New Releases

Gamers once again don the hooded cloak and hidden daggers of Altaïr for more Crusades-era assassinations and open-world acrobatics in Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines. Though released at the same time as its Renaissance-themed console cousin Assassin's Creed II, this PSP exclusive takes place immediately after the events of the original game, sending Altaïr to Cyprus where he must track down and kill all of the island's Templar officers. Altaïr retains all of his weapons and skills from the original game, and PS3 compatibility means that players who collect special Templar coins in Bloodlines and Assassin's Creed II can unlock and share new abilities across platforms. There are nine different mission types, including tailing, interrogation, and treasure hunts, and the action takes place in two sprawling cities, with gamers once again scaling the tallest monuments and towers in order to locate their next target. The Animus system returns, with seven different "memory blocks" serving as the game's levels, but Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines eschews the futuristic sojourns, protracted missions, and expositional death conversations of the original game in favor of shorter, more direct action aimed at on-the-go portable gamers. ~ Christopher Brown, All Game Guide

Players return to a virtual playroom re-creation of the iconic movie series in LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues. As in LEGO Indy's Original Adventures, gamers play through famous scenes from the films, with 3D characters and settings created completely from colorful LEGO building blocks. The 2009 sequel game features scenes from all four feature films, including the most recent Indiana Jones movie, The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Some characters have new moves since the first game, and new vehicles are available to re-create well-known movie scenes on boats, motorcycles, and mine carts. In a feature new to the LEGO movie game series, players can also create their own levels, using an almost unlimited supply of blocks. Custom levels can be built completely from scratch, or created by altering and adding to the pre-designed levels included in the game. As in the Indiana Jones original and other LEGO movie games (LEGO Star Wars, LEGO Harry Potter, LEGO Batman), players can collect objects hidden throughout the game world to unlock playable characters. More than 60 hidden artifacts in The Adventure Continues can be collected and used to unlock Crystal Skull characters such as Marion Ravenwood and Mutt Williams, as well as supporting characters and villains from throughout the film series, such as Short Round and Indy's father, Dr. Henry Jones Sr. ~ T.J. Deci, All Game Guide

Players return to a virtual playroom re-creation of the iconic movie series in LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues. As in LEGO Indy's Original Adventures, gamers play through famous scenes from the films, with 3D characters and settings created completely from colorful LEGO building blocks. The 2009 sequel game features scenes from all four feature films, including the most recent Indiana Jones movie, The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Some characters have new moves since the first game, and new vehicles are available to re-create well-known movie scenes on boats, motorcycles, and mine carts. In a feature new to the LEGO movie game series, players can also create their own levels, using an almost unlimited supply of blocks. Custom levels can be built completely from scratch, or created by altering and adding to the pre-designed levels included in the game. As in the Indiana Jones original and other LEGO movie games (LEGO Star Wars, LEGO Harry Potter, LEGO Batman), players can collect objects hidden throughout the game world to unlock playable characters. More than 60 hidden artifacts in The Adventure Continues can be collected and used to unlock Crystal Skull characters such as Marion Ravenwood and Mutt Williams, as well as supporting characters and villains from throughout the film series, such as Short Round and Indy's father, Dr. Henry Jones Sr. ~ T.J. Deci, All Game Guide

Single-handedly take out well-guarded targets through a combination of stealth and acrobatic maneuvers in this anticipated sequel to 2007's Assassin's Creed. Featuring a new protagonist in a different era, you'll control a young nobleman named Ezio Auditore da Firenze in 15th century Italy, at the height of the Renaissance. After a tragic event befalls his family, Ezio trains to become a master assassin, looking to exact his revenge on those responsible. Ezio will explore three sprawling cities, countryside, and various small villages while completing objectives during the day or at night. Assassin's Creed II offers three times the mission types found in its predecessor, with more things to see and do within each setting.

Money is now an important part of the game, allowing Ezio to purchase weapons, clothing, armor, repairs, and decorative items for his Italian villa. Ezio can pickpocket people, search for hidden chests, and complete side missions to fill his coffers. Other key changes include Ezio's ability to swim and even soar through the sky thanks to friend Leonardo da Vinci's flying machine. The open-ended world also allows for more free-running, climbing, and leaping from great heights. Among the new weapons at Ezio's disposal are pikes, maces, war hammers, scimitars, axes, and twin wrist-mounted blades that can be used to kill two people at once. Updated combat techniques include the ability to grab, kick, head-butt, drown, disarm, or pounce on enemies. ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide

Taking its story and setting from the concurrently released TriStar Pictures feature film, Planet 51: The Game is a mission-based driving adventure, set on an alien planet that is oddly familiar. In something of a role-reversal, players take control of Captain Chuck Baker, an astronaut explorer who lands on the strange planet, believing it to be uninhabited. Instead, he finds himself in the midst of picket-fenced suburbs, reminiscent of 1950s America -- except for the "little green men"-like inhabitants, who treat Chuck exactly like the alien invader that he is. The play of the game involves exploring the 3D suburban world from a behind-the-back, third-person perspective, sometimes on foot but usually in a vehicle, and accomplishing tasks such as reaching a distant location or escaping from pursuers. As in the computer-animated movie, the ultimate goal, ostensibly, is to recover Chuck's lost spaceship.

