Our Spotlight series is in catch-up mode again, so expect another edition around midweek. Many more reviews after the break!

Neotokyo
By Art Siriwatt
This heavily stylized Half-Life 2 mod is a potential Counter-Strike successor. And Art likes it: "Neotokyo is easily one of the best tactical shooters to come out this year; if you want a intense corner-peeking shooter that you are willing to be patient with to learn its rules, Neotokyo is perfect."

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood
By Matt Gerardi
I'm playing through Call of Juarez right now, so it was especially interesting to read Matt's thoughts on this flawed-but-entertaining take on the Western genre. Sounds like the duel sequences are better on the console version -- I can't stand the duels on PC.

Watchmen: Justice is Coming
By Matthew Erazo
A Watchmen MMO for iPhone with combat that is almost literally rock-scissors-paper? How could that possibly go wrong? Matthew counts the ways.

Trine
By James DeRosa
While Trine, a physics-based PC platformer (coming soon to PS3) with a fantasy setting, technically came from Finland by way of developer Frozenbyte, it also came out of nowhere. James takes a pretty thorough look at the game, and has a lot to say about its final level.

Trine
By Eric Majkut
Eric also chimes in on the unexpectedly awesome Trine, and points out that its core gameplay mechanics owe a huge debt to Blizzard's The Lost Vikings series.

Virtual-On: Oratorio Tangram XBLA
By Brian Shirk
As a Virtual-On mech pilot from way back, Brian finds the game's Xbox controls lacking compared to the arcade version's dual stick set-up.

XBLI Trial Rundown
By Joe Donato
Joe plays the free demos of XBLI games (formerly known as Xbox Live Community Games) and usually delivers a frowny-faced verdict. Although he did actively like one of the nine games in this batch.

Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 1: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal
By Frank Anderson
Frank reviews this contender for longest game title ever, and finds it to be typical Telltale -- funny, but definitely not perfect.

A Little Late To The Party

Mass Effect
By Garret Staus
Garret's playing through his game backlog and reviewing as he goes, so be patient. I await his Mass Effect 2 review in 2013.

Prototype
By Joe Donato
Got room in your heart for another Prototype review? This one's pretty good.

Bionic Commando
By Matthew Erazo
Matthew chimes in on this remake, and is fairly forgiving of its retro-flaws; more forgiving than I was, at least.

The Lord of the Rings: Conquest
By Michael Wenzel
What the hell is going on with Lord of the Rings games these days? Apparently this one not only assumes that Frodo failed in his mission, but players can control a Nazgul and kill Frodo. And fight Gimli as a Balrog.

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World
By Brian Shirk
Brian's not crazy about this Symphonia's last-gen graphics and slow pacing, but loves the story and battle system. Sounds like you really need to play the first Tales of Symphonia to really enjoy this one, though.

Gears of War 2
By Brian Shirk
Have you heard of this Gears of War 2 game? Sounds kind of good. Although Brian's not a fan of the multiplayer (save for the new Horde mode, and the excellent co-op).

Final Fantasy 8
By Cody Winn
Final Fantasy 8's been getting a lot of love from Bitmob writers, and Cody adds his to the, uh...love pile.