There’s a bunch of new games out this week. A bunch came out last week and the MOAB of games will drop like the mighty God of Thunder next Tuesday.  I don’t have time to play them all, but I did have time to play the first couple of hours of:

Ratchet and Clank: Crack in Time

GTAIV: The Ballad of Gay Tony

Read on for initial impressions and see if either is worth your time.

As the weeks go on, full reviews will be difficult. I’ll try to finish as many games as I can while playing the crap out of Modern Warfare 2, posting guides, Fiction Friday articles and Podcasts. In the meantime, I’ll post my “First Look” to give you an idea of what to expect or avoid, so you don’t have to waste your money.

The Ballad of Gay Tony

This is supposed to be the last new Episode that we’re going to get that will use GTAIV as it’s back drop. The promise of The Ballad of Gay Tony (or TBoGT, as the cool kids call it) is more weapons, helicopters, crazy missions and last, but not least parachutes.  PARACHUTES I said!

You play as Luis a dude with problems, one of his biggest problems is his happy friend and business partner Gay Tony, who is supposed to be the brains of the outfit, but has made one bad decision after another and it’s up to you to fix it.

During my initial play through of about 10 missions or so, there seems to be a lot to do. You’ll have a fight club, golf and base jumping mini games to take up time in between main missions, and like Lost and Damned, you’ll have a meta game called “Drug Wars” that will net you sweet weapon drops in your crib.

Overall, the first few missions were just okay, but I see the action really ramping up. The new missions and helicopters are fun and the parachute is icing on the cake. For twenty bucks, you may want to pick it up.

Ratchet and Clank: Crack in Time

If you were an alien and you asked me what was a video game, I can think of no better example than ANY of the Ratchet and Clank games. I love the Ratchet and Clank series of games. It’s hard to beat down a franchise that does so much right. The last outing, “Tools of Destruction” was a bit of a let down for me. While still a good game, I really expected more in my next gen Ratchet and Clank. I’m glad to say that so far, Crack in Time has taken some nice steps forward to step up to the plate and compete with the classics such as “Going Commando” and “Up Your Arsenal” for best R&C game.

Sure, you’ve got new weapons, new locals and new mini games, but you’ve also got a gorgeous graphical overhaul, a ship that you can use to fly around the Galaxy where ever you want and also a return to the little sphere worlds that were a ton of fun early on in the R&C series, that incidentally predated Super Mario Galaxy…

If this baby had multiplayer, I’d recommend it in a second. It doesn’t, but I’m still enjoying the heck out of the game so far and I’d encourage you to buy or at least rent the game if you like adventure games, third person shooters or games that are just pure fun.