Welcome back to the GearGames weekly video game release feature here at Gear Diary! Anyone who is a fan of role-playing games (RPG) is very excited for this week as perhaps the biggest RPG release of the year (we can debate whether Risen is bigger in the comments) – Dragon Age: Origins. The folks who have brought us the Baldur’s Gate series, Neverwinter Nights games, Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect, Jade Empire and more are back – with the ‘spiritual successor’ to Baldur’s Gate. I am rushing to finish everything else on my plate so I can be ready for this one on Tuesday. Recently it was announced that the PS3 version was un-delayed, which is nice since it means everyone gets it this week!

We get the console release of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Ultimate Sith Edition, which released for PC last week (and wasn’t a great port based on what I’ve played so far). Another big release is the rather odd Lego Rock Band, which combines the music band game genre with … LEGO’s? There are actually plenty of solid releases I haven’t mentioned, so check out the list!

• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Ultimate Sith Edition
• Band Hero
• Pro-Evolution Soccer 2010
• Lego Rock Band
• Dragon Age: Origins
• AC/DC Live: Rock Band Track Pack

• Band Hero
• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Ultimate Sith Edition
• Lego Rock Band
• Pro-Evolution Soccer 2010
• AC/DC Live: Rock Band Track Pack
• Dragon Age: Origins

• Rabbids Go Home
• Need for Speed: Nitro
• Academy of Champions: Soccer
• Ultimate Party Challenge with Dance Pad Bundle
• Lego Rock Band
• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Ultimate Sith Edition
• Band Hero
• My Baby First Steps
• Dora the Explorer: Dora Saves the Crystal Kingdom
• Dance Dance Revolution Disney Grooves
• Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party 3
• Food Network: Cook or Be Cooked
• Hooked Again Fishing Bundle
• We Cheer 2
• AC/DC Live: Rock Band Track Pack
• Dream Salon

• Band Hero
• Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier
• AC/DC Live: Rock Band Track Pack

• Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier

• Rabbids Go Home
• Need for Speed: Nitro
• Sushi Academy
• My Baby First Steps
• Style Savvy
• C.O.P. The Recruit
• Lego Rock Band
• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Ultimate Sith Edition
• Band Hero
• Disney’s A Christmas Carol
• Dream Salon
• Imagine: Babyz Fashion

• Jonathan Kane: The Protector
• Dragon Age: Origins

Some notes from last week:

• Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony

- Very well done 2nd DLC for GTA 4!

• Forza Motorsport 3

- Stuffed full of excellent content … one of the best racing games in quite a while.

• DJ Hero

- Solid game, but the music game genre seems to be chilling off and this might be a victim of that.

• Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time

- Another solid entry into the series!

• Tekken 6

- Solid but unspectacular addition to the fight game series.

• BEN 10: ALIEN FORCE Vilgax Attacks

- Possibly worse than the recent film.

• Mytran Wars

- Decent but not spectacular.

• Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter

- Innovative at first, the ‘drawn to life’ series has run its course (creatively speaking).

• Borderlands

- Every bit as good as the console releases!

• Painkiller: Resurrection

- Should have stayed dead.

• Saw

- Fails to recreate the horrific experience of the movies.

What games am I playing now? Well, at this point I am STILL saturated with a growing backlog … but here are a couple:

• PC: Borderlands – this is one of those ‘where did those last four hours go’ sort of games. Not deep, but loads of fun.
• PC: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Ultimate Sith Edition – this takes up ~25GB and doesn’t run all that great based on a console hardware comparison.
• PC: Torchlight – a fun little casual RPG from the makers of Fate and Hellgate: London (they’d rather point back to Diablo), this is a blast but might be a bit thin in terms of overall experience.
• PSP: Zombie Tycoon – loads of fun to be had in this $7.99 PSP mini!

So what are you playing? Chime in below!

Enjoy gaming!