Forget Metal Gear Solid 4 for a second. It is after all (or so I hear) a pretty tedious experience, and apparently more of a rather dull movie than a properly interactive game. Better focus on Overlord: Raising Hell that should be moments away from hitting the average European PS3 instead. Now, if you, like me, have played the brilliant and impressively hilarious PC version of Overlord you are already desperately craving for more imps, degenerate heroes and vaguely focused destruction. After all, playing the bad guy in a surreal fantasy setting sporting the smart writing of Rhianna Pratchett is way more enjoyable than following a run of the mill Cold War-esque plot.

If you haven’t got any previous Overlord experience, well, expect a humorous third-person action-adventure with some strategic bits bolted on, as you and your army of silly -though appropriately nasty- imps rampage around an odd version of medieval countryside. As an added bonus you also get your very own Dark Tower with easy access to highly sought-after supernatural abysses. Inside, and that’s info straight from this nice real-estate young guy, generously appointed dungeons lead to a treasury with plenty of room for expansion and a state-of-the-art forge perfect for creating a mighty arsenal to mercilessly crush elves, dwarfs, and even squishy peasants. The show-piece master-boudoir benefits from stunning panoramic views across the kingdom, a choice of two live-in mistresses and offers a sultry setting for R&R after a hard day’s tyranny. Better have a look methinks…

Having a PC and thus a lovely keyboard-mouse combo to control stuff with, it seems I just can’t escape enjoying the odd RTS offering. Especially when said RTS offering is one based on the Lord of the Rings setting as is the case with EA’s Battle for Middle Earth II and even more so when it’s a great game to begin with. Actually, make that an absolutely excellent game with glorious graphics, a ton of innovative mechanics, incredibly balanced units, above average multiplayer options, a fantastic single player campaign and the addictiveness of, well, a very addictive thing. What’s more, the specialized-unit based highly tactical gameplay of the original (with only a hint of rock-paper-scissors) has been improved upon, the new AI makes managing your armies easier, less frustrating and enemies more challenging, whereas the inclusion of new units, more races (six different factions) and a selection of excellent new battlefields offer hours (upon hours) of quality gaming. Oh, and fighting over Mikwood, Dol Guldur and the Misty Mountains should be any Tolkien fan’s wet dream. Provided we are talking about a tactical minded fan, that is. The RPG lot should instead focus on the massive Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar MMORPG.

The Xbox 360, a console heavily focused on first person shooters with a nasty tendency to randomly blow itself up, doesn’t offer much variety or -and that’s beside some truly excellent Live Arcade offerings- much for the action-fearing gamers. Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution is thus both refreshing and a truly unique offering. Interestingly it also happens to be a historically important release, as it is the first time ever a Civilization game that wont be played on a computer.

What’s more, Civ Revolution is a fantastic game that actually works on the Xbox 360 in a way the joypad wielding crowds will definitely appreciate. It might not be on par with Civilization IV on the PC, but, still, this is the best strategy game to ever grace a console. If you are already familiar with the series, imagine a condensed, faster, slightly more combat oriented, less complex, easier to get into Civ with fantastic graphics and you should have a pretty precise idea of what Revolution feels like. If you haven’t tried Civilization before, well, prepare to be blown away. This will be the most rewarding game you’ll have played in ages.

Oh, and beyond the excellent single-player options, Revolution comes with a full-blown online multiplayer mode, where players can battle in teams, head-to-head or in frenetic free-for-all matches. In addition, auto-matching, adjustable rules, leaderboards, achievements, extra content and a variety of Xbox Live goodies make online play the best in the series.

Andrei Tarkovsky’s classic 1979 Stalker was a unique masterpiece of cinematography with interesting philosophical and artistic ideas, and one of the few films to have bested the already brilliant 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick. If you haven’t seen it, well, do so. What’s more and quite impressively for such a quality movie Stalker has also served as the source of inspiration for a truly rare breed of (first person) shooters: the interesting ones. Or, to be exact, the Ukrainian 2007 open world PC FPS S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl, which incidentally can now be acquired for a very modest price.

Shadow of Chernobyl of course, what with being a video game and thus considering itself a pop offering, doesn’t feature the iconic characters of the Scientist, the Writer or even the oddity that was the filmic Stalker himself, but, make it to the end and you’ll see that the Tarkovsky influence goes beyond aesthetics and a few names. Failing to care about such subtleties, I’m sure you will notice -and appreciate- the game’s amazing atmosphere, moody music, tons of missions, smart AI, huge world, fantastic graphics, excellent combat mechanics and intriguing story. After all, this one could be described as Oblivion with guns.

Care to know what the next Wii game I’ll be grabbing will be? No? Tsk, tsk. You’re a strange and uncaring lot you know… Regardless, I’ll just go on and tell you that the next game for my Wii will be no other than Rockstar’s well received (oddly controversial too) Bully - Scholarship Edition. Why? Well, it seems this is the only truly polished, obviously inspired, possibly funny and very professional remake of the 8-bit ZX Spectrum tape classics that were Skool Daze and its sequel Back to Skool, and also the first high-profile game in years to take place in a school. In a stylized, over the top, violent and cartoony school no less.

What’s more, Bully Wii seems -well, according to most reviews it does- like a very well made, addictive and polished game with some lovely Wii Remote mini-games, excellent graphics, interesting soundtrack, many missions, proper multiplayer options, great humour, GTA-like sandbox gameplay and a thoroughly light-hearted tone. Oh, and when I say GTA-like gameplay, I do mean condensed GTA-like gameplay, which should probably make for a more focused, heavier on story game. How very exciting. Oh, and anyone know if catapults are included or is it just slingshots?

