, so my focus for this weekend is to get the game completed, get my 75% (or better) achievement ratio and put the game aside for another day.

Despite having started another new game, I seem to have made sufficient progress to compensate. I’ve still not made nearly enough headway toward my goal, but with only a handful of “essential” Xbox purchases remaining in 2012 I feel confident that the “slow and steady wins the race” strategy is going to work for me. Also, I am lazy.

I’ve only watched one new film this week – The Muppets – and despite my general dislike of musical movies, this one was actually pretty funny and sweet. I think having Bret McKenzie on hand to shape the music paid dividends, as a few of the songs felt like americanised Flight of the Conchords numbers, especially Man or a Muppet. It’s worth a pop if you don’t mind light-hearted films and best of all, it’s not in 3D.

This time next week I may have more than just Xbox games to talk about. I know I shouldn’t, but the the launch of the PlayStation Vita is proving irresistible. Enjoy your weekend folks!

I love cat videos on YouTube, because they usually show these graceful, proud creatures in a hilarious light and take away the air of snobbery the feline species likes to pretend it has. My usual favourite internet cat is Maru, the Scottish Fold from Japan, but this week Maru was overshadowed by this little guy, rocking a pair of glasses, a sweet moustache and if you have those old style glasses it’s viewable in 3D!