This week’s new releases! February 21st- 27th

Another wide range of releases across all platforms this week, including Guerrilla Games’s gorgeous looking futuristic shooter Killzone 3, a PS3 exclusive that’s just as likely to sell gangbusters as it is to cause fanboy wars in the comments section of every major gaming news site (i.e. very likely). Alongside that there’s People Can Fly’s ultra-violent killathon BulletStorm, a first person shooter that rewards you for destroying your opponents in the most brutal, messy and juvenile ways possible. So yeah, expect several (more) ill-informed mass media outcries and a campaign by the Daily Mail to get it banned within the next month or so. If that doesn’t quite sedate your thirst for blood, then you may also be interested in Game Republic’s Knights Contract for the PS3 and Xbox 360, which for all intents and purposes appears to be……yawn….. another God of War clone about mutilating mythical beats via the fine arts of button mashing and quick time events.

If gore and dismemberment ain’t really your thing, then on the other end of the spectrum we’ve got the WAY overdue ultra cute Kirby’s Epic Yarn for the Wii. Yarn’s minimal resemblance to the classic Kirby games might put some fans off, but on the other hand it’s nice to see Nintendo put out a game that’s not identical to something they’ve already released a bunch of times already. That said, don’t expect it to happen again any time soon. From what I can gather the similarly original Metorid Other M was somewhat of a flop, while the highly iterative Donkey Kong County Returns is still positively printing money. I’m sure people will still complain about a lack of original content from the big N, but at the end of the day people vote with their wallets, and they voted for more of the same.

Speaking of the Wii, this week also sees the release of de Blob 2, sequel to the critically acclaimed Wii exclusive de Blob, which turned out to be a real sleeper hit back in 2008. Hopefully now that colour based puzzler has moved into the much more practical multiplatform arena it’ll get a bit more media attention this time around. I’m also praying for the success of the new PSP remake of SNES classic Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, a deep turn based RPG with a surprisingly dense narrative (for a game released over 15 years ago) and a very unsurprisingly weird name. I haven’t played it myself yet, but so far it’s had massively positive reviews from numerous Japanese AND American critics, which is a somewhat unusual correlation for that sort of game. Come back in a week or two and I’ll help you discover if it really is just that good.

It’s not the only game getting a re-release this week, thanks to the Sega Dreamcast Collection for PC and Xbox 360 (what, no PS3 version?) you can bare witness to the return of classic titles: Sonic Adventure, Space Channel 5 part 2, Crazy Taxi and….. Sega Bass Fishing (?) all in one box for only £39.99! I should probably point out that all of these titles are/will be available to buy separately over Xbox Live Arcade and PSN, so don’t feel that you have to get stuck with a bunch of obscure games no one cares about just to get your hands on Sega Bass Fishing, that would just be silly.

Of course, let us not forget the obligatory talking CGI animal movie tie-in multiplatform games, this week brought to you by Industrial Light and Magic’s Rango! Can’t say I’ve seen the games in action, but I think its a fair guess to say that if you’re reading this, then they’re probably not for you.

Multiplatform
de Blob 2 (DS/Xbox360/Wii/PS3)
Rango: The Video Game (Xbox360/Wii/PS3/DS)
Sega Dreamcast Collection (PC/Xbox360)
Gray Matter (Xbox360/PC)
Knights Contract (PS3/Xbox360)
BulletStorm (PS3/Xbox360/PC)

PS3
Killzone 3

DS
Jewel Link Chronicles: Legend Of Athena
Atari Greatest Hits: Volume 1

PC
Cities In Motion
Surgery Simulator
Trapped Dead
Mystery Case Files: 13th Skull
eXperience 112

PSP
Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together

Wii
Kirby’s Epic Yarn
Haunted House