On Shelves This Week: July 27 to August 2, 2008

Let’s start this week early, shall we? Coming up on retail shelves starting July 27 all the way to the first few days of August is another hailstorm of PC games from the independent front, though you’d probably love this week for the release of Namco Bandai‘s SoulCalibur IV and its limited edition kits. But if there’s anything more significant this time, it’s the appearance of more Olympics-themed games as the week heralds the eve before the World Olympics in Beijing. We take them all at the full story.

 

This week, there’s love for gamers for almost every platform out there, but as the World Olympics in Beijing is just around next week, you could guess that the theme for the retail shelves will scream sports and athletics.

Well, that’s IF they do hit shelves this week, because if there’s anything more prominent in the releases lately, it’s the fact that many of them have been rescheduled.

Not to fret through, as there’s plenty of other games to fawn over, though we can’t say they’re for every crowd. Take a look at our chronologically ordered list and see for yourself.

---

Art of Murder: FBI Confidential – Truly a masterpiece of adventuring, some have said. While we haven’t actually gone down the road of checking it out yet, it’s amazing what the game developers in the adventure genre are capable of.

You might say point-and-click adventures have long lost the limelight since their haydays, but if you took another peek back, you might disagree with that notion.

Art of Murder is a series by Poland-based independent game developers City Interactive angled as a virtualization of mystery thriller novels.

Art of Murder: FBI Confidential is the first to come out of the young series, letting players enter the shoes of Nicole Bonet to solve the mysterious and gruesome ritual murders of well-to-do citizens in New York. So far, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. No – really.

• Windows – July 29, 2008
• ESRB not rated
• Windows: US$ 19.99
• City Interactive

King of Clubs – Don’t let the title mislead you – King of Clubs isn’t a card game. There’s only a few other angles that would involve Kings and Clubs, but we’ll cut to the chase fast: King of Clubs is what you’d get if you cross a mini-golf game with puzzle elements.

Think HyperBowl, only this time it involves holes, twisted courses, tons of hurdles, out-of-this-world mini-golf park themes, golf balls and clubs.

Now that’s quite a catchy idea, if not familiarly used in the casual gaming department. What probably’s supposed to make King of Clubs stand out is its theme: the player takes his golf ball conundrums to a mini-golf course set in Nevada.

It’s probable that Oxygen Interactive could have though of a better title, but King of Clubs fits the imagination right once you’ve centered on gambling and golf.

• Wii – July 29, 2008
• ESRB rated E for Everyone
• Wii: US$ 29.99
• Crave Entertainment

MLB Power Pros 2008 – Konami’s baseball front isn’t as prominent as the current front they fought this year for soccer, but they did manage to get their own games out in a timely fashion with EA Sports.

MLB Power Pros 2008, the Japanese publisher’s baseball game, is a popular franchise in Japan, and it’s got some things stats pretty accurate – especially in the Japanese star-studded front.

Luckily, MLB Power Pros doesn’t have much in the way of competition. 2K Sports exclusively owns the deal to that franchise, and EA Sports has only the NCAA series to bring to market. Effectively, this kind of balances out Pro Evolution Soccer 09‘s shortcomings against FIFA 09 (though that could’ve been settled easily with good patches).

• PlayStation 2, Wii – July 29, 2008
• ESRB rated E for Everyone
• Wii: US$ 39.99
• Take-Two Interactive

Puzzler Collection – Destination’s Software’s rather ambiguous title might leave a lot to desire, but when you’ve crammed over 2,000 types of puzzling games into one carton, Puzzler Collection is about as accurate as you can get.

Or maybe Word Puzzler Collection would have scored 100%. Because if there’s one thing that the Puzzler Collection packs, it’s a whole set of word puzzles that’s captivating enough to help you kill idle time.

• Nintendo DS – July 29, 2008
• ESRB rated E for Everyone
• DS: US$ 14.99
• Destination Software

SoulCalibur IV – Namco Bandai‘s slashing fighter in the making rolls out this week, being one of few major releases in the mainstream market. SoulCalibur IV (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3), as you would probably know it, will be a different experience for each platform it’s released on.

Or at least in content. Join Siegfried, Sophitia, Mitsurugi, and Taki (among others) as they clash blades against blades in a battle for ultimate victory. And if you’re really hyped up about The Force Unleashed, there’s some delight to be had here with the special “bundled” characters.

• PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 – July 29, 2008
• ESRB rated T for Teen
• Premium Edition: US$ 79.99; Regular: US$ 59.99
• Namco Bandai

Spectral Force 3: Innocent Rage – Xbox 360 RPGers should rejoice, because tactical RPG Spectral Force 3: Innocent Rage (as it’s originally known as) has already hit stores and could be yours for a decent price. It’s exclusive to Microsoft’s next generation platform, as that was the task that publisher Atlus put Idea Factory to work on.

New to Spectral Force 3 is the Rage Gauge system, which if used effectively, could allow the attacking team a powerful strike against the opposing side.

There’s a lot of tactics put into this feature, and it’s not the same each time you build your team – for there are over 40 unique teammates to create your team with. You know how it is – each one could have it’s own winning formula.

• Xbox 360 – July 29, 2008
• ESRB rated T for Teen
• Xbox 360: US$ 59.99
• Atlus

Summer Athletics The Ultimate Challenge – Or as some might call it: “hop on the Olympics sports bandwagon while you can, folks!” After Mario and Sonic at the Olympics, the Decathlon, and Beijing 2008, you’d think enough was enough.

