Publisher: Sega
Developer: Eurocom
Platform: Xbox 360
Genre: Sports
Release date: Available now
Reviewer: Christopher J. Troilo

Every four years, the world’s greatest athletes come together, placing aside global differences, to compete before the eyes of all nations. This August marked the 29th occurrence of this event in the modern era—the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Beijing, China, was named the host city nearly seven years ago, and finally, after much deliberation and planning, the athletes have embarked on the last leg of their journey to be the very best at what they do.

This year, the Opening Ceremony was watched in some manner by an estimated 4 billion people across the globe, more than any other event in history. Olympic Fever caught hold, and there are many outlets for fans to show their pride and to be a part of the Games. Since the chances of being on the medal stand are slim for most of us, the digital world offers the closest thing we can get to experiencing going for the gold—this year’s official video game for the Olympics, simply titled Beijing 2008.

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Publisher: Gamecock Media Group
Developer: Crackpot Ent.
System: PC
Minimum requirements: Pentium IV 1.5 GHz or equivalent; 256 MB RAM; 64 MB video memory; 600 MB hard drive space
Genre: Action adventure
Release date: Available now
Review by: Jason Pitruzzello

Troi is a messy city. Crime, corruption, and discarded soda cans litter the landscape, turning a once gleaming city into a grimy, film noir metropolis. Chrys Liszt, rookie detective, has been recently assigned to one of the few uncorrupt police precincts in the city and partnered with Roachy Caruthers on a new case. While this might not be the most compelling plot for a computer game on the surface, it has a wrinkle which the developers use for all its worth: insects are now the dominant life on Earth. The few humans that remain live out their existences in hazmat suits on the fringes of the new insect culture that comes complete with skyscrapers, commercials for consumer products, and homicide, err, insecticide. Yes, that’s right; there’s been a murder at the Nectarola plant, giving Chrys and Roachy their newest case, with all of the zany one-liners and parody you would expect from mixing insects with detective work.

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Publisher: THQ
Developer: Valusoft
System: PC
Minimum Requirements: Pentium 4 2.0 GHz or equivalent; 1024 MB RAM; 256 MB video memory; 5 GB hard drive space; Windows XP/Vista
Genre: Action RPG
Release date: Available now
Review by: Andrew Clark

The Diablo series left a massive footprint in the mud when it stepped onto PCs all those years ago, effectively setting the standard for all like games to come. The Blizzard chasm stood as a warning that said “Trespass carefully; you are in our territory now.” That didn’t deter the likes of Sacred, Divine Divinity or Dungeon Siege, who bravely dove into the pit, helping to fill the depths closer to the surface. Master Creating, a German developer, thinks it’s also time to do a cannonball into Blizzard’s pre-made game trap. Maybe after all of this imitation it has become easier to make a successful hack and slash loot fest? That is, until the all-consuming Diablo III hits the shelves, right?

In Legend: Hand of God, the hero, Targon is a recruit member of the Order of the Holy Flame, a society tasked with protecting, what else? The Holy Flame. This guarded blaze acts as a stopper for a portal to a demonic world, one which had invaded in the past with catastrophic consequences. If the fire goes out, the demons invade again. Coincidentally, did it just get darker in here?

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Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Backbone Entertainment
System: XBLA
Genre: Shooter
Release date: Available now
Review by: Andrew Clark

1942: Joint Strike stimulates my thoughts of the future. Will prevalent games such as Grand Theft Auto IV eventually be remade or reworked on some future platform? Should we expect that a game’s graphics will shadow its predecessor’s, as Joint Strike’s do its arcade grandfather’s? The possibility breaks some fifth-wall process in my mind and makes me wonder all kinds of magnificent things, not only in the visual department, but also in terms of gameplay extensions developers haven’t yet begun to imagine.

Joint Strike is a reconditioning of a 1984 arcade shooter in which you control a World War II-era fighter in a battle against squadrons of Japanese planes. This time, however, every aspect of gameplay and graphics has been expanded, polished and toned to accommodate both the modern gamer and fans of the original. Elements from all of the 194X games are combined, giving the player multiple planes to select, health bars (instead of 1942’s one-hit kills), a compliment of powerups to augment your firing pattern, charge shots, and the ability to eliminate every enemy on screen with a super bomb.

