Publisher: E-One Studio
Developer: E-One Studio
System requirements: Windows XP SP3/Vista SP1/Win 7 SP1, 1 GHz CPU, 2 GB RAM (3 GB for Vista/Win 7), 512 MB graphics card with Shader Model 3.0 support, 4 GB hard-drive space
Genre: Adventure
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

From the minute Hoodwink sauntered into my review queue, I knew she was trouble. Stylish cell-shaded graphics wrapped around a noir plot set in the future, she was like the lovechild of Tex Murphy and Tex Avery. She seemed too good to be true. She was an adventure game, after all. Yet, she’s a game, and I’m a reviewer. If decades of games journalism couldn’t change that relationship, then neither could I. I took the job, and damn the consequences.

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Publisher: Membranos Interactive Media Studio
Developer: Membranos Interactive Media Studio
System requirements: Windows XP SP3/Vista/Win 7, 2.0 GHz CPU, 1 GB RAM, 512 MB graphics card with Pixel Shader 2.0 support, DirectX-compatible sound device, DirectX 9.0c, 300 MB hard-drive space
Genre: Adventure
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: Available now

DeadEnd: Cerebral Vortex is a casual game that advertises itself as a “first-person surreal labyrinth game.” That’s a fancy way of saying it’s a maze game. In these mazes, you’re tasked with navigating your own subconscious in an attempt to find the pieces of your shattered soul. This would be a lot easier if the “surreal” part of the game didn’t include illusory walls or open spaces. You’re navigating a maze, all right, but it’s the kind of maze David Lynch or Rod Serling might create to make you question your sanity.

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Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Developer: Paradox Development Studios
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7/Mac OSX 6.8, 2.4 GHz Pentium IV/AMD 3500+ CPU (2.0 GHz Core Duo for Mac), 2 GB RAM, GeForce 8800/Radeon X1900 graphics card (GeForce 320/Radeon HD 6750 for Mac), DirectX-compatible sound device, 2 GB hard-drive space
Genre: RTS
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

Crusader Kings II is easily one of my favorite strategy games so far this year, and part of its excellence involves its limited design. When it was released, you could only play Christian rulers because developer Paradox made it clear they didn’t want to make playable Islamic rulers who were just carbon copies of their medieval Christian counterparts. Paradox has made good on their promise to provide quality gameplay for Islam in the Middle Ages with the release of their expansion/DLC The Sword of Islam. It has completely different game mechanics for Islamic characters and provides a radically new gaming experience, one that even surprised me after reading pre-release press.

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Publisher: Cateia Games
Developer: Cateia Games
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7/Mac OSX 10.5, 1 GHz CPU, 512 MB RAM, 64 MB graphics card, DirectX 9.0, 350 MB hard-drive space
Genre: Adventure
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: Available now

Red Crow Mysteries: Legion is a puzzle/hidden-object game from Cateia Games that tells the story of a gifted girl on a quest to discover the hidden secrets needed to defeat Legion. In a setting filled with mystery and atmosphere, you guide your avatar through the game’s challenges to reveal its secrets. It’s too bad that so little is revealed.

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Publisher: Shovsoft
Developer: Shovsoft
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, 1.8 GHz CPU, 2 GB RAM, 512 MB GeForce 8800/Radeon X1900 graphics card, DirectX-compatible sound device, 900 MB hard-drive space
Genre: Simulation
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: Available now

Once upon a time, there was an old Atari game called Lunar Lander. It was fairly difficult (for me, at least, when I was a very young lad), and it epitomized the simplicity of early videogame mechanics. Using the thrust engine of your space ship, you were tasked with landing on the moon, without crashing.

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Publisher: Nordic Games
Developer: King Art Games
System requirements: Windows XP SP3/Vista SP2/Win 7 SP 1/Mac OS10.6, 2.0 GHz Pentium IV/2.4 GHz Athlon/1.4 GHz Intel Mac Core Duo CPU, 128 MB graphics card with Pixel Shader 2.0 support/64 MB Intel GMA-950 (Mac), 2 GB RAM (1.5 GB Mac), DirectX 9.0c, 6 GB hard-drive space
Genre: Adventure
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: Available now

Jim Croce was right. You don’t tug on Superman’s cape or spit into the wind — and you certainly don’t make a point-and-click adventure that takes longer than three average shooters to finish. And yet, that’s what developer King Art has done with The Book of Unwritten Tales, a sprawling, artistically gorgeous PnC that just doesn’t want to end.

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Publisher: Remedy
Developer: Remedy
System requirements: Windows XP SP2/Vista/Win 7, 2.0 GHz dual-core CPU, 2 GB RAM, DirectX 10-compatible video card with 512 MB RAM, DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound device, 8 GB hard-drive space
Genre: Action
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

Alan Wake is one of those rare games that makes you want to show it off to non-gaming friends and family as a beaming example of the medium. Now, Remedy has released Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, a $15 chunk of standalone DLC. It expands the combat, continues the story, and includes a new arcade mode. But is it worth the investment, or is it just more of the same?

