Welcome back to the GearGames weekly video game release feature here at Gear Diary! Last week was big … this week is bigger, and I think it is time to stop even bothering with the pretense that we aren’t into the full Fall release swing! Big release this week is Guitar Hero 5, and it is every bit as ‘me too’ and oversold as you would expect … and every bit as excellent! You can expect hundreds of hours to be lost to this one for millions of gamers!

Plenty of other notables this week. The multiplatform release Mini Ninjas promises stylized fun; the console strategy retooling of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 Commander’s Challenge makes another difficult attempt to make RTS work on a console; the popular Soul Calibur franchise comes to the PSP in the impressive looking Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny; and the shooter Section 8 hopes to impress PC and X360 fans.

Other than that, there are plenty of other new releases, but my personal pick is Defense Grid: The Awakening coming o the X360. In a review elsewhere I said “clearly TD (tower defense) games have made a commercial resurgence, and guess what – Defense Grid: The Awakening is the best of the lot!” Anyway, check out the list!

• Guitar Hero 5
• Defense Grid: The Awakening
• Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 Commander’s Challenge
• Pinball Hall of Fame – The Williams Collection
• Section 8
• Mini Ninjas

• Guitar Hero 5
• Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 Commander’s Challenge
• Pinball Hall of Fame – The Williams Collection
• NBA 2K10: Draft Combine
• Mini Ninjas

• Guitar Hero 5
• Muramasa: The Demon Blade
• Mini Ninjas
• Reel Fishing: Angler’s Dream
• Cruise Ship Vacation Games

• Guitar Hero 5

• Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny
• Fate/Unlimited Codes

• Emergency Room: Real Life Rescues
• Mini Ninjas

• Champions Online
• Section 8
• Mini Ninjas

Some notes from last week:

• Batman: Arkham Asylum

- The solid reviews continue pouring in, with the general opinion that this game lives up to the hype in every way!

• Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box

- More of the same … but that is very high praise – if you have played the original, this is a must have. If not – but that first, then this!

• Dissidia: Final Fantasy

- Basically a very fun fighter, but held back with convoluted controls and a wonky camera.

What games am I playing now?:

• PC: Wolfenstein – I’m getting close to the end, but trying to get 100% of all of the items … but not replaying any missions since there is a reported bug that can kill save games on repeated missions.
• PC: Return to Castle Wolfenstein – since I finished JKII I can spend more time with this.
• PC: Icewind Dale – this Black Isle / Bioware classic came up in a discussion recently, so I dove back in on the netbook – loads of fun, but tons of huge battles!
• Mac & PC: Neverwinter Nights – I’m still playing the ‘Official Campaign’ on the Mac and the first expansion ‘Shadows of Undrentide’ on the netbook.
• Mac: “unnamed beta” – My time-sink beta continues at a crazy pace and is an amazing game I can’t wait to see finished!
• iPhone: Wolfenstein RPG – yeah, I’m still on this part of Wolfenstein kick.

So what are you playing? Chime in below!

Enjoy gaming!