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NHL 2004

“NHL 2K4” is more than just the game of hockey. It is true grit, true skills, true intensity and your ability to bring those elements to each and every match-up you face. It is taking on anyone, anytime, anywhere. It is feeling the impact of a precision hit and splitting the D with a skilled skater. It is the battle for the puck and the glory of burying it in the back of the net. It is achieving milestones and setting the standard for others to follow. It is everything you’d want in a hockey game and nothing you’d

Play the ultimate doubles game with the biggest names in tennis! Join #1 ranked Roger Federer, the world famous Maria Sharapova, and over a dozen other well known and up-and-coming tennis stars in the smashing follow-up to the popular Smash Court series!

Learn how to play from the pros – each one plays with their real-life styles. Don’t want to use Martina Hingis and her All-Rounder style? Once you perfect your approach shot, try your skill at one of the inventive mini games, or take aim for the #1 spot on the Pro Tour. Any way you slice it, Smash Court

NFL 2004

Listen. Do you hear it? Squint your eyes. Do you see it? You don't, do you? You don't because "NFL 2K4" goes beyond mere sound and vision - you feel it. You feel that deep breath you take when you're staring down 80 yards of real estate, a six-point deficit and 1:31 on the clock. You feel the fear in the air that results from unblinkingly staring down a quarterback from your middle linebacker position. You feel that brief moment in time when the ball's in the air and all that fills your mind is the overwhelming need to

NCAA College Baseketball 2004

The risky steal, the well-timed block, the buzzer-beater …mind-blowing plays in the final seconds holding every moment suspended in time. Tears, yells, chest pumps…every expressible emotion at its peak -- flowing through the veins of every player, coach and fan. Deafening chants, face-painted students, music blaring bands…unforgettable experiences sending all five senses into overtime. Tradition, pageantry, pride…the definition of college basketball. The moment, the championship, the legacy: “NCAA College Basketball 2K4”…real play, real emotion, real heart.

PlayStation 2

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: 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: 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

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

NBA 2004

Go ahead - leave behind the old traditional style of game. You know, the one of uncontested lay-ups and simple chest-to-chest passes that’s been around for the last few years! Welcome to a new kind of hardwood. Turn on the skills of the next generation and experience the new NBA attitude with “NBA 2K4.” Start with fanatical crowds, blinding lights and deafening sounds that set the stage for each competitive match-up! Heart pounding and filling with anxiety, it’s now time for you to step on the court with a “let’s play” swagger! You got game, so rise above the

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

StarCraft: Ghost is a tactical/action game set in the StarCraft univers take part in the struggle for galactic domination as Nova, a deadly Ghost operative in the employ of the Terran Dominion.

Genre: Action
Publisher: Vivendi Universal
Developer: Radical Entertainment
Release Date: August 23, 2005

If you've ever read an Incredible Hulk comic, you'll recall that almost every story has some point where Hulk has been, I don't know, shot by approximately 500 helicopters at once or something. Hulk will be all hunkered down, hands covering his face, experiencing some sort of animal rage… and then he'll just snap and go nuts on his attackers, like he suddenly remembered that he's functionally invincible. With a mighty "HULK SMASH!" he'll tear into every breakable thing in the vicinity. A few pages (or

Genre: Action/Adventure
Publisher: Buena Vista
Developer: Capcom
Release Date: October 11, 2005

If you've played God of War or Devil May Cry, you will already have a basic grasp of how to play Buena Vista's action/adventure title Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge.

In Oogie's Revenge, gamers play as Jack Skellington, who must fight his way through 25 levels of vicious enemies in order to prevent his sworn enemy Oogie Boogie from kidnapping all of the holiday mascots and proclaiming himself king.

Even though it is facing strong competitors, Oogie's Revenge is looking pretty good, and the fighting and 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

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

Sail the Caribbean, marauding all on the high seas or ally your ship and crew as a privateer in search of riches - the life you choose is up to you. Face dogged enemies, raid unsuspecting villages, woo fair maidens, avoid capture or dig for buried treasure. Discover what it takes to become one of the most famous pirates in history!

Agent 47 is back and this time he's paid in cold, hard cash. How the money is spent will affect his passage through the game and the weapons at his disposal, resulting in a unique gameplay experience for each player. Powered by a new version of Io's stunning Glacier engine, Hitman: Blood Money will deliver the most brutal and realistic simulation of life as the world's deadliest assassin.

In Hitman: Blood Money, Agent 47 finds himself in the midst of a war between two rival contract agencies. When assassins from his contract agency, the ICA, are systematically eliminated in

BattleStations: Midway is an immense action game that drops players into massive air, sea, and undersea battles from Pearl Harbor to Midway. Players command massive fleet attacks and take direct, real-time, control of every plane, battleship, and submarine in the battle.

Battlestations: Midway’s blends intense 3rd-person action with epic, large-scale naval combat and brings to life the great Pacific battles of the World War II. From the chaos of Pearl Harbor, through the Philippines, Java and the Coral Sea all the way to the epic Battle of Midway.

Innovative gameplay lets players take direct control of over 60 different warships,

Set on the war-torn, poisoned atmosphere of Nu Earth, Rogue Trooper is a genetic infantryman (G.I.), one of an elite squad of biologically-engineered clone troops, created to overcome the planet's hostile atmosphere, unhindered in their fight against the enemy, the Nort Republic. After witnessing the betrayal and annihilation of his squad at the Quartz Zone Massacre, Rogue has gone AWOL, determined to hunt down the traitor who sent his brothers-in-arms to their deaths.

Armed with the latest experimental weapons, Rogue's arsenal offers him one extra special advantage over his opponents; encoded bio-chips containing the digitised personalities of his fallen

Genre: Platformer
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Grin
Release Date: Q3 2008

Bionic Commando: Rearmed is an enhanced remake of the Capcom classic from 1988. Former employees who worked on the original game are serving as consultants for this remake, so the level design remains largely faithful to the source material, from the numbered world map to the level layouts.

You play as Nathan "Rad" Spencer, and you must go behind enemy lines to rescue commando "Super Joe," who had been tasked with stopping the "The Albatross," an evil plan to take over the world. You move through the levels,

Genre: Shoot-'Em-Up
Publisher: Bizarre Creations
Developer: Bizarre Creations
Release Date: August 6, 2008

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 offers six gameplay modes: Deadline, Evolved, King, Pacifism, Waves and Sequence.

In King mode, you can only shoot when your ship is located inside of dynamically generated circles. The circles disappear, so you'll have venture around and locate another circle from which to renew your attack. An achievement in the prior title, Pacifism, is now a full gameplay mode. You must avoid shooting, so you kill enemies by leading them through gates, which will close after you pass through them.