But enough isn’t enough – at least when it comes to world sports, and so we have yet another sports game centered on the many events to feature at the Beijing Olympics 2008.

More than two dozen events, in fact, which is a tad more variety than some of the Olympics-themed games we saw come out earlier. If the comprehensive list of events caters to your taste, then it might be a steal.

After all, what’s 30 bucks for a little living room fun? Oh, and yes, that’s for both the Wii and the Xbox 360. Gee whiz.

• Wii, Xbox 360 – July 29, 2008
• ESRB rated E for Everyone
• Wii, Xbox 360: US$ 29.99
• Conspiracy Entertainment

Air Traffic Chaos – No, the game isn’t encouraging chaos. In fact, Air Traffic Chaos asks for the opposite. But the puzzle-like simulation is not for weak in skills, for the game can quickly re-educate you on the meaning of “busy airport.” There’s arrival and departure queues to organize, and some flights just keep coming unpredictably (sometimes you’d wish all planes were delayed) to keep you on your toes.

• Nintendo DS – July 30, 2008
• ESRB rated E for Everyone
• DS: US$ 19.99
• Majesco Entertainment

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 – Take up an old arcade concept and spruce it up with psychedelic artistry, and you could have a sure winner with Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2. In fact, isn’t that what made Lumines and Space Invaders Extreme so awesome? After all, it’s not just graphics that could blow us away – there’s style, music, and addicting gameplay as well.

• Xbox 360 – July 30, 2008 (XBLA Wednesday)
• ESRB not rated
• Xbox LIVE:  US$ 10.00
• Bizarre Creations

American McGee’s Grimm – Oh hell yes. If McGee’s Alice tickled your fancies in the most peculiar ways, you know American McGee’s latest episodic franchise might do more than just a serve a twisted take at the Grimm brothers’ fairy tales.

Though it’s a given that American McGee’s Grimm will come out for the PC, there’s talk that it could enter Xbox LIVE Arcade as well.

People say that the first episode’s supposed to launch by Thursday, but even that’s not cleared up ever so often. What we can tell is that the series does launch this week, if everything went well since the series’ unveiling back in 2007.

First up in the menu is “A Boy Learns What Fear Is,” though I’m no expert in Grimm tales, so I can’t say from what piece this twisted adventure comes from. We’ll just have to wait and see.

• Windows – July 31, 2008
• ESRB not rated
• Windows: TBA
• Turner Broadcasting System

Beijing 2008: The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games – Long title, but if it weren’t for the follow up subtitle, you wouldn’t know which Olympics-themed game officially represented what would be going on in Beijing China next week. Yes, a couple of versions have released previously, but this Thursday is the debut of SEGA’s Beijing 2008 on PC.

35 events, decent graphics, smooth framerates, a way to get yourself a new keyboard (if you mash the keys hard enough), and officially sanctioned by the Olympics – how could you go wrong with this game? It’s even just as evenly priced against the many other Olympic-themed games that came out.

• Windows – July 31, 2008
• ESRB rated E for Everyone
• Windows: US$ 29.99
• SEGA

Build in Time – Build in Time is sort of like Acclaim’s Constructor mixed with Maxis’ SimTown and SimCity, but it’s partially arcadish at the moment, courtesy of the kings of casual and arcade – Reflexive Entertainment. In this simulation, players will journey through time, following the dreams of a young real-estate mogul until his lifelong ambitions are realized.

Windows, Mac –  July 31, 2008

ESRB not rated

Windows: US$ 19.95

Reflexive Entertainment

Legend: Hand of God – An ambitious offering from Anaconda that captivated the PC gaming underground’s sights after Anaconda drew the curtains from the trailers at Leipzig’s Games Convention. Released in Germany first, the action RPG managed to carve its own honor by grabbing multiple awards from several sources.

Of course, that was all centered around the German version, but even the picky crowd of the PC hardcore community managed to find something amazing about the game – and it wasn’t just because of the Cinematic Combat Experience features that Legend: Hand of God brings.

I’ve already tried the demo, and you might find many of its features as interesting input for the evolution of action RPGs.

Legend: Hand of God, according to sites, will now be released in an international “English” version published by ValuSoft, which will try to enter a market that’s already anticipating much from Blizzard’s Diablo 3. We recommend trying out the game first via the demo, and you figure out if its worth the buy.

Right now, we can surely say this: there’s some things that Blizzard can use as inspiration from this game, and they’d be in a good position to look into them.

• Windows – August 1, 2008
• ESRB rated M for Mature
• Windows: US$ 39.99
• ValuSoft

Buy: [ Art of Murder: FBI Confidential (Windows) ]
Buy: [ King of Clubs (DS) ]
Buy: [ MLB Power Pros 2008 (Wii) ]
Buy: [ Puzzler Collection (DS) ]
Buy: [ SoulCalibur IV (PlayStation 3), (Xbox 360) ]
Buy: [ SoulCalibur IV Premium Edition (PlayStation 3), (Xbox 360) ]
Buy: [ Spectral Force 3 (Xbox 360) ]
Buy: [ Summer Athletics The Ultimate Challenge (Wii), (Xbox 360) ]
Buy: [ Air Traffic Chaos (DS) ]
Buy: [ Beijing 2008: The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games (Windows) ]
Buy: [ Legend: Hand of God (Windows) ]