Poor Max Payne.  All the painkillers and alcohol in the world just can’t seem to wipe away the memories of his slain family, nor the troublesome situations he lands in with enemies who want him dead.  So, of course, he’ll jump at the chance to take up private work elsewhere, offered by his cohort Passos, who provides him a gig where he provides protection for a real estate tycoon.  But it isn’t long before trouble sets in with a Brazilian drug trading gang snatching the tycoon’s wife, Fabiana, and Max has to do what he does best.  And so begins the long-awaited Max Payne 3, which easily lives up to the first two games…and stands as another fine accomplishment by the team at Rockstar Games.

Atari has been digging into its classic catalog as of late for a new generation of games.  A few months back, it brought out the entertaining Asteroids Gunner, a twist on its rock-shooting classic from the 80’s.  And just recently, it broke out the old ball-and-paddle for Breakout Boost, complete with new modes and features.  Now another classic gets a remake, and this time it’s Circus Atari.  A game that originally started out on the Atari 2600 as a humorous collaborative effort, where you had to balance two people on a bouncing see-saw as they collected balloons, it has since been turned into a variation of Doodle Jump for the iPad.  While that’s bound to entertain a few folks, I can’t help but think what might’ve been had Atari taken the development in a different direction.

I love the Game of Thrones show.  Though I admit I still have to get around to finishing the A Song of Ice and Fire book, I’m just so intrigued by what’s happening between the first season and this current one on HBO.  I can’t get enough of it.  That said, I was a bit excited to see how Atlus’ video game adaptation would turn out, especially with direct involvement from series creator George R.R. Martin.  Well, after playing through it for hours on end, I can see where the appeal would lie for some – mainly in the story – but it’s trudging through the rest that will leave you wondering if this game was worth bothering with.

You may not be familiar with the name Cave unless you have a love for “shmups”, or shoot-em-ups if you will.  These are games where one lone ship faces off against some sort of armada, with big boss enemies to back them up.  The Japanese developer has been working on these types of game for some time, including releases like DeathSmiles (both 1 and 2) and Dodonpachi Resurrection.  Its latest, Akai Katana, is definitely one that deserves to join the ranks, and, thankfully, Rising Star Games has saw fit to give the game a discounted American release.  Wise choice.

When Minecraft was announced last year for Xbox 360, a lot of folks figured it wasn’t a surprise, since Microsoft is all about lining up exclusive fare for owners of its console.  But, still, isn’t it more at home on a PC?  Could the experience possibly be ported over to Xbox Live Arcade and keep its awesome resourcing system intact?  Well, after a long time in development, the game arrived this week on the Marketplace and answered that question with a well-deserved “yes”.

When StarDrone came out for the PlayStation Network a few months back, it introduced an interesting concept that could be used with the PlayStation Move controller, one that had you directing a star-shaped drone across universal maps, collecting stars and other content while getting from point A to point B while you directed it on its journey.  Though hardly as addictive as other PSN games, it had enough moments to give the game a look.  With that, Beatshapers has brought the same experience to the PS Vita, but with touch-screen controls and a few exclusive levels for good measure.  The only question now is whether it’s enough to warrant another purchase.  Sorry, but not this time around.

Ronimo Games dodged quite a bullet with the release of Awesomenauts, as the game’s publisher, DTG, was just about ready to file for bankruptcy, throwing its release into question.  But things got worked out, and now players everywhere will be able to experience the MOBA – multiplayer online battle arena – action that awaits within.  While there are things that are hard to overlook, the situations you can get into with friends really put the “Awesome” into the game’s name.

There was something about the Fatal Frame games that was utterly spectacular.  The series, which ran on PlayStation 2 across multiple releases, raised some genuine scares while avoiding the pratfalls of most survival/horror games, arming you with a special camera rather than a powerful array of weaponry.  The concept worked quite well over the years, prompting Tecmo Koei to give it another shot, this time on the Nintendo 3DS with the mostly unrelated Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir.  It was a great idea, but from the first moment it tries to take advantage of the system’s built-in augmented reality, things fall apart rather quickly.

I love The Walking Dead TV series.  What’s not to love?  Even with the drastic changes that have taken place with season 2 (mostly with the departure of producer Frank Darabont), it’s retained all the awesome intensity and scares of the comic book series.  With that, Telltale Games has followed suit with the first of its five-part Walking Dead game saga, one that deviates from events in the show, opting instead to tell its own scary tale.  And you know what?  It’s a damn good one.

It’s no surprise that literally every developer is trying something with zombies.  Activision is throwing a number of zombie-infested maps in its Call of Duty franchise; Capcom’s got more than enough undead roaming around between Resident Evil and Dead Rising; and so on.  But little did anyone realize what Sega would be doing with Yakuza, pitting zombies against gangsters in a battle for control over the city of Kamurocho.  While Yakuza: Dead Souls may not be as strong an entry as the previous games (its focus is much different), it’s still more fun than previously anticipated.

With its first three House of the Dead games, Sega pretty much kept to form, putting two unlikely heroes together to save the world from a zombie apocalypse.  Sure, the third game – which arrived on PlayStation Network a while back – introduced some awesome shotguns, but the status quo of “shoot everything that moves” remained intact.  So would the same go for House of the Dead 4?  Well, sort of.

Tower strategy games aren’t usually my thing.  There, I’ll say it.  I’m more of a hands-on sort of guy, taking command of a unit and delivering damage rather than issuing a command for someone to do it in a turn-based approach.  However, some people really get into this genre, so, for the sake of argument, I thought I’d give Anomaly: Warzone Earth from 11 Bit Studios a fair shot, especially considering the game fared rather well on the iOS market before transitioning to Xbox Live Arcade.  And you know what?  While my general feeling about the genre remains about the same, this game made me want to play longer than I anticipated.