New PAL Releases Roundup - 06/03/09

Empire, HAWX, Mario Tennis, more.

News by Tom Bramwell Former Editor-in-Chief

Updated on 5 Mar 2009

Just in case you were in any doubt, this week's big one is undoubtedly the 9/10-scoring Empire: Total War. Creative Assembly's fourth major Total War game, expansions excepted, is a gigantic undertaking, with enough content to embarrass the average JRPG let alone its real-time strategy rivals, and tops off a brilliant fortnight for RTS fans already generously served by Dawn of War II in late February.

It's far from alone on the shelves, mind you, but it's unlikely you'll be running to the shops for anything else (if you do at all - you can buy Empire on Steam anyway). There's Nintendo's latest New Play Control game, Mario Power Tennis (review in the morning); Sony's Patapon 2, and Ubisoft's Tom Clancy's HAWX (review later). And if you're already falling out of love with Street Fighter IV, first of all slap yourself, and second of all give some thought to the not-at-all-bad Battle Fantasia.

Online, meanwhile, there's Watchmen: The End is Nigh, at a whopping 1600 Microsoft Points (GBP 13.60 / EUR 19.20) on Xbox Live Arcade. Whether it's as good as the film remains to be seen (as does the film, since I'm not going until next week - any early thoughts?). And, assuming it doesn't hit another snag, Prince of Persia Epilogue should be released at some point today. Look out for a review soon afterwards.

Finally, there's the relatively unknown quantity of D3Publisher's Eat Lead, a satirical third-person shooter spoofing everything from Mario to Final Fantasy. Judging by the US reviews, it's encountered the same problem at EA's cock-eyed Simpsons game of a few years back: if you're going to make fun of the things other people do, don't leave yourself open to worse. We shall see just as soon as suspiciously late review code materialises.

This week: