Any new games worth checking out?

[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.

[Harrison]

I'm looking forward to Red Faction: Guerrilla. Looks great from the previews.

The others are all for PS3 and 360 though arn't they, rather than PC?