Any new games worth checking out?

[Harrison]

Aw! There have been loads of great new PC games released over the last year or so. Too many to list them all, but here is a reasonably large list of my favourite ones, with some notes on what they are.

• Command and Conquer 3 + Kane's Wrath expansion (I know you like C&C games so you will love this)
• Red Alert 3 + Uprising exp (same game engine as C&C3 and just as good)
• Empire Earth 3 (great for any RTS fan)
• Empire Total War (new game in the Total War series. Brilliant and so much detail. Sea battles now too!)
• Mass Effect (this is a brilliant Adventure RTS. Very similar in style to Knights of the Old Republic, but on an even grander scale and from the same makers. Highly recommend you play this one).
• Dead Space (great space based event horizon/alien/survival horror style action adventure game)
• Drakensang: The Dark Eye (very nice German RPG)
• King's Bounty: The Legend (Heroes of Might and Magic style SRPG)
• The Witcher Enhanced Edition (this version fixes all the bugs and makes it a great RPG)
• Titan Quest Gold (original game + exp)(good Diablo style action RPG)
• Space Siege (space action RPG style game using similar gaming system to Dungeon Siege. I'm playing this one at the moment and really enjoying it. It is very much old school above view shooter style adventure similar to the Amiga Alien Breed games)
• X3: Terran Conflict (standalone expansion to the great X3 space trading game).
• Lost Planet Extreme Condition (good Adventure game)
• Gears of War (better than the 360 version, but best played with a 360 controller)
• World in Conflict (very nice RTS)
• Company of Heroes - Tales of Valor (nice RTS)
• Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare (if you like war style FPS then you will love this. Very nice game. Only complaint is it holds your hand through most single player levels a bit too much)
• Men of War (very nice WWII RTS which is the sequel to Soldiers: Heroes of WWII)
• Tom Clancy's Endwar (very nice RTS. Needs a decent system to run it well though).
• Tom Clancy's HAWX (arcade flight sim. Great arcade style flight sim shooter with amazing graphics. The gameplay system is much easier to use than a full flight sim, but you still get all the enjoyment of flying a fighter plane with a couple of wingmen alongside, shooting air and ground targets and having a great time. Highly recommended for some fun gameplay with big explosions and lots of fun).
• Grand Theft Auto IV (definitely the best GTA game of the series so far. A persistent realistic world with great graphics and very open ended gameplay).
• Tombraider Underworld (best TR since the original!)
• Chronicles of Riddick - Assault on Dark Athena. (includes the original game, plus the new episode/game with both using the new game engine. Very nice action adventure).
• Burnout Paradise (best burnout game to date. Persistent game world where you drive around the whole game road network picking fights with other drivers or entering races at junctions)
• GTR Evolution (very nice game that is really an updated version of Race 07 rather than GTR2, which is still actually a better game)
• World of Goo (this is a brilliant little puzzle game. It's cheap to buy and download too. Worth playing).
• Assassin's Creed (if you still haven't played this one then I highly recommend it).
• Bioshock (a slightly older game, but if you still haven't played it yet then you are missing out. Plus a second game is currently in development).
• Far Cry 2 (with a PC powerful enough to run it, this is a very nice adventure FPS. A little different to the first game. Gone are the mutants, and instead you are dropped into an African country that is being held by rebals and you can take any sides you like. It plays like the early jungle sections of the original game. Highly recommended!).
• Crysis (the actual sequel to the original Farcry. However it is quite different to the original, and you need a very good PC to run it well).
• Civilization IV - Colonization (updated version of the orginal Colonization using the CivIV engine).
• Colin McRae Dirt (best game in the rally series to date. Need quite a good system and a gamepad to get the most from it though).
• GRID (this is in my view one of the best racing games on the PC so far).
• Plants vs Zombies (brilliant little zombie RTS. Keep the zombies out by planting zombie eating plants in your garden. great little game).
• Dawn of War 2 (very nice sequel. Alters things a lot though. Gone are base and unit building. Now it is more tactical with up to 5 units you have to use to win each mission. Utilising each units unique skills to overcome the enemy).
• Left4dead. (brilliant survival horror game. Can play it online with a group of up to 4 players, as survivors in a group trying to fight their way out of a city overrun with zombies. Like a muliplayer version of Res Evil).
• Demigod (finally a game just released. A very interesting RTS where you control huge demigods on the battle field to control and over power other armies and their demigods)

Quite a few. I'm sure I've missed a few out in the list but that is a pretty good list of most of the important releases. You should enjoy any of them I'm sure.

[Teho]

I'm not even going to bother adding anything to that, that's quite a list! I definitely agree with you that GRID is one of the best racing games out there. It's realistic enough, while still being somewhat forgiving and fun to play. I say somewhat, because it can be damn punishing as well. I played it a lot around its release, but have picked it up again recently and it's still great fun.

In that regard, is anyone looking out for FUEL? It's release is friday next week for PC, PS3 and 360 and is the next driving game from Codemasters. This is a sandbox racer with a huge, and I do mean gigantic world to drive around in. It's set in a kind of post-apocalyptic near-future where the climate has gone completely haywire. The idea of the game is to collect fuel apparently, you drive around and compete in races where you earn fuel for getting good results. Of course, there are no rules in these races. You have to hit checkpoints in a certain order, but how you get to them is largely up to you. There is a GPS which points out a somewhat sane route for you, but that doesn't mean it's the fastest. You have to constantly consider the risk of cutting through hazardous areas to earn higher positions and possibly damaging your vehicle versus keeping to the relatively even path.

The broken climate is also a major factor. Weather conditions are extreme, and can change from one condition to the next in a very short time. There are even tornadoes that pick up any loose objects and hurl them around. These various effects is supposed to be extremely good, Codemasters is promising that you have never seen weather like this in a game before.

There's also a multiplayer component of course. One cool thing is that you can create your own tracks by simply planting checkpoints around the map. The game will plot a GPS course automatically, and you can then host races on these tracks online. That may certainly make for some interesting races.

Here's Eurogamer's summary page for it, there's plenty of videos and a couple of previews on there. I'm definitely getting this for the PS3 next friday, so next weekend I may be a bit busy.

[Puni/Void]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to check out some of the titles in the near future.

[Sharingan]

Haven't kept up with the gaming world for a good while myself, but there are a few games off that list I wouldn't mind trying, Empire: Total War being one, and the Colonization upgrade to Civ4. Then again, those are both games that require insane amounts of time to play properly

[Puni/Void]

Civilization IV: Colonization does take time, but it doesn't stretch out the way Civilization IV does. That's my experience at least.

[Sharingan]

Excellent! I absolutely loved Colonization on the Amiga back in the days; even more so than the Civ series.

[Demon Cleaner]

Some new games I'm looking forward to:

- Prototype
- Infamous (Metascore = 85)
- Red Faction Guerrilla (Metascore = 89)

And also Star Ocean: The Last Hope comes to US and EU beginning of June.