I just got done with my latest round of reviews/previews for Console Gold. You can read my Cossacks II: Napoleonic War Review for PC and my Jak X: Combat Racing Preview and Ratchet: Deadlocked Preview if you wish. A review of Ghost Recon 2: Summit Strike on Xbox is upcoming.
Outside of that I've actually gone back and played some Top Spin since becoming entranced by the U.S. Open, something that happens every year around this time for me. On computer I've downloaded the NHL 06, Fifa 06 and Age of Empires III demos. I need to get myself a dual analog stick on the computer so I can play the former two, but I enjoyed them quite a bit.
I just got the AOE3 demo last night and played a bit with it. I like the game quite a bit, but was disappointed by the graphics since every magazine was calling it the best looking ever. A part of the problem may be that so far the missions have centered around the central U.S. and the building of the railways so there isn't much in the way of cityscapes or water as of yet. I was also disappointed by the GUI and how big of a piece it takes out of the screen. I'm hoping the piece will be a little smaller when the game comes out. There is no tutorial at all, so you're on your own. The game is much like other RTS games, but you have to figure out early which buildings extract which weapons/people. I'll probably play this a bit more soon. The game is due out on October 18th.
In other RTS news, 2K Games has announced that Civilization IV will be out before Halloween and probably may be out the same day as Age of Empires III. Talk about a heavyweight battle! The two crown jewels of this section of the RTS genre coming out right around the same time? Be still my heart.
Also of news is that Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Winter Assault comes out later this month and just went gold. Dawn of War was a superb game and I think there are still a lot of people playing it and are probably looking forward to Winter Assault.
Of course we can't forget that Burnout Revenge comes out next week. This is another possible double-dip opportunity since this game has been rumored heavily to be out for the Xbox 360 later this year. However, more Burnout is always a good thing in my opinion.