New PAL Releases Roundup

Recently I've been learning first-hand about the trials and tribulations of putting on next week's Eurogamer Expo, as the people organising it have been sitting in my bit of the office. Who would have thought, for example, that you need a special licence to use a fire hose on queue-jumpers, or that you when you order two sealions you get the third one free?

The presence of the Eurogamer Expositionists has also disrupted the delicate postal ecology of the office, which can usually be summed up as: person answers door, person goes downstairs to sign for parcel, parcel turns out to be for me, everyone crowds round my desk, I am popular for 10 seconds. These days all the parcels go to other desks, and if anything is meant for me it gets eaten by industrial action.

Hopefully you will have more luck should you choose to rely on our nation's delivery services, because by rights there ought to be some top games landing on doormats tomorrow morning.

Borderlands, for example, which won itself an 8/10 around here the other day. You can set midgets on fire, my character's special move is to throw a bird at people, and, as Dan Pearson observed during a co-op game last night, it's like Fallout 3 drawn in crayon by heroes.

Alternatively, there's Forza Motorsport 3, which is really quite wonderful. I found past Forza games dull and monotonous, despite liking bits of them, but apparently I'm not alone in adoring this one throughout. Accessibility's not an amazingly difficult thing to do, but giving everyone a way in certainly is, and Turn 10's done a great job. Plus: Drift system + Fujimi Kaido = Happy Tom.

Then there's Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, which is not only a 9/10 game in our books, but arguably now the best GTA on PSP. Top-down GTA already had a lot going for it, and thanks to the addition of drug-dealing, now it has a compulsive blend of market speculation and car chases.

Elsewhere, we weren't massively enamoured with EyePet, but it certainly has its charms, while Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 is an improvement on last year, even if it pales next to FIFA these days in the eyes of many.

Oh, and while we don't go too mad around it about here, my secret love of wrestling would kick me if I didn't mention WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 - hopefully not the only place Rey Mysterio gets to win the World Heavyweight Championship this weekend. Six-one-nine!

This week in shops:

• Bakugan: Battle Brawlers (PS2, PS3, Xbox 360)
• Borderlands (PS3, Xbox 360)
• EyePet (PS3)
• Fairytale Fights (PS3, Xbox 360)
• Forza Motorsport 3 (Xbox 360)
• Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (PSP)
• Lips: Number One Hits (Xbox 360)
• Marvel Superhero Squad (PS2, PSP)
• PES 2010: Pro Evolution Soccer (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
• WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 (PS3, PSP, Xbox 360)

This week online:

• A Little Bit of... Dr Kawashima's Brain Training: Arts Edition (DSiWare)
• Abe's Exodus (PSN - PSone re-release)
• Abe's Oddysee (PSN - PSone re-release)
• Panzer General: Allied Assault (Xbox Live Arcade)
• Tower Bloxx Deluxe (Xbox Live Arcade)