IL-2 Sturmovik
Most flight sims are a bit too complex for me to take the time to learn them. IL-2 is different because it's not as hard to jump into and shoot up some planes. I especially like it because of all the interesting differences between the capabilities of WWII planes and modern jets. In Aerowings 2, for example, I can do a loop or immelman pretty much anytime because of the afterburner. With a prop plane, speeds are in general much lower, and you don't get enough thrust to do a loop or immelman a lot of the time. This means that height and potential energy plays a far bigger role. Also, because there's no missiles, IL-2 requires you to be right behind another plane, in close proximity, in order to even hit anything accurately with machine guns. It sure is rewarding when you finally do blast an enemy out of the sky, though!
Ghost Master
I remembered hearing about this a long time ago when it was released, and it sounded interesting. It was on sale a while ago so I nabbed it and tried it out. You control ghosts and try to scare all the humans out of a house. It's kind of boring and the controls suck. Luckily I didn't waste much money on it.
Zeno Clash
Here's a unique first-person beat-em-up. The style is some sort of weird mix between prehistoric and . . . I don't really know what. It's a lot of fun, but I wish it had a little more to the combat system. As it is, there's pretty much the regular punch which can become a three-hit combo, plus a charge punch, a grab which leads to two attacks, and a counter-attack. That's about it. There's some weapons, which are also pretty unique, but they're nothing new for the FPS genre. For an indie game, this one is pretty great.
Punch Out!
Nintendo put out a new, good first-party Wii game? Really?! That's right, Punch Out has been remade and updated for the Wii. It has a collection of fighters from the previous games, plus at least one new fighter in Disco Kid. The gameplay itself is exactly the same. You dodge, duck or block punches by recognizing the telegraph of the opponent, and look for an opening to knock his face off. There are no new moves for little mac. When I say it's the same, I mean it's EXACTLY THE SAME. It's not that big of a complaint because the formula is still great fun, but it would have been nice to see a little more gameplay. Being a Wii game, it also features optional motion controls for punching with the wiimote and nunchuk, and I really like it. There's the optional balance board for dodging, but I don't have one. I imagine it wouldn't work out well, because dodging requires a LOT of timing and I don't know if the balance board would be good enough for it.
Empire Total War
Really good! Kind of buggy. Not a big fan of the naval combat, but it's a good addition for those that want it. Just play this!
