Publisher: ActionSoft
Developer: ActionSoft
System requirements: Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 (or Mac OSX 10.4); 1.2 GHz processor (1.8 GHz recommended); 160 MB RAM; approximately 45 MB of hard drive space.
Genre: Arcade Shooter
Release date: Available now
Review by: Marcus Spears

I don’t always know what to expect from a game when I review it. When I get a new assignment, I deliberately avoid reading anyone else’s opinions; that way it’s easier for me to check my expectations at the door to make sure that I give a fair, unbiased evaluation. But with Insectoid, I knew exactly what to expect. ActionSoft’s goal was to create a Galaga-inspired game for anyone who grew up playing classic arcade shooters and remembers when arcade games actually cost only one quarter to play. I’m happy to say the developer has succeeded on every count.

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Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Media Molecule
Genre: Adventure
Release date: Available now

There are very few games that reinvigorate the passion we all share for gaming. It could happen a few times in a generation; it might even only happen once. It’s a game that’s so fantastic, so refreshing and so unexpected it reminds us why we play, why we choose to leave the ordinary and immerse ourselves in the extraordinary. LittleBigPlanet is one of those games. It’s simple, addictive, fluid, and has a spark of ingenuity that’s often attempted but rarely achieved. It’s games like LittleBigPlanet that pull us from the doldrums of sequels and rehashes and excite us enough to share our passion and love for our hobby. Critics recognized this last year, and thus we’ve been treated to LittleBigPlanet: Game of the Year Edition.

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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: Frontier
Developer: Frontier
Genre: Puzzle-Platformer
Release date: Available now

Roughly halfway through this current generation of consoles, I can safely say that I have mined more entertainment and unique gameplay experiences from the bite-sized morsels available on the various digital distribution streams (such as WiiWare, XBLA and PSN) than I have from the mega-budget retail releases. Looking back over the last few years, my end-of-year Top Ten lists have skewed heavily towards the independent developers, with games such as Braid and World of Goo standing taller than their supposed big brothers. There just seems to be an air of creativity at the grass roots level that diminishes the higher you climb in the stratosphere, and while I’ll happily tackle the next GTA or Halo clone, my juices really start flowing when I’m adventuring through another finely crafted puzzle game. This digital revolution kicked off around the time the WiiWare service launched, featuring its greatest showcase title, LostWinds. Developer Frontier has toiled tirelessly for the last two and half years to finally offer fans their long awaited follow-up, Winter of the Melodias.

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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: September 29, 2009

The search for a giant sea sponge that can cure a voodoo pox that’s spreading throughout the Caribbean continues in Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 3: Lair of the Leviathan, developer Telltale’s continuing saga based on the classic Lucasarts adventure games. And although the structure of the episode is pretty much the same as the previous two, this one features a unique setting, a group of bizarre characters and a budding romantic conflict for our hero.

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Publisher: Activision
Developer: Neversoft
Genre: Music
Release date: Available now

Who hasn’t dreamed of being on stage singing for thousands of adoring fans? It’s a fantasy that knows no age limit, no racial or gender barriers. But most of us are missing the one major element that would make that fantasy a reality: talent. And that’s where developer Neversoft’s Guitar Hero series comes in. Playing interactive music games, be they Guitar Hero, Rock Band, even vocal-only products such as Lips, gives even the tone-deaf player the opportunity to step up and be a superstar. Guitar Hero 5 takes the now-commonplace music-game mechanic and spruces it up a bit, giving us another good reason to drag out the plastic instruments and rock out until our hands cramp and our vocal cords turn to mush.

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Publisher: Frozenbyte
Developer: Frozenbyte
System Requirements: 2.0 GHz CPU; 512 MB RAM (1 GB for Vista); Graphics Card Radeon X800 or GeForce 6800; 1 GB hard-drive space; Windows XP; Windows Vista or Windows 7
Genre: Action/Platform/Puzzle
Release date: Available now

Side-scrolling games incorporating a lot of platform action are considered a bit retro on the PC, so it’s refreshing when a new release comes along with the goal of breathing new life into the genre. Created by Finnish developer Frozenbyte, renowned for the excellent third-person action shooter Shadowgrounds, Trine is an innovative game that combines physics-based action with physical puzzle solving in a variety of lush medieval settings.

