Column: 'Release This!: From Middle-Earth To Rockman City'

Gamasutra's round-up of worldwide video game releases, "Release This!", takes a look at every game title shipping the week ending July 8th, from Battle For Middle-Earth II on X360 in the U.S. to Rockman ZX for DS in Japan. In this extract, author Danny Cowan comments on some of the summer lull for U.S. releases for the week: "It's a relatively dull week for new releases in the United States, with consoles seeing a whopping three new titles, two of which are budget releases - though the third is Battle For Middle Earth II, which attempts to convert a PC RTS title onto console but still keep an intuitive, easy control scheme - many are waiting with interest to see whether it can be done. There's a far better selection to be found on the PC, however, as the platform will see a variety of games ranging from city simulators to first-person shooters. Those still enamored with the World War II subgenre in particular have both Wings of Power II: WWII Fighters and First Battalion to look forward to, the latter of which utilizes a mix of role-playing and FPS-styled action in an attempt to distinguish itself within its saturated niche." You can read the full Gamasutra feature on the topic, including the only canonical list of video game releases worldwide for the week (no registration required, please feel free to link to this feature from external websites).