The New Games are Here, The New Games Are Here!
By Russ Pitts

In the world of video games, the end of March and the beginning of April are like one big Christmasanukkawanzaa. So many products flood stores during the holiday season that game manufacturers are often left with little or nothing to offer during the second half of the long, long winter. That’s why we gamers, like squirrels hoarding their nuts, stock up at the end of the year in hopes of having enough characters and high-def resolution to get us through until spring. Most of us make it. Some don’t. But for those who have survived, here’s what we have to look forward to and spend every second of our free time mastering this year:

Guitar Hero (Playstation 2)
Guitar Hero is one of those games that comes along once-in-a-lifetime. Or rather, twice, as we have just learned that a sequel (or five) is currently in the works. Anyone who has ever waited at a traffic light and suddenly felt their fingers playing an imaginary guitar will love this game. It’s a virtual guarantee.
Guitar Hero boasts a staggering list of licensed songs, including favorite classic rock tunes and some more modern indie-rock numbers, more than half of which you’re bound to have heard, and even rocked out to before The game itself is hard to describe and even harder to convince yourself to play, but once you do, you’ll be hooked.

Guitar Hero has sold out in many places but ~ if and when you can find it ~ is available for $79.00 (including guitar-shaped controller).

Xbox 360
March and April are the months for the Xbox 360. If you were among the 4.5 million souls who wanted Microsoft’s Next-Gen console in November but were unable to lay your hands on one, your patience is about to pay off. 360s have already been making encore appearances at select retailers nationwide, but we’re fully expecting to see another massive wave of the machines this month.

The Xbox 360 comes in two flavors ~ The “Core,” which includes one wired controller and sells for $299, and the “Premium,” which for $399 includes a wireless controller, a headset for online gaming and a hard drive.

DS Lite
Nintendo’s ground-breaking handheld is being re-released in a smaller, more compact package. Sporting such unusual and fun titles as Nintendogs, Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney and Electroplankton, two screens (one of them touch-sensitive), a microphone (which you can blow into for some interesting gameplay effects) and the ability to play Nintendo’s entire library of Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games, the DS is simply a must-have ~ and now that it will fit in a pants pocket, it’s an even must … haver…er…

Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion (Xbox360, PC)
Perhaps the single most anticipated game of 2006, ES4:O was also the single most anticipated game of 2005, when it was expected to ship alongside the Xbox 360. It didn’t, so now here we are, expecting it again in late March ‘06. This time, it’s really coming…honest.

Oblivion will take gamers through a rich, detailed world full of actual, real characters with schedules and chores and lives. Called “Radiant AI,” Oblivion’s artificial intelligence system will create detailed interaction with characters in the game unlike anything we’ve yet seen. Walk into any town at any time of day and you will likely find people moving, playing, working and going about their lives just like you are. Yes, it could be creepy as hell, but to this gamer, it sounds like just what we’ve been waiting for since, well, since way before 2005.

Add in a slew of exciting weapons, challenges, minotaurs and (yes) unicorns, all rendered in the Xbox 360 High-Definition resolutions, and you’ve got the makings of a blockbuster. Oblivion is to shipping in late March and will be available for $59 on the Xbox 360 and $49 for the PC.
On a sad note: From Tokyo comes the devastating news that Sony has been forced to postpone the release of its highly anticipated PlayStation 3 machine until November of this year (the PS3 was originally slated for a springtime debut) because of delays in finalizing its next-generation disk technology. I know you feel my pain…and I yours.