New PAL Releases Roundup

By Tom Bramwell Published 4 March, 2010

Bad Company 2! SupCom! Silent Hunter!

It's always been trendy to joke about the games industry's obsession with shooting things in the face, but it really isn't the answer to everything. Just ask Shadow the Hedgehog. Happiness is not just a warm gun.

Fortunately the world's first-person shooter developers long ago figured this out, and decided that happiness also required experience points, and intensity, and "oscar mike" and "danger close" and "good effect on target". More than anything, it also required polish.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is the latest example of this approach, and it turns out it's a fantastic example. "It's the high bar it sets for a genre mired in complacency that makes it so invigorating," we said the other day. Polish, tangos, you name it; it's in there. Oh, and there's a plot.

(By the way, thanks to excellent review code availability we were also able to get our Bad Company 2 face-off ready quickly, so you can even make an informed choice about which version to buy. Win!)

This week's other sequel (ha ha) is the also-invigorating Supreme Commander 2. While the single-player game's a bit ropey, the multiplayer is great fun. Existing fans may be divided by Gas Powered Games' approach but those who are seduced by SupCom 2's charms regardless may live happily ever after.

Other highlights of this week's release list include Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (was it delayed by a week again? Grr) and Assassin's Creed II and Silent Hunter 5, strapped to both of which is the PR apocalypse that is Ubisoft's new DRM measures.

As discussed on last week's podcast, there are some good elements to balance out the mental always-connected/boots-you-back-to-savepoints stuff, but few will perceive them against the backdrop of DRM. Expect that one to run and run.

Finally, don't forget that Final Fantasy XIII is out next Tuesday, 9th March. Our review and face-off will be online tonight at midnight.

This week in shops:

  • Alice in Wonderland (DS, Wii)
  • Assassin's Creed II (PC)
  • Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
  • Imagine: Journalist (DS)
  • Picross 3D (DS)
  • Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (PS2, PSP, Wii)
  • Silent Hunter 5 (PC)
  • Supreme Commander 2 (PC)

Late release:

  • Final Fantasy XIII (PS3, Xbox 360) - Tuesday, 9th March

This week online*:

  • Bit.Trip Void (WiiWare)
  • Mega Man 10 (WiiWare)
  • Toy Soldiers (Xbox Live Arcade)
  • Zaxxon (Virtual Console)

*This list will be updated with PSN and DSiWare releases once announced.

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 (14) Latest comment 2 years ago

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

  • bad09 #1 2 years ago

    Eh? AC2 is out this week, how come it's delayed on Steam until the 16th??

    Ah that's cool anyway, gives me time to see how that horrific, disgusting, consumer punishing instead of pirate DRM pans out. :)

  • dingo75 #2 2 years ago

    Silent Hunter seems to be cracked already and images of a claimed cracked Russian AC2 are floating on the internet as well.
    Well done Ubisoft.

    @bad09: My Black Edition (which I forgot to cancel) left Play.com today so I guess it's out.
    Edited by 1 at 04/03/10 @ 09:13

  • KDR_11k #3 2 years ago

    SH:SM came out in Germany last week, it got un-delayed from 5th March to 26th February or so.

  • JeroenZM #4 2 years ago

    Super Fighting Robot...Mega Man!

  • bad09 #5 2 years ago

    @ dingo75

    Yep that crap is cracked already, lets hope Ubi scrap it now :)

    While the pirates enjoy a better product for free, there is some good news for us stupid PAYING customers. Ubi seem to have actually figured out how stupid their system is and patched AC2 so you don't lose unsaved progress if your net craps out.

    Edited by 1 at 04/03/10 @ 09:24

  • SYS64738 #6 2 years ago

    But aren't there still problems with saving games in those cracked versions? (only heard this, didn't verify)

    Edit: I'd say AC2 is delayed cos they're trying to make that ridiculous DRM work with Steam perhaps... SH5 and AC2 were on my definite shopping list, and now they're off it due to the DRM. Pity.
    Edited by 1 at 04/03/10 @ 09:30

  • Stoatboy #7 2 years ago

    This is me not buying Silent Hunter 5 due to the DRM. You feeling that Ubi?

    And that's £30 extra I now have to spend on cheap gin and Sherbet Dib-Dabs, so it's not all bad. :)

  • gamingdave #8 2 years ago

    Alerady got SH5, downlaoded last night from gamersgate and installed, but was too late to play. Looking forward to getting out on the seas tonight though. Glad and not suprised to hear the DRM has been cracked allready though, its fine being connected on my HTPC in the living room, but not the laptop on the train.

  • NonShinyGoose #9 2 years ago

    Silent Hill was released last week - it's in both the Wii and PS2 charts this week.

  • SlackMaster #10 2 years ago

    Oooh... Megaman 10... I've not been downloading much from the nintendo store recently though as the internal memory on my Wii is chocka and you can't play games directly off the SD card expansion. :(

  • max75 #11 2 years ago

    SlackMaster
    you can run games off the sd card on a wii if you have done system update..
    i cant belive it took so long nintendo to sort this...

  • bad09 #12 2 years ago

    Quick heads up if you were gonna wait for Steam, the Steam version of AC2 has been canned it's retail only. Don't know why though.

  • ParanoidZombie #13 2 years ago

    I hope Deadly Premonition will be released in Europe someday! It would be an instant buy for me..

    http://ww w.metacritic.com/games/platform...

  • Paulie_P #14 2 years ago

    Has anyone else been disappointed by Silent HIll: Shattered memories?

    I cant quite put my finger on it but it was a bit of a let down for me.