New PAL Releases Roundup

By Tom Bramwell Published 1 October, 2009

Tomorrow's games today, sort of.

They're dropping like flies. Cowardly flies, who suddenly need a few more months buzzing around in order to "ensure quality". And so 2009 empties.

Or so the theory goes. The truth is a bit less extreme: there have been plenty of exciting games released in September. DiRT 2, Beatles, Section 8, Guitar Hero 5, Scribblenauts, Need for Speed: Shift, Halo 3: ODST and Aion, to name a few. Cast your minds and your eyes back 12 months and if anything it was slower getting started, and then look what happened.

The same pattern not be true for October 2009, but it's not off to a bad start either, with the superlative FIFA 10 arriving and seemingly delivering EA Sports boss Peter Moore's dream of a football game Metascore in the 90s.

If that's not surprising, then perhaps the extremely positive reaction to Dead Space: Extraction is. After all, it's a Wii rail shooter based on a survival horror game renowned for its atmospheric turn on graphics-heavy formats. Yet if anything it thrives in its new home, and the on-rails movement proves a useful way of managing pace and scares.

PS3 owners can also dive into Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, a landing cushioned somewhat by Tecmo's usual extreme attitude to the female form, which is neither here nor there considering the raft of improvements over the equivalent Ninja Gaiden 2 release on Xbox 360 last May.

There are dark horses, too, in Space Invaders Extreme 2 for DS, the inevitable follow-up to the original's unlikely revival job; and in Beaterator, Rockstar's music-mixing package co-produced by Timbaland. Both will be reviewed soon. As will RPG Risen, although that's less of a dark horse and more of a dead one.

Those are all in the shops tomorrow, and meanwhile PSPgo is in the shops today. Are you buying one? We'll round up the PSP Minis - bite-sized downloadable games due on the store today, including a port of iPhone tower defence champion Fieldrunners - as soon as we can.

This week in shops:

  • Amazing Adventures (DS)
  • Beaterator (PSP)
  • Clever Kids: Creepy Crawlies (Wii)
  • Combat of Giants: Dragons (DS)
  • Dead Space: Extraction (Wii)
  • FIFA 10 (PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360)
  • Groovy Chick: My Fashion World (DS)
  • Imagine Party Planner (DS)
  • Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 (PS3)
  • Puzzler World (DS)
  • Risen (PC, Xbox 360)
  • Sacred 2: Ice and Blood (PC)
  • Space Invaders Extreme 2 (DS)
  • Stoked (Xbox 360)
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash-Up (Wii)
  • Up (DS, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360)
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 (26) Latest comment 2 years ago

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

  • Vice.Destroyer #1 2 years ago

    "And so 2010 empties...The same pattern not be true for October 2010..."?Huh?
    Has Tom filled his DeLorean with 1.21 Gigawatts of energy?

  • Flabio #2 2 years ago

    You guys do know it's actually 2009 at the moment right?

  • layleeloo #3 2 years ago

    Not the most thrilling week of releases. THANK GOD. Due to the amount coming up it will keep some cash in my pocket for a week or two longer. Phew!

  • menage #4 2 years ago

    Can we get a Risen review. I want to know if it's more Oblivion or Two Worlds.

  • mikeck #5 2 years ago

    Can we get a Risen review. I want to know if it's more Oblivion or Two Worlds.

    Good shout, two very different standards there - I'm intrigued by Risen, but only if it's Oblivion standards, definitely not Two Worlds standards :)

  • Toothball #6 2 years ago

    Scribblenauts is released next week in Euroland, so it doesn't count as a September game.

  • systems #7 2 years ago

    @menage - Risen is made by the Gothic chaps so if you like that you'll be fine. It's pretty much the same game system but not as big as Gothic 3.

  • lennon #8 2 years ago

    Risen has had some good european reviews around the 80 mark I believe. I was put off when I read a few people say the visuals were awful but having watched a few videos of the 360 version it wasnt as bad as people were making out.

  • muscleblade #9 2 years ago

    Space Invaders Extreme 2 for me.

