Insane 2K Games bundle (ESRB ratings vary, $54 on PC): With all the deals offered on Steam every week, it’s a wonder folks still pirate PC games. This weekend, you can get a 20-game pack that includes “Civilization IV,” several expansions for that game, “BioShock,” “Prey,” “Sid Meier’s Pirates!” and several other titles for $54, a savings of more than $175 off the regular price. Gadzooks. For a full list of titles, go here.
“Fallout 3” (rated M, $25 PC download via Steam for this weekend only): What better way to celebrate America’s birth than to sally forth into the nuclear ruins of our nation’s capital? If you haven’t played Bethesda’s first-person shooter/role-playing game hybrid and you’ve got a PC capable of running it, $25 is a great price. Still not convinced? Here’s my review of the title from last fall.
“BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger” (rated T, $60 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3): Generally games with horrible titles from publishers that mainly specialize in localizing Japanese games for the American market tend to appeal primarily to a specific niche of gamer. Anyone who’s played “Culdcept Saga” or “Enchanted Arms” can testify to this. But for fans of the fighting game genre looking for something new, “Blaz Blue: Calamity Trigger” from Aksys Games, publisher of the “Guily Gear” series of fighting games, bears a look. It’s currently pulling a 90 on Metacritic, which’d make it the second-best fighting game on the Xbox 360 and PS3 after “Street Fighter IV.” I love it when great games emerge seemingly out of nowhere.
“Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood” (rated M, $60 on Xbox 360 or PS3, $50 on PC): If you’re a fan of first-person shooters and you’ve ever felt weary of fighting aliens, Nazis, zombies and Nazi zombies, you’re required to at least try out this prequel to 2007’s “Call of Juarez.” “Bound in Blood” is a Western (as in, John Wayne, not Western Hemisphere) shooter set in the Civil War era. You’ll play as brothers Ray and Thomas, who start off as soldiers in the Confederate Army but soon become deserters. Expect lots of horseback riding, stage coaches primitive firearms and, yes, knives. The game supports multiplayer for up to 16 players, with some of the maps derived from classic Western movie scenes.
“Worms 2: Armageddon” (rated E10+, $10 Xbox Live Arcade download): If you’re a fan of clever one-liners and surprisingly deep yet simple turn-based strategy games, you ought to give this downloadable gem a look. You’ll assemble a team of four worms (as in earthworms), arm them to the teeth and try to blow your opponents’ worms to bits. You’ll have to navigate a bunch of different destructible environments and figure out how to use physics and wind to your advantage.
“Boom Boom Rocket” (rated E, $10 Xbox Live Arcade download): Miss this weekend’s fireworks? This rhythm game from Bizarre Creations lets you create your own as you match button presses with on-screen cues to create a fireworks-and-music show. Putting this game on sale during the July 4 weekend might have seemed like a no-brainer, but alas, it didn’t happen. Maybe that’s because this game was published by Electronic Arts and Bizarre is now owned by EA’s rival, Activision.
What I’ll be playing this weekend: I’ll be spending much of the weekend at my desk at the paper. (Somebody’s gotta get the news out to you guys.) But in between designing pages, editing articles, driving, sleeping and hanging out with my wife, I’ll be squeezing in a little “inFAMOUS” on the PS3, “Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers” on the Xbox 360 and maybe a little bit of “Fallout 3” or 2K Sports’ “The Bigs 2,” which just arrived at the office and is due out next week.
