Welcome back to the GearGames weekly video game release feature here at Gear Diary! Typically Thanksgiving week is the time to start to pump up sales of the stuff already released, NOT to release new stuff. And the thin release schedule this week confirms that! The nicely done Borderlands gets a first DLC add-on, and there are a few other minor releases.

My personal pick is the classic RPG game Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain arriving on the DS. This is based on the legendary book series by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, and looks to bring some classic role-playing goodness to the DS. There are a few other releases I haven’t mentioned, so check out the list!

• Borderlands: The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned
• Karaoke Revolution
• Stoked: Big Air Edition
• Tom Clancy: Platinum Hits Pack

• Borderlands: The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned
• Madden NFL Arcade PS3
• Karaoke Revolution
• Tom Clancy: Double Pack

• Karaoke Revolution
• Marines: Assault on Terror
• Your Shape featuring Jenny McCarthy
• Scene It? Twilight
• Coldstone: Scoop It Up

• No new releases

• Tekken 6

• Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain
• Scene It? Twilight
• Hello Kitty Party

• King Arthur – The Role-playing Wargame
• Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove
• Your Shape featuring Jenny McCarthy

Some notes from last week:

• Assassin’s Creed II

- Better than the original in almost every way, with the ending and issues with AI being the main complaints.

• Left 4 Dead 2

- Tons of new content should be enough to quiet the grumblers who thought this should be a DLC pack or expansion. The basic formula shows signs of aging, but this is still loads of fun!

• Tony Hawk Ride

- From terrible load times to lousy interface, the only place you’ll want Tony Hawk Riding is out of town with this clunker!

• Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues

- We all knew that eventually the desire to turn everything into LEGO would result in the flaws overwhelming the positive, and this is yet another example of that progression – skip it!

• New Super Mario Bros. Wii

- Stunning in single player, and even better in co-op mode … this is just the game that keeps on giving!

• Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines

- Not terrible, but definitely shows all the typical signs of a ‘hacked down port’.

• LittleBigPlanet

- This port of the PS3 classic is very well done … and hopefully soon PSP Go users will get to play it as well.

• The Sims 3 World Adventures

- If this is a sign of what EA has in store for the Sims 3 franchise … we can’t wait to see more!

• King’s Bounty: Armored Princess

- A solid sequel to one of the best games of 2008 – this isn’t up to the standard of the original, but is still a great experience.

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

• PC: Dragon Age: Origins – I am still consumed with this massive and epic role-playing game. The aths for various characters are quite different and it is challenging throughout.
• PC: Left4Dead 2 – this game is harder than the original, and packed with loads of great content.
• Mac: Avernum 6 – I have been beta-testing this since September, and can finally talk about it … it is a wonderfully done game that is massive and the best looking of Spiderweb’s games.

So what are you playing? Chime in below!

Enjoy gaming!