Genre: Action/RPG
Publisher: Konami
Developer: Konami
Release Date: Fall 2005

If nothing else, Castlevania: Curse of Darkness answers one question I’ve had for a while about the Castlevania series. Simply put, it’s this: when you leave and come back into a room in a Castlevania game, where does the fresh wave of monsters come from? Is there a hidden wing of Dracula’s castle that’s entirely dedicated to the care, feeding, construction, and breeding of new monsters to replace the ones you’ve been hacking to bits?

Apparently, there is, and it’s staffed by people like Hector. As a Devil Forgemaster, Hector

Gears of War

Genre: Action
Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: Epic Games
Release Date: Q1 2006

Going into E3 2005, the game I was most excited about seeing was by far the very impressive Unreal Engine 3-based Gears of War for the Xbox 360, and it sure didn't disappoint.

The story behind Gears of War paints a pretty bleak picture for humanity, thanks to some really nasty creatures that will send chills up and down your spine the first time you see them, and many times after that as well. The setting is the planet Sera, which is very much like Earth, just slightly more

Genre: Action/Adventure
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Release Date: Q4 2008

As a kid, one of my favorite games was the PC classic, Prince of Persia. It was a crushingly hard and deeply unforgiving game that nonetheless manages to be addicting enough that I memorized every pixel of it. A variety of sequels have ranged from fun to terrible, but few could ever match the enjoyment of the original Prince of Persia. When they announced Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, I wasn't expecting much and found myself blown away by some of the finest action-puzzle gameplay

Genre: Rhythm/Music
Publisher: MTV Games
Developer: Harmonix
Release Date: September 2008

Rock Band launched at the end of 2007 to great hype and anticipation, quickly becoming the holiday gift for those who could afford the hefty price tag ($169.99). Garnering an average of 93% at Metacritic and moving over three million units, it would seem that MTV Games' gamble has paid off. Coming this September is the inevitable sequel, Rock Band 2, and the devs have taken fan feedback into account to figure out how to optimize the hardware and software experience.

First thing's first — the

Genre: Action
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Developer: Seven Studios
Release Date: Q3 2006

In case you missed the memo the first time around, here’s another copy of it:

Pirates Are Cool.

Heck, just go ask Guilty Gear X’s Johnny, or the entire cast of Skies of Arcadia. Pirates are always fun to play as in video games. There’s just something about being able to break all the rules, play dirty, and fight as underhanded as one possibly can whenever one feels like it that translates wonderfully to the genre.

Few pirates are better at all of this than one Jack Sparrow, and he’s going to

BioShock for the Xbox 360and PC was released in 2007 and received numerous Game of the Year honors from prestigious organizations including Associated Press, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), Game Informer, Spike TV's VGAs and Paste Magazine. BioShock's extension to the PS3 will bring exciting new content to this amazing title and reach many new players, while giving the title the opportunity to once again be named Game of the Year.

"Since BioShock for Xbox 360 and PC won countless 2007 Game of the Year awards, we are excited to see the impact of this

Genre: 2-D Platformer
Publisher: Number None
Developer: Number None
Release Date: Q3 2008

At just about every turn, Braid thumbs its nose at your expectations.

To hear one describe it, you'd think that it's all been done before, but the approach in this 2-D platformer title is fresh and new. The player journeys through a series of five worlds in Braid, collecting puzzle pieces along the way. The platforming sequences pay homage to everyone's inspiration, Super Mario Bros. — right down to a creature coming out of the castle at the end and proclaiming, "I'm sorry, but the

Genre: 3D Action/Adventure
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Treyarch
Release Date: TBA

Ultimate Spider-Man, at its core, is a re-telling of the classic Spider-Man story with a slightly younger cast and a contemporary spin.

You all know the gist of it by now: a nerdy kid gets bitten by a radioactive spider, gets super powers, and uses both them and his mind to solve crimes while at the same time possessing the ability to upstage just about everyone on Def Comedy Jam without even trying. The Ultimate line of comic books puts the Spidey stories in the here and now, with today’s

Genre: RPG
Publisher: Bethesda
Developer: Bethesda
Release Date: Fall 2008

For those unfamiliar with the awesome Fallout world setting, imagine that the future we had pictured in the '50s had actually come true. Household robots and ray beams exist, and there is still that bizarre '50s sense of misogyny and racism that is somehow both hilarious and offensive at the same time. Unfortunately, one of the other big '50s predictions — the entire world would blow the crap out of each other in a nuclear war — also came true. Most of the world is a

Rat Hunter is a first-person action shooter with a mystery story in a hi-tech world. The player fills the shoes of a reporter who investigates a string of mysterious events on a remote planet. In order to obtain hot evidence, he gets a job of a rat hunter at one of the colonies. What starts as a simple investigation will soon turn his life inside out. You’ll dive into the haunting memories of the past and discover jaw-dropping truth about main character's real identity…

Rat Hunter features are traditional, by-the-book gameplay, which does not wander into the realm of tactical shooters.