King's Bounty: Armored Princess
The new tactical role-playing game King’s Bounty: Armored Princess presents a new story and a major overhaul of the King’s Bounty engine. As in the past King’s Bounty games, players take on the role of a hero of the Might and Magic universe, as they adventure in a set story-line, developing skills and building an army. This is distinguished from the Heroes of Might and Magic series by the lack of a kingdom to rule over. The hero and her army is the entire scope of the game. Many elements carry over from that popular series however, like the tactical battles, spell-casting system, leadership statistics, and equip-able artifacts for the hero. This time the hero is Princess Amelie, who travels to an alternate dimension to search for a friend who went there in search of aid against the encroaching demon hoards on Darion. There she finds a baby dragon to accompany her on her search, and must choose one of three development paths to follow as a leader.
R.U.S.E.
R.U.S.E. is a real-time strategy game set in World War II. The game follows two campaigns—one from the Allied side, and one from the Axis. In each one the gameplay focuses strongly on an intelligence/counter-intelligence angle. Battles in R.U.S.E. will not be won by force of arms alone. Each side has many tools of subterfuge at their disposal. More than just use of spy units, players will have access to tools such as cryptography, false information, decoy buildings and units, and camouflage nets. In addition, the graphics here are crisply colorful, and the designers have opted to allow players to zoom far out on the battlefield—which would all be really cool if the WWII theme wasn’t dripping with the entrails of a badly mistreated horse, the carcass of which reeks with sleep-inducing chemicals. Remember back when a World War II theme made a video game more interesting instead of less? Neither do I.
Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Dream
The long awaited prequel to the original Kingdom Hearts role-playing game is here in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. This time, the game is divided into three main storylines, which can be completed in any order, and which feature prequel versions of many characters and locations from the existing games. A bit of a departure has been taken with regards to party structure, as the player will no longer be directly accompanied by Disney characters. If you’ve been itching to once again fight alongside Donald and Goofy, you might be disappointed by this approach. Instead, the player controls only one character, and even occasionally fights in first-person to direct spells (which use an entirely new casting system), replacing Mana entirely. Ka-yuk.
Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions
This week’s Icrontic spotlight glistens across the gossamer strands of Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. This new Marvel adventure game allows players to take on the roles of four distinct Spider-Man variants. The multiverse is being threatened by the accidental destruction of the Tablet of Order and Chaos, and Madame Web calls upon the Spider-Mans of four worlds: Noir, Amazing, Ultimate, and 2099. Each Spider-Man has his own adventure to complete in his own world, with unique talents, moves, and foes for each. Noir Spider-Man uses stealth and quick attacks to surprise his enemies, Amazing Spider-Man slings webbing and attacks with webbing-based weapons, Ultimate Spider-Man is infused with a symbiod, and fights with great speed and power, while 2099 Spider-Man relies on his spider sense to anticipate enemy moves. The Spider-Mans must each face their greatest foes, who have been empowered by fragments of the Tablet, in an effort to return the multiverse to order.
Following is a list of this week’s announced North American releases:
Windows
- Aion: Assault on Balaurea
- Amnesia: The Dark Descent
- Dragon Age: Origins – Witch Hunt
- King’s Bounty: Armored Princess
- Mass Effect 2: Lair of the Shadow Broker
- Operation Barbarossa – The Struggle For Russia
- R.U.S.E.
- Recettear
- The Sims 3: Fast Lane Stuff
Wii
- Batman: The Brave and the Bold the Videogame
- Brunswick Cosmic Bowling
- NHL Slapshot
- Racers’ Islands: Crazy Racers
- Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions
- Westerner
DS
- 101-in-1 Sports Megamix
- Batman: The Brave and the Bold the Videogame
- Dawn of Heroes
- Midnight Mysteries: The Edgar Allan Poe Conspiracy
- Musid on: Acoustic Guitar
- My Exotic Farm
- Photo World DSi
- Simply Mahjong
- Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions
Xbox360
- Dragon Age: Origins – Witch Hunt
- Mass Effect 2: Lair of the Shadow Broker
- NHL 11
- Otomedius Excellent
- Plants vs. Zombies
- R.U.S.E.
- Saints Row Diamond 2-Pack
- Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions
- Tom Clancy’s HAWX 2
PS3
- Dragon Age: Origins – Witch Hunt
- Kung Fu Rider
- NHL 11
- R.U.S.E.
- Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions
- Sports Champions
- Start the Party
- Tom Clancy’s HAWX 2
PSP
- Ace Combat: Joint Assault
- Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep
- UFC Undisputed 2010
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