Publisher: Activision
Developer: Now Production
Genre: Fighting/Brawler
Release date: Available now

As a 37-year old dude, I pride myself on my ability to stay hip to what the kids are playing these days. While some of that may come from the fact that I’m a parent, I also stay up-to-date on all the latest fads simply out of pure interest and curiosity. No matter how old I get, that boy in me who first geeked out over collectible Star Wars cards knows that “Force” will never die. That said, I admit that when my son first threw down a Bakugan on a Gate Card, he had his old man stumped. Would this new collectible critter craze be the one straw that broke this camel’s back? Alas, I’ve rolled with the best of them, racking up scads of G-Power cards so when Activision decided to take the Bakugan Battle Brawlers into the digital realm, I was ready to enter the ring.

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Publisher: I-Imagine Interactive
Developer: RTL Sports
Genre: Sports
Release date: Available now

I should preface this review by pointing out that, more than most games I review, I am not part of the target market for this game. Even compared to the games made for girls aged 9-12, of which I’ve reviewed many. I know so little about soccer, it is literally impossible for me to participate meaningfully in this game. Watching soccer, to me, is a very small step up from watching long distance running on TV.

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Publisher: Digital Prunes
Developer: Digital Prunes
Genre: Action
Release date: Available now

The iPhone may well be the greatest thing I’ve ever purchased. I’ve virtually no sense of time or space, and the phone does both of those things for me. So long as I keep my iPhone charged, I will probably never be bored again. That is, of course, unless I use it to play Slingshot Cowboy.

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Publisher: Activision
Developer: Infinity Ward
System requirements: Windows XP SP2 or Vista; Pentium 4 3.2 GHz CPU; GeForce 6600GT; 512 MB RAM (1GB for Vista); 16 GB hard drive space.
Genre: FPS
Release date: Available now

Modern Warfare 2, the latest installment in the Call of Duty series, has sold 4.7 million copies in its first 24 hours. At $60 a pop (more for some versions) this equals $310 million in one day. This is despite an ongoing boycott of the title over the lack of some, otherwise common, features. It also flies in the face of the ridiculous ruckus raised by the “think-of-the-children” crowd over the game’s content. Given current economic conditions as well as the opposition, these record-breaking sales are quite remarkable. Inevitably a question is raised: Is this game really that good? Before discussing that, however, let me tell you a little more about it.

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Publisher: 1C Publishing
Developer: Gaijin Entertainment
Genre: Flying Simulation
Release date: Available now

Do you like racing around at great speed, causing mayhem with guns and blowing up things? Look no further: IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey is the game for you, especially if you’ve been doggedly fighting World War II on the ground (World at War; Call of Duty) and are in search of a new outlet. At least you can then decide if you want to swap your infantry boots for a comically overlarge moustache with accompanying leather hat. Think first-person shooter with a bucket load of caffeine. It’s manic; even in single-player mode there’s enough action and activity to keep the most demanding flight simmer happy. Switch to versus mode for a while and you’ll need to lie down in a dark, quiet room for a few hours (days in my case – I am not as young as I once was). It’s by no means a perfect game, but it’s fun and exciting.

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Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive
Developer: Griptonite Games
Genre: Adventure
Release date: Available now

It’s a curious thing when a movie-based tie-in game has nothing to do with said movie. But when you want to squeeze every dollar out of a hot property, some things need to happen. Right, bean counters? When you pop in, play and finish Where the Wild Things Are, you might be left scratching your head, saying, “Whhaaa?” Sure, there’s a kid named Max, and he wears a wolf suit. He also navigates his way to a fantasy island inhabited by some kooky-looking “wild things.” But the similarities between the movie and the game end right about there.

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If you spend most of your game time staring at a respawn counter or as road kill for other drivers to flatten, then it might be time to look for a little help. KontrolFreek wants to provide that help in the form of the FPSFreek and the SpeedFreek, economical plastic attachments for your controller. Using physics, algebra, a little English and presumably some alien technology, these accessories promise to save your game. And we all know the rewards of playing like a champ. You’re sure to get chicks (or dudes), money and more chicks (or more dudes). But can improving your game really be all that simple?

FPSFreek

When you initially look at the FPSFreek, you’re probably going to wonder how these joystick extensions improve your accuracy. The basic concept is, with the added height of the joysticks, your thumbs are provided more leverage for more precise aiming. Putting it simply, more leverage = more pwnage. At least, that’s the theory. I threw this theory right into the fire, popping in Left 4 Dead and Call of Duty 4 for the Xbox 360. After a couple of hours with both games, I felt the amount of pwnage I dealt was only slightly greater than or equal to the amount of pwnage I normally dish out. I didn’t notice any true improvement in my game, but in truth I’ve always been a fairly good FPSer.

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Publisher: Riot Games
Developer: Riot Games
System requirements: Windows 7, XP SP3 or Vista SP1; 2.0 GHz CPU; nVidia GeForce 5 or higher graphics card with shader model 2.0; 1 GB RAM; 1.3 GB hard-drive space; Internet connection
Genre: RTS
Release date: Available now

Games journalism is a grim and solemn business, and editors routinely beat those of us who appear to be having fun, but League of Legends is a game I’ve been playing (and secretly enjoying) quite a bit. It can best be described as an inverted tower defense game built using a PvP concept. Curiously enough, League was originally a Warcraft III mod that became a full game that’s free to download and play.

