Latest Video Games Features and Reviews

Victoria II is an upcoming grand strategy wargame by Paradox Interactive. It is the sequel to 2003’s Victoria: An Empire Under the Sun. It was announced on August 19, 2009 and is set for release on 13 August 2010, Victoria II spans the globe from 1836 to the start of World War Two with over 200 playable nations. Like its predecessor, Victoria II focuses on internal management, covering the industrialization and social/political changes in a country with dozens of different government types. The game gives a lot of importance to the economy of a country by having a complex market system with over 50 types of goods and factories.[6] While warfare is a component of the game it is not the primary focus as in other Paradox Interactive games such as the Hearts of Iron series

Green Day: Rock Band allows players to perform simulated rock music by providing up to four players with the ability to play three different controllers modeled after music instruments (a guitar controller for lead guitar and bass guitar gameplay, a drum controller and a microphone for vocals). Players simulate the performance of rock music by using their controllers to play scrolling on-screen notes. For lead and bass guitar, this is accomplished by holding down colored buttons mimicking guitar frets and pushing the controller’s strum bar; for drums, this requires striking the matching colored drumhead, or stepping on the pedal to simulate playing bass drum notes. When singing vocals, the player must sing in relative pitch to the original vocals.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 is a platforming video game developed by Nintendo for the Wii. It was first announced at E3 2009, and is the sequel to Super Mario Galaxy. It will be released in North America on May 23, 2010, Japan on May 27, 2010, Europe on June 11, 2010, and Australia on July 1, 2010. The game’s levels are galaxies filled with minor planets and worlds. While its gameplay is based on that of its predecessor, the game was updated with gravity effects and new power-ups.Gameplay will be similar to that of the first Super Mario Galaxy, with a focus on platforming based on and around 3D planets (referred to collectively as galaxies) with varying sizes and landscapes. The planets will also be smaller, allowing the player to jump from planet to planet more often. Mario will be able to ride the dinosaur Yoshi, who can use his tongue to swing across gaps, as well as eat fruits that give him various powers, such as speed boosts, the ability to inflate like a balloon, or the power to reveal secret paths. While the player retains the ability to collect Star Bits with the blue Star Pointer from the first game, the Star Pointer is replaced by a red dot when riding Yoshi, which allows the player to aim and control his tongue.This can be used for swinging off objects, pulling levers or, as in previous games, swallowing enemies and spitting them out.

Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse is a graphic adventure video game developed by Telltale Games. It is the third “season” of the Sam & Max episodic series created by Telltale Games, following Sam & Max Save the World and Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space. Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse is a series of graphic adventure games, requiring the user to control Sam and Max to specific locations, interacting with the environment, collecting and using objects, and talking to other characters in the game in order to solve puzzles and complete the game. The previous two seasons of “Sam & Max” have used a traditional point-and-click interface, which is well-suited for Windows and MacOS users but did not translate well to traditional gamepad controls. The game engine for The Devil’s Playhouse has been redesigned to handle both the point-and-click scheme and typical console-based controls for third-person perspective games. On a Windows or MacOS computer, the player has the option of plugging in a gamepad to use this second set of controls. Other aspects, such as inventory management, have also been refined to better suit console players or players not familiar with the adventure game genre. The iPad version of the game features direct touch interaction with the characters, scenery, and inventory.

Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City is a standalone compilation of the DLC episodes for Grand Theft Auto IV, containing both The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony on one disc. It was released alongside the DLC release of The Ballad of Gay Tony on 29 October 2009 for the Xbox 360 and will be released on 13 April 2010 for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 3.The Lost and Damned otherwise features similar gameplay to Grand Theft Auto IV. Additions to the game include new weapons, such as a grenade launcher, Automatic Pistol, half of a pool cue and pipe bombs, as well as sawn-off and automatic shotguns and new vehicles, such as Johnny’s custom-made motorcycle.The Ballad of Gay Tony follows the exploits of a new protagonist, Luis Fernando Lopez, a member of the Dominican drug dealers and the personal bodyguard of Anthony “Gay Tony” Prince.

The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom is an upcoming real time strategy and city-building video game developed by Blue Byte Software and published by Ubisoft. It is scheduled to be released on March 23, 2010 for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X.

Paths to a Kingdom features gameplay similar to that of past 3D games of The Settlers series. The player begins with a simple village and expands it sector by sector to create a kingdom. During this process, the player must fine-tune their production chains and transport systems.

The game gives the player an opportunity to choose between three unique paths of development for victory: Military, Science, and Trade. In the traditional Military development path, the player builds the kingdom’s army in order to conquer and destroy enemies. In the Science development path, the player must focus on researching technological upgrades. Finally in the Trade development path, the player builds their economy and attempts to occupy the best trade routes on the map. Each path of development contains unique units and possibilities. In all development paths, the player wins by collecting Victory points throughout the course of the game.

Prison Break: The Conspiracy is an upcoming action-adventure video game based on the Fox Network television series Prison Break that is due to be released for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The release date has been set for March 26 2010The protagonist of the “Prison Break” game is Company agent Tom Paxton. He is sent to the Fox River State Penitentiary to find out why Michael Scofield (the hero of the TV series), a man without a previous criminal record, became a bank robber.The storyline runs parallel to the first season of “Prison Break”: Paxton encounters several characters from the series and experiences key events from his own perspective.According to the trailer, the protagonist narrates that he was already dead.

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands is an upcoming videogame developed by Ubisoft Montreal and Ubisoft Quebec due for release on May 11, 2010, for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation Portable and Microsoft Windows. The game is a latest installment in the Prince of Persia series, and will mark a return to the storyline started by Prince of Persia: TheSands of Time.

A trailer for Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands was premiered worldwide on the 2009 Spike Video Game Awards.

While not a direct video game adaptation or containing elements of the film, the game’s release is coinciding with the May 2010 release of Disney’s film adaptation of the video game, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, starring Jake Gyllenhaal.

The game is set in 1908; it focuses around a former outlaw, John Marston, who is sent across the troubled American Frontiers to help in bringing the rule of law. It was revealed in the trailer that Marston has come to kill or capture his former gang partner Bill Williamson. It will also involve the events leading up to the 1910 Mexican Revolution. The game will use open worldgameplay similar to the Grand Theft Auto series with sandbox environments and a free-roaming ability. The environments will include frontier towns, prairies, and mountain passes.

Realistic horses created with the Euphoria animation engine will play a major part of the game’s transport. The game will also feature over 40 different types of animals (e.g. bears, wolves, buffalo etc.) that can be hunted, realistic weather changes (including seasons) and the ability to ride trains to travel to certain places faster.

Metro 2033 is an upcoming action-oriented video game with a combination of horror, survival, RPG, and shooting. The game is based on the popular Eastern European cult novel Metro 2033from Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky. It is developed by 4A Games and will be released in 2010 on the Xbox 360 and for Microsoft Windows.

In 2013 the world was devastated by an apocalyptic event, annihilating almost all mankind and turning the earth’s surface into a poisonous wasteland. A handful of survivors took refuge in the depths of the Moscow underground, and human civilization entered a new Dark Age.

The year is 2033. An entire generation has been born and raised underground, and their besieged Metro Station-Cities struggle for survival, with each other, and the mutant horrors that await outside.

The player takes on the role of Artyom, born in the last days before the fire, but raised Underground. Having never ventured beyond the Metro Station-City limits, one fateful event sparks a desperate mission to the heart of the Metro system, to warn the remnants of mankind of a terrible impending threat. The journey takes Artyom from the forgotten catacombs beneath the subway to the desolate wastelands above, where the player’s actions will determine the fate of mankind.