Games releasing this week (30 January – 3 February)

Hallelujah! The January gaming drought is at an end; and as we scootch January out the door, we’ve laid new linens for February to come and stay over.

Now that we’ve actually got at least something to schedule in, we’re going to be bringing back our weekly releases – at least until another gaming drought hits. *Eyes June/July*

While game releases will only get into full swing from next week, this week we see at least two big games dropping down.

Final Fantasy XIII-2

Final Fantasy XIII-2 is the sequel to the topsy-turvy, mind-bogglingly convoluted JRPG from last year – and it is set to make things even more confusing by delving deeper into the mythology, and introducing time-travel.

The game promises to be a much more open affair than its predecessor (whose linearity was one of the major gripes amongst critics and fans alike) – and you’ll be setting off on an adventure to find out what happened to FFXIII’s Lightning.

If you want to prepare yourself by getting through the backstory in preparation for this, be sure to check out Final Fantasy XIII-2: everything you need to know.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 will be available Friday, 3 February 2012.

Soul Calibur V

Breasts! Yes. That’s exactly how Namco Bandai have opted to market Soul Calibur V – by throwing a little T&A at gamers in hopes to catch their attention.

Not that they’d need to go to such shallow lengths, because Soul Calibur V is looking to follow the series trend of being a solid, fast-paced, weapon-to-the-face-smashing fighter, with an entire cast of varied and colourful characters to keep you entertained.

Taking place 17 years after the events in Soul Calibur 4, the game features a whole bunch of gameplay changes to make it an over-all smoother gaming experince – upgrading guard abilities, power attacks (while taking out old systems) and general tweaks to the engine.

Plus they let you play as Ezio. Soul Calibur V is smashing through on Friday, 3 February 2012.