Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Developer: 1C Company
System Requirements: Windows 2000/XP/Vista; 2 GHz dual core processor; 1 GB RAM; 4 GB free hard drive space; 512 MB, PS 2.0, GeForce 6800GTX or better; DirectX-compatible sound card; DirectX 9.0c; 3-button Mouse or keyboard; Internet connection for multiplayer component
Genre: RTS
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

1C must be making money from the Majesty franchise, as they have released yet another expansion. This time, the king (you) and your Sean-Connery-talking advisor are kicked out of power by your own people, leaving you with little option but to make alliances with those monsters you’ve spent the last few expansions fighting. Majesty 2: Monster Kingdom sees you take the reins of leadership once more, raising a horde of goblins, rat-men, and liches to facilitate your return to power. In other words, it’s time to be the bad guy.

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Publisher: Phoenix Online
Developer: Phoenix Online
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7; 1 GHz Intel or AMD CPU; 512 MB RAM (1 GB for Vista/Win 7); 256 MB DirectX 9.0c-compatible graphics card; DirectX 9.0c or higher.
Genre: Adventure
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: Available now

Earlier in my review of The Silver Lining: I went through Episode 1 nearly unscathed, but then braved Episode 2 and got pretty scathed. That’s pretty much what happened. The good thing is that now, with the third installment pitted against me, I don’t have to worry about writing of things like graphics, voice acting, and mechanics. I already covered them all, and unless some drastic change occurs in future episodes, assume that whatever I said in previous reviews still holds true. This frees me up to talk about some of the finer points of Episode 3, so here we go.

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Publisher: Telltale Games
Developer: Telltale Games
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, 1.8 GHz Pentium IV or equivalent CPU, 256 MB graphics card, 2 GB RAM, DirectX 9.0c, sound card
Genre: Adventure
ESRB rating: Not rated at press time
Release date: Available now

It’s back in time once again for teen time traveler Marty McFly and inventor Doc Brown as developer Telltale continues their first season of Back to the Future adventures. In Episode 2, Get Tannen!, things seem to have been put right again after the end of Episode 1, but Marty and Doc soon discover that they forgot something during their last trip to 1931.

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Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Media Molecule
Genre: Platformer
ESRB rating: Everyone
Release date: Available now

Let’s face it—cuteness is not a selling point for most adult gamers. Especially male gamers, who spend most of their time saving the universe from an alien scourge or cleansing the planet of the zombie infestation. But even the most jaded gaming veteran is bound to find something in developer Media Molecule’s platformer sequel, Little Big Planet 2, that’ll make them smile and give Gordon Freeman or Nathan Drake a break for a few hours.

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Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom
Genre: Fighting
ERSB Rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

It has been a whopping 11 years since the world last saw the heroes and villains from Marvel and Capcom battle it out in MvC2: New Age of Heroes. Since that time, the highly successful game has been ported to various systems, most recently in 2009 where it made a popular comeback on the PS3 and Xbox Live Arcade. Now, Capcom has rolled out the 3rd game in the franchise, Fate of Two Worlds, incorporating both new and old characters in an attempt to revitalize the series for a whole new audience.

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Publisher: BulkyPix
Developer: BulkyPix
Genre: Strategy/Tower Defense
iTunes Rating: 9+
Release date: Available now

In the mid-nineties I played my first computer game, Dune. It was the game that motivated me to push my parents to buy our own PC. It wouldn’t be until 1999-2000 that I would finally get a computer in my home, but once I got one, I immediately fell in love with the RTS and Sci Fi genres. When I received my code to review Battlestar Commander, I was both apprehensive and anxious to find out if it could recapture some of that magic I felt over a decade ago. But before some of you knuckleheads go off on a PC-fanboy tangent, just hear me out. While Battlestar Commander might not be the whole enchilada, it may be the fix you need when you’re sans-PC.

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Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: CNG Studios
Genre: Puzzle
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: Available now

In the past, tying a string around your finger has been a great way to remember something. That’s what I’m told, at least. Honestly, I have no idea how that works, unless the thing you are supposed to remember is written on the string itself. Immunogen, by CNG Studios, looks to take that string off your finger by sharpening your mind through memorizing and matching.

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Publisher: Kalypso Media
Developer: Realmforge Studios
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, 2.0 GHz Dual Core CPU, 2 GB RAM, 256 MB DirectX 9.0c-compatible graphics card, DirectX 9.0c, 2 GB disk space.
Genre: Strategy RPG
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

Dungeon Keeper 2 is one of my favorite games. Yes, I know I am supposed to be reviewing a game called Dungeons; just bear with me, will you? As I was saying, DK2 was a great game. In it you assumed the role of a malevolent being who designs, creates, populates and defends a dungeon. That’s the sort of dungeon where adventuring heroes go, not the other kind. It was a welcome change of pace from every other game out there in which you had to be the hero. There was also the original Dungeon Keeper (designed by Peter Molyneux), but trust me, DK2 was the one you really wanted to play. There was going to be a DK3, but it was cancelled, and then Bullfrog Productions, the developer of the series, closed its doors forever.