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Publisher: THQ
Developer: Illfonic
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, 2.0 GHz Core2Duo/Athlon 64 or better CPU, 2 GB RAM (3 GB for Vista/Win 7), 512 MB GeForce 8800 GT/Radeon 3850 HD or better graphics card, DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound device, 3 GB hard-drive space
Genre: FPS
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

In the mid-1990s, a new genre hit the gaming scene with a bang. Soon, burly men with guns blew platformers off their thrones with well-placed rockets and tea-bagged the remains of their cartoon mascots. As new technology allowed for a revolution in graphics, new networking infrastructure created the online deathmatch. The FPS genre arguably hit its peak around the turn of the millennium, powered by lightning-fast online frag-fests exemplified by Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament. These are the halcyon days that developer Illfonic tries to recreate in Nexuiz. However, the result is more “A Bigger Bang” than “Beggar’s Banquet.”

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Publisher: Penny Arcade
Developer: Zeboyd Games
System requirements: Windows XP, 1.6 GHz CPU, 1 GB RAM, DirectX 9.0c-compatible graphics card, DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound device, Windows Media Player, 200 MB hard-drive space
Genre: RPG
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: Available now

It’s another day at Strange Developments, Inc., and investigators/god-killers Tyco and Gabe await their next case. The phone suddenly rings. On the other end, a dark, brooding silence with hints of fear. This can only mean one thing: a phone call from someone inside a dark mime cult. Our dashing heroes dash off heroically to investigate. Thus starts the third chapter in the On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness series, an utterly delightful JRPG spin on the venerable web comic Penny Arcade from retro-masters Zeboyd Games.

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Publisher: 2K Games
Developer: Yager
System requirements: Windows XP SP3/Vista/Win 7, 2.0 GHz Core2Duo or better CPU, 2 GB RAM, 256 MB GeForce 8600/Radeon HD2600 XT or better graphics card, DirectX-compatible sound device, DirectX 9.0c, 6 GB hard-drive space
Genre: Shooter
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

“I love the smell of white phosphorus in the morning.” Not really; that would make me a homicidal maniac. But the farther I progressed through developer Yager’s long-awaited shooter SpecOps: The Line, the more parallels I uncovered between this game and one of the greatest war movies ever made, and the story upon which it’s based.

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Publisher: xii Games
Developer: Wadjet Eye Games
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, 1.8 GHz Pentium IV or better CPU, 512 MB RAM (1 GB for Vista/Win 7), 256 MB graphics card, 1GB hard-drive space
Genre: Puzzle
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: Available now

Resonance is a puzzle/adventure game that revolves around a murder mystery, dangerous technology, and the memories and motivations of its four characters. When a scientist is murdered in his lab after making paranoid ramblings, it’s up to you to figure out who did it, why, and what’s in the secret vault. Utilizing some innovating game elements, Resonance is more interesting than its modest price tag implies.

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Publisher: Smudged Cat Games
Developer: Smudged Cat Games
System requirements: Windows XP, 2.0 GHz dual-core CPU, 512 MB RAM, 128 MB graphics card with Shader Model 3.0 support, DirectX 10, 82 MB hard-drive space
Genre: Platformer
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: Available now

After spending dozens of hours raiding tombs, searching for hidden civilizations and saving the galaxy, every so often it’s good to go old-school and put in some time on an old-fashioned platformer. Thing is, sometimes the simpler a game is, the worse it is on your blood pressure. This can easily be said for The Adventures of Shuggy, which can be totally controlled using the fingers of one hand, yet can be frustrating enough to cause the utterance of rather colorful oaths.

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Publisher: Chillingo
Developer: Cobra Mobile
System requirements: Windows/Mac OS, 95 MB hard-drive space
Genre: Tower defense
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: Available now

We can learn a lot about life from games. For example, the archetypical tower-defense game requires you to assume a passive role and defend against waves of invaders, yet you’re never allowed to offensively strike back, or even tactically retreat. Victory is impossible; only non-defeat can be achieved. Even then, we merely shift to a new battlefield, often not of our choosing. For all of the genre’s inherent meaning, it’s surprising that there are no bullying or racial minority-themed TDs. Yet, on the genre tree, we must first pass through the “WWII Belt” before reaching more fruitful branches. And yet, as iBomber Defense demonstrates, perhaps this isn’t the worst place to be.

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Publisher: Rebellion
Developer: Rebellion
System requirements: Windows Vista (SP2)/Win 7 (Windows XP is not supported), 3.0 GHz Pentium D/Athlon 64 X2 4200 or better CPU, 256 MB DirectX 10-compatible graphics card, 2 GB RAM, DirectX 10-compatible sound device, DirectX 10 or better
Genre: Shooter
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

There are plenty of opportunities out there for shooter gamers to let their inner Rambos escape, spraying bullets around like they’re confetti on New Year’s Eve in Times Square. But rare are the games in which a more careful, thoughtful approach is required for success. Sniper Elite: V2 is one such game. Developer Rebellion has crafted a handsome-looking World War II adventure that pits your covert talents and sniping skills against the Nazis and the Soviets in the blasted ruins of the German capitol in 1945.

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Publisher: Big Fish Games
Developer: Tuttifrutti Interactive/Casual Mechanics
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, 1 GHz CPU, 512 MB RAM, DirectX 9, 272 MB hard-drive space
Genre: Hidden object
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: Available now

Who doesn’t like The Flintstones? While it’s a short, fun show satirizing 1950s suburbia, most importantly it’s a known quantity. You always know what you’re getting. Fred bumbles about his marriage, Barney offers questionable support, while Wilma and Betty are the brains of the operation. Casual games often get a short shrift for their similarity with one another, but like The Flintstones, that’s its selling point. While Casual Mechanics’s hidden-object game Antique Mysteries: Secrets of Howard’s Mansion colors within all the lines, it’s built so well that you might not care.

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