Ugh.  Game of Thrones.  Not the show, mind you, and certainly not A Song of Fire and Ice.  Those are high-quality works that, by all means, shouldn’t be missed, especially for the significant twists and turns.  But the game, recently released by Atlus and Cyanide Studios, leaves a lot to be desired.  It’s fallen completely flat on its face, leaving a diabolically thrilling storyline dangling in the wind because of faulty gameplay and a presentation that can’t compare to The Witcher 2 or even Kingdoms of Amalur.  With that, we’re left wondering…why didn’t someone else grab this franchise?

How do you top one of the most creative games made over the last few years?  Well, you go back to the beginning and do another one, silly.  Kim Swift, the mastermind who helped put together Valve's Portal a few years back, is striking new ground with her latest project, the quirky puzzle/action game Quantum Conundrum. Despite its different approach, however, she's still putting quite the emphasis on being creative and having fun while you do it.  Plus, you get to throw around fluffy things!

Throughout the history of video games, the oldest stereotype surrounding the industry has always been do violent video games affect player behavior and personality. It is a known fact that people who play games are exposed to more violence than the average consumer. From nuking entire civilization to obliterating players online, it’s has become more and more common now that games are more focus on squarely providing violent action. For this reason alone, parents have long held an underlining negative attitude towards the industry and those who stand by it, but is this criticism injustice or have developers gone to far? Should government step in?

You’ve played one Final Fantasy game, you’ve played them all, right?  Hardly.  This July, Square Enix will be providing a different twist on the genre with a game that relies just as much on music and rhythm cues as it does adventure.  Theatrhythm Final Fantasy is an upcoming 3DS game where you’ll have to tap and drag along to pre-set music themes while traveling, building energy for fights and eventually facing large enemies.  And it’ll stem from memorable themes taken from Final Fantasy themes over the years.  It’s as good as it gets for nostalgic fans.

Square Enix is going high fashion with high-end brand Prada. Fashion and videogaming have come together in the latest issue of European magazine Arena Homme+ with characters from the FINAL FANTASY XIII-2 showcasing Prada’s 2012 Spring/Summer men's collection as part of the 25th Anniversary celebration of the FINAL FANTASY series. A cast of characters from FINAL FANTASY XIII-2 including Lightning, Noel, Snow, Sazh and Hope are styled for action as they step out of their usual outfits and into Prada.

Last night’s Square Enix get-together event at the Game Developers Conference provided plenty of opportunity to hobnob with fellow journalists and some great Square Enix PR folk.  But it also provided the chance to check out what was coming up from the company.  And while we would’ve killed to give the new Tomb Raider a go, we did get a few other upcoming titles in its place.  Among them, some new downloadable content for the company’s top-notch role-playing game, Final Fantasy XIII-2.

The story behind Activision’s attempt to revive its True Crime series is an interesting one and, at one point, a sad one.  The company hired United Front Games to work on True Crime: Hong Kong, and even announced it during the 2010 Spike TV Video Game Awards show.  However, months after its development (and a pretty good E3 showcase), the company chose to cancel the project, feeling it wouldn’t live up to its potential.  Now that COULD’VE been a sad story, had Square Enix not picked up the pieces and opted to release the game as an original adventure called Sleeping Dogs.  But it did.

Usually, when Square Enix announces a launch title for a new system, it’s something that’s from their storied library of role-playing games or, as of late, a resurrection of a franchise from Eidos, like Tomb Raider.  But with the PlayStation Vita, it turned to an unlikely source for inspiration with its debut title – hell.  Yep, in Army Corps of Hell, you’re a demonic overlord who’s been wrongfully unseated from his throne – and it’s up to you and your goblin horde to reclaim it.

I love how the App Store is picking up in quality games.  Unfortunately, with that comes an escalated price.  Take SoulCalibur, for instance.  A decent port, sure, but it’s missing a lot of the stuff that made the Dreamcast original so grand, and it’s going for…$17?  C’mon, the Xbox Live Arcade version is only $10.  That said, there are some games that do validate their worth.  And one of them, believe it or not, is Taito’s Dariusburst SP.

Consoles and PC's have had a slow month interms of new AAA quality games arriving for your respected platform. While January got off to a slow start, it quickly recovered to bring us high quality tittles through digital distribution. Plenty of great downloadable arcade tittles were made available through XBLA, PSN and Steam, giving us many hidden gems on the digital marketplace. Let's look back at the games we reviewed over the past month.  

Del Rey, an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group, is publishing the second novel based on the Hitman video game series from Io Interactive. Hitman: Damnation will be written by author Raymond Benson and will release in North America in summer 2012 before launching internationally. Square Enix’ IO Interactive is developing Hitman: Absolution for release this year, which can be seen in the video below.

Square Enix and developer Entersphere have a brand new adventure for PlayStation Vita. Army Corps of Hell brings a new level of vicious combat, dark humor and lightning-quick action to the PS Vita system. Players control an army of a hundred goblin soldiers with various classes and abilities to defeat a host of enemies in order to reclaim the King of Hell’s throne. In Army Corps of Hell, players can take full advantage of the unique control features of the PS Vita system to experience war like never before. Check out the exclusive walkthrough video below.