Il-2 Sturmovik, the only flight sim to focus on the truly important bits of WW2 (i.e. those that took place on the massive Eastern Front) and the best aerial dogfighting game ever developed, is about to migrate to consoles. Shocking and almost heretical, I know, but it was about time for the masses of console gamers to experience its brilliance and utterly engaging gameplay. As long as they can wait for 2009 that is and provided modern consoles actually manage to provide with a decent alternative to the flight sim gear PC users have been… err… using for the past century or so. Oh, and actually owning a PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS and/or PSP would probably come in handy too, as Il-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey won’t be appearing on the Wii. Or the PS2.

If things go according to plan, players will be able to participate in over 50 battles over the skies of Stalingrad, Berlin, Londond, Sicily and Korsun, while gawking at some fantastic graphics, admiring the realistic damage model and getting psyched up by a Jeremy Soul (of HoMM, KotOR and Oblivion fame) soundtrack. Happily multiplayer wont be left out either, as will be the case for a selection of difficulty options. The game will be published by 505 Games.

Mystery Detective (a.k.a. Touch Detective in the US) for the Nintendo DS has been around for quite some time, but, well, I just grabbed a copy and thought I’d let you know what my first impressions on the thing are. First of all, it quite apparently is a proper adventure game in the most traditional of senses. Secondly, it’s a quirky offering. Then, it sports an intuitive yet versatile point-and-click interface, brilliant cartoony graphics and some decent audio, though thankfully no voice-overs. Oh, and it’s as old-school as any adventurer could ever wish for. But, is Mystery Adventure a truly good game? Now, I haven’t made up my mind yet, but I have to admit the story (spanning 4 linear cases) isn’t that exciting really and the cutesy setting isn’t exactly to my liking. The puzzles are on the simple side of things too. On the other hand, Mystery Detective is indeed enjoyable, polished, taxing enough for something that will be played while waiting for the the bus, and -dare I say- quite addictive. Besides, it makes us all think about the possibilities of playing Monkey Island on the DS. Who knows, maybe Lucasarts might entertain the thought too… Mind you, newcomers to the genre will probably enjoy Mystery Detective more than I did.

So, dear (fraction of) readers… you still got your lumbering beast of an Xbox under the telly, have no intention of buying another overpriced console, have already enjoyed the best Xbox game there is and are looking for something new, aren’t you? Well, look no further, for what I might have to suggest may not be particularly new, but still is an amazingly enjoyable -if flawed- game based on a classic movie: The Thing. A sequel of sorts to Mr. Carpenter’s frozen horror thriller in video game form, that picks up the story roughly from where the movie had left it.

As you would expect, the game takes places in a mostly abandoned scientific base and its snowy environs, where the alien entity widely known as the Thing, well, does it’s thing. You, assuming you choose to play this game, get to fight the Thing and its impressive variety of sibling in all its/their manifestations, uncover an X-Files inspired conspiracy and manage your squad of civilians and soldiers, while making sure (preferably by testing them) none of your supposed comrades is infected by the Thing’s thinginess that would transform him or her into a deadly monstrosity. Making sure they trust you would be a nice idea.

Where The Thing truly shines though is in the atmosphere, which has to be experienced to be believed and even makes sure you wont be frustrated by the millions of fuse boxes you’ll have to mend and the badly placed save-points. Oh, and it’s a third person fighter in case you were wondering. One with good graphics and controls too.

Let’s be frank here and start off by admitting that id’s Doom 3 isn’t a brilliant game. It’s a decent game based on an excellent engine istead. Happily, it also is a game you can easily grab for a particularly modest price and a fantastic platform for some impressive, imaginative, smart, offbeat, at times retro and absolutely free mods. ButtonSmasher, celebrating its first freeware related post, has gone and selected some (well, six actually) of the best for your enjoyment:

- Doom Reborn is an attempt at reviving the original Doom of yore on a shiny new engine. Quite successfully too.

- Zombie Slayer might still be in a demo stage, but if brutalizing the (traditional) undead is your thing and have been waiting for the evolution of Dragon’s Lair style mechanincs, you’ll adore it.

- OpenCoop which actually does what it says on the tin.

- Mgib Gib’s Maze that totally transforms Doom 3 into a cartoony ultra cute nightmare. A rare offering sporting both monkeys and labyrinths.

- Ground Zero should probably turn out to be the best thing to ever happen using the D3 engine. Far for completion, but alredy a very promising post-apocalyptic RPG.

- Rotoscope Cartoon Shader. It will truly change the way the game looks and satisfy the more pretentious among us. Uhm, us that is…

Or, to be in line with the official language, Starcraft: The Board Game. Yes, it’s real and it’s a Fantasy Flight Games production that you can actually play without a computer. Or a mouse. With your hands and the help of 180 miniatures, quite a few board game pieces and a lot of cards. Really. It’s a proper impressive board game from the leaders in this field. You can actually grab it by following the previous link. Or this one. Apparently it’s been around for quite some time too and I simply cannot understand how I missed such an event. After all, I had been following news on its development pretty closely. Can’t believe I missed the launch… Oh, dear. I’m in shock. Have been even before I watched this pretty amazing (and quite explanatory) video/trailer of the game.

Ok. Better catch my breath here.

Ahh, yes, that’s better. Now, having just ordered the thing, I quite obviously don’t know how it plays, though I’m pretty sure it can’t be anything less than brilliant and ridiculously time consuming. Probably rules-heavy too, as it seems like an attempt at a full blown tabletop, turn-based, emulation of Blizzard’s original Starcraft. All three races have been included, as have a variety of popular tactics (Zergling rush anyone?), 50 or so pages of rules and quite a few victory conditions. Obviously 2-6 players multiplayer is a standard feature too. Joy!