A look at a some recent video game releases:
Sega Rally Revo: Rev up your engines and get ready to rip up the track - literally.
Sega Rally Revo introduces a racing simulation with "geodeformation," where your car actually gouges out grooves in the roadway as you race against real or computer-controlled opponents. This makes each successive lap that much more treacherous.
The game, published by Sega and developed by Sega Racing Studio, offers several ways to play, including championship mode where you can win points in a series of rallies to become the top racer. In multiplayer online matches you compete against other gamers over the Internet.
Gamers rip up the road on tracks ranging from dusty desert speedways to alpine villages complete with photo-snapping fans. Plus you can unlock all kinds of nifty goodies like new cars and paint jobs.
Sega Rally Revo may not be the most realistic racing simulation ever made and gets a bit repetitive after a while, but it definitely delivers some quick adrenalin-fuelled racing action to the PC.
The game is also available for Xbox 360, PS3 and PSP.
Next Life: An evening ride turns horrific when the character you play, Adam Raichl, is killed in a car accident then suddenly wakes up in a purgatory-like world inhabited by bizarre people and puzzles to figure out.
But the anemic gameplay in the point-and-click adventure PC title, published by Toronto's the Adventure Company and developed by Future Games, bogs down any fun despite the interesting storyline.
The pace of the game is slow, even by adventure game yardsticks.
There's the standard selection of puzzles, including set pieces and typical "collect and combine items" tasks to further your journey through the game, but everything feels way too spread out and slow.
Throw in some bizarre stilted voiceovers which are sub-par for the genre along with text that contains spelling errors and it all adds up to a dud. Unless you're a real adventure game fanatic, you'd best steer clear.
Painkiller Overdose: Gamers get the chance to revisit an old-school-style first-person shooter with this fast-paced PC game in the guise of the demon Belial, the wisecracking son of heaven and hell.
There's not much high-tech wizardry in this game, published by Toronto's Dreamcatcher Interactive and developed by Mindware Studios, but that's not to say Painkiller Overdose doesn't have loads of fun. This is a straightforward "clear out rooms as fast and as frenzied as your demonic self can manage" game.
Frequent saves after each room and fun new levels maintain the compulsion to play just a little bit longer.
If you enjoy hacking apart other demons, slaughtering stuff left and right with body parts flying around, and drinking their souls for bonus health, this game is for you.
Bottom line: hellish action - with a sarcastic edge as your character spouts some classic lines such as "tastes like chicken" when consuming souls or "another one bites the dust" with a kill.
There's also a rudimentary card-collecting game - you can earn a card on each level which gives you a special power. Not that it matters much because you'll still find yourself hacking enemies to pieces with your hell cube or blasting them apart with the cannon.
Throw in a fast-paced online multiplayer mode and this game offers pretty good value.
Source: Canadian Press