Welcome to the Loadout. Our philosophy is that the working week is a recurring boss battle that you’ll need the proper weapons to take down. The supplies at hand won’t always be pretty but you might just be able to hold out until the weekend. Green means add it to your arsenal, yellow leaves it up to your discretion and red means back away slowly. With that, let’s see what we’ve got this week:
The Game: Donkey Kong Country Returns
Specifications: The classic Super NES platformer gets a long-awaited sequel, which has Donkey Kong and sidekick Diddy Kong fighting bad guys who’ve stolen the tie-wearing ape’s legendary banana hoard.
Ideal Usage Scenario: Mario’s had his day in the sun with a special edition release of his earliest games and know it’s time for his on-and-off nemesis to get the spotlight. DKCR boasts ridiculously tough old-school difficulty, making it perfect for two players to tackle.
(More on Techland: The Mythology of Mario: Q&A With Nintendo’s Legendary Shigeru Miyamoto)
The Game: Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
Specifications: Ezio Di Auditore thought his battle against the power-mad Templars was over at the end of Assassin’s Creed II. But when the conspiratorial order takes the battle to his home villa of Montereggioni, he travels to Rome to recruit new allies against the Templars.
Ideal Usage Scenario: New artillery combat, new traversal options and, of course, the option to command fellow Assassins makes the single-player campaign a fresh experience. And the competitive multiplayer creates a vicious tension that will keep you playing for hours.
(More on Techland: “Assassins’ Creed” Floods the Zone on Release Day)
The Game: Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
Specifications: You can either choose to break the speed limit as a adrenaline-addicted racer or enforce it as take-no-prisoners police officer in the latest release from EA’s racing franchise. Playing as the cops is no buzzkill, though, as their rides boast special abilities that outlaw automobiles do not.
Ideal Usage Scenario: NFS:HP comes from Criterion, the dev studio responsible for the brilliant Burnout racing games. Hot Pursuit boasts all the speed and chaos of that the studio’s known for and offers a robust online experience that lets you race against others or chase them down, of course. It also blasts out your stats and performance on the Autoblog social network, so you can brag without having to press a button.
(More on Techland: Split/Second: A Review)