Buzzin Games

It’s Friday and that means two things: one is that you’re probably relishing the weekend and the opportunity to get away from your collegues, and the other is that it’s typically the day when new releases rear their ugly (or occasionally pretty) heads in the UK.

So what’s out this week in PAL-Land? Here’s a recap, courtesy of Eurogamer:

• Bleach: Dark Souls (DS)
• BrainTraining for Dummies (PC)
• Club Penguin: Elite Penguin Force (DS)
• Codename Panzers: Cold War (PC)
• Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – Uprising (PC – digital download)
• Crystal Defenders (Xbox Live Arcade)
• Enchanted Folk and the School of Wizardry (DS)
• EVE Online (PC – boxed release)
• Family Table Tennis (WiiWare)
• Job Island: Hard Working People (Wii)
• Jungle Speed (WiiWare)
• Millennium Series Championship Paintball 2009 (Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii)
• Monster Jam Urban Assault (Wii, PSP, DS, PS2)
• MySims Party (Wii, DS)
• Peggle (Xbox Live Arcade)
• Poker for Dummies (PC)
• Puzzle Quest: Galactrix (DS)
• Resident Evil 5 (PS3, Xbox 360)
• Secret Service (Xbox 360, PS2, PC)
• Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 (PS2)
• SOCOM Confrontation (PS3)
• Sonic and the Black Knight (Wii)
• Suikoden – Tierkreis (DS)
• Travel Games for Dummies (DS)
• Trivial Pursuit (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PS2)
• World in Conflict: Complete Edition (PC)

Which isn’t a bad selection, once you’ve sorted the wheat from the chaff. If you have money to burn, then my choices would be Bleach DS, Resident Evil 5, Persona 4, Puzzle Quest Galactrix or the unbelievably moreish Peggle for XBLA.

What should you avoid like the plague? I’m going to take a guess that Brain Training for Dummies, Trivial Pursuit and Job Island: Hard Working People (a game with so little fanfare that a Google search produces nearly no references whatsoever) should be left firmly on the shelves.

I think it’s also safe to say that Sonic the Hedgehog should no longer be fed bread and warm milk by the gaming public – you’re only encouraging Sega to make more sub-mediocre 3d adventures with voice acting to make you want to extract your own teeth without anaesthetic.