Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Developer: Bethesda Softworks
Genre: RPG
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: November 11, 2011

In the early days of the Xbox 360, new adopters found one game to rule them all. The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion was released in the Spring of 2006 (a scant six-months after that console heralded this new generation of game systems), and it proved to be one of those bridge titles that united the hardcore RPG elite with the mainstream. Western RPGs have always held court in the console space but unlike the welcoming PC world, they remained a modest, niche success. Since Oblivion’s successful release, big, brawny role playing games have slashed their way to the tops of sales charts. Since then, Fable, Mass Effect and the Fallout series inspiring more and more players to drag dungeons, slay dragons and journey there and back again. With news that the next iteration of consoles is being prepped by the Big Three for debut over the next few years, Bethesda’s latest Elder Scrolls release, Skyrim, makes for a nice bit of symmetry – potentially a fitting swan song.

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Publisher: Sony
Developer: Recoil Games
Genre: Action/Adventure
Rating: Teen
Release Date: Available now

One of these days, someone really ought to release a game called “Metroidvania” and retire on the never-ending residuals. That superlative; the Reese’s Peanut Butter cup-style fusion of two great things – in this case Super Metroid and Castlevania; is usually all an action-adventure fan needs to hear to know their money is well spent. Those titles certainly hit a sweet spot for people who hunger for games that reward methodical exploration with carefully doled out abilities that open new, exciting reaches of whatever castle or labyrinth they happen to be exploring. A few years ago, Chair Entertainment (a subsidiary of Epic) took the “Metroidvania” formula and married it to the spy genre; churning out one of the better titles that year, Shadow Conspiracy. And while the wait for that game’s sequel continues, we now have Recoil Games’ Rochard to scratch the itch as their PSN exclusive aims to send players scrambling through a variety of interstellar installations solving puzzles, chasing down new pathways and keeping the “Metroidvania” dream alive.

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Publisher: Sony
Developer: Team ICO
Rating: T (Teen)
Available: Now

In the age of HD gaming, backwards compatibility is a mixed blessing. While it makes for a “nice-to-have” feature on the back of the console’s box, the truth is many of your old favorites are more visually pleasing when revisited in your mind’s eye. Once you get these ancient treasures running on spiffy new hardware, and splashed across a pristine 1080p widescreen, all those ugly blemishes once hidden by reduced resolution tear at your peepers. So, the loss of backwards compatibility on later iterations of this generation’s consoles is not that big a burden when you consider the care and craftsmanship that Sony has implemented in spit-polishing some of the PS2’s most prominent releases. Taking a long-awaited place alongside the previously released God of War and Sly Cooper collections are two of the PS2’s crown jewels – the sublime Ico and Shadow of the Colossus – fully remastered for a new generation to play and the past to covet.

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Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Developer: id Software
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

Once upon a time, id brought fire to the masses. With the advent of the first person shooter (popularized by their two fisted salvo of Wolfenstein and Doom), id tapped deep into the collective gamer mindset and dreamed up a compelling new genre that gave life to our most visceral impulses. By putting the BFG into our hands and letting us loose on the demonic hordes, they revolutionized the marketplace. They provided a compelling product that underscored the evolutionary shift transpiring. These games weren’t necessarily just for kids anymore, and with the spark ignited, developers weaned on Doom and Quake began adding to the mosaic by taking a fairly simple archetype born from that primal urge to blast stuff and turning it into the box-office busting behemoths we battle through each holiday season. id may have burst onto a barren wasteland way back when, but in the decades since, the landscape has grown fertile. With the release of their long-gestating new IP, we watch to see if id’s Rage can cut through the boisterous noise of their crowded competition.

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Publisher: UTV Ignition
Developer: UTV Ignition
Genre: Puzzle
ESRB rating: Everyone
Release date: Available now

Before the digital distribution networks, PSN and XBLA, became the showcase for ambitious indie darlings like Braid and Limbo, these cyber storefronts featured a dependable selection of classic arcade titles and addictive puzzlers. In fact, on the day I bought my 360, I logged more time playing the freebie Hexic than I did with the show stopping Call of Duty 2. That’s the beauty of a good puzzle game: if the concept is tight and the execution flawless, the intangible “just one more level” mindset takes root; leaving those speaker-blasting battles to wait another day. Nowadays, the marketplaces are jammed with a vast menagerie of downloadable delights, representing all genres. Where these once bite-sized titles have grown much larger, smaller titles like Mercury Hg exist to tax your brain.

