P.S. I destroyed Crecente's most powerful weapon by accident and found it couldn't be rebuilt without starting the game over. He was less than happy.

The Orange Box (X360, PC)
Half Life 2, and HL2: Episodes 1 & 2, as well as Team Fortress 2 and Portal. Who could ask for anything more?

Sega Rally Revo (PC, X360, PS3, PSP)
Race your heart out.

FIFA Soccer 08 (X360, PS3, PS2, Wii, PC)
FIFA 08 come to every platform you could wish for.

Folklore (PS3)
Help solve a series of murders with the help of the absorbed powers of the Folk.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (PSP)
Get all tactical with the latest Final Fantasy offering.

Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer (PC)
NWN2 gets it's next expansion.

Bleach: Shattered Blade (WII)
The popular anime makes an appearance on the Wii.

Bleach: The Blade of Fate (DS)
A second Bleach game for the week, this one for the DS

Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron (PSP)
Go on secret missions for your boss, the legendary Han Solo.

I'm not a huge fan of niche racing games. While I can appreciate the aesthetics of games like NASCA 08 and F1-Formula Racer, they just don't appeal to me. But there is one exception: Rally racers.

I'm not sure why I like Rally racing games, but I do. One of the Collin McRae titles was what initially got me hooked on the genre, but it's certainly not the only Rally racer I enjoy from ultra-realistic to an arcade Rally racer like Motorstorm. Sega Rally Revo seems to fall somewhere in between McRae and Motorstorm.

I first got a good look at this game last week in San Franisco during Sega's Gamers Day and was very impressed with what I saw. But they didn't let us actually play the game, so I had my doubts about how it would handle and look once I was driving around in that mud.

Fortunately, it was on hand this week and completely playable and it didn't disappoint. You can indeed perform so many donuts in an area that you not only create ruts, if you're in the right place you'll hit water and that water will mix with the dirt to form mud.

When racing in the Alpines, the moisture turns to slush and then snow as you make your way up the mountain, that snow sticks to your car and when you drive back down it melts away. This is all stuff I saw, not just something someone was telling me.

The handling took a bit of getting used to, but I've found that's common with Rally racers. While I thoroughly enjoyed the game, I'm sure hardcore Rally fanatics will probably give this game a pass because it puts fun before realism on a small scale. For instance, there's no damage modeling for the cars and the tracks are all creations of the developers.

But for me it was a whole lotta fun to play. Brian Crecente

Sega Rally Revo was a real surprise for me. I hadn't really been following the game's development since its announcement so when I saw it, I was impressed.

Revo is, of course, following in the footsteps of a long illustrious line of arcade racers, the first of which hit in 1995. When the recently formed Sega Racing Studio set to turning this beloved arcade racer into a next-gen title they looked at the success of the arcade cabinets and tried to decide what they wanted to focus on for the console version. What they came away with was the vibrant graphics, the variable handling and the close racing, the way that in the game you always seemed just about to lose or win up until that last second of the race.

What they came up with was a graphically impressive rally racer that seems to hit a lot of sweet spots.

The level of detail on the cars was just amazing. You could, for instance, see detailed tread on the tires and the brakes behind the wheels as your drive. Mud, dirt, water, slop all over the car and effect its appearance. And this isn't just done with glorified decals, but with particles, meaning it's unique to that particular splash. Mud will dry and change color, water will wash it away, it looked amazing.

I know you've heard this before, but the track also deforms as you race. The guy showing off the game pulled a series of donuts on a bit of dry track and it slowly dug it away until water started to ooze out of the ground and that section became muddy. Next he zoomed the camera angle in and showed us how the tires actually bumped over the ruts he had just created. This track deformation will mean you will have to find new lines and deal with turns differently each time around.

The game will have six environments including ones set in the jungle and others in the snow. All of the vehicles are licensed and the game will include cars in four categories: four-wheel drive, two-wheel drive, classic and bonus.

Unfortunately, the game won't really have damage modeling for the cars, the most you can really do is scuff a car up, which is a bit of a disappointement. Online will support up to six players. While their will be no cross play between the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions (obviously), the team is looking into potentially supporting cross-play between the 360 and PC versions. Brian Crecente

The game, announced at E3 last year and in development at Sega Driving Studio in Solihull, UK, features "fully deformable surfaces, from gravel-littered tracks and smooth tarmac roads, to snow-covered mountain passes" meaning "no two laps will ever be the same." It's also apparently the first "Ultra Letterboxed(TM)" game to come from Sega, presented in the soon-to-be-standard 4:1 aspect ratio.

Hit the jump for some gorgeous wallpapers disguised as screenshots!

Sorry, just a bit jaded right now! Michael McWhertor