This week's new releases! January 17th – 23rd

It’s another slow week as we descend further into the new year with only 4 “new” titles up for grabs. The only one likely to garner any interest is Media Molecule’s LittleBigPlanet 2 which promises to take user created content to the next level with an even more robust tool set than its predecessor.

The original had a bit of a rocky start back when it was first launched, a short delay due to a quote from the Quran being found inside the games soundtrack meant that it got pushed too deep into the Christmas frenzy thus getting dominated by heavy hitters like Gears of War 2. However it looks like there’s no chance of that happening this time; it’s fair to say it more or less has the charts to itself for this week at least.

It’s only real rival is the theSquare-Enix published MindJack, a 3rd person cover based shooter in which you can posses peoples minds, allowing you to temporarily swap places. I swear this whole mind-control/body-swap gimmick is going to be 2011s bullet time; Mindjack, Driver: San Fransisco, 3rd Birthday and FEAR 3 all seem to be relying on it quite a lot.

From what I’ve seen so far it looks like its pretty heavily marketed towards western gamers, a strategy Square pushed pretty hard last year with stuff like Supreme Commander 2 and Front Mission: Evolved. Unfortunately most of the projects involved in that strategy that weren’t called Just Cause 2 ended up flopping pretty badly, a trend I’m sure Square are hoping MindJack will break.

Free Running for the Wii is a bit of curiosity, it appears to be a re-release of a game that came out for the PS2 and PSP nearly 4 years ago, whether it’s a straight up port or if any significant changes have been made is still a mystery. Judging by the usual quality of 3rd party Wii games I wouldn’t expect much, it’s likely just a grab for some quick cash with little investment.

But speaking of long overdue ports, we also have the second part of Bioware’s previously Xbox (console) Exclusive space opera epic Mass Effect finally gracing the Playstation Triple a whole year late. Not that I’m complaining or anything, it certainly beats the previous ETA of “never”.

While it’s likely to be very similar to its xbox and PC cousins, it looks like EA are going all out to try and get a few converts to switch over to the Sony side; every copy comes with a complete collection of all the significant DLC packs so far (about £16 worth) as well as an app for “manufacturing” importable save data to make up for the lack of a PS3 version of Mass Effect 1. As with the other versions, buying the game first hand also nets you a “Cerberus Network” voucher to unlock an additional £10 worth of DLC for free.

Despite all this It’s unlikely the PS3 version will manage to outsell its rivals; most people who care have probably bought and finished it for the 360 already. At least it puts them on more equal footing when Mass Effect 3 rolls around later this year.

Other than that it’s just the usual casual scene stuff: “match 3” puzzling with 4 Elements for the DS and the obligatory Disney’s Tangled movie game for the DS and Wii. Fingers crossed next week will be a bit more exiting.

Multiplatform
MindJack (PS3/360)
Disney’s Tangled: The Video Game (DS/Wii)

PS3
Mass Effect 2
Little Big Planet 2

DS
4 Elements

Wii
Free Running