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New PAL Releases Roundup

Gears 2, Guitar Hero, LBP, MotorStorm...

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News by Tom Bramwell Former Editor-in-Chief
Updated on

The Rockworm, then. In case you missed it, he's the intro star of Christian's Gears of War 2 review, where he pinpointed Epic's bulletproof wriggler - portable cover in the depths of the Hollow - as an amusing tactical edge. And he is clearly awesome. Or so I thought, except yesterday as I used him to sidle past a pair of Locust gun emplacements, I got bored and simply legged it round the corner, rendering him rather moot. Oops.

It's not the only thing that's bothered me about Gears 2 so far. As with the first one, middle-distance cover-based gunnery is sublime, and long-range Longshot sniping is great thanks to the Active Reload, but dealing with Grubs and Tickers when they break through and get within melee distance is still a cack-handed faff as you grind away at the slightly unresponsive Lancer bayonet button or try and shoot them with scattershot unzoomed blindfire.

But gosh, it's still brilliantly silly, and I've barely scratched the surface. Gears 2's disc tray domination has also meant that, much as I love LittleBigPlanet, this week's grand, religiously tolerant relaunch passed me by entirely, and Sackboy's only chance to grin at me from the PS3's XMB was as I switched on and scroll left to fire up PlayTV and watch football. Then I went back to shooting lizards underground and grunting. Perhaps I'll combine the two and make a tribute to cover-based homoerotica with Stephen Fry.

Anyway, those are the two highest-profile options this week, but those in search of a solid racing game could do worse than MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, while Professor Layton makes his delayed entrance on DS in Europe and the guitar-and-game bundles for Guitar Hero World Tour go on sale for those of you who can't wait for the instrument bundles next week. Which is what we'd do.

Next week, of course, it's Call of Duty: World at War, Mirror's Edge and Wii Music. Look out for verdicts before release.

This week in shops:

  • America's Next Top Model (DS)
  • Are You Smarter Than A 10-Year Old? (DS)
  • Bratz Ponyz 2 (DS)
  • Build a Bear Workshop: A Friend Fur All Seasons (Wii)
  • Disney Sing It! (PS3, Xbox 360)
  • Disney's High School Musical 3: Senior Year DANCE! (PS2)
  • Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon (Wii)
  • Gears of War 2 (Xbox 360)
  • Guinness World Records: The Videogame (Wii, DS)
  • Guitar Hero World Tour (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PS2)
  • Imagine Dream Wedding (DS)
  • Imagine Interior Designer (DS)
  • Legendary (PS3)
  • LittleBigPlanet (PS3)
  • Margot's Word Brain (Wii, DS, PS2, PC)
  • Mechanic Master (DS)
  • Monster Lab (Wii)
  • MotorStorm: Pacific Rift (PS3)
  • My Make Up (DS)
  • My Secret Diary (DS)
  • Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm (PS3)
  • NHL 09 (PC)
  • Pass the Pigs (DS)
  • Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 (PSP)
  • Professor Layton and the Curious Village (DS)
  • Rhiannon: Curse of the Four Branches (PC)
  • Sacred 2: Fallen Angel (PC)
  • Saints Row 2 (PC)
  • SingStar Singalong with Disney (PS2)
  • Tom Clancy's EndWar (PS3, Xbox 360)
  • Trauma Center: New Blood (Wii)
  • WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PS2, PSP, DS)

This week online:

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