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Publisher: 505 Games
Developer: Kung Fu Factory
Genre: Fighting
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

Fighting games work best when they adhere to a simple design philosophy: “easy to play – hard to master.” A good fighting game should be built around a model where anybody can pick it up and have fun, but still be deep enough that those willing to commit the time to learning its systems can mine the true treasure beneath. A good fighting game should evolve the better you get at it. That’s the standard I apply when reviewing a fighter. Can someone mash away and come off feeling satisfied while experts are able to discover a whole new level of strategy? That’s the challenge Supremacy MMA faces today.

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Publisher: Majesco
Developer: WayForward
Genre: Action-Platformer
Rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

We can’t all be Lara Croft. That’s the hard lesson BloodRayne learned when she first debuted on the PlayStation 2. This vampire assassin was cut from the grindhouse mold, and despite starring in a handful of engaging action titles on that generation’s consoles, the feisty femme fatale couldn’t quite reach Lara’s level of celebrity. Instead, she seemed stuck in her B-movie-esque roots long before film director Uwe Boll grabbed hold of the property in his one man battle to drag gaming as far from art as possible. As a result, a promising property died well before it could find its stride. Enter WayForward, a talented team of developers who have performed some real-magic in the 2D platform space, with such notable titles as Shantae, A Boy and His Blob and Contra IV. With Bloodrayne: Betrayal in their mitts, hope was renewed that this vampire would rise once again.

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Publisher: Hothead Games
Developer: Hothead Games
Genre: Action-RPG
ESRB rating: Teen
Release Date: Available now

Humor in games is a tricky art. With comedy so dependent on timing, it can be a tough haul for a developer hoping their pixels execute that pratfall or nail the punch line every time. LucasArts, in its heyday, played host to masters of the form, with guys like Ron Gilbert and Tim Shafer producing some true comic classic adventure games. One of the nice perks to our shiny, new digital distribution age is the ability for these auteurs to find a whole new audience hungry for their particular brand of humor. While Shafer and his gang at DoubleFine have produced some bite-sized gems over the last few years (including Stacking and Trenched), Ron Gilbert joined forces with Hothead Games to unleash the clueless hero DeathSpank. Having overseen DeathSpank’s first two adventures, Hothead now presses forth – sending DeathSpank out on his first adventure, The Baconing, without Gilbert’s guidance. DeathSpank’s biggest task at hand is not how he’ll slice through the malevolent masses but rather will his sense of humor hold up now that someone else is pitching the jokes.

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Publisher: Disney Interactive
Developer: High Impact Games
Genre: Action-platformer
ESRB rating: Everyone 10+
Release Date: Available now

Ever since I became a father, I’ve looked forward to my monthly Guy’s Night Out with my buddies with particular relish. With the majority of my friends staking their claim on my side of the fatherhood fence, we love to down a few brews and then hold court by telling stories peppered with references to anything airing on Disney, Nick Jr., Cartoon Network, or the myriad of cable off-shoots that those networks have sprung. The other guys hear iCarly or Yo Gabba Gabba and we might as well be speaking in Parseltongue. And while the source material is usually inane programming you can’t believe your kids could mine any entertainment from; every once in awhile you spy a diamond in the rough. For me – that treasure is Disney’s Phineas & Ferb; which means the arrival of their summer platformer – Phineas & Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension actually brightened my late Summer doldrums when it showed up on my door-step.

