No offense to our loved ones, but the day we receive a letter from them asking us to come party in Silent Hill is the day we kiss their asses butts goodbye. No post cards, no day trips and it’s been nice knowing them. Unfortunately, the characters in the video games don’t have that luxury. Konami just throws them into the hellish place and forces them to survive through armies of twisted creatures. The upcoming sixth installment, Silent Hill: Homecoming, is no different. Once again, a poor sap finds himself wandering through a hellish environment that makes Iraq seem like the perfect vacation spot, hoping that the sound he heard behind him wasn’t made by some disgusting abomination. We wouldn’t have it any other way.

Homecoming, available for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 this September, tells the story of Alex, an ex- soldier with Gulf War experience who gets kicked out of the military for having nightmares about his little brother. After returning to his hometown of Shepherd’s Glen, he comes to the horrific realization that his bro is missing.

Most of us would probably call the police and put up posters, but this being a Silent Hill game, Alex decides to visit the mysterious town. He hitches a ride with a trucker and finds himself enveloped in fog, but this isn’t just any fog. The Developer developers at The Collective (from Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb fame) haves created dynamic fog that swirls around and reacts… well… dynamically. This means that objects (the trucker’s rig, for example) appear swallowed by it instead of just passing through, and being that it’s fog, it’ll affect your vision, which adds tension to the experience since you won’t be able to tell where all those creepy sounds come from.

Previous Silent Hill characters are average Joes with little fighting ability, a great design decision that upped the tension as we fumbled with handguns and recklessly swung things around. Alex, however, has combat training, and is better equipped to deal with the twisted, homicidal nurses, skinless dogs and other terrors. As such, expect him to be dead more accurate with guns.

In addition to his firearm talents, Alex also has some effective hand-to-hand maneuvers. You can chain his light and heavy attacks to create more powerful moves, and you can dodge as well as perform counters. Furthermore, there are fatalities for all of the weapons, so instead of just hitting an enemy and watching the body go limp, you can chop off its head, among other things.

There’s also a first person mode, press R3, that enables you to get a better look at the environments, which should help lessen the impact of any third person camera issues. As for item collecting, Alex’s head will turn and look at things he can pick up, and the game doesn’t pause whenever you grab something. Instead, you’ll snatch it in real time.

Thus far, The Collective has done a great job with the look and feel of the game. The aforementioned fog goes a long way to creating a claustrophobic atmosphere, and the visuals of the deserted town, dingy environments and bloodstains looks outstanding. When combined with the eerie sound effects and score from series composer Akira Yamaoka, Silent Hill: Homecoming should make you crap your pants.

Konami’s previous Silent Hill offering, Origins on the PSP, wasn’t as good as its predecessors, so we’re looking forward to the franchise’s return to form. Whether or not The Collective can meet fans’ lofty expectations, however, remains to be seen. But with large breasted (and faceless) nurses, buckets of gore and the decrepit town, Homecoming looks like a great way to spend those cold, fall nights.

Indiana Jones made a dramatic comeback, but he’s not the only thrill seeker in search of fortune and glory, as treasure hunter Lara Croft returns in her latest video game adventure, Tomb Raider Underworld. Armed with her signature dual pistols and wearing a tight and sexy outfit — the better to show off her assets — she hopes to explore a dark, macabre world full of dangerous enemies, daunting puzzles and plenty of other hazards. With developer Crystal Dynamics at the helm (the same team behind the well-received Tomb Raider Legend and Anniversary), it appears Ms. Croft’s latest adventure has all the makings of a blockbuster.

This time around, Lara finds herself in Mexico exploring Mayan temples, hoping to unlock the gates to hell (or Xibalba, as the Mayan’s called it) by manipulating plates on a gigantic calendar, just one of the game’s many puzzles. What she’ll find inside this new, dark place remains a mystery, but based on some of her previous enemies, we’re sure they’ll be big, ugly and unfriendly.

Underworld’s bold direction is just one of many new additions to the franchise. First, Lara’s never looked better. Crystal Dynamics has thus far done a wonderful job bringing her to life by injecting her with even more personality- she She now has multiple facial expressions during gameplay – and hundreds of motion captured moves that’ll enable her to swing off poles and perform cartwheels, among other things. And for gamers that love eye candy, Lara will get messy rolling around in the dirt, which will stick to her clothes and body until she jumps into water or stands in the rain. No word on whether there’s an unlockable white T-shirt.

The environments look equally impressive, with gorgeous rainfall, flashes of lightning, a beautiful lighting system that reflects color off Lara’s tight body and plenty of old and dusty ruins to explore. Overall, it’s a very attractive game, and the best part is that the developers still have several more months to improve its appearance.

