WarPath

Send us to a distant planet, slap a shotgun in our hands, and we're usually pretty happy. The budget-priced WarPath, currently on track for a June release, delivers space-shooter carnage in its not-quite-complete stages, but we're not sure if its best ideas are enough to give this bargain blaster ($30 on Xbox) an edge against its toughest opponent: Halo 2. WarPath frames its first-person blastfest within a Risk-style board game that determines whether your next battle is a round of Capture the » Read Full WarPath preview

It's a tale as old as time: three separate races arrive on a resource-rich planet of their collective dreams and are forced to blast away at each other until two of the races have been completely annihilated. Why these dudes can't share baffles us all, but it would make for an awfully boring shooter if they weren't warring, so we just have to accept the flimsy story and move on. WarPath adheres to this formula by providing players the option of fighting for the planet-eating Ohm, the homeless » Read Full WarPath preview