Game Informer Issue 190

Features:

• Letter From the Editor: The Word of the Year (Andy McNamara discusses how important atmosphere is to making a compelling game world)
• Dear GI (Reader Letters, Responses and Artwork)
• The Early Returns Are In (NPD results from November 2008 provide good and bad news)
• Brutal Legend is Back in Black (EA announces it will publish Tim Schafer's Brutal Legend)
• Hardcore Gamer's Guide to the Wii (An overview at the hardcore games available for the Wii)
• Afterwords (Clint Hocking, creative director at Ubisoft Montreal, answers questions about Far Cry 2)
• Top Ten: Romances
• Where Have You Been? (An update on possibly release dates for games that had seemingly disappeared)
• Sound Check (Interview with Nobuo Uematsu, who composed music for many of the Final Fantasy games)
• Impulse (A look at downloadable games Puzzle Quest: Galaxtrix, The Maw and Bit.Trip Beat)
• Gamers (Spotlight on Adam Woodcock, who held the number 1 spot on 17 of the 23 maps in Mirror's Edge)
• Hear No Evil (A look at how music games are censoring explicit content in songs)
• Driving Home A Dream (Article that looks at the indy band Bang Camaro, who has gained in popularity due to their inclusion in the Guitar Hero series)
• Interview: Mike Booth (Interview with one of the senior programmers at Valve)
• Classic GI (Interview with Shinji Futami about the ActRaiser series)

The Top 50 Games of 2008: (Game Informer's picks for the top 50 games of the past year)

• Burnout Paradise (PS3, 360)
• Devil May Cry 4 (PS3, 360, PC)
• Sins of a Solar Empire (PC)
• Professor Layton and the Curious Village (DS)
• Lost Odyssey (360)
• The Club (PS3, 360, PC)
• God of War: Chains of Olympus (PSP)
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)
• Condemned 2: Bloodshot (PS3, 360)
• Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (PS3, 360, PC)
• The World Ends With You (DS)
• Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
• Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3, 360, PC)
• Boom Blox (Wii)
• GRID (PS3, 360, PC)
• Ninja Gaiden II (360)
• Battlefield: Bad Company (PS3, 360)
• Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift (DS)
• Metal Gears Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3)
• Civilization Revolution (PS3, 360, DS)
• Soulcalibur IV (PS3, 360)
• Braid (XBLA)
• NCAA Football 09 (PS3, 360)
• Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2 (XBLA)
• N+ (XBLA, PSP, DS)
• Castle Crashers (XBLA)
• Spore (PC)
• Rock Band 2 (PS3, 360, Wii, PS2)
• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (PS3, 360)
• Crysis Warhead (PC)
• Pure (PS3, 360)
• Civilization IV: Colonization (PC)
• NHL 09 (PS3, 360)
• Dead Space (PS3, 360, PC)
• Fable II (360)
• LittleBigPlanet (PS3)
• Saints Row 2 (PS3, 360, PC)
• Midnight Club: Los Angeles (PS3, 360)
• Guitar Hero: World Tour (PS3, 360, Wii, PS2)
• Fallout 3 (PS3, 360, PC)
• Call of Duty: World at War (PS3, 360, PC)
• Valkyria Chronicles (PS3)
• Gears of War 2 (360)
• Resistance 2 (PS3)
• Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (360)
• Mirror's Edge (PS3, 360)
• World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (PC)
• Left 4 Dead (360, PC)
• Tomb Raider Underworld (PS3, 360, PC)
• Prince of Persia (PS3, 360, PC)

Cover Story: Singularity (PS3, 360, PC)(Extensive look at Raven Software's new first-person shooter that looks to give players control over time itself)

Fight Night Round 4 (PS3, 360)(A look at the next game in EA's boxing franchise)

Previews:

• Bayonetta (PS3, 360)
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine (PS3, 360)
• Section 8 (PS3, 360, PC)
• Halo Wars (360)
• Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (DS)
• Little King's Story (Wii)
• Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad (360)
• The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena (PS3, 360)
• The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf (PS3, 360)
• Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II (PC)
• Stargate Worlds (PC)
• Bionic Commando (PS3, 360)
• Dark Void (PS3, 360, PC)

Multiplatform Reviews:

• Skate 2 (PS3, 360)
• Rise of the Argonauts (PS3, 360)
• MLB Front Office Manager (PS3, 360, PC)

XBOX 360 Review:

• Destroy All Humans!: Path of the Furon

Nintendo Wii Review:

• Rygar: The Battle of Argus

Nintendo DS Review:

• Retro Game Challenge

Quickie Reviews (Small, one-paragraph reviews):

• Star Ocean: Second Evolution (PSP)
• Big Bang Mini (DS)
• Iron Chef America: Supreme Cuisine (DS)
• Prince of Persia: The Fallen King (DS)
• Age of Empires: Mythologies (DS)
• The Chase: Felix Meets Felicity (DS)

Secret Access (Cheat Codes and Strategies):

• LittleBigPlanet (PS3)
• Battlefield: Bad Company (PS3, 360)
• Need for Speed: Undercover (PS3, 360)
• WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 (PS3, 360)
• You're in the Movies (360)

Retro Reviews:

• Metal Gears 2: Solid Snake (MSX2)
• Tapper (Arcade)
• Tekken 2 (PS)