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Fallout 3 (PC)
The third game in the Fallout series, Fallout 3 is a singleplayer action role-playing game (RPG) set in a post-apocalyptic Washington DC. Combining the horrific insanity of the Cold War era theory of mutually assured destruction gone terribly wrong, with the kitschy naivety of American 1950s nuclear propaganda, Fallout 3 will satisfy both players familiar with the popular first two games in its series as well as those coming to the franchise for the first time.

The Cold War goes Next-Gen

Welcome to the nation's capital.
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The Brotherhood of Steel is a powerful ally.
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Customize characters with your Pip-Boy.
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The Story: Vault 101 - Jewel of the Wastes
For 200 years, Vault 101 , a fallout shelter, has faithfully served the surviving residents of Washington DC and its environs, now known as the Capital Wasteland. Though the global atomic war of 2077 left the US all but destroyed, the residents of Vault 101 enjoy a life free from the constant stress of the outside world. Giant Insects, Raiders, Slavers, and yes, even Super Mutants are all no match for superior Vault-Tec engineering. Yet one fateful morning, you awake to find that your father has defied the Overseer and left the comfort and security afforded by Vault 101 for reasons unknown. Leaving the only home you've ever known, you emerge from the Vault into the harsh Wasteland sun to search for your father, and the truth.
Key Features:
- Limitless Freedom! - Take in the sights and sounds of the vast Capital Wasteland! See the great monuments of the United States lying in post-apocalyptic ruin! You make the choices that define you and change the world. Just keep an eye on your Rad Meter!
- Experience S.P.E.C.I.A.L.! - Vault-Tec engineers bring you the latest in human ability simulation - the SPECIAL Character System! Utilizing new breakthroughs in points-based ability representation, SPECIAL affords unlimited customization of your character. Also included are dozens of unique skills and perks to choose from, each with a dazzling variety of effects!
- Fantastic New Views! - The wizards at Vault-Tec have done it again! No longer constrained to just one view, experience the world from 1st or 3rd person perspective. Customize your view with the touch of a button!
- The Power of Choice! - Feeling like a dastardly villain today, or a Good Samaritan? Pick a side or walk the line, as every situation can be dealt with in many different ways. Talk out your problems in a civilized fashion, or just flash your Plasma Rifle.
- Blast 'Em Away With V.A.T.S.! -Even the odds in combat with the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System for your Pip-Boy Model 3000! V.A.T.S. allows you to pause time in combat, target specific body parts on your target, queue up attacks, and let Vault-Tec take out your aggression for you. Rain death and destruction in an all-new cinematic presentation featuring gory dismemberments and spectacular explosions.
- Mind-Blowing Artificial Intelligence! - At Vault-Tec, we realize that the key to reviving civilization after a global nuclear war is people. Our best minds pooled their efforts to produce an advanced version of Radiant AI, America's First Choice in Human Interaction Simulation. Facial expressions, gestures, unique dialog, and lifelike behavior are brought together with stunning results by the latest in Vault-Tec technology.
- Eye-Popping Prettiness! - Witness the harsh realities of nuclear fallout rendered like never before in modern super-deluxe HD graphics. From the barren Wasteland, to the danger-filled offices and metro tunnels of DC, to the hideous rotten flesh of a mutant's face.
Product Description
Fallout 3
Grand Theft Auto IV (PC)

Rockstar
LEGO Batman: The Videogame (PC)

Warner Bros. Interactive
Assassin's Creed: Director's Cut Edition (PC)

Ubisoft

It's easy to see why there was so much fighting amongst the console manufacturers to try and make this game a format exclusive. Where early launch titles may have disappointed this game not only looks like a next generation game but it plays like it too. Taken at face value the story casts you as an Arabic fighter in 1191, out to assassinate the nine Western leaders of the Third Crusade. There is more to the story than that though making it more than simple historical adventure it first seems.
Since it's developed by many of the same team behind Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, it's no surprise to find the game using many of the same ideas. With the bold claim that you can climb on or over anything in the game world that sticks out more than two inches, this allows incredible freedom of movement, with a style of acrobatics heavily influenced by Parkour/free running. The game also innovates in terms of combat, with each of the face buttons controlling a different area of the body, rather like a marionette. As such one button controls the feet, one your open hand, one your weapon hand and the other your head.
As an assassin stealth plays an important role in the game too, but here it's often a case of hiding in plain sight as you mill around inside large crowds of people. Everyone will react to you realistically though, so if you go around pushing people out of the way, or even killing them, the crowd will react and report you. With stunning graphics and genuinely innovative gameplay this is destined to be one of the most important releases of the year.
HARRISON DENT
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl (PC DVD)

