“Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker” (rated T, $40 on PlayStation Portable): This game, along with “ModNation Racers” is what finally got me to cave in and buy a PSP. The latest “Metal Gear Solid” adventure takes place in Costa Rica in the ’70s and stars Big Boss, aka Naked Snake. Unlike the other portable MGS games, this one’s got the budget and staffing of a full-fledged console title. Earlier this year, I bagged on the close-quarters combat tutorial over at Kotaku. But that doesn’t mean I’m any less excited to give this a whirl.
“Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11” (rated E, $60 on Xbox 360 or PS3, $50 on Wii): Electronic Arts’ golf franchise is still rated E, which must mean it doesn’t address the marital woes of the sport’s leading man.
“Joe Danger” (rated E, $15 PlayStation Network download for PS3): This downloadable, side-scrolling stuntbike game kind of snuck up on me. A week before its release, everyone started raving about it and now here it is. IGN says it plays like a more light-hearted version of Xbox Live Arcade darling Trials HD. That’s good enough for me.
“Green Day: Rock Band” (rated T, $60 on Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, $50 on Wii): This is probably a no-brainer, Day 1 purchase for fans of the Berkeley pop-punk outfit. Though I’m not much of a Green Day fan, I was impressed with what I saw of this game at an industry event back in March. For casual admirers of the group who’ll probably play through this game once and then export the songs for use in “Rock Band 2” or “Rock Band 3,” I recommend waiting for a price drop. Though the songs in this game are exportable, you’ve gotta pay an extra $10 for the privilege, and shelling out $70 for what is essentially 47 Green Day songs you can use in “Rock Band 2/3” is kind of steep. For those folks who plan to play the heck out of the game and export the tracks, you might consider picking up “Green Day: Rock Band Plus,” which sells for $70, includes the game, plus an export code, and another code that allows you to download all the Green Day songs previously released as downloadable content for the “Rock Band” games.
“Worms 2: Armageddon” (rated E10+) and “Peggle” (rated E), both on sale for $5 on Xbox Live Arcade: A slew of titles are marked down on Xbox Live this week, and these are the two I’d buy if I had $10 to spend. Others include “Serious Sam HD,” “Duke Nukem 3D,” “Battlefield 1943” and “Call of Duty Classic.” Prices vary. More details on Major Nelson’s blog.
“2010 FIFA World Cup” (rated E, on sale at Amazon for $40 on Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3): Hey, in case you didn’t notice, the World Cup is going on right now. Oh, and whaddya know, the World Cup video game is on sale, too.
“The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind” (rated T, on sale for PC for $5 on Steam): A slew off Bethesda Softworks role-playing games are on sale at Steam right now, but you can’t beat “Morrowind” for $5. This was the first RPG I picked up for the original Xbox when I got back into console gaming in 2003. It was fun, but the console version got notoriously bogged down and buggy the farther you got into the game to the point where it nearly became unplayable. I never finished it. So now I’ve bought it on PC for $5. I’ll have the option to start all over using many of the game’s copious player-created mods. Also on sale are the Game of the Year edition of “The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion” for $8.50 and the Game of the Year “Fallout 3” for $25. All are great deals.
Blogger’s note: Thanks to a glitch in the blogging software, or at least in my understanding of how the software works, this post was up prematurely for an hour or two on Friday, then withdrawn because I hadn’t finished it yet.
