Publisher: Activision
Developer: Treyarch
System: Xbox 360
Genre: FPS
Release date: Available now
Review by: Andrew Clark

Gamers these days have plenty of options when it comes to World War II shooters, and between all of them, most of the major battles have been digitally re-created in some fashion or another. That’s why when Call of Duty: World at War landed on my desk, I was apprehensive to go back to the front. I’ve played some pretty decent WWII games in my day, and struggled through some real stinkers, too. How could another one possibly be any good?

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Publisher: Konami
Developer: Konami
System: DS
Genre: 2D Platformer
Release date: Available now
Review by: James Dolbeare

I sometimes wonder if my favorite games would seem as great now if I played them for the first time today. Are the elements we loved in the classics now tired and cliché? For instance, in the age of 3D graphics, epic plotlines and high-quality voice acting, would Castlevania: Symphony of the Night still capture my interest so effectively that I could hardly pull myself away to go about my daily life? After playing Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, I can emphatically say yes. The game smacks of everything great about the Castlevania series, with a few new tricks added to keep things interesting.

Ecclesia is set shortly after Symphony of the Night, and involves neither the Belmont clan nor our favorite backwards vampire, Alucard. Instead, players take control of Shanoa, a member of a secret society devoted to destroying Dracula once and for all. Shanoa has the unique ability to absorb and command glyphs, magical weapons she conjures from thin air. The Order has created a glyph called Dominus that they believe to be capable of defeating Dracula, and Shanoa has been chosen as its host. When Albus, a young colleague of Shanoa’s, discovers this, he becomes enraged and steals the Dominus. Shanoa is then sent to recover it.

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Publisher: MTV Games
Developer: Harmonix
System: Xbox 360
Genre: Rhythm/Music
Release date: Available now
Review by: Christopher J. Troilo

We move further and further into an age when gaming has become a group activity in which we combine electronics with our favorite pastimes. From a hardware standpoint, Nintendo has learned how to take simple sports and games and make them interactive, and now Harmonix has done the same thing for music with its Rock Band series, and they’ve done it really, really well. With the release of Rock Band 2, it’s more than apparent that the developers have listened to their fans’ calls for improvements and have tried their best to address every one of them.

For those of you who might be new to the Guitar Hero/Rock Band experience, here’s a brief overview of how these games are played. In Rock Band, you choose between singing into a microphone and playing one of three instruments (guitar, bass or drums). While you listen to mainstream songs, you attempt to play along by using your voice or your instrument in synchronization with colored notes moving along the screen in time with the music. For guitar and bass, you “strum” a flat lever while pressing buttons on the guitar’s neck. For drums, you have four color-coded drum pads to hit, and a kick pedal to simulate the bass drum. Vocalists get lyrics and an oscillating line that indicates the pitches of the notes.

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Publisher: EA
Developer: EA Redwood Shores
System: Xbox 360
Genre: FPS
Release date: Available now
Review by: Ed Humphries

There are no new ideas, just new ways of freshening up the old ones. At least, that’s how the old cliché goes. While it’s a tenet derived from narrative fiction, the same notion can be applied to video games, a medium that continues to push the idea of interactive storytelling with new and exciting ways of involving the player in the narrative, even if the stories never really evolve beyond the same yarns that have been spun in the past. But, as with fiction, old tales can be rendered new when enough care and polish is applied. With the launch of Dead Space, EA presents a new take on a somewhat creaky survival horror genre in desperate need of a fresh voice.

At the outset of the game, your character, Isaac Clarke (a possible homage to Asimov and Arthur C.), is awakened aboard a vessel streaking through the void to rendezvous with the deep-space mining ship USG Ishimura. The crew of this “planet cracker” has made an amazing discovery on the surface below, and as the scientists aboard begin the process of deciphering their archaeological find, all hell breaks loose. Responding to a mysterious distress signal transmitted by Clarke’s girlfriend, Clarke has two main objectives: rescue the girl, and sift through the rubble and decay that has overtaken the Ishimura in an attempt to understand how things have gone so horribly wrong.

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Publisher: Telltale Games
Developer: Telltale Games
System: PC
Minimum requirements: Windows XP/Vista
Genre: Adventure
Release date: Available now
Review by: Michael Smith

Telltale Games seems to have found the secret of episodic content. Ritual failed to make the Sin Episodes last longer than one installment, and Valve has stretched out its planned release of the entire Half Life 2 series from one year to more than four (with Episode 3 still in development). But Telltale is already in its second “season” of Sam & Max adventures, and has released the first of five planned monthly episodes of a new saga, Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People.