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Publisher: Majesco Games
Developers: ABA Games, Budcat Creations
Platform: Wii
Genre: Shooter
Release Date: Available Now
Reviewer: Christopher J. Troilo

Aero Fighter, Ghost Pilots, Tiger Heli and a multitude of other side-scrolling adventures were all the rave in the arcades of the 1970s and 80s. The basic premise proves that sometimes the simplest concepts are the most addicting, entertaining and engaging. Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy for the Wii attempts to recapture pieces of that magic by allowing the player to feel like they are back in the arcade. Only this time, the players are the ones setting the rules.

The objective is simple. As the screen scrolls left to right (or perhaps up and down), you control a small ship, armed with an endless supply of projectiles that you spray across the screen in an attempt to destroy all of your enemies as they approach. The ships, yours and your adversaries’, are made of simple multi-colored polygons that form shapes such as biplanes or spacecraft. Your goal is to navigate through the web of your enemies’ red bullets to reach the end of the stage.

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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: Activision
Developer: id Software
System: Xbox 360
Genre: First-person Shooter
Release date: Available now
Review by: Ryan Asher

The Strogg have finally reached Earth, and the nomadic aliens are hell bent on totally ruining our sweet planet (before we do that ourselves with our Hummers, overpopulation and sexually suggestive song lyrics). It’s a plotline that I wish I could describe further, but the opening cut scene of Strogg ships approaching Earth is the only semblance of storytelling in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. It’s a shame, really, as the clichéd, ominous-sounding narrator and the menacing spaceships descending upon Earth really had me yearning to see what other plot devices the developers would employ.

As it turns out, the run-of-the-mill introduction to Quake Wars is only foreshadowing for the gimped game within. I’ve played my fair share of barebones games before, and the cupboards are nearly bare here. Like most games of its ilk, Quake Wars lets players choose from two sides: in this case, the GDF, the humans who are ensuring our way of life (which consists of listening to Big ‘N Rich for most of us); and the Strogg, the dudes who want to take that away.

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Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Gevo Entertainment
System: Nintendo DS
Genre: Rhythm and Music
Release date: Available now
Review by: Christopher J. Troilo

I always think it’s interesting when trends and fads are so blatantly obvious, that the market becomes saturated with an object or an idea. What’s fascinating is that companies try to take a concept that seems to be universally loved, and try to target very specific niche audiences over and over again, until basically everyone is tired of it and they begin searching for something new.

We’ve seen this many times throughout the decades, with all things: food, fashion, television, movies and especially video games. In television, we have seen the rise (and many would argue fall) of reality TV. And now, as we enter what I like to call the “segmentation and imitation phase”, you could find reality shows for almost any profession on the world, each trying to cater to a specific interest.

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Publisher: Paolo Cosentino
Developer: Paolo Cosentino
System: PC
Minimum requirements: Intel Celeron 2.0 GHz, 256 MB RAM, Windows 98, 3D Graphics (developer has not tested the game under Windows Vista)
Genre: First-person shooter/Adventure
Release date: Available now
Review by: Bob Mandel

Sometimes in the midst of highly touted blockbusters, a surprise game emerges that stands out from the crowd. Such is the case for TECNO, an obscure release from Montevideo, Uruguay that was largely developed by a single individual across several years. This title has a high ambition: to provide a hybrid science-fiction first-person shooter/adventure/puzzle play experience in a manner that is quite distinct from most of what is out there. TECNO takes a big risk by refusing to mimic current fads in its design.

The plot is not one of TECNO’s strong points, as sadly there is very little story development. Despite a fascinating introductory video, you don’t find out much about whom or where you are, and as you progress you never really learn much more. Your mission is to escape from an advanced technology-filled base where robots have malfunctioned. The ending of this game, while nicely done, will leave you wanting more. Although the first-person shooter crowd does not always demand a plot, adventure fans do, and they will be disappointed.

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Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Developer: Paradox Interactive
System: PC
Minimum requirements: Windows Vista/XP/2000; 1.9 GHz Intel Pentium or similar AMD; 512MB RAM; Direct X 9.0c; 128MB video card with support for pixelshader 2.0
Genre: Strategy
Release date: Available now
Review by: Jason Pitruzzello

The economic forces that drive the computer gaming industry work in mysterious ways, but occasionally to the average gamer’s benefit. This seems to be the case with the Europa Universalis franchise. Paradox Interactive has followed up the financial success of its previous expansion pack with the release of a second add-on, Europa Universalis 3: In Nomine. Listening to compliments, complaints and suggestions of all types, the designers have made an attempt to improve and expand upon many aspects of the original game. The most obvious examples are an extended timeline, with an earliest starting date of 1399, and new troop types and technologies. As in the previous expansion, Paradox capitalizes upon what makes a strategy game of this depth and magnitude fun: options, options, and still more options.

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