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Publisher: EA
Developer: EA
Genre: Sports
Release date: Available now

Earlier this year, veteran broadcaster and former NFL coach John Madden announced that he was stepping aside from his color commentary duties to get busy enjoying the remainder of his days. Love him or leave him, Madden was an iconic presence on Monday Night Football and his absence will surely be noticed. While the Big Guy jumps aboard that famed Horse Trailer for one last ride into the sunset, there’s no doubt that his legacy lives on in the digital age, as the Madden brand has become synonymous with videogame football. With the annual release of his smash mouth simulator treated as a national holiday of sorts, it will be a long time before we divorce the man from the game. As the first title released following Madden’s exit, Madden NFL 10 bears the weight of living up to the man’s legacy.

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Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: EA Tiburon
Genre: Sports
Release date: Available now

At this year’s E3 conference, Microsoft garnered lots of press with the unveiling of Project Natal, a motion-sensing device seemingly ripped from the film “Minority Report” but owing just as much inspiration to the Nintendo Wii. At the same conference, Sony displayed its own unnamed version of the Wiimote and its waggling wizardry. The message was clear: while Microsoft and Sony offer powerhouse, pixel-bursting consoles, they clearly lag behind Nintendo’s lower-powered Wii, which thus far outsold the competition on the strength of its innovative control scheme. Despite that success, core Wii owners would counter that the Wii has yet to fully reach the potential promised when the system first debuted in 2006, a fact that Nintendo has sought to remedy through the introduction of Wii Motion Plus, an enhancement designed to produce true one-to-one motion control. While we won’t know how well Nintendo has implemented the device until Wii Sports Resort reviews start appearing, Electronic Arts has jumped to the forefront, embedding the technology into this year’s installment of its venerable Tiger Woods golf franchise, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2010.

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Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
Genre: Action RPG
Release date: Available now

Bethesda’s DLC support for Fallout 3 has been nothing but fantastic. There have been some minor bugs and loading issues when some of the add-ons launched, but all were fixed rather quickly. Each piece of DLC has been progressively better than the last, and Point Lookout continues this trend. It not only expands the universe, but it also truly captures the essence of what it is that fans of Bethesda’s action RPG’s love: exploration.

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

Freude, schoner Guterfunken Tochter aus Elysium. Anyone with some training in classical music will recognize this snippet of German as a lyric from the fourth and final movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. Moviegoers might know it as the featured music in the final scenes of the original Die Hard film, but gamers of all shapes and sizes will recognize this phrase from Pop Cap’s multiplatform puzzle-game hit Peggle Deluxe. Turns out, the game is equally as memorable as the music.

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Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
Genre: Action RPG
Release date: Available now

When the retail version of Fallout 3 released back in October 2008, it was met with mixed reviews. Many looked at it as a great achievement in gaming, with its expansive world and unique VATS combat system. Then there were those who just couldn’t get into the game because of its open-world structure and menu complexity. There were even those who couldn’t believe that Bethesda had actually put an ending in their game. Well, fear not: Bethesda has listened to your cries with the DLC package Broken Steel, opening up the Capitol Wasteland to you once again beyond the previous ending. Oh, and they also threw in some new quests, gear and perks.

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Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Guerrilla Games
Genre: FPS
Release date: Available now
Review by: Andrew Clark

Killzone 2 is one of the most anticipated PS3 games released so far. The “too-bad-it-wasn’t-true” E3 ’05 trailer might’ve been spun a bit too much, but after the smoke cleared, even after the first “real” screenshots were released, the hype machine continued chugging along like some gargantuan generator, hardly scathed. So it’s here now, and I have it. Perhaps I should just break out the Seal of Excellence and get it over with.

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Publisher: Take 2 Interactive
Developer: Rockstar Games
Genre: Action
Release date: Available now
Review by: Ryan Asher

Niko Bellic’s Liberty City was so good the first time, it only makes sense to double dip and head back. Only this time you’re not reprising your role as the mass-murdering Eastern European immigrant. You’re playing as the pit-bull-like Johnny Klebitz. Johnny is the vice president of the Lost Motorcycle Club, and as the Grand Theft Auto IV expansion pack The Lost and Damned begins, he has just returned to the role of second fiddle with the release of the club’s previously incarcerated president, Billy Grey.

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Publisher: SCEA
Developer: thatgamecompany
Genre: Casual
Release date: Available now
Review by: Matthew Dart

If you ever thought that controlling flowers to combat the ugliness of the world (and support the ecosystem to boot) would make for an exhilarating video game, then think no more. Developer thatgamecompany’s Flower brings captivating visuals, musical elegance and a unique play style that anyone can love, despite its hippie premise.

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