Strong Bad is the star of Matt and Mike Chapman’s web comic, Homestar Runner. Sporting a luchador’s mask, boxing gloves and a snarky attitude, Strong Bad lives with his brother, Strong Sad, a giant whining version of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man who spends almost all of Homestar Ruiner in his bedroom, refusing to come out except to participate (reluctantly) in the game’s tutorial. They share their three-floor suburban home with a strange, orange-striped combination of Pikachu and Garfield known as The Cheat, who waits patiently at the dryer for Strong Bad to kick him into it.

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Publisher: EA Sports
Developer: EA Games
System: Xbox 360
Genre: Racing
Release date: Available now
Reviewer: Michele White

Ever want to try your hand at maneuvering the banking turns of Daytona or tackle the challenge of keeping a car intact in the demolition derby that is Darlington? NASCAR’s 2008 season may be speeding to the checkered flag, but even if you’re driver is already out of the chase, you can get an early start on the 2009 season with EA’s NASCAR ‘09. Jeff Gordon (no need to stand up and cheer/boo) is standing by to be your tour guide and mentor in the world of the NASCAR big leagues.

The autosave feature is the first option that presents itself, and I highly recommend its selection to prevent the loss of a great position in a 500-mile race that you find yourself without the stamina to finish in one sitting. Next, Jeff will ask you to choose your driving style: normal or pro. He recommends normal, but those familiar with the NASCAR series will want the options available to them with pro. Finally, you get to give Jeff’s car a test run to become familiar with the controls, and so it’s off to Michigan in the number 24.

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Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: Number None
System: XBLA
Genre: Platform
Release date: Available now
Review by: Ed Humphries

Braid is the single most important game released this year.

Ever since technology caught up with our hobby and evolved it from simple beeps and blips and tests of hand-eye coordination into a medium capable of spinning a decent yarn and taking players away to awe-inspiring worlds of wonder, the argument that games are art has gathered strength.

In the past year, the debate has raged, with film critic Roger Ebert famously battling author Clive Barker over the topic. Ebert declared that no game could be considered art since the creator hands over control to the user to craft the experience. Barker countered that exact point — that art is defined by the experience we take from our own individual encounters with someone else’s creative endeavor. Ebert’s assertions seem rooted in the past; the Neolithic 8-bit era and earlier (yes, gaming lacks a Cave Art period). Many of Ebert’s readers tossed Shadow of the Colossus into the mix as proof that this medium can inspire and stir the soul. The jury is still out on whether he agrees.

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Publisher: Rockstar Games
Developer: Rockstar North
System: Xbox 360
Genre: Action Adventure
Release date: Available now
Review by: Ryan Asher

“Niko! My cousin! I can’t believe you’re here!”

I shared Roman Bellic’s disbelief as I unwrapped my copy of Grand Theft Auto IV, popped the disc into my system and heard the enjoyably ominous “Soviet Connection” by Michael Hunter. Prior to IV hitting store shelves in late April, our last real taste of GTA-goodness was in the fall of 2004, when Grand Theft Auto San Andreas shattered all expectations of what open world games could do.

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Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Developer: Frictional Games
System: PC
Minimum requirements: 1.5 GHz processor; 512 MB RAM; 3D graphics acceleration; Windows 2000/XP/Vista
Genre: Adventure
Release date: Available now
Review by: Bob Mandel

In 2007, an obscure Swedish company called Frictional Games developed a title (published through Got Games Entertainment) called Penumbra: Overture, originally scheduled to be the first of three episodes. I reviewed that game, and was so amazed at its quality that I gave it the Adrenaline Vault Seal of Excellence award. Recently, without much fanfare the sequel and final installment — Penumbra: Black Plague — has been released (this time published through Paradox Interactive). Like its predecessor, this new first-person horror adventure-puzzle title defies easy categorization, as it combines elements of the point-and-click adventure genre with the more action-oriented first-person shooter genre.

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Publisher: Activision
Developer: Infinity Ward
System: PC
Minimum requirements: 2.6 GHz Pentium IV or equivalent; 1024 MB RAM; DirectX 9-compliant Shader 3.0 card with 128 MB of DDR Video Memory, AGP 8X or PCI-Express x16; 16-bit DirectX 9-compliant sound card; Windows XP or Vista
Genre: Action
Release date: Available now
Review by: Jason Pitruzzello

I’m a skeptical person when it comes to advertising or previews for any product. Long before I became a reviewer for the Adrenaline Vault, I’d find myself furrowing my brow when reading about game features. Unless I played the demo or a respected reviewer gave the game a thumbs up, I was unlikely to purchase it. But my normal skepticism is always doubled anytime I see references to “modern warfare” or “…the most intense and cinematic action experience ever” because of my military background and the general quality of cinema coming out of Hollywood. And so, with a guarded expression, I installed Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare onto my computer with its freshly formatted hard drive. Hours later, I found myself still playing and it was well past my bedtime, something I haven’t done with a FPS since I installed AVP in 1998. When the same thing happened the next night, there was no doubt in my mind that this may be one of the best first person shooters, worthy of being ranked alongside Doom.

