New PAL Releases Roundup

Sometimes things in life are blatantly going to happen, but everyone pretends they won't until the very last minute.

For example, my mum went to the airport today to fly to New York, despite knowing that there's a volcano spewing ash out of Iceland, so nobody's flying that way. Or indeed at all. She knew that her holiday was ruined, but she still went to the airport. Then she rang me up and told me that she can't go to New York because of a volcano.

Similarly, Rockstar and Microsoft have long told us that the two GTA IV downloadable episodes would be exclusive to Xbox 360. "Microsoft and Rockstar Games are proud to announce a strategic alliance to provide exclusive episodic content for Xbox Live," they said in 2006. "Starting this autumn, Xbox 360 owners will also have access to exclusive Grand Theft Auto IV episodes," said Microsoft in 2008 (never mind that they were wrong about the date). They took out ads, they banged the drum. PC and PS3? Never gonna happen.

But of course it was always going to happen, because these things always go on to happen. You could make the argument, if you were in a cynical mood, that games publishers are beginning to wear down the concept of exclusivity. A bit.

Anyway, the episodes are very good, as you will know if you read our 8/10 review of Episodes from Liberty City, so PC and PS3 owners could do a lot worse when the shops open tomorrow.

Elsewhere there's Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction. Apologies for failing to get our review up yet - it became apparent that with such a short single-player game it would be vital to play as much of the co-op and multiplayer as possible, and that wasn't possible before the embargo broke for one reason or another. As a result it's delayed the review, but we'll get it up as soon as it's ready.

This week in shops:

• Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City (PC, PS3)
• Men of War: Red Tide (PC)
• Rugby League 3 (Wii)
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction (PC, Xbox 360)
• Samurai Shodown Sen (Xbox 360)

This week online:

• Combat of Giant: Dinosaurs - Fight For Survival (DSiWare)
• Final Fight: Double Impact (PSN, Xbox Live Arcade)
• Hamsterball (PSN)
• Mega Man (Wii Virtual Console)
• Mr Driller: Drill Till You Drop (DSiWare)
• Pocket Pack Words & Numbers (DSiWare)
• Rage of the Gladiator (WiiWare)
• System Flaw: Recruit (DSiWare)