Games of April 2011

After last month’s deluge of games, gamers (and their wallets) can heave a slight sigh of relief as April is relatively mellow on releases. But there are a few titles out there that deserve your attention so without further adieu, here are the games of April 2011.

Mortal Kombat (Xbox360 PS3)

Eat fan

After the world presumed the franchise dead, Ed Boon and his team are back for more of what made them famous in the first place. No more crappy cross-overs or toned down gore; this is Mortal Kombat the way you remember it – bloody, gory and completely over-the-top. We tried the game out last week and even though I completely sucked at it, I had a blast watching all sorts of nasty fatalities being performed on my character. Head on over to our preview to see what made us giggle like little school girls.

SOCOM 4 (PS3)

The A-Team?

The SOCOM series has made a name for itself in the tactical third person action space so SOCOM 4 doesn’t plan on re-inventing the series. It’ll introduce a bunch of subtle tweaks like a new cover system and 32 player online support along with a major change in the form of a single player campaign that’ll span 14 missions. And for all those who crave that extra immersion, SOCOM 4 will ship with Move support as well and we hear it actually works pretty well with the game.

Need for Speed: Shift 2 Unleashed (Xbox360 PS3 PC)

Gran Turismo what now?

Besides the rather lengthy name, Shift 2 has a ton of things going on for it. You have Need for Speed Hot Pursuit’s AutoLog that constantly updates you on your friends’ activity allowing you to challenge them to races or just decimate their score. You also have an all new helmet cam that apparently delivers the visceral nature of racing like never before. And of course you have the solid gameplay that treads the fine line between sim and arcade.

Portal 2 (Xbox360 PS3 PC)

Army of Two

Portal was a mind bending first person platformer bundled with The Orange Box that allowed players to solve puzzles using a portal gun. As the name suggests, this gun could be used to create portals where players would have to create both entry and exit points through the map to proceed. It may sound quite boring but this game boasted of some truly wicked puzzles once more hostile elements were introduced. Portal 2 is now being sold as a stand-alone game and will feature co-operative play.

Darkspore (PC)

Darkspore? More like deadspore

Not to be confused with Will Wright’s Spore, Darkspore is basically a hack ‘n slash action RPG from an isometric perspective that allows players to battle... umm Darkspore. Inspired by Spore’s creature creator, Darkspore also allows for co-operative play across various planets and like Borderlands, developer Maxis wants to tap into the loot junkie within by offering players an insane amount of collectable loot. The game’s releasing by the end of the month but Steam’s recently kicked off a public beta so you can try it before you buy it.

WWE All Stars (Xbox360 PS3 PSP)

The People's Champ doing his thing

Admit it, you enjoyed the late 90s Attitude Era WWF. However, if you're like me and stopped watching, for whatever reason, THQ is trying to lure you back into the fold. Featuring probably one of the best character rosters ever found in a Wrestling Game and completely over-the-top animation and gameplay, WWE All Stars aims to be an arcadey throwback to the years gone by.