Manufacturer: SteelSeries
System requirements: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/Win 7/Mac OSX (configuration software not available for Mac systems)
MSRP: $89.99 USD/79.99 Euros

PC users in general (and most gamers in particular) tend to take the humble mouse for granted. It’s standard equipment on every PC, and it’s our primary movement tool through the marvel that is the Internet (try getting around your favorite site using just your keyboard and you’ll gain a new appreciation for your mouse). Yet most of us rarely give it a second thought. All, that is, except hardcore gamers looking for the little extra edge that could make them a force to be feared in their favorite online game.

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Publisher: Phantom EFX
Developer: Phantom EFX
System requirements: Windows XP (32-bit) or newer with administrator rights, 1 GHz Intel Pentium IV, Celeron or AMD or better CPU, 1 GB RAM, 64-MB DirectX 9.0c or OpenGL 2.0-compatible video card, DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound card, DirectX 9.0c, 2 GB hard-drive space
Genre: Casual
Release date: Available now

Humans are truly a strange species. Most of us work all of our lives to make enough money to live and thrive, then we jump on a bus to our closest casino and gamble it all away. Those with skill and discipline usually manage to come home with more that they took with them, but most of us aren’t so lucky. It’s the unfortunate many for whom developer Phantom EFX’s Reel Deal casino simulators are targeted, including Reel Deal Slots: Treasures of the Far East, a collection of virtual slot and video poker machines that tries to give you the excitement of the one-armed bandit, but without the unfortunate consequences.

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Publisher: Atlus
Developer: FromSoftware
Genre: RPG
Release date: Available now

Game makers put a lot of effort into getting an emotional reaction out of players. Devices such as a trusted animal companion biting the dust or your in-game girlfriend getting impaled are all there in an effort to make you “feel” something, to establish a direct connection to your heartstrings and play an adagio until tears are pooling at your feet. That’s the kind of immersion tool that seems to be popular these days; if they can get you to cry, they can get you to do anything. What about anger, though? Not anger at a virtual thing, but old-school 8- and 16-bit anger. The kind of anger you get from playing Ghosts n’ Goblins. The kind you get from the Quickman stage in Mega Man 2. Or the kind you get from Demon’s Souls, the most painfully rewarding game I’ve played this generation.

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Publisher: Namco Games
Developer: Namco Games
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista, 1.0 GHz CPU, DirectX 9, 512 Mb RAM, 330 MB hard-drive space
Genre: Puzzle / Casual
Release date: Available now

Something rather strange has been happening as of late. It seems in the past month there has been a resurgence in hidden-object games. We’ve reviewed Otherside: Realm of Eons and Fashion Assistant, and we’ve announced the release of The Mysterious Past of Gregory Phoenix. I wonder what prompted this. Has there been some market study that has conclusively proven that such games are in great demand? Is it nothing but a simple coincidence? Whatever the reason might be, more of these games continue to appear. Not surprisingly, I bring you the news of another such game.

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Publisher: The Adventure Company
Developer: Trine Games
System requirements: Windows 2000/XP/Vista, 1 GHz Pentium IV or better CPU, 256 MB RAM (512 MB for Vista), 128 MB DirectX 9 on-board graphics or better, 16-bit DirectX 9-compatible sound card, 100 MB hard-drive space
Genre: Hidden Object
Release date: Available now

The adventure game genre, like all of the others, has evolved in the last few decades. It started out with just text in the legendary Infocom games of the 1990s, then moved to slide shows such as Myst, and then point-and-click adventures, with LucasArts leading the way with the Monkey Island series and Grim Fandango. And now, the genre takes a sidestep into the world of Waldo with developer Trine Games’ The Hardy Boys: The Perfect Crime, a hidden-object game that mixes a bare-bones story with simple (but often frustrating) gameplay.

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Publisher: Frima Studio
Developer: Frima Studio
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista, 1.0 GHz CPU, 512 MB RAM, 40 MB hard-drive space
Genre: Puzzle/Adventure/Casual
Release date: Available now

In Big Brain Wolf you follow the adventures of a bipedal, humanoid wolf who, unlike other wolves, is a vegetarian, a nerd, still lives with his mother and is studying to become a genie. Unfortunately for him, mother, who also happens to be the leader of the local wolf pack, gets framed for murder, and it falls upon her son’s scrawny, incapable shoulders to find the real killer. The fantasy kingdom where the events transpire is chock full of familiar fairy-tale characters cast in “modern” roles. Pinocchio is a trial attorney, Tom Thumb is a “gangsta,” Spock from “Star Trek” is tending bar for some reason, and the whole thing is ruled by a morbidly obese Little Red Riding Hood.

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Publisher: Namco Games
Developer: Namco Games
Genre: Puzzle
Release date: Available now

With smart phones taking the world by storm, it makes sense that more and more developers are looking to cash in on the potential gaming market now available to them. But it’s a very tricky venture to make a game you can sell cheaply that doesn’t feel like a cheap game. Isaac Newton’s Gravity is an excellent example of this, a simple concept that is fun but not repetitive or boring.

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Publisher: Headup Games
Developer: DnS Development
System requirements: Windows XP SP3 or Vista SP2, Pentium IV 2.4 GHz CPU or better, 1 GB RAM, ATI Radeon 9600/nVidia Geforce 6600 or better graphics card, 8 GB hard-drive space, DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound card
Genre: Action/Puzzle
Release date: Available now

Tired of mindless shoot-em-ups that require no strategic thinking? Frictional Games’ Penumbra series and Valve’s Portal introduced a different type of gaming challenge, in which physics-based interaction within a full 3D environment—not shooting—is the key to overcoming obstacles. German DnS Development’s Twin Sector continues this tradition, trapping you in locational predicaments from which you have to emerge unscathed. Completely devoid of human interaction, you’d better keep your thinking cap on and your hand-eye coordination sharp.

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Publisher: Warner Bros Interactive
Developer: Rocksteady
Requirements: Windows XP/Vista, Intel Pentium 4 @ 3 GHz or AMD Athlon64 3000+ CPU, 1 GB of RAM, 9 GB of hard-drive space, 256 MB graphics card (GeForce 6600/ATI Radeon X1300 or better), DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound card
Genre: Action
Release date: Available now

Ladies and gentlemen, if I may now draw your attention to the center ring, it is now time for something that everyone has been waiting for. Well, okay, maybe not everyone, but definitely Dark Knight fans: A Batman game that is actually good. No, wait, “good” doesn’t quite cut it. Let me put it this way: Batman: Arkham Asylum is awesome.

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Publisher: Mystery Studio
Developer: Mystery Studio
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista, 800 MHz CPU, 512 MB RAM, DirectX 7.0, 44 MB hard-drive space
Genre: Hidden Object
Release date: Available now

Up until I received Fashion Assistant, I wasn’t aware that there was an underground fan base for hidden-object games. Heck, I didn’t even know that “hidden object” was considered a genre in the first place. Yet after an hour or so with Mystery Studios’ casual offering, I began to see that there could be a market. And while this game in particular is geared more towards the junior-high, female, “The Devil Wears Prada” crowd (which I also didn’t know existed), I found myself compelled to play until the end by choice and not by assignment. Maybe this casual-game thing isn’t so bad after all.

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