GearGames Weekly: February 21 – 27

Posted on 21 February 2010 by


Welcome back to the GearGames weekly video game release feature here at Gear Diary! Some pretty cool stuff this week, including the high profile release of the PS3 exclusive Heavy Rain, made by the same team that brought us the solid adventure game Indigo Prophesy a few years back. Heavy Rain has been highlighted as an example of the ‘uncanny valley’, the point where virtual characters look so real that the most subtle differences from actual behavior make them grotesque. As a game, it has gotten solid reviews so far – reviewers have had the game for several weeks and while I haven’t heard anything revolutionary, it sounds like a great game. The XBOX360 finally gets the port of Risen (my PC review is here), and it appears that the time spent polishing it might have helped based on differences from the earlier European X360 release.


The PC is getting some major strategy game love this week: the newest addition to the Total War franchise arrives with Napoleon: Total War, an expansion for Sony’s first RTS comes along with

  • Order of War: Challenge, and the excellent Anno series sees an add-on with Dawn of Discovery: Venice. There are a few other games coming out this week, so check out the list!

    360

    • Risen
    • Greed Corp
    • Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing with Banjo-Kazooie

    ps3

    • Heavy Rain
    • Last Rebellion
    • Greed Corp
    • Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing with Banjo-Kazooie

    wii

    • Endless Ocean: Blue World
    • Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing with Banjo-Kazooie

    psp

    • Metal Slug XX
    • Age of Zombies

    ds

    • Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s World Championship 2010 Reverse of Arcadia
    • Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing with Banjo-Kazooie

    pc

    • Napoleon: Total War
    • Order of War: Challenge
    • Achtung Panzer: Kharkov 1943
    • Dawn of Discovery: Venice
    • Arsenal of Democracy

    Some notes from last week:

    • Aliens vs. Predator

      • - Sometimes games, like movies, have no need to be remade … this is such a case.

    • Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce

      • - If you are a fan you probably already have it. If not, just skip it because it isn’t very good.

    • SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3

      • - Generally solid reviews, but some were more hard on the game for the lack of innovation over the last few years than I was.

    • KORG DS-10 PLUS

      • - Takes a great musical product and makes it even better.

    • Ragnarok DS

      • - Not very good port of the popular PC game according to early reports.

    What games am I playing now? Here is a sampling:

    • Mac: Bioshock – the sequel is OK, but sent me back to this classic, which was just released for the Mac late last year.
    • PC: Hammer & Sickle – someone mentioned this buggy but deep 2005 strategy game and sent me back for a replay … still deep, still buggy!
    • DS: Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes – I love puzzle-RPG games like this, and it is a wonderful, wonderful game.
    • PSP: SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3 – I’m still having fun playing custom missions.

    So what are you playing? Chime in below!

    Enjoy gaming!

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