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Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo EAD Tokyo
System: Nintendo Wii
Genre: Adventure
Release date: Available now
Review by: Christopher Troilo

Mario has come a long way from his days of jumping over barrels on a 2D screen while attempting to save his beloved from the clutches of Donkey Kong. Nearly 10 game systems later, he finds himself in 3D, on the Wii in a brand new adventure spanning the universe, aptly named Super Mario Galaxy.

The famed plumber, on his way to the Mushroom Kingdom to visit Princess Peach, witnesses from afar that his archenemy Bowser is up to no good. With his mighty airship, Bowser literally steals Princess Peach’s castle and carries it, with her in it, off into outer space. Mario leaps into action and onto the castle, only to be knocked off and sent hurtling into space by one of Bowser’s minions.

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Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Retro Studios
System: Nintendo Wii
Genre: Action adventure
Release Date: Available now
Review by: Christopher Troilo

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is the tenth game in the successful Metroid Prime franchise from Nintendo. Picking up some months after the events of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, bounty hunter Samus Aran wakes up in her ship due to errors found during diagnostic checks. She then docks with the Galactic Federation to recharge and gather her new assignment details.

During Samus’ briefing, Space Pirates launch a full on assault of the space station and of the planet they’re orbiting. With her fellow bounty hunters, Samus defends the station and joins in the counteroffensive on the planetary surface. When the Space Pirate attack is neutralized, Dark Samus appears and corrupts Samus and the other hunters by firing Phazon, an unstable form of energy-induced matter, at them.

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Publisher: 2K Games
Developer: 2K Boston
System: Xbox 360
Genre: Action RPG
Release date: Available now
Review by: Andrew Clark

The realization of a utopian society is as impossible as, say, building an entire city beneath the sea, but both ideas are attractive propositions, to say the least. Most attractive to Ken Levine and his team at 2K Boston (formerly Irrational Games), masterminds behind the first-person role-player, BioShock, a genetic foray into the abyss of the Atlantic ocean where moral decisions, creative thinking and the salvation of a city lie in the player’s capable, albeit altered, hands.

Andrew Ryan is a wealthy industrialist fed up with the way things work in the world. He’s tired of America’s charity toward the poor, overly cautious of mother Russia’s growing Communist threat and unreceptive to the holy word of the Vatican. Ryan envisions a world where the scientist has liberty to experiment and the artist can create with abandon — and none of the stagnant laws which have held progress captive for so long stand in their way. So in 1946, while the world was still celebrating the fall of the third Reich, Andrew secretly built his paradisiacal fantasy: Rapture, a self-sustaining underwater metropolis fathoms under the frigid currents of the Mid-Atlantic.

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Publisher: Got Game Entertainment
Developer: Frictional Games
System: PC
System requirements: Pentium 1 GHz; 256 MB RAM; Windows 2000/XP/Vista; 3D graphics acceleration.
Genre: Survival horror
Release date: Available now
Review by: Bob Mandel

Many games have emerged in recent years in the survival-horror genre, including Clive Barker’s Undying, Scratches and the Alone in the Dark and Resident Evil series. But none of them combined the action of first-person shooters with the puzzle solving and exploration of adventure titles. Now Frictional Games, a small Swedish development team, has released Penumbra: Overture — Episode One, which attempts to combine elements of horror, first-person combat and adventure.

Penumbra started out as a very scary tech demo which didn’t do well in the game contest for which it was made. While it gained popularity when it was released to the public, it had little in the way of story or cohesiveness. In this ultra-competitive world of gaming, is it possible for a limited group to make a successful game? And could the unique blending of adventure and FPS gameplay work? These were the questions on my mind when I began to play Penumbra.

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Review by: Matthew Frost
Published: April 14th, 2006

It sure has been a long time in coming, but Nintendo Software Technology’s Metroid Prime: Hunters is finally here. You early adopters out there might recall, and probably still have, the old “First Hunt” demo that shipped with the original run of DS systems. Heck, you probably even remember that this game was one of the original tech demos displaying the power of Nintendo’s then-new handheld. ( read more… )