Focus Multimedia Ltd
Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II (PC DVD)

Electronic Arts
Tomb Raider: Underworld (PC DVD)

Eidos
The first lady of gaming returns in Tomb Raider - Underworld with her deepest and darkest adventure yet. Ostensibly searching for the mythical hammer of the Norse god Thor, the real draw of the game is exploring the underworlds of multiple different cultures.

A pair of panthers make an uncomfortable safety net

When you're a tomb raider, exploring ancient tombs is all in a day’s work

Lara’s pistols are no match for the kraken

The Mediterranean level includes a huge area for swimming

The basics of the game are classic Tomb Raider, as you explore the trap-filled interiors of ancient ruins using Lara’s famed acrobatic skills (and dual action pistols). From an underwater temple guarded by a giant octopus-like kraken to ancient Mayan structures in the South American jungle, she makes Indiana Jones look even older.
All of the levels are much larger than in previous games and far more interactive. You'll leave footprints in the sand and find all the scenery fully destructable. Every puzzle has multiple solutions, and the hand-to-hand combat system has been completely revamped. A new 3D map system also helps to ensure you never get lost so that you can concentrate on saving the world.
Key Features
- Dream vacation: Travel the world in search of ancient artefacts, from the steaming-hot jungles of Mexico to the frozen Arctic, from the coast of Thailand to the depths of the Mediterranean Sea.
- Think like Lara: An interactive, non-linear game world means anything that it looks like you should be able to pick up and use (or destroy) you can.
- Bettering Bond: An all new grappling hook, sonar map, scuba gear, a range of new weapons, and Lara’s trusty motorbike make her the best equipped adventurer in gaming.
- Help on demand: Receive as much or as little help as you want, from gentle nudges in the right direction to a full explanation of what you need to do next.
- Behind the scenes: All of Lara’s animations in the game have been fully motion captured from Olympic gymnast Heidi Moneymaker. Her voice is that of Spooks actress Keeley Hawes.
About the Developer: Crystal Dynamics
Based in the San Francisco bay area, the Crystal Dynamics team has been making games since 1992, including popular titles such as Pandemonium, Gex, and Legacy of Kain/Soul Reaver. Crystal Dynamics began revammping the Tomb Raider series with Tomb Raider: Legend.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - Limited Edition (PC DVD)

Take 2 Interactive

Considering how massively popular the last two GTA games were Rockstar could've knocked out any old rubbish as their last GTA game this generation, but despite Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas not being a full sequel (it still uses essentially the same graphics engine as GTA III) it has more new features and ideas than the majority of official follow-ups.
For a start San Andreas itself is not a city but a whole fictional county, containing the San Francisco-esque San Fierro, the Las Vegas style Las Venturra and the Los Angeles inspired Los Santos. You can drive anywhere else you like in the countryside, between making the game four to six times the size of Vice City.
You can also now start up your own gang in the game, recruiting members and claiming territory--you can even build and operate your own casino once you get the necessary moolah. You can't just sit around and wait for the money to roll in, though--eat too much junk food and your character will grow fat and have to work out at a gym, as well as keep an eye on a new stamina meter.
The list of other additions and refinements are almost endless; above and beyond the usual claims of an improved aiming system for weapons you can now swim, ride bicycles, get your hair cut, take part in random break-ins and robberies... pretty much anything you were ever told not to do as a kid (except the getting a haircut bit). --David Jenkins
Medal of Honor: Airborne (PC DVD)

