adventure

Look, it was embarrassing to admit you hooked on a game where you bred pinatas. With the sequel, you can share in that embarrassment with three other friends online and realize you’re not truly alone.

The way it works is simple. The host loads up their garden. Other players enter. Other players become cruel jerks and beat all of the hosts pinatas with a shovel… or you can be nice and help them out, but what’s the fun in that? If you’re worried about some random Live user ruining your painstakingly created garden, don’t worry. It won’t ruin your save.

Not satisfied simply watching your favorite characters explore the mysterious island of Lost? Then pick up a controller and dive in to Lost: Via Domus ($60). In the game, you play as Oceanic 815 survivor Elliott, exploring the island, solving puzzles, and interacting with other survivors, including many of the show's main characters. The game takes place during the events of the show's first two seasons, but takes you to places not seen during that time period. The best part?

Unless you've been living in a cave for the last few months/years, you've probably heard about Will Wright's latest creation, Spore ($50 Mac/PC). In the game, you develop a species from the slog of microscopic organisms all the way up to interstellar traveling, social, and intelligent being, while in complete control of the species' development. The game's music is procedurally generated and was designed by Brian Eno, and with such a vast scope and countless gameplay options, it's no wonder the game was originally called Sim Everything.

Unlike its predecessors, the "Xbox 360 version of Unreal Tournament 3 will have split-screen play for online, local versus, and co-op as well as five new maps, two exclusive characters and all of the Epic-created DLC the other versions have seen."

In the Xbox 360 version of Age of Cona, "Funcom has implemented even more brutal fatalities into the game, including a melee slash."

Though it wasn't on display, Funcom informed us that an updated graphics tech has been implemented into Age of Conan, called Cheetah 2, which they claim drastically improves framerates.

When I was younger, to say I was a fan of Jurassic Park was a bit of an understatement. Not only did I love the movie, but I seemed to have a soft spot for Jurassic Park themed video games. I played the Super Nintendo version far more than it deserved to be played, and I’m probably one of only a handful of people who actually enjoyed the ambitious Trespasser PC game when it came out. (Despite a mountain of bugs that have ensured I’ve never finished the game to this day.)