Chuck can commandeer essentially any vehicle he comes across in this travels, including family sedans and motorcycles, taxi cabs and cop cars, and even heavy-duty trucks or zippy riding lawn-mowers. Different cars and trucks have different power and handling, and although the vehicles on Planet 51 hover instead of roll on wheels, most rules of the road still apply. Rules are made to be broken, however, especially when you're a giant alien on the run from a frenzied mob. Chuck can also break from the main story, to interact with various characters from the film in side-quests and various mini-games. In some sequences, players can take control of Lem, the young alien boy who befriends Chuck, and his pet robot Rover, making use of their special skills and abilities to overcome game-world obstacles or beat special challenges. ~ T.J. Deci, All Game Guide

EA's NCAA Basketball series returns with both CBS and ESPN licenses in an attempt to create an authentic, television-style presentation that incorporates broadcasters Gus Johnson, Bill Raftery, Brad Nessler, Dick Vitale, and Erin Andrews. Revamped shot controls, more diverse animations, and improved positional AI are just a few of the changes to the gameplay over previous versions. Each school also features distinct motion offenses, from the dribble drive to the flex, and the home stadiums for 20 of the toughest teams to play against will make life difficult for visiting athletes. Playing in such venues as Clemson, Xavier, and North Carolina will cause the camera to shake during play, influence free throws, and more due to the raucous crowds. ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide

In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, developer Infinity Ward aims to ratchet up the intense first-person gunplay, graphical verisimilitude, and deep multiplayer experience that won the original title wide acclaim from critics and consumers alike, while at the same time adding to the overall package with the new, fast-paced "SpecOps" mode. The single-player campaign picks up where Call of Duty 4 ended, with gamers once again descending into the shadowy world of terrorists, arms dealers, and nationless armies. Players take on the role of Sergeant Gary "Roach" Anderson, an elite member of the multinational Task Force 141 and subordinate of one of Call of Duty 4's protagonists, John "Soup" MacTavish.

Task Force 141 is on the trail of Vladimir Makarov, a maniacal disciple of Imran Zakhaev, who has used the death of his mentor as a means of expanding his own base of power. Missions find gamers working off sketchy intelligence as they battle whiteout conditions in the jagged mountains of Russia and Kazakstan, shuffle though expansive desert and cave environments in Afghanistan, and weave between City of God-like Brazilian slums, where misfires result in dead civilians and a failed mission. As was the case in Call of Duty 4, Modern Warfare 2 supplies players with the most technologically advanced weapons, vehicles, and accoutrements available, including SCAR-H rifles, snowmobiles, and heartbeat sensors.

The new "SpecialOps" mode brings gamers more than 20 fast-paced missions inspired by the frenzied mid-fuselage gunfight at the end of Call of Duty 4. Players find themselves racing snowmobiles, battling a huge number of enemies at once, or simply attempting to get in and out of a building without dying, and missions can be played solo, in local split-screen co-op, or online with a friend. Those looking for more online action can also take on the "Free-for-All," "Demolition," "Domination," "Search & Destroy," "Capture the Flag," and "Team Deathmatch" multiplayer modes.

The much-lauded RPG-like system of doling out experience points and unlockable rewards returns in Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer modes, but Infinity Ward has also included a number of new wrinkles to spice up the action. Maps are designed to be both more expansive and more vertical; weapons feature a variety of new attachments; new "Pro Perks" let players gain more stopping power, greater speed, or automatic health boosts; and gamers who manage to string together a number of kills gain access to the new "killstreaks" system, which lets them call for seven different kinds of heavy-duty support, including supply drops, helicopter gun attacks, and unmanned aerial vehicle strikes. ~ Christopher Brown, All Game Guide