Electronic Arts

It may be the game that popularised the whole concept of first person shoot `em-ups set during World War II, but as the years have gone by, the Medal of Honor series has found itself besieged by more and more copycats trying to offer ever more realistic simulations of the era. This is the first Medal of Honor game made specifically for the next generation of consoles though and finds you taking the roles of both pathfinder Eddie La Point and Private Boy Travers - paratroopers in the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division. As such, you'll end up with a whistle stop tour of enemy hotspots in Sicily, France, Holland and Germany. The game takes its paratrooper motif serious too as the game levels are big enough that you actually have some control over where exactly you land and as a consequence what tactics you choose to employ.
The game also tries to give you as much freedom as possible with the weapons you use, with each being customisable with authentic parts which you can find during missions. Even the missions are as open ended as possible, as you're given up to a dozen objectives, of which only a few have to be tackled in any sort of order. One side benefit this creates is that the developers have been forced to drastically improve the enemy artificial intelligence so that they can react intelligently to your attacks, instead of just relying on the pre-scripted movements of the earlier games. There's also a stronger tactical element than ever before as you monitor the back and forth of battle between all the forces on the map. As over-familiar as WWII shooters have become, there looks to be enough new ideas here to keep even the most jaded virtual soldier happy.
HARRISON DENT
Star Wars Battlefront II (PC)

Activision

With the latest movie almost making up for the quality of the first two films it looks like Star Wars has won back the hearts and minds of fans everywhere and Battlefront II aims to be the perfect celebration of that. Like the original it's a sort of Star Wars version of PC hit Battlefield 1942, where two armies face off against each other, either off or online, jumping in and out of various vehicles as they find them.
Of course in Battlefield 1942 "various vehicles" meant jeeps and tanks, in Battlefront II it means X-wings, TIE Fighters, AT-ATs and, for the first time, Episode III vehicles like the BARC speeder, Jedi Starfighter II and V-wing.
The biggest change to the game, apart from the new vehicles, is space battles with several of the levels taking part aboard giant space cruisers which you can exit in starfighters, have a dogfight in deep space around and then pilot back to for a bit more on foot combat. Levels include the Blockade Runner from the beginning of A New Hope, the space battle above Coruscant and Utapau and Mustafa from Episode III.
Another long awaited addition is playable Jedi, although you can only be one for a short time so as to not unbalance the gameplay. Although the emphasis is on online play the single player mode has been beefed up with better artificial intelligence and a proper story linking all the missions. "Star Wars fans, like this, they will", as Yoda would say (if he was real and wrote game previews instead of being a Jedi Master). -- Harrison Dent
This preview is based on an incomplete version of the game; features or problems mentioned above may not appear in the finished game.
The Witcher (PC DVD)

Atari
Nostradamus: The Last Prophecy

Lighthouse Interactive
Tomb Raider: Anniversary (PC DVD)

Eidos

It may have sold 30 million copies worldwide, but before the release of Tomb Raider: Legend last year it looked like Lara Croft was ending her video game career in disgrace. Thankfully the new game was exactly the reboot that the series needed, instantly reminding everyone why they loved it (and Lara) so much in the first place. So to mark the tenth anniversary of the first game (actually 2007 is the eleventh anniversary, but who's counting?) Eidos are releasing this special remake of the first game in the series, using an enhanced version of the graphics engine from Tomb Raider: Legend.
Although the game does feature the same basic settings and levels as the original, this isn't just the same game with better graphics. Most of the levels are larger, with many new paths and areas to explore. They're also much more interactive, with Lara using many of the same moves and gadgets she demonstrated in Tomb Raider: Legend, including a grappling hook and a greater variety of weapons. The story has been expanded too, but it does keep the same basic structure with more animal enemies than the later games, including the infamous encounter with a tyrannosaurs rex. Instead of just running straight at you mindlessly, the enemies have also been given much better artificial intelligence than previously.
The new graphics are still the most obvious change but the new fluid movement of Lara is a world away from the awkward grid based system used in the old games. Indeed this should be the first video game remake to actually prove itself as something more than just a cheap cash-in.
HARRISON DENT
Morrowind Elder Scrolls 3: Game of the Year Edition (PC)

