Publisher: Rail Simulation
Developer: Rail Simulation
System requirements: XP/Vista/Windows7, Intel Pentium 4/AMD Athlon 2.0 GHz, 2 GB ram, 256MB DirectX 9.0c video card with Shader 3.0, 6 GB Hard-drive space.
Genre: Simulator
ESRB Rating: E
Release Date: Available now
Reviewed by: Ian Davis

I’ve heard it said that all girls go through a “horse phase” at some point. Likewise, most boys have, at some point, experienced the intoxicating thrill that iron horses bring. If you haven’t grown out of this state, then you’re not alone: neither have the talented developers at Rail Simulation, makers of the popular RailWorks series. They’ve poured their love of everything on two rails into Train Simulator 2012, and it shows in every billow of steam.

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Master of meditation, Dr. Deepak Chopra, has a game that will soothe your brain. Wild Divine is a meditation-based game that allows the user to rest and relax while controlling the environment around them using only their thoughts and feelings. Attaching an IOM (which is like three Wii Vitality Sensors tied together) to your hand allows the game to read your energy, which makes things happen in Wild Divine. At the official website, you can see a video where Val Kilmer gets real testimony from actual users.

In just one week, Epic’s Gears or War 3 sold three million copies. This gives the brutal third-person shooter the biggest launch week of the year, beating out previous record holder Pokemon Black/White. There are a lot of high-profile games releasing in the coming months, and it’ll be interesting to see if Marcus and Co. can hold on to this record.

A software issue was allegedly behind the accidental banning of an extremely small percentage of Xbox Live users. While Microsoft is still working out the kinks, it has reinstated the users it believes were banned without just cause. For their inconvenience, the recently reinstated users were given three months of Gold access and 1600 Microsoft points.

Splinter Cell agent Sam Fisher has had a busy life, and starting tomorrow, gamers will be able to relive some of it in high definition. The Splinter Cell Trilogy is an HD remastering of the first three Splinter Cell games: Splinter Cell, Pandora Tomorrow, and Chaos Theory. The trilogy will be available for $39.99 both in stores and as a download on the PSN.

Following the trend of announcing DLC before the game is even released, Namco Bandai has announced some premium add-ons for upcoming flight combat game Ace Combat Assault Horizon. The team that worked on the game is currently working on several new planes that will be available for download after the game drops on October 11. There are also new maps and skins coming soon. Ace Combat Assault Horizon has a demo available now on the PSN and Xbox Live.

This “What Is The Darkness?” trailer provides a little back-story on protagonist(?) Jackie Estacado’s experience with the Darkness inside him. It does everything a good trailer should; it showcases the origin, it hints at what’s to come, and it’s violent. The trailer also shows off The Darkness II‘s quad-wielding, because you can never use too many weapons at the same time. Why should Goro have all the four-handed fun?

Trendy Entertainment’s upcoming console release of Dungeon Defenders had its final character revealed today. The Monk deals damage while also using auras to buff up his allies. Dungeon Defenders, which features both local and online co-op, will be available on Xbox Live on October 19, and a PSN version is coming soon.

Afterfall: Insanity, by Polish developer Nicolas Entertainment Group, is a survival horror game set in an alternate version of history. In Afterfall: Insanity, the year is 2032 and you guide psychiatrist Albert Tokaj on a mission to uncover who is responsible for an epidemic destroying the population. PC gamers and survival horror fans can pick this up in November of this year.

Just a week after Netflix split off and became two companies, Netflix for streaming and the newly-coined Qwikster for DVDs, users have something to smile about. Netflix has reached an agreement with DreamWorks and will begin streaming their entire catalog in 2013, including titles like Kung Fu Panda, Shrek, and Bee Movie. While many users are still upset about recent Netflix price hikes, the promise of additional content is definitely a step in the right direction.

Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is sure to sell a few copies. There are probably one or two of you who will be purchasing the game when it releases on November 8 of this year. For those of you looking to get a head start on what’s going on in the upcoming first-person shooter, there is an achievement list posted online featuring the game’s entire spread. If you can’t contain your curiosity, you can check out the list here.

Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Insomniac Games
Genre: FPS
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

Perhaps it’s a product of recent economic uncertainty, but the entertainment media seems to be infatuated with the idea of global catastrophe. Whether it’s alien invasion (TV’s Falling Skies; Hollywood’s Skyline or Battle: Los Angeles), viral pandemic (Contagion), zombie apocalypse (Dead Island) or nuclear holocaust (the Fallout series), we seem to be more and more interested in “what if” scenarios these days. But most times, these stories are told in stark terms without a real human component. Insomniac’s Resistance 3 is one of the few entries in the end-of-the-world genre that takes time to tell a human story amidst the universal carnage that surrounds it.

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Mortal Kombat developer NetherRealm Studios has released a huge patch for the fighting game that offers up several fixes. Each character in the game, including DLC characters, is getting balanced and several tweaks have been made to the game itself. The patch is currently live on the Xbox 360 version of the game and is coming soon for PS3 users.

The PC version of Warhammer 40K: Space Marine got its first patch today from THQ. The patch was made to tackle a few of the issues that have come up since the game’s release. The new patch fixes the game’s “butterfly” exploit, adds “mute all” functionality, updates matchmaking parameters, and fixes a crash issue that had been reported.

The first Crysis game is headed to Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network. The download will feature the full single-player campaign, console-optimized controls, and full stereoscopic 3D support. Crysis will be available for download on October 4, and depending on your platform of choice, will cost either $19.99 or 1600 Microsoft Points.