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Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Developer: Nitro Games
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Windows7; 2.0 GHz processor; 2GB RAM; 4GB hard disk space; Shader model 3.0 video card; DirectX9 compatible sound card
Genre: Strategy
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

Having missed out on East India Company and its expansions, I did not know what to expect from Nitro Games when Commander: Conquest of the Americas came across my virtual desk. Reading up on the literature before playing showed me a game with both strategic and tactical elements. I imagined I was going to be playing a “sailing ships fighting and colony management” kind of game. While it has both elements, Commander is really a game that is very much in the tradition of its predecessors by Nitro: this is a game that is first and foremost about money. In Commander, you establish colonies, set up trade routes, defend those same colonies and trade routes, and try to expand your empire in a rational way that supports your home country’s need for mercantilist economic growth. Patient and careful empire management, not mindless fighting and conquest, is the key to long-term victory.

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Publisher: Disney Interactive Studios
Developer: Propaganda Games
System requirements: Intel Pentium D 3.00 GHz or Athlon 64 X2 3800+ or better CPU, 1 GB RAM (XP)/1.5 GB (Vista/Win 7); GeForce 8800 GT or Radeon HD 3870 or better graphics card
Genre: Action-adventure
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

“In a world where the sun never shines, and the streets glow in neon colors…” Ok, sorry. I thought I’d dust off my inner Don LaFontaine for this one, since Tron: Evolution is a direct movie tie-in. More specifically, it’s a sequel to both the Tron: Betrayal graphic novel and the Tron: Evolution – Battle Grids game for the Nintendo Wii and DS, and a prequel to the Tron: Legacy movie. Because some of you might not have seen the movie yet, I’m going to try to avoid spoilers, but a little background is necessary.

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Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Blue Castle Games
System requirements: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz or AMD Athlon X2 2.2 GHz or better CPU, 2 GB RAM, 8.5 GB hard-drive space, NVidia GeForce 8800 GTS or Radeon HD 3850 or better graphics card
Genre: Action-adventure
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

It has been five years since the zombie outbreak in Las Vegas. Chuck Greene’s wife died and his daughter, Katey, was bitten and infected during the outbreak. Now, Chuck, a former motocross champion, is in Fortune City participating in a gameshow called “Terror Is Reality,” in which contestants kill zombies for money and fame. Chuck’s only reason for competing is so he can afford a drug called “Zombrex” for Katey, who must have a dose of the expensive drug daily. Then things get worse: there’s a new zombie outbreak, and Chuck gets framed for it. Now he has just 72 hours to rescue survivors, find evidence that proves his innocence, and find enough doses of Zombrex to keep Katey alive until the military arrives.

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Publisher: Activision
Developer: Treyarch
Genre: First-person shooter
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

It seems like every game today comes with downloadable content one way or another. It can be something to personalize your avatar, themes to customize your layout, or content to expand your gameplay experience. Why would Call of Duty: Black Ops, arguably one of the greatest games of all time, be any different? Now, try not to do cartwheels in excitement just yet, because you might just cartwheel into a room with an untold number of claymores and camped enemies.

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Publisher: Broken Rules
Developer: Broken Rules
Genre: Puzzle-Platformer
ESRB rating: Everyone
Release Date: Available now

Nintendo’s WiiWare service has been a strange experiment. Sure, many people have taken swipes at Nintendo’s “two GameCubes wrapped in duct tape” approach to the online experience that nowadays even the most vanilla of mainstream consumers expect. But when they launched this digital distribution service shortly after the Virtual Console, expectations were high that this would be a venue on par with Xbox Live’s Arcade; granting smaller, independently financed titles a showcase in which to peddle their wares. And while there have been a handful of console exclusives that made a splash and really leveraged the unique control mechanics intrinsic to the Wii, such as World of Goo, too many weeks go by with middling shovelware pushed our way. With the release of the platform-puzzler And Yet it Moves hopes are high that this title will make its mark and compel publishers to push for further exposure on WiiWare.

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Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Camelot Software Planning
Genre: RPG
ESRB Rating: Everyone 10+
Release date: Available now

Camelot’s original Golden Sun series is considered by fans to be the best portable RPG series of all time, and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn is the long awaited third entry that fans have been craving since the closing credits of Golden Sun: The Lost Age. Taking full advantage of the NDS hardware, Dark Dawn promises to be the best game in the series. The question is, can it really live up to the cult-like status of its predecessors?

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Publisher: Disney Interactive
Developer: Page 44 Studios
Genre: Party
Rating: Everyone
Release Date: Available now

Four years into the Nintendo Wii’s life cycle, it’s amazing how many mini-game compilations are still released on a fairly frequent basis. In the early days, it was somewhat understandable, as mainstream consumers were wowed by the novelty inherent to wildly swinging your arms and shaking your groove thang. These pick-up and play collections offered an easy point of entry for the casual crowd – allowing titles such as Carnival Games to emerge as surprise smash hits. Years later, the novelty has worn thin, but the shear number of mini-game compilations has yet to wane. It’s a tactic that many licensed properties have chosen to pursue, hoping that gamers will yearn to start a party with the backing of some of their favorite characters. And as a brand, Disney and the Disney Channel has a huge fan base eager to snap up anything with Hannah Montana’s mug splashed across it, so it was inevitable that we would get Miss Cyrus and the rest of her comrades from the House of the Mouse over for a little Disney Channel All Star Party.

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