Based on the trading card game and inspired by the animated television series, the first Chaotic video game is designed to bring the supernatural mugic spells, fantastic battle gear, and amazing heroes and creatures to life, in strategic turn-based battle. Set on the world of Perim, the game's plays through an ongoing struggle for survival and supremacy between the forces of the heroic OverWorlders and the dark UnderWorlders, along with the ant-like Danians, the reptilian Mipedians, and the spooky, mind-controlling M'arrillians. Gamers can take on the role of any of 40 playable characters, making use of tactical combinations of dozens devastating spells and empowered pieces of battle gear, in eight winner-take-all fighting arenas. Battles are fought in the Chaotic realm, following the rules of the card game, with onscreen creatures acting out each strike and counter-strike in colorful, 3D animations. Victory unlocks new cards, representing additional gear and mugic powers. Two players can match their card-battle skills in head-to-head play, or a single player can face an RPG-style "Story" mode campaign against computer-controlled opponents. ~ T.J. Deci, All Game Guide

The third Call of Duty title to come to DS, and the first to feature a wholly original storyline, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare -- Mobilized offers handheld gamers new weapons, new gameplay modes, and new multiplayer options. Players can wield 20 different firearms, including an automatic shotgun, and missions find gamers engaging in traditional ground-based urban combat, piloting a tank through hostile territory, controlling and deploying weapons from UAV spy drones, and, in a nod to the console version of the original Modern Warfare, manning the turrets of an AC-130 gunship. Aside from the main campaign, single players also have the option to take on the new "Survival" mode, in which gamers use an array of different weapons to hold off hordes of encroaching foes for as long as possible, and the new "Arcade" mode, where a clock winds down as players attempt to rack up high scores in the main campaign. A variety of multiplayer game modes now allow for six-person competitions, gamers can host their own online battles, and a new weapons unlock feature lets players earn more powerful armaments as they improve their multiplayer stats. ~ Christopher Brown, All Game Guide

Konami's best-selling soccer series returns with updated features designed around consumer feedback. The AI for both referees and goalkeepers has been adjusted, and there are more feints and special moves available on the pitch. Over 300 moves have been added in total, with new animations for dribbling, turning, and kicking. Other refinements include more expressive player faces, dynamic lighting, enhanced stadium details, and new crowd chants and cheers. The franchise-style Master League mode adds depth with new fiscal responsibilities, corporate sponsorships, and youth team coaching. Online play is once again supported with a two-on-two option as well as an assortment of new competitions to enter. ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide

Players wave their Wii Remote and Nunchuk to the beat of a variety of licensed and original songs as Konami's popular and kid-friendly music game makes its way to North America after more than a decade of Japanese exclusivity. Pop'n Music lets Gamers play with custom avatars, uploaded Miis, or 14 different pre-made characters, and the action takes place in six different stages. Adjustable difficulty levels are designed to make the game enjoyable to newcomers as well as veterans familiar with the series' sometimes brutal difficulty, and players with a Wi-Fi connection can download additional post-release song content. ~ Christopher Brown, All Game Guide

Dragon Ball: Raging Blast is a 3D fighting game for high-def generation consoles, featuring more than 40 heroes, villains, and supporting characters from the Dragon Ball Z franchise. The roster swells above 70 playable characters when including the Super Saiyan variations and form transformations available for many key personalities such as Goku, Gohan, Frieza, Vegeta, Cell, and Broly. Alternate costumes are available for many of the characters as well. In the tradition of the previous console generation's Dragon Ball Z: Budokai series, the focus of play in Raging Blast is fast-paced, supernaturally powered martial arts combat, on solid ground and high in the skies above, as featured throughout the influential anime series. Battles are fought in large, interactive and destructible arenas, taken from key moments throughout the manga and anime. Characters display real-time damage, such as scrapes, bruises, and torn clothing from a tough fight. Single-player modes include the "Dragon Battle Collection" main story campaign, which runs from the Saiyan Saga up to the Kid Buu Saga, and "Super Battle Trial," which allows players to duke it out and test new tactics with their favorite fighters in quick pick-up matches. Players can customize the Super Attack moves of their favorite characters, using points earned by playing through the campaign. Online, players have access to multiplayer modes including team tournaments, spectator-ranked matches, and straight up "Versus" battles. ~ T.J. Deci, All Game Guide

Ubisoft's expansive animal development series grows once more with Petz Nursery, a title designed to let gamers interact and care for small and vulnerable baby animals. Players must keep their newborn Petz clean while providing milk and warmth to a variety of creatures, including puppies, kittens, tiger cubs, and baby polar bears. Singing songs, letting the different animals frolic together, and playing games of peek-a-boo will help each creature grow up happy and strong, and Petz Nursery is compatible with other titles in the series, such as Petz: Dogz Talent Show and Petz: Hamsterz Superstarz, so gamers can continue to keep track of their pets even after they leave the nursery. ~ Christopher Brown, All Game Guide