Welcome back to the GearGames weekly video game release feature here at Gear Diary! We have now officially entered the ‘clean-up’ period of the year, where stuff just drops onto shelves that has either seen loads of delays or has no particular audience or is something that the publisher doesn’t want to spend any money promoting. Or has an audience that is impervious to the typical holiday swings – sort of like the expansion pack Europa Universalis: III Heir to the Throne, which takes place between 1492 and 1550 and allows you to play as eight major European powers. Cool stuff!

Other than that … well, there is Twin Sector, which really doesn’t seem very promising, a couple of X360 collections of Konami Classics, and some DS games targeted at young kids. There are a few other releases I haven’t mentioned, so check out the list!

• Konami Classics Vol. 1
• Konami Classics Vol. 2

• No new releases

• Playmobil Circus

• No new releases

• No new releases

• Playmobil: Pirates
• Reader Rabbit Kindergarten

• Europa Universalis III: Heir to the Throne
• Twin Sector
• EverQuest Underfoot
• Brukkon

Some notes from last week:

• The Saboteur

- The consensus seems to be ‘better than expected’ and ‘a charming mess of an unfinished game’.

• PixelJunk Shooter

- Really good downloadable game!

• James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game

- The other versions were not good … but the PSP version is even worse!

• The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

- Not in the top tier of Zelda games, but still quite good.

• Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 5: Rise of the Pirate God

- Very nice conclusion to an excellent season!

What games am I playing now? As I keep saying, I’m still playing catch-up with the fall season, though I am getting closer to seeing the light at the end of the tunnel … so here are a few active games:

• PC: Dragon Age: Origins – yeah, still playing. There are (at least) four distinct endings, and I’m trying to see more than a couple.
• PC: Left 4 Dead 2 – really loads of fun!
• PSP: LittleBigPlanet – some limitations in terms of level creation, but in general a ‘must have’ for the PSP
• DS: Puzzle Kingdoms – a match-3 game I have had since the spring that I finally got around to trying … not so great.
• Mac: Avernum 6 – I just really love this game.

So what are you playing? Chime in below!

Enjoy gaming!