Ubisoft
Rhiannon: Curse Of The Four Branches (PC DVD)

Lighthouse Interactive
World in Conflict (PC DVD)

Sierra

Alternative histories always provide good value and this innovative new real-time strategy features a "what if" scenario involving the outbreak of a conventional war at the end of the Cold War and a Soviet invasion of the U.S. Although the game goes to some effort to make this seem as plausible as possible it's also worth noting that the developers admit the plot is heavily influenced by 1984 Patrick Swayze non-classic Red Dawn. The game itself is similar to the popular Ground Control series, which the same team also worked on, although it features no base building or resource management, instead concentrating solely on combat and tactics. As such you can choose your weapons and equipment before a mission as well as whether you will play the role of infantry, air power, support or ground armour. Each of these four roles comes with their own specialized units, as well as tactical aids such as airstrikes, paratroopers and even tactical nuclear weapons.
Graphically the game is hugely impressive; with superb lighting effects and dozens of units on screen at once. The most important visual feature though is the completely destructible 3D battlefields which are slowly demolished by shells and explosions over the course of a level. Skyscrapers and whole forests can be annihilated in a short order, emphasising the game's grim sense of apocalyptic doom. The fully featured multiplayer can be played online by up to 16 people and allows you to take control of Soviet, American and NATO forces in head-to-head or team based battles. There's already a number of innovative new real-time strategy games scheduled for 2007 but this is certainly looking like one of the best.
HARRISON DENT
Silent Hunter 4: Wolves of the Pacific Collector's Edition - Amazon Exclusive (PC DVD)

Ubisoft

With flight sims and other more serious games becoming ever more marginalised on the PC, it's both a surprise and relief to find that the Silent Hunter series is still afloat. It certainly deserves its continued success though with not only the most exacting simulation of a submarine ever but by association also one of the most unique strategy action games ever devised. This latest iteration finds you commanding an Amercian sub in the Pacific theatre of World War II. The previous game, set in the Atlantic theatre, was already highly acclaimed but this sequel will feature a new dynamic campaign system which not only includes more diverse mission but also generates them on the fly as other ships and subs around you fight their own battles.
Although the game simulates every element of submarine warfare from the era in exacting detail, you are able to adjust the complexity of the gameplay to exactly how you want it. If you want to plot torpedo angles and time charges yourself then you can, but equally you can just up periscopes and fire away at whatever you see. Crew management will also be simplified from the last game, so that everyone works much more independently, especially as they begin to gain experience and receive promotions. Also expanded is the multiplayer element which now allows you to team up to fight co-operative with friends online. You can also fight it out in teams, with one side playing the role of escort ships and the other the subs. As ever the graphics are looking fantastic - far better than you'd expect for such a complex simulation - and provide the icing on the cake for one of the last great high brow franchises on the PC.
HARRISON DENT
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (PC DVD)

Electronic Arts
Half Life 2: Episode Pack (PC)

Electronic Arts
Timeshift (PC DVD)

It's never obvious what to make of delays in video games. Sometimes it's simply an indication of a problem production that ends up looking out of date before it's even released. Other times though it's simply evidence of ruthless perfection: thankfully TimeShift seems to be the latter. At first glance it seems like any other first person shoot `em-up, with some technically impressive but artistically ordinary visuals. What makes it unique though is the gameplay, with the best use of time travel in a game since Prince of Persia.

The story of the game involves the unlikely named Aiden Krone go back in time and changing history to suit him - kind of like a more evil version of Back to the Future, Part II. However, the time travelling doesn't end there as the special suit you're strapped into to chase after him also allows you to stop, rewind or slow down time whenever you want. Since Krone has got his own version of the same kind of time suit many of the enemies can't even be properly seen under normal conditions because they're moving too fast, but there are more subtle uses for the rewind and stop powers. Slipping past guards or running through a burning building becomes child's play, while stopping time, running up to an enemy to grab his gun and then nipping back to cover to shoot him with it is just one of the game's unique pleasures. Even if Doctor Who wouldn't approve.

Harrison Dent