Zombie Wranglers:
In Zombie Wranglers, you play one of four different neighborhood kids out on a mission to rid your neighborhood of zombies. This is done Luigi style by running about and sucking up the undead bastards with a vacuum cleaner type apparatus. Each of the four characters of course have different abilities that will help in the process. One such power was a blow gun that will turn any zombie it hits into a walking time bomb. Blow a dart, stand back and watch the fun.

There are five different chapters in the game with various tongue in cheek titles like "Desperate Housezombies" and each chapter is proceeded by a phone call that will give you your assignment for that level. The assignments range form taking out a certain number of zombies to taking out specific types of zombies like Emos, Comic Book collectors and Construction Workers. Chapters can be attempted alone or you can play with up to four other people online or locally and a vs mode will also be available.

The cel shaded style is cute and will probably appeal mostly to the kid market although certain adults will be sure to enjoy it as well.. Look for these cartoony zombies to infest your Xbox 360 sometime later this summer.

Gin Rummy: If you have ever played Gin Runny, then you already know what this game is all about. The rules are fairly straight forward and follow those of the traditional game. It had an interesting graphical art style that while nice, doesn't distract from the real focus of the game, which is playing cards. There are six different game types as well as special card sets, game skins and the ability to create your own rule set. Leaderboards will be available for this game as well as Vision support. Gin Rummy hits later this summer.

Lost Cities: Lost Cities is based on the German table top card game of the same name in the tradition of Carcassone and Settlers of Cattan. Basically, you are an explorer out to roam the world and find treasure. The various cards are used to do things like get funding, find treasure, etc. Two players compete to see who can finish their expeditions with the most total points at the end. You must be careful how you spend your money though, or you may find yourself with no fun ding and unable to complete your chosen missions. You can play one against one or on teams and leaderboards and Vision Support will be available. Lost Cities is available now for

Lost Cities [Xbox.com]

Monte Cristo Unveils the Next Generation of City-Builders Think massive, think online, think CITIES XL™

PARIS, France. April 17, 2008 - Monte Cristo is pleased to announce CITIES XL™ for Windows today. In this next-generation take on the city building genre, realism will be pushed to the limit with cities that are bigger, more realistic and more sophisticated than ever before. CITIES XL™ will expand upon all the features that make city builders fun and interesting, while also letting players take their game online, as they interact with others in a massive online environment.

Download new CITIES XL™ screens at:
http://www.calico-media.com/montecristo/citiesxl/CitiesXL.zip

CITIES XL™ allows gamers to develop cities on realistic 3D maps using an incredible collection of unique structures and monuments based on American, Asian and European-influenced architectural styles. The maps feature a variety of environments: mountains, hills, canyons, beaches and islands, all set in different climates from tropical to desert, Mediterranean to temperate. Players must create the right combinations of social services, leisure activities, special events and other job opportunities within their cities in order to feed, clothe, employ and entertain their citizens. Be it planning and building a new zoo, public park, residential neighborhood or transit system - there's always a fresh and exciting challenge for would-be city managers and mayors in CITIES XL™.

"We believe that the level of detail and realism brought to CITIES XL™ answers the needs of city-builder fans," said Jérôme Gastaldi, COO of Monte Cristo. "We believe fans of the genre will definitely enjoy CITIES XL™ and many of those fans have provided us with feedback on our development so far. We are really proud to have such a cool and proactive community."

The game's online features and services will allow players to create interconnected cities on virtual and persistent planets. Mayors can share and trade with one another, specialize their economy and team up with befriended cities to create sprawling metropolises. Life on the planet will be punctuated by events and competitions - a concert held in one town may, for example, be attended by visitors from other areas who can also enjoy a walk around the city to admire the urban creations of multiple players. By combining a fantastic single-player game with the social and multiplayer aspects of an MMO, CITIES XL™ will shape the future of the genre by offering more variety, bigger cities and multiple gameplay layers.

For more information about CITIES XL™, which will ship in 2009, please join the continuously growing community at www.citiesxl.com
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For instance, you can build very obedience-heavy structures, like assimilation centers, security cameras and corrupt police departments and it starts to change the way your entire city looks, turning it into something it of 1984.

The idea is that gamers should instead of focusing on where and how a city is built, focus on how the inhabitants live and will be effected by your decisions. The demo showed us a bustling Metropolis, a gritty urban setting, a utopian green city, a secular town and even a religious commune.

I like that Maxis has decided to break Sim City a bit out of the mold and is trying to get gamers to think more creatively about how they would fashion their civilization or culture.

It looks like this game has some great potential for both hardcore fans of the franchise and those, like me, who have over the years grown a bit bored with its formulaic feel.

What was the totally fair and balanced criterion?

"The large amount of games played on Xbox Live and the high number of video games owned put Seattle at the top of list, but clearly the survey confirms that games are sweeping the U.S.," said Bert Sperling, founder of Sperling's BestPlaces.

Is it just us, or does that make it seem as if the criterion on a survey sponsored by Microsoft to find the epicenter of gaming was "How many people play XBox Live?"

But to be fair, this was the other criterion: "the number of video game systems owned per household — Xbox 360 , Xbox , Window-based PCs, PlayStation 2 and GameCube — number of games purchased, number of game rentals, and frequency of online gameplay via Xbox Live or Windows games, among other factors." It still seems pretty Microsoft oriented, but that — at least — makes it look a bit better.

We Built This City On Videogames [Gamescoreblog]

Our globe-tripping brothers over at Gridskipper put together a cool little list of games that feature real world locations. Check it out and then shoot him an email with the ones he forgot. He said he's planning on updating it down the line.

City Games [Gridskipper]