I’m sure you’re dying to get inside my brain and figure out the formula to how I determine what game or games to feature every week. It’s a complex formula really. Take a few parts of AAA titles, add a dash of potentially family friendly titles, toss in some personal bias, a splash of review copy consideration, and some other voodoo magic, mix it all together, and voila. A piece of rather uninteresting writing. Sometimes, I throw the recipe out and use other criteria. I mean, look at this week. You’ve got Red Steel 2 for the Wii, which hopefully can build on the rather unrealized promise of its predecessor. I could feature Bakugan: Battle Trainer for DS because I think Greg will be reviewing it. Or perhaps I give the nod to Game Room on XBLA because of how it’s probably going to be a thousand times better than the “arcade” in Playstation Home. Blech. But instead, I’m going with Just Cause 2 for the platforms capable of next-gen graphics. It’s got a bit of hype, it’s a sequel, and I’m sure it’ll be a fine title. But that’s not why I’m going with it. So why am I going with it, you ask?

Just cause.

Get it?

Ok, so if you’re still reading this after that abomination (and really, why are you?), I’m sure you’re enjoying the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Lots of upsets, and just fun to watch hoops. Which probably took a lot of time from your game playing. So while you’re probably taking Kratos through his quest for vengeance, I’m sitting here writing this with the Women’s World Curling Championships on. In HD. On the big screen. That’s right, Curling isn’t just for the Olympics you know. Us Canadians watch this stuff every year. And we STILL don’t know why.

I finally got around to starting Assassin’s Creed 2 this week. Now I’m wondering why I didn’t start sooner. After Greg’s glowing review, I should have ripped it open when I got it for Christmas. Of course, I also got Uncharted 2, which also scored well. Aside from being really annoyed with the controls at times (when I’m being chased by a bunch of guards, I really don’t like seeing Ezio jump off a building, or jump off a wall I wanted him to climb), I’m really digging it. I even found myself slipping into an awful Italian accent tonight when telling my in-laws what various dishes were from the local Viet-Thai restaurant. Classy. And sure, my wife came home from Wal-Mart last night, heard the dialog from upstairs, came down and asked me who I was talking to. When I told her it was the game talking, she didn’t quite believe me. Now she’s wondering if I’m having an affair. (I’m not.) Sigh. But still, great game.

ModNation Racers was already looking like a fun game, but now it’s starting to approach must-buy territory. Stephen Totilo at Kotaku has an article outlining how ModNation Racers will be getting split-screen multiplayer for four players. Not everyone is online all the time, and especially for a game that will likely be playable by all members of the family, this is a welcome move, cause I don’t want The Boys going online anytime soon. What’s even sweeter is that fact that on a 58-inch screen, I’d actually be able to see what’s going on, cause I’d be playing on the equivalent of a 29-incher. Much better than trying to play Mario Kart Wii in four-player on a 32-incher. So thank you, United Front Games, for remembering that not everybody goes online for their multiplayer needs. I wish more developers would see things this way, especially now that it’s so much easier to get TV sets that we can actually SEE split-screen on.