Genre: Action/RPG
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Bioware
Release Date: 2010
Mass Effect 2 opens up after the events of the first Mass Effect, with Commander Shepard in a pretty bad situation. A new enemy has appeared in the galaxy and is presenting a threat to humankind on par with the Reaper that Shepard defeated in the first game. Things have gotten so bad that Shepard was thought to have died in combat. Fortunately, he was rescued and recruited by a shadowy underground group who is looking for his help on a suicide mission. Shepard is the only human capable
Genre: Fighting
Publisher: SNK Playmore
Developer: SNK Playmore
Release: July 2009
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The King of Fighters is a long, long running series. This fighting game series has been running at the speed of Madden for a major length of time, until it stopped annual releases in 2003 and went to subseries like Neowave and Maximum Impact. Now we're back to the original series, with the Roman numerals translating to 12, with a nice set of HD updates that bring the series into the current generation.
The standards of The King of Fighters are in effect: Take many SNK
Genre: Sports
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
Release: July 26, 2009
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Before you read any further about Wii Sports Resort, go do a bit of bowling in Wii Sports. Notice the subtleties that are there in the simulation, and those that aren't. The Wii Remote, ultimately, is limited, and many of those limits have been removed with the recent introduction of the Wii MotionPlus, which links to Wiimotes to let you do more with them. While it is launching with two EA Sports titles for Wii, the MotionPlus clearly seems custom designed for the upcoming Wii Sports
Genre: Rhythm/Music
Publisher: MTV Games
Developer: Harmonix
Release: September 9, 2009
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How can a game be both so much more than its predecessors, and yet so much less at the same time? This conundrum defined what I saw of the upcoming Rock Band release, The Beatles: Rock Band. The game floored me as a Beatles release, but its heritage as a Rock Band game seems a bit tenuous.
The basics are all there; this is Rock Band, with one significant evolution and some major interface modifications that I'll get to in a bit. The big new idea
Genre: Puzzle
Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive
Developer: 5TH Cell
Release Date: September 15, 2009
5TH Cell is perhaps the best DS game developer that no one has heard of. They've only developed a few games, but those games have been fun and innovative, making excellent use of the DS' various features to create games that would not be the same anywhere else. Drawn to Life was a platformer designed around creating your own character, while Lock's Quest was a combination tower defense and hack-and-slash game. Their upcoming game, Scribblenauts, is easily their most ambitious to date, and
Genre: Action/Adventure
Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Developer: Headstrong Games
Release Date: Q4 2009
With the exception of the poorly received The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, every modern LotR title has been based on Peter Jackson's very popular set of movies. This has caused most of the games to have a very similar, distinctive look: dark, grim, gritty and realistic; featuring the likenesses of the movie actors; and monster and enemy designs similar to those in the film. Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest is still based on the movie, and you'll
Genre: First-Person Shooter
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Rebellion
Release Date: January 19, 2010
Defying all laws of God and man, the Alien vs. Predator video games are actually really good. The Jaguar AvP is one of maybe two titles that justify the platform's existence, and the PC version has a devoted fan base even now, 10 years after its release.
The team at Rebellion that' responsible for making those original games has, for the most part, reunited, and they're working on a new, current-generation Alien vs. Predator title. As with the original games, you have the option to play
