Video Games

Grapevine-based gaming retailer GameStop held its annual managers conference in Las Vegas this week, and I was lucky enough to attend some of the festivities.

While the managers spent most of their time sequestered in training workshops and seminars with vendors, I got to skip right to the fun part: a huge ballroom filled with demos of the hot games coming up this Christmas season.

While I didn't get hands-on time with everything, I did get to see almost all of the big new releases.

• Gears of War 2 (Xbox 360) – release date Nov. 7

I tested the multiplayer version of GoW2, where humans were battling wave after wave of Locust monsters. The game will be instantly recognizable to anyone who played the first, exceptional entry. The action continues to move at a fairly slow pace, since you spend most of your time walking or creeping along walls. The first Gears of War was so fun that there's no sense recreating the wheel. I do wish that the developers would explore the options beyond the gray and brown end of the color palette, though.

• Left 4 Dead (PC and Xbox 360) – Nov. 17

I've got high hopes for this first-person zombie shooter. The game is designed as a cooperative affair, where you team up with three other human players to escape through a zombie infestation. Unlike GoW2, Left 4 Dead is a fast game. The zombies move as if they're using performance-enhancing drugs, and they often roam in ferocious packs of a dozen or more. So you can go from a moment of quiet dread to frenzied, bloody confusion in a split second. When a teammate is overwhelmed and brought down beneath a munching swarm, you can shoot or bludgeon the zombies away and then heal your comrade. Playing as a lone wolf is a good way to end up having your brain eaten.

• Street Fighter IV (Xbox 360 and PS3) – February 2009

The ancient 2D fighting franchise gets a major visual makeover. While the graphics are great, what's really stunning to see in person is the animation. Previous Street Fighter games were known for their herky-jerky style, but this game looks smoother than silk and butter mixed together.

• Call of Duty: World at War (PC, PS3 and Xbox 360) – Nov. 11

This first-person shooter looks perfectly serviceable, and will probably sell well, but WWII games are getting stale (even if this one is set in the less-explored Pacific theater).

The one Wii accessory/game that I most wanted to see wasn't there: the MotionPlus add-on for the Wii remote. The device supposedly allows the Wii to much more accurately track your movements, so you can rotate or adjust your arm to any position and it will be perfectly tracked on-screen. But Nintendo was only showing stuff coming out this year, and the MotionPlus is pegged for the spring. Judging by the relatively sparse attendance at the Nintendo booth, I wasn't the only person disappointed at the no-show.

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