Welcome back to the GearGames weekly video game release feature here at Gear Diary! This one of those ‘cross your fingers’ weeks … after a long development, the highly anticipated Alan Wake comes to life, but only for the XBOX360 at this point – PC gamers will have to wait – and everyone is hoping it manages to live up to the promise. We also hope that Bioware’s alternate history look at Fereldan in Dragon Age: Origins – Darkspawn Chronicles lives up to the generally positive course they’ve been charting with their DLC thus far.

There are two huge movie tie-ins this week: Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands and Shrek Forever After. The first is a game based on a movie based on a game … and THAT is seldom a good thing! As for Shrek, it appears that Dreamworks is planning to beat the franchise like the guys from Office Space … and take the already feeble game history with it!

After the launch of Steam for the Mac and the subsequent fits and starts with games that had a few issues on launch, now we await more releases in the next week. And there are plenty of other releases this week – read on to find out!

• Red Dead Redemption
• Alan Wake
• Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
• Dragon Age: Origins – Darkspawn Chronicles
• Split/Second
• Shrek Forever After
• Attack of the Movies 3D

• Red Dead Redemption
• Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
• Split/Second
• Shrek Forever After
• Supermarket Mania

• Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
• Trauma Team
• Shrek Forever After
• Attack of the Movies 3D

• Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
• Supermarket Mania

• Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
• Shrek Forever After
• Blue Dragon: Awakened Shadow

• Dragon Age: Origins – Darkspawn Chronicles
• Split/Second
• Fantasy Earth Zero
• Legio
• Sword of the Stars: Complete Collection
• Shrek Forever After
• EVE Online: Tyrannis
• Runaway: A Twist of Fate

Some notes from last week:

• Eschalon Book 2

- Absolutely fantastic sequel!

• Lost Planet 2

- Poorly done & not very fun come together to make an awful sequel.

• Skate 3

- Decent game, but fails o come close to either excellent game in the franchise.

• 3D Dot Game Heroes

- Just plain loads of fun!

• Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 3

- Yet another mediocre Naruto game, but as always fans won’t care.

• Photo Dojo

- This fun little DSiWare addition is pretty cool, great for sharing, and FREE for the next couple of weeks!

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

• Mac: Civilization IV – this classic came to the Mac again via Steam (it got a retail release as well) and after some delays and issues, is a complete blast to replay again!
• PC: Icewind Dale – still plowing my way through this great Black Isle classic on the netbook.
• Mac : Din’s Curse – just can’t stop replaying this wonderful Soldak game! And now I have a copy on my netbook as well!

So what are you playing? Chime in below!

Enjoy gaming!