It's really a good thing there's a bit of a lull in major new releases.  I'm still buried under a mountain of great games from the past few months -- Civ Rev, Lego Indy, Battlefield Bad Company.  Heck, I was playing Puzzle Quest last night (new DLC!) and finally beat the Rock Band expert guitar tour last weekend. 

What's really been eating my precious "kids are asleep" evening time has been Metal Gear Solid 4 though.  I powered through MGS 3 in advance (which had been in "the stack" since it came out) and wasn't too impressed -- honestly MGS fanboyism was keeping me going more than the quality of the experience itself.  But MGS 4 is a different story -- I'm quite impressed.  Now I'm a sucker for the kind of overblown cinematics that are the hallmark of the MGS series, and those certainly are looking more amazing than ever (as well as being longer and more numerous).  But what I'm enjoying most is that the UI finally is catching up to other, more sane games.  When I have a combat in MGS 4 I actually kind of feel like I'm playing a competently-executed shooter.  Maybe that's damning with faint praise, but it's a huge step up from the combat in the previous games.  

Plus, it's just way more fun than it ought to be to be sneaking around in a super camo suit.

Of course, this week did bring Final Fantasy 4, this time the DS remake.  It's like the 4th time I've bought that game now, but I never seem to get past the midgame.  We'll see if I break the curse this time.  So far, I'm hooked, and actually getting into it a lot more than I was for the GBA version, for sure. 

Siren on the PSN, also recently released, is luring me in but so far I've resisted.  MGS4 and trying to finish up some Achievements on GTA 4 still are occupying that oh-so-valuable late evening time...

Hopefully it won't get too lost in all the E3 shuffle, but last week Tilted Mill announced their next game:  Hinterland.  Aside from the fact that I'm a Tilted Mill fanboy in general (in fact, upon recently having to flatten my machine and rebuild it the first two games on it were both from TM: Caesar IV and Children of the Nile), Hinterland also seems to hit on a lot of chords from other games I quite liked but were sometimes lacking in execution, like Majesty and Depths of Peril. 

I also find it interesting because of the business model that TM is attempting on this -- direct distribution.  I've harped about how I think that's the future of our industry before on this blog, but I still think it's true, and it will be interesting to see TM make the leap.  As a company with a record of traditional retail sales games, hopefully they will be able to give the rest of us a view from both sides of the issue.

The best news of all, of course, is that they are saying "Summer '08", which means it can't be more than a few months off...

Just as I'm recovering from the deluge of great games this past few weeks, I can see the next storm of awesomeness brewing on the horizon.  Arriving as a nice little birthday present for me at the end of August is Mercenaries 2.  The first one was great, but a little limited by the tech and with an awful ending.  Not sure about the ending in M2 but the rest of it is looking fantastic.  Check out this movie showing three different approaches to solving the same set of tactical problems -- it's well worth a watch.

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/35861.html

Probably further out but there are some new teaser images on Tilted Mill's site.  Possibly a fantasy or medieval city builder from them?  Either would totally float my boat but I'm hoping for the former... something that was a hybrid of Majesty and Children of the Nile would completely take over my life.