Weekly Multiplayer Releases: Week of February 19, 2008

Another mostly worthless week for multiplayer releases. Still, if you’re desperate enough to happen to fit in one specific niche or the other, you mind find a game or two worth enjoying.

Pick of the Week: The Club Third-Person Shooter | 360, PS3, PC Ignore the “hip,” “urban” setting and art direction. Ignore the simple gameplay and the budget title sensibilities. Behind these abstractions lurks a legitimately interesting, if not particularly innovative, title. Featuring eight different multiplayer modes, The Club offers up the sort of visceral, entertaining shooter experience so many games forgo in favor of more complicated and murky waters. The Club cuts straight to the heart of the genre, providing a solid run-n-gun experience for anyone looking for one, and anyone able to stomach the midly offensive take on “urban” life.

Hit the jump for the rest of the week’s multiplayer offerings.

Also available this week:

FIFA Street 3 Soccer | 360, PS3, DS Soccer isn’t popular in the United States, and dressing it up in a wretched, super-exaggerated style isn’t going to change that. If I don’t like playing virtual soccer while in control of actual human beings, why would I want to do so with horribly deformed human facsimiles? Still, it’s always nice to see EA’s disorganized marketing department rear its pandering head. NFL Street became NFL Tour, but the underperforming FIFA license didn’t warrant an attempt to sucker unsuspecting buyers into its poor gameplay. At least in this case, the marketing department is doing the soccer moms of America a favor.

Dynsasty Warriors 6 Hack-N-Slash | 360, PS3 At this point you know if the Dynasty Warriors series is right for you or not. As a series, its multiplayer features have always been lacking, and Dynasty Warriors 6 is no exception. In fact, if you’re buying this game for anything other than the hours of mindlessly addictive button mashing (read: the aforementioned multiplayer or some misguided sense of strategy) you need to have your head examined.

Need for Speed ProSreet Racing | PSP I don’t know what a “ProStreet” is. In fact, I’d wager it’s not even a thing at all – merely a buzzword chosen from many after weeks of focus testing. That’s fine. Attract your intended audience. There’s nothing here we haven’t seen a dozen times before: Street racing, online multiplayer modes, an unneccessarily large roster of cars. If the PSP’s the only “next generation” console you got, then feel free to take the plunge. Otherwise, you might be better served checking out Burnout Paradise instead. Or you could just buy it for one of the other consoles this exact same game has already appeared on, including the Xbox 360, PS3, and PS2.