Wet Lara is enough to get our hearts racing, but we’re also excited about the non-linear missions. Previous Tomb Raiders put you on a set path, forcing you to walk from point A to point B. Underworld mixes things up by allowing you to reach your destination in a number of ways, and this includes Lara’s interaction with her environment. If she climbs up a wall, for example, she can start her ascent anywhere along the wall, so long as whatever she grabs onto supports her weight. In addition, she can pick up poles to beat her enemies, but those same poles come in handy for solving puzzles and creating a means to scale ledges, as she can stick them into holes to help with navigation. With that said, she’ll need to be careful, as wet surfaces will cause her to lose her grip, creating frantic moments where she’ll need to quickly escape panthers or armies of spiders by scurrying up some rocks, only to discover that she could fall at any moment.

When exploring giant temples, the last thing we want is to get lost. Crystal Dynamics solves this issue by allowing Lara to leave a trail of breadcrumbs, or in this case, dead bodies and broken stones in order to find her way back. Underworld doesn’t piece things back together or causes bodies to disappear. Things remain as you left them, allowing you to cut a path of destruction that also serves as a handy map.

Judging by screens, there will be tons of things to break and kill. Combat looks extremely vicious, with panthers attempting to claw Lara to shreds and poachers taking a break from hunting to make her life difficult. The a new enemy artificial intelligence won’t let them stupidly run into gunfire either. It’ll react based on the situation, running for cover or attempting an ambush. Lara fights back with sticky grenades, a host of other weapons and her dual pistols. In fact, for the first time in the series she can target two enemies at the same time, letting you scare one into hiding so you can kill the other.

Although Tomb Raider Underworld is a long ways from completion, there’s plenty to get excited about. Its beautiful visuals, combined with Lara’s butt kicking moves and trip into hell could make it the most action packed entry in the franchise. Just keep in mind that when it comes to dressing for rainy weather, less is more.

Capcom has made millions with its Resident Evil, Street Fighter and Mega Man franchises, but that doesn’t mean it won’t take risks. Its new third person shooter, Dark Void (developed by the team behind the Xbox favorite Crimson Skies), has the makings of a hit, with guys using jetpacks, hijacking UFOs and decapitating aliens in some whacky dimension. It’s just like the Rocketeer, but much cooler.

You play as Will, a pilot and cocky son of a gun that somehow flies through the Bermuda Triangle and winds up in another dimension, or as the game’s title suggests, a dark void. A mysterious race of aliens known as The Watchers seek to make his life unpleasant, and he finds himself pursued by UFOs and evil robots both big and small. Luckily for him, he meets up with The Survivors, a group of people that were also stupid enough to fly into the Bermuda Triangle, and together they battle The Watchers on their own turf.

Because they had no weapons, The Survivors fought for and eventually scavenge The Watchers’ technology, granting them flight via jet packs and a bunch of high-powered rifles. For reasons Capcom hasn’t explained, they anoint Will their leader and plunges them into battle in what appears to be an intense and addictive shooter where you’ll use a combination of jet pack flying and good old fashioned blasting to destroy your enemies, but with one notable exception. Dark Void features what Capcom calls gravity-defying vertical-combat, where you’ll not only shoot enemies in front and in back, but also up and down. Throughout the game, you’ll use the Grip System, which is PR speak for being able to grab onto things, to ascend and descend cliffs and other structures, adjusting the camera and shooting enemies above and below you. In addition, you can grab onto an alien and yank it off its perch, watching its body plummet into oblivion.

Dark Void’s jet pack enables you to hover (the better to reach high places) and zip through the air at high speeds. Doing this looks exhilarating for two reasons, the first being the animations. Instead of watching a stiff looking Will, the guy’s arms and legs flail around depending on the jet pack’s propulsion, which is a neat feature. Secondly, you have the ability to hijack UFOs by getting close to them and pressing a button. Doing this commands Will to land on the sucker, where he avoids the spaceship’s laser beam and looks to rip off one of its panels. Once you do that, achieved by frantic button mashing, the alien exits the vehicle and a tug of war ensues, with both characters fighting over a rifle. Quickly tilting the left analog stick is the surefire way to victory, and the game rewards you with an animation of Will knocking his adversary to the ground and blowing off its head.

Once inside the UFO, you’ll dog fight a series of enemies, and although we didn’t get a chance to play, the controls look solid. Turning these suckers seems like a chore, but not a surprise, given their immense size and shape. If you tire of flying, or want to avoid blowing up, you can exit the UFO at any time and continue onward via jetpack.

As for the rest of the combat, Dark Void works similar to other third person games, with Will taking cover behind objects and peeking out to shoot his enemies. He will also acquire different weapons, most notably the disintegrator gun, which does exactly what its name implies.

