Thar be zombies.Call of Duty: Black Ops Annihilation [X360]
Despite scoring the world's biggest ever entertainment launch last fall, there's still plenty of milk left in Activision cash cow,
Call of Duty: Black Ops.
Yup, this week's biggest release -- by far -- is the third downloadable expansion for Black Ops, Annihilation, which should already be
available on Xbox Live for 1200 Microsoft points ($15). Playstation 3 and PC
gamers? Sorry -- as with the previous two map packs, you're going to be waiting
a little longer before they appear on your platforms.
Your $15 buys you five new maps, of which four are standard
multiplayer head-to-head affairs, and play out in typically dramatic locales
like a Soviet nuclear missile silo, a Cuban golf course, and a classic American
drive-in movie theater. The remaining map is aimed at fans of the game's
cooperative zombie survival game mode, takes place in a legendary jungle
temple, and introduces three new enemy types: napalm zombies, shrieker zombies,
and monkey zombies.
Yes, you heard that right. Monkey zombies. $15 or not,
that's something we just have to see for ourselves.
ALSO THIS WEEK:
Amanda Rose: The Game of Time [PC]
Mysterious old mines are rarely good news. So it proves for
intrepid Game of Time heroine Amanda Rose, drawn to just such a location in
search of her missing father. Swept back in time to the Old West, can she find
Pa and make good her escape? That's where you -- and your hidden-object hunting
skills -- come in. 35 locations across 14 chapters will keep you playing for
hours, but its generous hint system means you won't be stuck for long.
Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D [3DS]
Rolling up the Mercenaries modes from Resident Evils 4 and 5
into one full-priced game, this 3DS release is a bit of an odd duck.
Considering the Mercenaries levels -- timed batles against a horde of baddies
-- were originally free extras, some critics have been questioning the
value-for-money of this release, and not without cause. It's also gathering
attention for an annoying quirk in the save system: once created, your save is
written to the game cartridge and can't be deleted. Ever. That's going to make
buying it used a bit of an unsatisfying experience, and it's causing a significant
backlash.
And now for something completely different. Kid-friendly
puzzler ABC Cubes: Teddy's Playground packs a Toy Story-like plot that'll have
old and young alike grinning, and follows it up with colorful, crisp graphics
and straightforward letter-matching gameplay. Bright, happy, and full of fun,
it's pretty much the anti-Resident Evil, and there's nothing wrong with that.
Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition [X360, PS3]
Bringing the smash hit Street Fighter IV series to a close,
the game's Arcade Edition first showed up in coin-op form last year, bringing
with it four new characters and a suite of subtle balance tweaks intended to
drive the game's multiplayer action to new competitive heights. Earlier this
month it leaped to home consoles as a $14.99 downloadable update to Super
Street Fighter IV -- and this week it gets a $39.99 retail release in its own
right. If you already own the earlier game, grab the downloadable version of Arcade instead -- but if you don't, here's your chance to
snag what's quite possibly this generation's finest 3D fighter for a nice
price.
UFC Personal Trainer [X360, PS3, Wii]
Everybody wants to be a fighter, but nobody wants to train
like one. So goes the saying -- but this Kinect, Move, and WIi release will let
you demonstrate otherwise in the comfort of your own living room. Boasting the
involvement of some of the trainers behind UFC's biggest names, it'll give you
your own personalized fitness routine with exercises based on martial-arts
moves. So yeah, it's a butch Wii Fit. It stands about as much chance of giving
you a UFC-style physique as we'd stand going toe-to-toe with Randy Couture
(absolutely none, in case you were wondering) but hey, if it gets you off the
couch, it can't be a bad thing.