Yesterday's December edition of Australian PC gaming magazine PCPOWERPLAY had full reviews of the latest games to hit, or about to hit, the shelves. They score out of ten, and rate the game on what it has, not what it hasn't. I will also add what sort of PC system you'll need from "Everyday" to "Grunty". You can guess what that means. Onto the reviews:

1/ "Fallout 3" - six blinding pages of review here: "With 25 hours of content just to steam through the main quest, it will be a while before the thought of replayability crosses your mind. When it does, just remember the remaining 100 or so hours of side-quests that surround the main plot. This is truly a game to be savoured." There are hold-overs from "Oblivion, like pesky NPC's who can see events three housese away (through the walls) and the third-person perspective, but these are quickly accepted and put aside. 9/10 (Grunty PC specs).

2/ "Far Cry 2" - Again a six page spread: Though CRYSIS is what would immediatly spring to mind in comparing games, "Jagged Alliance 2" is a lot closer to this epic, non-linear mega-game. The AI? "Yes, two enemy soldiers travelling in the one vehicle had momentarily stopped the pursuit to spilt up, steal my abandoned car, and kill me with it. This level of of intelligence is repeated throughout the game"...with enemies having full conversations with each other while engaging you in a firefight. "Immersive open world, great A.I., sneak-tastic. Truly Immersive. Open world gaming at its' best." 10/10 (Everyday gaming rig).

3/ "Dead Space" - The controversial sleeper-hit of 2007: "That EA believes this game doesn't contain anything 'adults only' is...unnerving, because...any parent that lets anyone who can't legitimately call themselves a teenager within forty yards of this blood-and-pus fest, needs to seriously reassess the parenting choices they're making." This really is survival-horror at its' goriest and is a lot of fun just based on that. The weapons are unfortunately pretty generic, with sensational names like "Pulse Rifle" for a pulse rifle and "Flamethrower" for...you guessed it. "The storyline...is basically a corridor shooter with that old, old favourite: key hunting. Its' a traditional shooter with a cute combat gimmick. Play it, but be sure to wash your hands afterwards." 7/10 (Everyday gaming rig).

Hope this helps in your gaming choices, not that anyone will change their minds dramatically at this stage. "Quantam of Solice" was previewed (very, very nice) as was "CoD: World at War" (Very, very, VERY nice).
Oh, and "BiA: Hell's Highway" received 8/10 (sorry Praetorian), and "Crysis: Warhead" 7/10.
Cheers all.
H.

As I'm sure you're all aware, the game is coming this month. Available in Stores on Oct. 28 in N. America, Oct. 30 in Europe/Australia, Oct. 31 in the UK. Fallout 3 is slated for release on the Xbox 360, PS3, and the ubiquitously titled "Games for Windows" (or for the PC).

“Fallout 3 has been the biggest project we’ve ever undertaken,” said Todd Howard, game director for Fallout 3. “It’s been a long journey and we’re really happy with how it turned out. We can’t wait for everyone to get a chance to play it.”

Fallout 3’s first review is featured as this month’s cover story in Official Xbox Magazine, hitting subscribers now and on newsstands October 21. The PC version is reviewed in Australia's PCPOWERPLAY, due out today (so I'll be having a read tonight).
Hailed as one of the most anticipated games for 2008, Fallout 3 has already won numerous awards including Best of Show from the official Game Critics Awards at E3 2008, a selection voted on by an independent group of journalists from 36 leading North American media outlets that cover the videogame industry.

A product listing on the US Electronic Arts Store has revealed that an expansion pack is on the way for Spore, titled the Creepy & Cute Parts Pack. The product listing carries a release date of 18th November, and it sits on a price tag of $20 US. Currently, there is no mention of the expansion on the Australian portal of the EA store, nor has it appeared on the European store website, leaving gamers to ponder about when it will hit our shores. Details on what the pack will contain are also light at the moment, but hopefully it will allow for more "fleshed-out" sections for the earlier iterations of your creatures...and perhaps another Campaign.

""US, October 10, 2008 - ANAHEIM--Blizzard dropped a bombshell at the 2008 Blizzcon today by announcing that StarCraft II, the highly-awaited sequel to the smash hit 1998 real-time strategy game, StarCraft, has been split into three. The company said that StarCraft II now consists of three different stand-alone titles--one for each faction campaign. The first of the StarCraft II trilogy will be StarCraft II Terrans: Wings of Liberty. The second will be StarCraft II Zerg: Heart of the Swarm, with the third and final installment of the main trilogy being StarCraft II Protoss: Legacy of the Void. Blizzard says it made the change to make each story that much more epic and to flesh out the StarCraft universe. By splitting the game, the company says that players will access more story content, more characters, and more customization. Rob Pardo, executive vice president of game design, said that each game would be approximate in size to the original StarCraft. Each game will be a stand-alone installment – not an expansion.
The original StarCraft, according to Pardo, had 32 missions; 12 for the Terrans, and 10 each for the Zerg and the Protoss. According to Blizzard, each of these StarCraft II games will consist of more than 30 missions. Pardo explained that the multiplayer remains relatively unchanged; each StarCraft II game will have a fully functioning multiplayer suite with all three races playable. "[In] the shipping product, all three races will be fully featured and balanced in gameplay and also in content," he said. We asked about the timeline for the three StarCraft II games, using Valve's original prediction of shipping all three episodes of the Half-Life 2 episodes within a single year, but reality is that it will take more than more like three years.""
- IGN.com.au

Three years for the complete SCII? That's a lifetime in gaming years. And as for rumours that Diablo III will ship first, Pardo had this parting shot:
"It's going to ship before Diablo III for sure; Diablo III is further out."

“”Ubisoft Shanghai creative director Michael de Plater has told VG247 that a PC version of EndWar would most likely be shipping alongside the console SKUs if it wasn’t for rampant PC piracy, and that copyright theft is essentially destroying the PC games market.
“To be honest, if PC wasn’t pirated to hell and back, there’d probably be a PC version coming out the same day as the other two,” he said, talking of the voice-controlled RTS.
“But at the moment, if you release the PC version, essentially what you’re doing is letting people have a free version that they rip off instead of a purchased version. Piracy’s basically killing PC.”
We asked if piracy was the main reason to keep EndWar off PC.
“Yeah, at the time of release,” he said. “You know, the level of piracy that you get with the PC just cannibalizes the others, because people just steal that version.”
De Plater also told us that a PC version is likely to be released further down the line, as reported yesterday.
Tom Clancy’s EndWar does appear to be very good, from what we played of it. Looks as though you’re not going to be leeching a PC version for a while yet, though. You know who you are.””

- VIDEOGAMING247
October 8th