Nintendo is pleased to announce they have once again broken a sales record with the Nintendo Wii. This time the little white console took the least time to reach 500,000 consoles in Australia, taking only 84 weeks to reach the half million mark.

This is 23 weeks faster than its closest rival according to the press release. Meanwhile, the press release also pimped out the Nintendo DS - the touch screen handheld has an "install base of more than 1.2 million units".

The press release also had release dates for some games - Trauma Center: Second Opinion will arrive on our shelves August 28 and Wario Land: The Shake Dimension is waggling its way into stores on September 25.

Trauma Center: Second Opinion was a launch game for the Wii in America and Japan, making it 84+ weeks before the game made it to Australia. Interestingly, the sequel to the game released in the US and Japan last November.

Microsoft announced earlier at their Gamefest conference in Seattle that effective today Games For Windows Live multiplayer features are free for all PC Gamers.

This means that cross-platform play with Xbox 360 games (which support cross-platform), voice and text chat, your friends list, achievements and Tru-Skill matchmaking are all available free of charge on the PC.

Microsoft will also bring a Marketplace to the GfW Live service selling games and will make the PC service more PC friendly. It seems like a serious attempt by Microsoft to take on Valve's Steam software which provides similar services.

If Microsoft carried their "free to play" strategy across to the Xbox 360, how do you think it would affect the PlayStation 3?

Capcom has officially announced Dead Rising for the Wii. The game will go under the title Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop and is heading to Wii consoles this Summer - though Capcom haven't said if this is a worldwide release yet.

The Wii version will be a significantly different game to the Xbox 360 version released in 2006 - while still maintaining the same "chop up thousands of zombies" vibe. The press release listed some of the details,

• Utilizes the same engine as Resident Evil 4 Wii edition. • New level of interaction – aim and fire guns, swing and throw weapons and shake off zombie attacks with added Wii Remote functionality • Huge environment – expansive indoor and outdoor areas of the mall provide a variety of different locations to explore • Improved save functionality allows for more seamless gameplay • Hoards of enemies on screen at once resulting in non-stop, pulse-pounding action • Anything in the mall is at Frank’s disposal • Grab environmental objects like umbrellas and benches to use as improvised weapons • Snatch items from different stores to use as weapons including golf clubs, lawnmowers, frying pans and more • Consume food and drink to revive health

He's covered wars you know

The game will be more linear on the Wii - on the Xbox 360 version the player had 72 game hours to save as many people and complete as many objectives as they could - time wouldn't wait for them. On the Wii however players will advance time by completing story missions - while other scoops (missions) will continue to occur around them.

Still, the real focus should be on the game's name "Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop". A Till is another name for a Cash Register, and while they're useful items in Dead Rising we don't think Capcom is going for a pun here. Maybe Chop 'Til You Drop works better.

E308 is finished for another year, and the GameArena crew overseas is slowly making its way back into the country. Kreese and Andy Wells have been unbelievably busy all week - if you haven't been able to keep up with all the news coming out of E308 you can find all of Andy Wells' videos and Kreese's on scene reports below.

Andy Wells is back in front of the camera. In his Thursday Feature we get more details on Spore and Mirror's Edge from EA, some information on Resistance 2 from Insomniac Games and the PlayStation 3 news out of Sony Computer Entertainment.

He must be the busiest man in video - if it was worth seeing at E3 Andy was on it, delivering us videos all over the place. This time he's got us an interview with Mike Booth from Valve, who dwarfs our man with the mic.

Samuel L Jackson is a man who knows what he likes. He likes swearing - a lot. He also liked Star Wars enough to apparently take the role of Mace Windu without knowing anything about him. He likes comic books enough that he's let Marvel use his likeness for the Ultimate universe version of Nick Fury - after the credits in the Iron Man movie you get a glimpse of his character in action. And he likes anime - japanese cartoons.

Andy Wells - the world's busiest reporter - is back on the case again. This time he's got Sam Thompson and Caley Roberts from Sony Computer Entertainment with him to talk about Resistance: Retribution for the Sony PSP.

Andy's Wednesday wrap-up features Travis Barker - ex Blink 182 drummer - talking about Guitar Hero World Tour, the news that Daniel Craig is a gamer (we always knew there was something good about him) and Andy getting sassed by the Skate It guy for his mad skills.

Andy got a hold of Gavin Leung, the Product Manager for Star Wars: The Clone Wars and asked him the hard questions about the upcoming Wii and DS lightsaber game.