Purple Picks

Purple Picks - Week of 1/19/08

Week Of 1/19/09

By Mike Smith

Move over, Tony: there's a new skate king in town, and he's back to shred some more. The once-proud Tony Hawk series has fallen on hard times of late, with the last couple of titles receiving poor reviews and lackluster sales. It's being handed off to a new developer for the next installment (the tenth in the series), but skate fans have little to worry about. EA's superb Skate receives a sequel this week, doubling its number of tricks and keeping us kickflipping for months.

Top Three

Skate 2

WATCH TRAILER

We loved EA's 2007 smash Skate for its sublime controls, awesome style and top-notch visuals. So we're eagerly anticipating its sequel, which vastly increases its trick count, adds the ability to get off your board and push around objects to create your own lines, and includes a mode where you're scored on the severity of your crashes. Nice.



Sim Animals

WATCH TRAILER

Bored with making pretend people go to the bathroom in The Sims? The latest in EA's ridiculously successful Sims series tackles the animal kingdom instead, giving players an entire forest packed with cute and cuddly critters to meet. It's out this week on Wii and DS, and the Wii version includes a four-player mode: just right for family game night.



Commander in Chief

SEE GAME PAGE

Assuming you're not one of the millions heading to D.C. for the inauguration, check out this political sim, which will put you in the shoes of Obama himself. Maybe with all these wars, economic crises and lofty campaign promises to keep, that's not an easy place to be, but play this game and decide for yourself.



Best of the Rest

Posted: 20 Jan 2009