Fresh Loaf

A Beatles-centric Rock Band game was announced last fall, but until this morning there’d been very little concrete information from anybody involved. The Beatles: Rock Band is the official title. It hits America Sept. 9 both as a stand-alone disc and in full instrument bundles for the Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Those whose living rooms are already cluttered with fake plastic instruments will be happy to hear that all Rock Band and Guitar Hero World Tour peripherals will work with the game. No word yet on a track list, but I’m pretty sure “Revolution #9″ won’t make the cut.

From the press release:

The Beatles: Rock Band will allow fans to pick up the guitar, bass, mic or drums and experience The Beatles extraordinary catalogue of music through gameplay that takes players on a journey through the legacy and evolution of the band’s legendary career. In addition, The Beatles: Rock Band will offer a limited number of new hardware offerings modeled after instruments used by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr throughout their career.

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Valkyria Chronicles
Rated T for Teen
Released on Nov. 4, 2008
PlayStation 3
Deveoped and published by Sega

You know what would’ve made World War II better? Miniskirts! Or so says Valkyria Chronicles, Sega’s excellent new tactical role-playing game. It’s not officially about World War II, but the parallels are blatant, with a fascist power marching across a continent called Europa while imprisoning a dark-haired ethnic minority. The big picture is similar, but the details are all wrong, like a history class essay by a 15-year-old who spent the entire semester doodling record covers.

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Without further ado, here are my top five video games of the year. You can find numbers ten through six here.

5. Braid (Xbox Live Arcade)

Braid, a puzzle-platformer built around a unique time-manipulation mechanic, would be one of the best games of the year even without its narrative ambitions. (more…)

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Oh, 2008: some might remember you for your global economic meltdown, or your historical presidential election, but to me, you’ll always be the year I struggled with malaria in an anonymous war-torn Sub-Saharan country. You know, in a video game. Overall 2008 didn’t see quite as large a crop of great games as 2007, but there was still no lack of high-quality experiences to be found. I’ll be counting down my top ten favorite games of the year here today and tomorrow, and here’s a look at the first five. For more video game year-in-review nonsense, feel free to take a look at my blog, Hot Fighting History.

10. Bionic Commando Rearmed (Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, PC)

Sure, it’s just a remake, and a surprisingly faithful one at that, but it’s a remake of the greatest NES game ever, so it totally deserves to make this list. (more…)

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Mirror’s Edge
Rated T for Teen
Released Nov. 12
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC
Developed by Digital Illusions CE
Published by Electronic Arts

Some video game players aren’t especially into violence. Not every gamer is dying to play through graphic recreations of historical and modern warfare. Sometimes there’s a limit to how many aliens, Nazis, and zombies one can willingly perforate any given day, much less alien Nazi zombies. The industry needs more high-quality nonviolent games, or even just less realistically violent games. But as awesome as Super Mario Galaxy, Animal Crossing and Viva Piñata are, an adult can’t survive entirely on child-friendly games. So thank the maker for EA’s new first-person parkour action-adventure Mirror’s Edge, as now gamers can experience some fast-paced action-packed thrills without either exploding heads or feeling like a 10 year old. (more…)

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