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Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Reflections
Genre: Racing
Rating: Teen
Release Date: September 6, 2011

Video games, like movies, are a collaborative art form. Anyone who waits through the 5 minute scrawl of text that ends each game, waiting to see what bonus features all their hard work has unlocked, knows that the only real difference between a video game and a movie is the lack of a key grip. Other than that, these AAA titles are assembled by a cast of hundreds or thousands, and marketed by twice that. I usually pay particular attention to the Creative Director – the person who keeps the ship afloat as it makes that long journey from inception to “gone gold.” And it’s particularly interesting when a creator leaves his baby in well-meaning hands and heads off to explore new frontiers, only to return several years down the line. Within the next six months, gamers have the chance to enjoy a series of titles that are notable for having enticed their fathers back into the fold. Next year, Ken Levine brings us a brand new Bioshock after sitting the second one out. This Fall, Michel Ancel returns to his Rayman platforming roots. And in just a few weeks, Martin Edmonson takes the wheel in Driver: San Francisco – returning to the series once again after a lengthy absence.

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Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Techland
Genre: Shooter
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, most game developers are falling down in love with each other. If a new title doesn’t build off the foundation erected by yesterday’s hits, then it usually aims to follow the same blueprint for success. A few years back, Techland scored a modest hit with their Call of Juarez title, which was notable for dressing the first person shooter in Western duds. That game was fairly formulaic yet novel for sending gamers down the dusty, scarcely traveled trails of the old West. The prequel, 2009’s Bound in Blood, made a greater impression by promoting the narrative and flashing back to tell a fairly engaging tale of two brothers bound and divided by lost gold. Since then, Rockstar has completely revolutionized the fledgling Western genre with the mammoth Red Dead Redemption which now saddles Techland’s latest release, Call of Juarez: The Cartel, with the daunting task of measuring up to that masterpiece.

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Publisher: MonkeyPaw Games
Developer: MonkeyPaw Games
Rating: Everyone
Genre: Shooter
Release date: Available now

Microsoft may rule the console digital distribution space with their elegantly designed Xbox Live Marketplace, but Sony clearly trumps them when it comes to their back catalog. Their online store may be a bit disjointed (making it tougher to find your way around), but like some back alley boutique discovered while exploring a foreign land, the shelves are often stocked with treasures long-forgotten. In addition to the healthy line-up of PS One classics available for purchase, the PSN Store also plays host to a Japanese Import section – one that MonkeyPaw Games has used to showcase their latest find, the wacky shooter Kyuiin.

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Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Developer: Supergiant Games
Genre: Action/RPG
Rating: Everyone 10+
Release Date: July 20, 2011

Francois Truffaut once said, and I paraphrase, “The best way to critique a bad movie is to make a better one.” He said that as a film critic and went on to lead the French New Wave that swept cinema in the late 50s and 60s. Greg Kasavin is a former game critic and Editor-in-Chief at Gamespot, and after announcing his retirement from the site in 2007, toiled at several of EA’s offshoot development companies, before forming his own game development house. That development house is the small 10-person shop, Supergiant Games. And in the corner of a modest house, this team has toiled under Kasavin’s direction dreaming up Bastion, Kasavin’s bid to put Truffaut’s words into action.

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Publisher: Open Emotion Studios
Developer: Open Emotion Studios
Genre: Puzzle
ESRB rating: Everyone
Release date: Available now

One of the cool things Sony has going for it, is the existence of the PS Minis (which can be found in their online store). Essentially, these are small downloadable diversions that can be played on either your PS3 or PSP. So for those die hard Sony fanboys who grab every piece of tech the company puts out, it’s a nice perk to take one of these pieces of casual fare on the go. Is Mad Blocker Ultra – Revenge of the Fluzzles a remedy for those tired of those pesky Angry Birds? Read on and find out.

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Publisher: Disney Interactive Studios
Developer: Avalanche
Genre: Racing
ESRB rating: Everyone
Release date: Available now

It’s become cliche to knock licensed titles that hit shelves days before each summer blockbuster flickers at the multiplex, but what is a cliche but an oft-told truth? That being said, in the last few years we’ve seen the tide turn. When you vote with your dollars, developers realize the quickie cash grab isn’t going to work much longer. Last summer, Avalanche provided one of the best examples to date in this seismic shift, with their Toy Story 3 tie-in that featured the fun and addictive Toy Box mode. With another PIXAR sequel ready to race, it’s encouraging to see Avalanche steering Cars 2 to retail, but will the same lighting strike twice.

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