Weekly overview of the gaming industry and everything related. No. 50

The most despicable month of all (only 28 days!) is about to end, and with it, winter will go away. And it should be somewhat sad, since traditionally it's the most 'gaming' time that is saying goodbye to us. However, this winter turned out to be surprisingly 'cool' in the sense that there were very few interesting projects. Who knows what the reason for this stagnation is. Maybe it's all due to the crisis. While it was raging, games weren't being made, and here we are left without them. Perhaps the stars just aligned this way. In short, not many games.

But the good news is — soon there will be more of them. Every week we discuss interesting announcements and curious rumors. In a couple of years, many more hits will be released each month. And to make sure of this, I suggest we take a look at the latest news of winter.

This Week's Games

But at the end of winter, developers have decided to delight us with a few interesting games. In particular.

Bulletstorm – one of the loudest releases in recent times. I haven't played it myself yet (though I really want to), but judging by reviews — it's a solid piece of work. Not genius, not amazingly stunning, but solid — definitely. On www.metacritic.com, it received an average score of 84, and if you look at specific Western outlets, for instance, IGN rated it 80 with the comment: "Taken out of the context of its fiction, People Can Fly would have something fun but forgettable on their hands, but the way Bulletstorm fits together results in something cool and memorable". PC Gamer UK also gave it 80 and wrote: "Bulletstorm is not art by any metric. It's difficult to defend, like a friend you take to a party who ends up pissing in a vase. You don't want to be associated with him, but sh.t, he provides an evening of excitement. It's a game that's very proud of the f-words it's learnt, and it uses them a lot. Fast. Frantic. Fatuous. Full-on. And yes, that other one: fun".

If you just read players' reviews, they all agree on one thing — it's a lot of fun. Perhaps not throughout the entire game, but overall — the impression is bright.

Rift – everyone who pre-ordered has already gone into the game. For example, @Soth. He wrote a few lines for daily reports: "The game is awesome. It combines a lot of great ideas from other games, adding plenty of its own — in particular, an interesting role system that allows multiple class combinations; convenient and interesting crafting, and improved time missions. Plus, the game has gorgeous graphics and a great style".

Overall, Rift is expected to soar quite high. There were even talks about it possibly killing World of Warcraft, but that, of course, is nonsense. Although it might take its own niche. The main thing is not to repeat the mistakes of many other MMORPGs that fell severely ill after just a few months of life.

"Enemy in the Rear 2: Assault" — yet another expansion. I'm not sure how to feel about this. They seem a bit… overdone, perhaps. No popular Western RPG has so many DLCs as there are for "Enemy in the Rear". And the quality is quite mediocre. Fans of the series play it, while others avoid it. I don't know if