New Releases for The Week of Sam and Maps

Thanksgiving week is always low on releases in North America, but there are a couple of titles worth a quick look, including National Geographic Challenge! This party game is a sort of geography game show. It’s less themed than Carmen San Diego, and more gentle than something like You Don’t Know Jack, but it has a wide variety of trivia questions, puzzles, and mini-games to compete in, and allows players to use their Miis or Live avatars. A sure-fire hit next time it’s your turn to host the monthly meeting of The Brothers of the Eight-pointed Rose.

National Geographic Challenge is available for Wii, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.

Serious Sam 3: BFE is a prequel to Serious Sam: The First Encounter, and takes place during Mental’s original invasion of Earth in the 22nd century. The game is touting itself as a throwback to classic first-person shooter gameplay—with no cover to hide behind and lots of powerful weapons and huge bad guys. Other features include a bunch of new enemy types and weapons, destructible near-future Egyptian environments, and some interesting multi-player options. There are deathmatch modes for up to 16 players, which is nothing new, but the entire campaign is open for co-op play with the same player limit. I can hardly imagine trying to play an FPS campaign cooperatively with 15 other people, but it could certainly lead to some interesting moments.

Serious Sam 3 BFE is available on Steam for PC.

Following is a full list of this week’s announced North American releases:

Windows

• Bronco X
• Pahelika: Revelations
• RENATIONS
• Serious Sam 3: BFE
• Time of Fury

Wii

• Fishing Resort
• Get Up and Dance
• JAWS: Ultimate Predator
• National Geographic Challenge!
• Power Rangers Samurai
• WWE ’12

DS

• Power Rangers Samurai

3DS

• Carnival Games: Wild West 3D
• F1 2011
• Face Racers: Photo Finish
• Nano Assault
• Sonic Generations
• WWE All Stars

Xbox360

• National Geographic Challenge!
• The King of Fighters XIII
• WWE ’12

PS3

• Tekken Hybrid
• The King of Fighters XIII
• WWE ’12

PSP

• Corpse Party