Posted In: Articles : Buying Guide

         

Introduction

         

          Welcome to The Wargamer's feature article series, "The Raw Recruit." This weekly feature offers release dates for upcoming computer and board games. The list doesn't include every computer           or board game being released, however it does include almost all of the games we believe The Wargamer's audience will enjoy. The release dates presented in this article are for North American releases only and indicate "shipping" dates, not necessarily guaranteed in-store dates. Most major PC titles are released on Tuesday or Wednesday and are widely available across the country by Friday. These release dates are provided in association with The Wargamer's affiliate merchant partner,           GoGamer.  Please send any new game release announcements to news@wargamer.com.          

                

The Raw Recruits for the Week of January 2nd

                

Happy New Year readers!  As is typical for the PC games           industry, only a few releases will appear this month.  However,           the first week of the new year brings a doozy: Hearts of Iron 2.

                

Appearing first in North America and in it's homeland of Sweden, Hearts           of Iron sequel will be unleashed into the hands of a very divided           customer base.  Paradox's Hearts of Iron series evokes           extreme hot and cold responses from gamers.  Some think it's           terrific, a remarkably deep grand strategic recreation of the greatest           gaming war ever.  Others think it's buggy trash filled with           overly ambitious design flaws and contrived game mechanics.  We           tend to sway towards the former, as we like a developer that can           create such a grand, ambitious game...but we'd be misleading our           readers if we didn't acknowledge that we had also gotten tired of the           poor patch history and track record of that same developer.  In           many ways, there's a lot of hope for Paradox's sequel.  First of           all, it's a sequel: the developers have heard the loudest complaints           and used the opportunity to fix and improve the most glaring of           mistakes.  Second, most every fan can agree there's an ambitious           game with tons of potential at its core: this sequel gives Paradox a           further opportunity to get to that potential.  And third, our initial           impressions           have been favorable.

                

We've covered the original Hearts of Iron extensively in our           dedicated           microsite, and we've already interviewed           the developers and previewed           the game twice.            If that's still not enough, the demo has been linked below.  Hearts           of Iron 2 will go on sale this week with a pricetag of $39.99 from           U.S. retailers.

                

The Volunteer Recruits

                

Here's the current crop of game demos released in the past few weeks           (some links may expire over time):       

                

            
• Hearts              of Iron 2 [90 MB] - Try it yourself.
         

             

Top Ten Selling PC Games

                

Here's the top ten selling PC games list for the week of 

ecember           12 - 18 (courtesy of NPD).       

                       

      To purchase these and other titles, please visit Go           Gamer or Amazon.com.       

      

About the Author