Friday Downtime - 01/05/09 Feature

The days getting longer and the sun beginning to shine can mean only one thing to gamers: a relative drought on big new releases.  Sure, we've taken a look at the customary X-Men Origins: Wolverine tie-in and came away reasonably impressed, but that's been about it on the new game front.

Instead, we've been taking a close look at the games coming later this year and in 2010.  Beginning with previews of Bethesda's stylish third-person shooter WET and the slightly less fashionable Dick Machinko in Rogue Warrior - we'll leave you to work out which one we're looking forward to. 

EA's stab at medieval allegory with a dash of violence left us thoroughly confused as to whether we were looking at Dante's Inferno or God of War.  Still it's early days yet and we're hopeful that the game will continue to stand on its own; check out our First Look and Q&A to discover more.

Balancing the nine circles of hell, we took a close and extensive look at Tim Schafer's stupendously brilliant Brutal Legend, starring Jack Black.  It's rare for a video game to actually leave you laughing for the right reasons, but from what we've seen Brutal Legend appears to be on the ball throughout.

This week's news was dominated by pre-E3 rumours around the Sony camp.  Certainly it seems as though the PSP-4000, or PSP Go!, will be making an appearance shortly; but if showbiz rag Variety is led to be believed then we could also be seeing another stab at a PS3 motion controller.

Elsewhere Ubi finally lifted the lid on Red Steel 2, but didn't talk about it too much; while financial reports confirmed a host of pre-Christmas releases alongside the Wii-exclusive, sword-slashing sequel, including Assassin's Creed 2 and the long-lost Splinter Cell: Conviction, amongst a few others.

DLC also hit the headlines with a confirmed release date for Fable 2's 'See the Future'; the announcement of a second DLC pack for Call of Duty: World at War; and revelations about EA's online plans for The Sims 3.