New PAL Releases Roundup - 03/07/09

By Tom Bramwell Published 3 July, 2009

Juarez! Tiger! Er, spares! Desperation!

Do we play hot and muggy games when it's hot and muggy? I have warm (stiflingly warm) recollections of playing Far Cry through a projector at the height of summer in 2005, sweat dripping accurately down my back as I crept through the jungle, before giving away my position with a telltale sneeze that knocked the keyboard over and ran me straight into a munitions dump.

Well, if that sort of thing tickles you, and the prospect of rain that actually makes things worse this weekend has you scurrying for the couch under cover of desk fans, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood might be the answer. On the one hand it's a straightforward shooter. On the other, it's a very handy western, "set in a tangibly real Wild West, with proper, honest-to-goodness cowboys, Indians and bandits in it", as Oli put it before awarding it a handsome 7/10. Sweat. Sorry, sweet.

Elsewhere this week, it's a little dry (sorry). There's the latest Tiger Woods to consider, or next week's potential number one, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (assuming the kids haven't moved on to glue-sniffing and rape by now), but despite the length of the list below the majority are quirky downloadables. And the rest of July doesn't look much more inspiring.

Time perhaps to look to the past for inspiration.

This week:

  • Bit Boy (WiiWare)
  • Bomberman 94 (Wii Virtual Console - Turbografx)
  • Brain Challenge (DSiWare)
  • Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
  • Detana Twin Bee (Wii Virtual Console - Turbografx)
  • Donkey Xote (PSN - PSP)
  • Gradius Rebirth (WiiWare)
  • Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (DS, PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360)
  • James Pond 2: Codename Robocod (PSN PSone re-release - PS3, PSP)
  • Kirby's Dream Land 3 (Wii Virtual Console - SNES)
  • King of Fighters '98: Ultimate Match (Xbox Live Arcade)
  • Mario Calculator (DSiWare)
  • Mario Clock (DSiWare)
  • Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PSN - PSP)
  • Musha (Wii Virtual Console - Megadrive)
  • Numblast (PSN - PS3, PSP)
  • Punisher: No Mercy (PSN - PS3)
  • Red Baron Arcade (PSN - PS3)
  • Smash Table Tennis (Wii Virtual Console - NES)
  • Super Hind (PSN - PSP)
  • Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 (PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360 - also on PSN for PSP)
  • topatoi: The Great Tree Story (PSN - PS3)
  • Virtua Tennis 2009 (PC)
  • Worms 2: Armageddon (Xbox Live Arcade)
  • Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II (Wii Virtual Console - NES)

P.S. Street Fighter IV is supposedly due out today for PC, but most of the shops we've tried claim to have no stock. Any joy out there for any of you?

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (18) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • aldo_14 #1 3 years ago

    No mention of Street fighter 4 on PC?

    EDIT; hey, what did I do wrong?
    Edited by 1 at 05/07/09 @ 13:55

  • xagarath #2 3 years ago

    Six virtual console releases? Really?

  • Doctor_What #3 3 years ago

    Rape jokes? That might be stepping over the line Tom. Could you not do that in future please?

  • Mattb90 #4 3 years ago

    The only Virtual Console games out this week are Orgre Battle: The March of the Black Queen and Pulseman, both part of the fourth Hanabi Festival. The other four EG have mentioned are all games coming in the next couple of weeks as part of the Festival.

  • Darren #5 3 years ago

    It's chucking it down with rain where I am and there's a lovely cooling breeze so I'm happy! :)

    Just got Call of Juarez: BiB in this morning's post so I'm eager to rush home and play it. Should get FUEL tomorrow, oddly omitted from that list but only released for the PC today as far as I know.

  • Eraysor #6 3 years ago

    I wonder if Nintendo will ever release something for the DSi that isn't epic fail.

  • BabyJesus #7 3 years ago

    Might get Call of Juarez, apart from that and Battlefield 1943, july and most of august looks like a time to buy games you missed out on, well until Batman comes out that is.

  • Burkey123 #8 3 years ago

    Have Eurogamer reviewed Tiger Woods for Wii yet?

  • Scrumhalf #9 3 years ago

    @Burkey123
    No there is no review yet, a few of us got it yesterday and after a whole evenings play I can say it is really rather good. Slight improvement in graphics, loads of content - but the real biggie is that MotionPlus works sooo well in this..

  • Zanuah #10 3 years ago

    Still no word on BlazBlue... :(

    The only game I'm interested in at the moment...

    Oh and Steam says July 7th for StreetFighter 4 for me... So maybe for shops too?

  • bad09 #11 3 years ago

    Can anyone tell me how is Robocod on PS1 compared to Amiga? I had no idea they released it on PS1.

  • lunnyt00n #12 3 years ago

    I picked SF4 on pc this morning so stores do have it

  • neems #13 3 years ago

    I got my SF4 PC yesterday, from ShopTo. Damn good it is as well (although people are already terrifyingly good at it).

  • Burkey123 #14 3 years ago

    @ Scrum

    That's good to hear. It has been getting great reviews so far. I'm interested to see what Eurogamer give it.

  • Gurgeh #15 3 years ago

    Slight related note, GfK-ChartTrack for UK console sales over the last 12 months:

    DS - 2.7 million
    Wii - 2.3 million
    Xbox 360 - 1.7 million
    PS3 - 900,000
    PSP - 500,000

    [link url=http://www.mcvuk.com/news/34906/Official-UK-i nstalled-base-tops-24m
    ]http://ww w.mcvuk.com/news/34906/Official...[/link]

  • GamesConnoisseur #16 3 years ago

    ^^

    The gap between X360 and PS3 is wider than I had presumed... still rest of Europe is where PS3 is doing better... still as everyone sings the same hymn... not until PS3 price cut then PS3 will not catch up anywhere pretty soon.

    The Bit Boy for me is the greatest game this week! Mainly cos its perfectly summed up the various ages of the Gaming and really captures the heydays of the pioneering gaming times!
    Edited by 1 at 03/07/09 @ 17:24

  • JensonJet #17 3 years ago

    I would definitely have bought Call of Juarez but for one tiny issue.... no co-op! What is it with developers and their insistence on leaving such a fun feature out of games. Co-op allows a game to be played time and time again, that single player just isn't capable of. I find it hard to believe it's difficult to incorporate this into games. The age old excuse of 'ruins story' or 'loss of atmosphere' are just plain weak. Co-op never hurt the Rainbow Six or GRAW series. Left4Dead has, by all accounts, done pretty well utilising co-op. It's really very easy... leave the single player in place, and if necessary remove cut-scenes or specific single player only sections (that's how Doom 3 handled it). I refuse to waste money on a game that's only single player. So here's one lost customer from Call of Juarez, waiting for Operation Flashpoint, who's developers can be bothered to add co-op.

  • aldo_14 #18 3 years ago

    Oh and Steam says July 7th for StreetFighter 4 for me... So maybe for shops too?

    I think some shops must be really cutting down on Pc games; I've not seen Protoype or Riddick (in particular) atall in either supermarkets or the more dedicated shops like HMV/Game.