Working in the gaming industry

Its an unusually quiet week for consoles as the US Independence Day holiday approaches, though handhelds remain pretty active for gamers on the go...

WiiWare -- Nothing here this week, or on the Virtual Console.

DSiWare -- Two new games here... Flip the Core is a super-retro-styled 2D shooter, with a cube-flipping mechanic that thrusts the players ship into different environments whenever it rotates.  Escape the Virus: Swarm Survival is kind of a cross between Robotron: 2084 and those early videogames where the players snake gets longer the more the player eats.  Dont try that at home.

3DS eShop --  Two new games and two retail demos this week.  First up is Marvel Pinball 3D, which features a number of classic Marvel Comics characters and 4 distinct tables; its a quality effort from Zen Studios that might keep us busy while we continue to hope that Pinball Arcade makes it to the 3DS at some point.  Theres also Bomb Monkey, which looks like another match-three puzzle game but adds some fun new mechanics, primarily setting off the combos by dropping a bomb.  From a monkey!  And there are free downloadable demos of Rhythm Thief & The Emperors Treasure, and Kingdom Hearts 3D.  Nintendo is also launching a "Game of the Weekend" sale series, similar to sales on other platforms, so keep an eye out for deals.

XBox Live Arcade -- Same titles here as on the PS3 (below), although The Walking Dead episode 2 arrived on Wednesday instead of Friday.  Lucky XBLAers!

PS3 on PSN --  One new title, Jeremy McGraths Offroad, celebrates rough-and-tumble dirt track racing.  And the second episode of The Walking Dead will be out on Friday if all goes as planned.

PSOne Classics -- An unusual licensed title shows up here -- The Little Mermaid II, based on the Disney direct-to-video sequel.

Notable on Steam and Elsewhere --  The long-awaited second episode of Telltales The Walking Dead also hits the PC this Friday, barring any technical glitches.  And the even-longer-awaited (if not necessarily as eagerly) Penny Arcade Adventures series finally sees episode 3 after a three-year hiatus, with a new pixel-art style and a new publisher.

Its been a slow week, and for that I apologize to my reader. I finished off the Kinect review-a-thon with Dance Central 2, and then changed it to "Dark" week, where Id only review games with "Dark" somewhere in their title. I didnt get to the Dark Forces games, but maybe soon.

This week, to celebrate me playing Duke Nukem Forever for an (upcoming) review, I bring you "Terrible Games Week!" Im going to dig through all the crap Ive played over the years (of which there is a decent amount, but I also am smart and tend to avoid garbage games) and review as much trash as I can pull up. We started it off with Matt Hazard, which is pretty awful but not particularly horrendous. I guess. But I dont want to play it again. Ever.

Anyway, I reviewed 9 games, bumping the total to 57. Ill have you know, I attended a writers conference Thursday through Saturday and it would take up my entire day, but despite this I still both wrote for my novel (at least 600 words a day) and put up a review. So Im dedicated or something. Im certain all four of my readers appreciate that. :P

There will be more reviews next week. For now, here is this weeks batch.

Dance Central 2 - 5 / 5 Stars
Darksiders - 4 / 5 Stars
The Darkness - 4 / 5 Stars
Dark Sector - 3 / 5 Stars
Alone in the Dark - 1 / 5 Stars
Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness (Bnet Edition) - 4 / 5 Stars
Dawn of War: Dark Crusade - 5 / 5 Stars
Perfect Dark - 3 / 5 Stars
Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard - 2 / 5 Stars

Thank you for reading, and Ill see you all this upcoming week for more review madness.