Oh, Brothers in Arms! Some of my fondest memories are lodged back in the gut of one of 2005's best first-person shooters. Gearbox Software's shooter had all of the markings of a great new IP. The innovative squad-based mechanics worked brilliantly, and along with an exciting campaign, there was an authentic, realistic plot that you could really care about. The characters were well-developed and so there were actually upsetting ramifications for losing your squad mates. Although the sequel (Earned in Blood) came out very soon after the original (Road to Hill 30), the series lost some steam and the third entry (Hell's Highway) was delayed for quite some time.

Finally, Hell's Highway is here. Hey now, I heard those groans – WWII may be old territory, but before you begin complaining about how much you have already looked down the iron sights of an M1 Garand rifle or dodged the peppering fire from MG42 encampments, give Gearbox's new game a chance. Hell's Highway brings back the gameplay from its predecessors and spices it up nicely for the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3. As a result, the new game plays a lot like the old ones – and that is not a bad thing.

Click here and jump back to the devastation of World War II once again.

Until that code surfaces, however, it is strongly advised that you bring your own chum, as you’ll find the local-only two to four player modes provide the greatest thrills. In the single-player campaign, with around twenty types of fish to devour (sans carnage), after the initial glee of fighting for your life on the ocean floor wears off things become blasé. Sure, there’s "Story Mode Lite," which presumably has fewer predators than normal, and there’s "Time Attack!," which has a persistent little clock at the bottom of the screen. But whatever adventure you choose you’ll still play through the exact same sixty stages over and over again, with a plot that literally is nothing more than, "What the heck is that shadow swimming by?"

What may make Feeding Frenzy 2’s $10 price tag hard for some to swallow? Find out after the jump.

Sometimes there is a treasure trove of entertainment to be discovered laying underneath the cover of simplicity. This has been all but proven with the increased development and rising popularity of Flash games. The Internet is stuffed full of them. Sites like Newgrounds.com can thank them for a large percentage of their daily traffic. Who doesn't enjoy a quick distraction from work or school? That is what Flash games are all about - although most Flash games lack the depth of full retail games, some of them are crafted into works of brilliance that stack up right beside the best console hits. Thanks to online services like Xbox Live, some of the best Flash games can be easily translated to an experience intended for consoles. It turns out that one of the most recent Flash-based games released on Xbox Live Marketplace, Castle Crashers, is one of those brilliant works.

Castle Crashers is made by Behemoth Games, the same team of guys who originally made and then ported the cult-hit Flash game Alien Hominid to consoles. There are differences that separate Castle Crashers and Alien Hominid, but both of them are stylish side-scrolling action games that will hook anyone who gives them the time of day. Castle Crashers delivers on all of the most important aspects of a Flash game while also offering enough extra content to make it well worth the 1,200 Microsoft Points investment. There are dozens of levels,  26 game-affecting animals to collect, and an RPG-like character customization system. Did I mention that, with its four-player co-op and competitive (local and online) game modes, it is one of the best multiplayer offerings on the Marketplace? Suffice it to say, anyone interested in old-school action games, stylish graphics, and Xbox Live Marketplace should read on.

Read on past the jump, the princess gives you a smooch at the end!

You've heard of Rock Band, right? You're aware of this sensational rhythm game movement that started really gaining steam when Harmonix released Guitar Hero in 2005 and then everyone was suddenly bursting onto the scene with tiny plastic guitars and now fake drum kits and elaborate karaoke system? I mean, there are no surprises here? I'm not going to shock or offend anyone if I refuse to mention the various, now painfully obvious, gameplay components, correct? Plastic drum kits no longer turn heads, right?

Alright, good. Because in most ways, Rock Band 2 is pretty much exactly like the first one. They tweaked some things, sure, but everything you could do or play in the original is here too. A more accurate name would have been "Rock Band Also," since the bundled game isn't even out yet, so only owners of the original are interested at this point in time. That doesn't mean that they haven't improved on an already great thing, I'm just saying that the industry needs to stop indiscriminately putting numbers on things.

Let's continue the rock after the jump.

I don't know about you, but I can't believe it's been 20 years since the first Madden game.  I didn't play that initial vision of games to come, as it would be another 4 years before getting trounced by my roommate in my freshman residence hall room.  

Ahh, even to this day I can still remember what a $%#& that guy was. Sitting there, laughing at me having thrown his 4th TD bomb in that quarter, taunting me with that Philly accent of his.  Me, intensely leaning forward, clinging to the hope that Dan Marino would bring me back from the depths to at least score one touchdown. Then he got injured, and left the game.

Good times.

Still, I was impressed by what the game demonstrated. Prior to that I had only seen poor examples of what football was being presented as.  People can say what they will about the Madden series, joke about John Madden himself, and of course the big bullseye EA Games all day long.  However, I can think of no other franchise more influential in gaming today than this little pigskin sport.

Are we headed for more greatness, or is she a fading beauty?  

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