On the downside, the game won’t feature a multiplayer component, which is a shame, given the possibilities of intense UFO deathmatches. As a single player adventure, however, Dark Void looks sweet, and we’ll hopefully kill a few Watchers at next month’s Electronics Entertainment Expo. Check back with us for our skies on report.

1942: Joint Strike is a top down vertical shooter in which you pilot one of three planes in an alternate World War II environment, blasting thousands of enemy ships and tanks en route to victory. Bad guys swarm the screen, humongous bosses unleash hundreds of bullets in all directions and things explode in bright orange fireballs. Unlike previous 1942 video games, this is the first game in the series to feature 3-D graphics.

As you sail over a war-torn landscape, you’ll spy expertly crafted bridges, buildings and other structures, some of which blow up during fights. Enemy planes clog the screen, performing wonderful and predictable ballets. Bullets sail in all directions, patterns that you’ll easily figure out after several plays. In addition, the game runs smoothly, even during the attacks that wipe out everyone, save you of course. Explosions, Titanic-sized bosses; everything looks great.

As much fun as the game is, it wouldn’t be a vertical shooter without maddening difficulty. Eventually, the bad guys become too intimidating, the bullets too numerous, and it’ll be game over. With that said, the game features a sweet co-op mode, both on and offline, which lets you and another player create an explosive tag team. As you unload ammo on your foes, you can also team up for three Joint Strike Attacks, where you work together to decimate the opposition. The one we saw was a lightning attack that runs between both ships, giving you the opportunity to double clothesline enemies with an electrical blast.

Unlike most of Capcom’s 2008 lineup, 1942 will arrive this summer, downloadable through Xbox Live Arcade (800 Microsoft Points) and the PlayStation Network ($9.99). We can’t wait to play again, so check the skies for our heroic review and look for us online. Those Joint Strike Attacks can’t activate themselves.

This time around, Lara finds herself in Mexico exploring Mayan temples, hoping to unlock the gates to hell (or Xibalba, as the Mayan’s called it) by manipulating plates on a gigantic calendar, just one of the game’s many puzzles. What she’ll find inside this new, dark place remains a mystery, but based on some of her previous enemies, we’re sure they’ll be big, ugly and unfriendly.

Underworld’s bold direction is just one of many new additions to the franchise. First, Lara’s never looked better. Crystal Dynamics has thus far done a wonderful job bringing her to life by injecting her with even more personality- she She now has multiple facial expressions during gameplay – and hundreds of motion captured moves that’ll enable her to swing off poles and perform cartwheels, among other things. And for gamers that love eye candy, Lara will get messy rolling around in the dirt, which will stick to her clothes and body until she jumps into water or stands in the rain. No word on whether there’s an unlockable white T-shirt.

The environments look equally impressive, with gorgeous rainfall, flashes of lightning, a beautiful lighting system that reflects color off Lara’s tight body and plenty of old and dusty ruins to explore. Overall, it’s a very attractive game, and the best part is that the developers still have several more months to improve its appearance.

Wet Lara is enough to get our hearts racing, but we’re also excited about the non-linear missions. Previous Tomb Raiders put you on a set path, forcing you to walk from point A to point B. Underworld mixes things up by allowing you to reach your destination in a number of ways, and this includes Lara’s interaction with her environment. If she climbs up a wall, for example, she can start her ascent anywhere along the wall, so long as whatever she grabs onto supports her weight. In addition, she can pick up poles to beat her enemies, but those same poles come in handy for solving puzzles and creating a means to scale ledges, as she can stick them into holes to help with navigation. With that said, she’ll need to be careful, as wet surfaces will cause her to lose her grip, creating frantic moments where she’ll need to quickly escape panthers or armies of spiders by scurrying up some rocks, only to discover that she could fall at any moment.

When exploring giant temples, the last thing we want is to get lost. Crystal Dynamics solves this issue by allowing Lara to leave a trail of breadcrumbs, or in this case, dead bodies and broken stones in order to find her way back. Underworld doesn’t piece things back together or causes bodies to disappear. Things remain as you left them, allowing you to cut a path of destruction that also serves as a handy map.

Judging by screens, there will be tons of things to break and kill. Combat looks extremely vicious, with panthers attempting to claw Lara to shreds and poachers taking a break from hunting to make her life difficult. The a new enemy artificial intelligence won’t let them stupidly run into gunfire either. It’ll react based on the situation, running for cover or attempting an ambush. Lara fights back with sticky grenades, a host of other weapons and her dual pistols. In fact, for the first time in the series she can target two enemies at the same time, letting you scare one into hiding so you can kill the other.

Although Tomb Raider Underworld is a long ways from completion, there’s plenty to get excited about. Its beautiful visuals, combined with Lara’s butt kicking moves and trip into hell could make it the most action packed entry in the franchise. Just keep in mind that when it comes to dressing for rainy weather, less is more.