  • justice-ste #10 2 years ago

    Dead Space: Extraction was out last week.
    I do fancy a bit of Space Invaders: Extreme 2 though
    Edited by 1 at 01/10/09 @ 10:21

  • menage #11 2 years ago

    Risen didn't look that bad from the trailers and previews. But I'm always kinda cautious if only 2 unknown websites rate it. There's quite a few games coming up and I don't want to spend money on a dud.

    It is my kind of game though, love forestwandering and potiondrinking:p

  • Fletche #12 2 years ago

    I've had Dead Space: Extraction since the start of the week??

  • Ranger_Ryu #13 2 years ago

    Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 for me then!

  • GamesConnoisseur #14 2 years ago

    EG are lazy as they followed their release date list, and Wii's Dead Space out tomorrow according to them but we know it was actually last week!

    Maybe too busy with PSPGo?

    Risen.... Hoping it's at least a good fun to play and not a stinker. Keeping my eyes out for reviews and comments.

  • Darren #15 2 years ago

    Personally I'm avoiding Risen for now as it's out tomorrow and has had very little pre-release publicity which doesn't normally bode well for the game.

  • Repsode #16 2 years ago

    @ Ace Grace: It should be on the list, and should be out today but some places seem to be holding it back till tomorrow for some reason.

    Went to GameStop in Belfast as I can only justify the purchase on one of their gift cards (I'm broke) and they told me that the PSP go and GT are released tomorrow.

    I thought I was in groundhog day and had to check my watch to see that it wasn't 30th September again.

    Oh well. If I was richer I'd have just gone across the road to GAME and bought it there as they ARE selling it on time.

    Slightly pissed off at the moment.

  • Darren #17 2 years ago

    Just three games for me this month: FIFA 10 (2 Oct), Uncharted 2 (16 Oct), Forza 3 (23 Oct) and Ratchet & Clank A Crack in Time next month then that's pretty much it until 2010 for new releases as there's nothing else out that interests me.

    I might pick up PES 10 for the PC perhaps but that's very dependent on the reviews and I may decide to import the PS3 God of War Collection from the US over Christmas if it's worthwhile. That's it. Feels quite good actually having whittled the usual ten trillion games I normally buy in the run up to Christmas down to six tops! My wallet will be happy if nothing else. :)

  • spookyzombie #18 2 years ago

    [link url=http://uk.gamespot.com/xbox360/rpg/risen/foru m.html?tag=tabs;forums
    ]http://uk .gamespot.com/xbox360/rpg/risen...[/link]

    From what I can gather from users impressions, Risen is definitely more Two Worlds than Oblivion.

  • NBAoz #19 2 years ago

    Looking forward to Stoked which has finally arrived after "only" an 8 month delay (US have had it since Feb this year!). I ordered my copy from GAME UK as you guys are getting it a month earlier than us Australians. Bugger that if I am going to wait another month! :-P

  • Arwin #20 2 years ago

    Oh, Beaterator is out?? Ooh! Ooh! And that together with GT PSP means two titles to buy today. :p

    Well and Pinball Fantasies on PSN/Minis probably also
    Edited by 2 at 01/10/09 @ 11:41

  • Edwin #21 2 years ago

    Sigma is a vast improvement..... even to the point of being enjoyable to play.

  • stepneg #22 2 years ago

    Let's have a Stoked review

  • Slipstream #23 2 years ago

    Ninja Gaiden 2: Sigma! Really looking forward to then online co-op!

  • penhalion #24 2 years ago

    EG at least make it look like this list isn't created by robots. Deadspace extraction was released last week! I guess this list is untouched by humans!

  • Ranger101 #25 2 years ago

    My heart goes out to the devs forced to work on "Groovy Chick: My fashion world" in order to make a living.

  • FortysixterUK #26 2 years ago

    So Risen is slated just as I thought it would be...odd how some of the PC mags and rpg dedicated sites have scored this in the 80s.....oh well...prove me wrong EG, and see if you can post a good review of a game that doesn't solely rely in graphics.