Just like last week, this week had us checking our calendar to make sure it really is only February. Catherine, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and The Darkness II are the big new releases and all are worthy of your time and money.
Catherine is one of niche appeal though – it’s an interactive anime with puzzle game segments. Or as one of our Twitter followers put it: “It’s Pullbloxs with tits.†Praise has been almost universal including a 9 from Eurogamer. It’s being published by Deep Silver who don’t have the best track record of getting plenty of copies of their games into shops, so it might be an idea to buy it sooner rather than later. A Stray Sheep Edition with drinks coasters and a T-shirt also exists.
Hack and slash RPG Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was pretty under the radar until EA announced that if you play the demo you get some exclusive armour for Mass Effect 3. Turns out it wasn’t just a cheeky way to promote a duff game – there’s lots of love for this one floating around the net, including a 9 from IGN. They said that when 2012’s game of the year awards roll around it deserves to be remembered. The demo reminded us of Fable due to the cartoon-like chunky visuals and upbeat cut-scenes.
Speaking of demos, The Darkness II’s demo is worth a download if you haven’t made your mind up yet. It gives plenty to get your teeth into. Or rather, plenty for Jackie’s possessed demonic spawn to get their teeth into. Enemies can be thrown and impaled and car doors can be ripped off and used as shields – it’s a lot of sick and twisted fun. The visual style really suits the game too, harking back to its comic book roots.
EA’s Grand Slam Tennis 2 made the news recently, but for the wrong reasons. It’s a series that started out on Wii but this time there’s no Wii version and while the PlayStation 3 version supports PS Move the Xbox 360 version doesn’t feature Kinect play. We’re sure EA know what they’re doing though.
Over on the handhelds there are no less than five 3DS games out. Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games, One Piece Unlimited Cruise Special, 3D Game Collection: 55 in 1, Pac-Man Party and Secret Mysteries in London. The last of those is a hidden object game, while One Piece comes with a figurine at no extra cost. Then on PSP there are a few more PSP Essential re-releases from pQube – Gladiator Begins, Guilty Gear: Accent Core Plus and BlazBlue Calamity Trigger. We can’t find a single online retailer stocking them though.
Next week: UFC 3 (PS3, 360), Tekken 3D Prime Edition (3DS), Mortal Kombat: Komplete Edition, Junior League Sports (Wii) and horse ’em up The Whitakers present Milton and Friends (3DS).