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Publisher: Monte Cristo Games
Developer: Monte Cristo Games
System Requirements: Windows XP SP3 or Windows Vista SP1; Intel Pentium IV 2.5 GHz or AMD equivalent or better CPU (Centrino 2 or better for laptops); 1 GB RAM (1.5 GB for Vista) (1.5 GB XP, 2.5 GB Vista for laptops); 256 MB NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT/ATI Radeon X1600 or better graphics card (Intel Graphics Accelerator or better for laptops); DirectX 9.0c; 8 GB hard-drive space
Genre: Simulation
Release date: Available now

Last year, I spent a few weeks building cities with Monte Cristo’s city simulator City Life 2008. While it was not without some balance issues, I felt it was a worthy entry into a market that has long been dominated by Sim City and its ilk. I was not surprised when Cities XL came up for review, and I eagerly installed the game after I saw that it had an online component, something for which players have been clamoring for a long time. What I found after two weeks of play surprised and disappointed me.

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Publisher: Telltale Games
Developer: Telltale Games
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista, 2.0 GHz CPU; 512 MB RAM; 64 MB DirectX 8.1-compatible video card; DirectX 8.1-compatible sound card; DirectX 9.0c or higher
Genre: Adventure
Release date: Available now

In each of the first three episodes of the Tales of Monkey Island series, pirate good-guy Guybrush Threepwood has managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. But in the penultimate installment of developer Telltale’s five-part story, The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood, our hero battles something even more fearsome than the pirate pox, prissy French mad scientists or lovelorn manatees: the pirate justice system.

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Publisher: Vulcando Games
Developer: Vulcando Games
System requirements: Pentium 4 3.0 GHz or a Dual Core CPU; 512 MB RAM; 3D graphics card, 300 MB hard-drive space
Genre: Real Time Strategy
Release date: Available now

Do you remember the first time you played a real-time strategy game? Did it take over your life? Would you stay up late every night just to get a couple of wins and only a few losses (because you were a stud)? Would you battle your friends for glory and hold grudges against them if they defeated you? Can Vulcando Games’ Hive Rise provide all these wonderful memories to PC gamers?

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Publisher: 2K Games
Developer: Gearbox Software
Genre: RPS
Release date: Available now

With my affections towards Mad Max, first person shooters and RPGs, it was only natural that I would have been following the development of Borderlands from the very first snippet of info released over two years ago. I was anxiously looking forward to reliving Road Warrior-esque scenes on barren salt flats and experimenting on the wildlife using thousands upon thousands of randomly generated guns. And although what I hold in my hands is a solid, well playing romp on a strange and wonderful world, I’m still left conflicted as to whether I’m absolutely in love or just okay with it.

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Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Zen Studios

Originally published in July, reprinted for additional content.

Few things in my life actually bring back childhood memories. Lemons, “The Goonies” and pinball. The lemons is a long story. “The Goonies” is obvious. But pinball? Yes, it was nothing short of magical to go to the arcade with my father and beat that shiny marble ball around inside those exotic tables of gaming goodness. So when I was given the chance to play Zen Pinball on the Playstation 3, I knew I’d be rehashing those fond memories.

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Publisher: Futuremark Games Studio
Developer: Futuremark Games Studio
System requirements: Windows Vista or Windows 7 (no Win XP support), Intel Core2Duo E6600/AMD Athlon64 X2 5600+ or higher CPU, nVidia GeForce 8800GT/ATI Radeon HD 3870 or higher video card, DirectX 10, 2 GB system RAM, Vista-compatible sound card, 1.5 GB hard-drive space
Genre: First Person Shooter
Release date: November 4, 2009

I’m floating through space, utterly weightless, with just the failing beat of my heart to keep me company. I am in the middle of tranquility, and just before my suit fully decompresses, the thought crosses my mind that I’m just not thinking “360° enough” to be of any use to my team. Quite an existential reflection. But when you’re in a zero-gravity firefight amongst the remains of a fractured moon, nothing seems too extraordinary. I’m playing (and dying a lot in) Shattered Horizon, the first game from Futuremark Games Studio, and despite my frequent bouts with death, I’m having a good time.

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(click to play the video)Sometimes beating a game is not enough. Often you want to share the results of your labors with other gamers so they can use your strategies and make their own lives easier. If you’re like me, you may just want to rub your victory in people’s faces. You could also do video reviews, or use in-game footage to make a music video for your favorite song. Whatever your goals may be, in order to do this, you have to record your moment of glory. Usually one would use Fraps to do that, but now a challenger has arrived.

PlayClaw is a video capture program by Sytexis Software. It is small (requiring only 1.85 MB of hard drive space) and lightweight (20 MB memory footprint). Like its competition, it also allows you to take screenshots in BMP, TGA, PNG and JPG formats. If you use the JPG one it allows you to use a slider to select the desired quality for the image. For video, the options are Low, High and No compression, with frame-rate choices of 15, 30 and 60 frames per second. Just as with Fraps, PlayClaw does not allow you to save videos at arbitrary resolutions, instead defaulting to either the resolution at which the game is running or half of that.

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