As my partners in crime here at TAGS will attest to, it’s rare that I get giddy over a pre-release announcement. (Or anything, period.) Let alone a niche title very much off the beaten path. Don’t let this obscurity fool you: it’s time to potentially get those rotors excited over ‘Apache Air Assault’ for the PS3 and 360.

There are few games I'm more excited for in 2011 than Journey, the next title by That Game Company, creators of Flower and Flow. They create a type of game that doesn't feel comfortable with any kind of definition. Terms like art and experience feel hollow when trying to convey the enthralling oddness of the games they make. All you can really do is play them.

In similar fashion Journey is a game of powerful simplicity. You play as a character trying to reach the top of a mountain, and that's all you need to compel you onwards. The first trailer is below and, I have to confess, if you watch it without the context of having played a game like Flower you might not get what all the fuss is about or why I'm so excited. So perhaps go and download Flower on the PSN right now, play that through to the end (trust me, you won't want to stop) then come back and watch this trailer. Hopefully you'll be just as excited as I am about Journey.

It's not really a reveal as Game Informer had the info in their Arkham City feature many months ago, but Hugo Strange is definitely going to be a big thorn in Batblokes side in the upcoming sequel to Arkham Asylum. Hugo Strange is a classic Bat villain, dating right back to the golden days of the character. He's a genius psychologist with more than a few loose screws himself, like many of Batman's enemies, but rather than wanting to kill Batman the wrinkle that makes Strange an interesting character is his goal to replace Batman as the supreme vigilante protector of Gotham. He also knows Batman's secret identity, obviously not a good thing. He'll be joining the previously announced rogues gallery of Two Face and Catwoman and the returning Joker and Harley Quinn. Strange is much less attractive than Catwoman so I feel perfectly justified in using her image instead of his for this article, to avoid... confusion. Okay that was a pretty weak justification, but hey, Catwoman!

His early menace in the comic books had Strange injecting people with a chemical that turned them into hulking monsters, a little to familiar for fans of the first game, so hopefully they take Strange's particular brand of evil in a new direction. The trailer below introduces the Strange character to the game and has Batman kicking the asses of a bunch of Splinter Cell cut scene extras. And is that Christopher Lee voicing Strange? Damn I hope so.

It's worth noting as well, if you hadn't heard, that the latest rumours for the next Batman movie has Tom Hardy (Bronson, Inception) playing Doctor Strange opposite Christian Bale's Batman.

I consider myself a pretty well rounded geek. I love games, books, comics and films to an unhealthy degree. I have a number of directors whose films I absolutely refuse to pass up but head and shoulders above them is the great Guillermo Del Toro. The man is a myth maker, sculpting modern fairy tales that are heavy on the creepy and reverent in their treatment of monsters. Naturally the idea of Del Toro turning his hands to games gives me a MASSIVE geek boner.

His first game with THQ titled inSANE, received a 43 second teaser at the Spike VGA awards last night which basically told us nothing other than the fact it is very, very creepy. Games with visionary horror masters behind them have been tried before to middling success, Clive Barker's fun but flawed shooter Jericho from a few years back springs to mind. At this point all I can say for sure is that our own editor in chief Mick will never, ever play this game.

Check out the teaser below. The game won't be out till 2013 though, apocalypse permiting.

Homefront is looking pretty damn good based on early impressions and information leaked onto the web. But for about $10 (or $7 from www.ozgameshop.com and free postage) you can easily get your hands on developer Kaos Studios previous game, an underappreciated little gem called Frontlines.

And no, it’s not a game about armies of fleas and ticks going to war on the dwindling resources of a dogs back surrounded by a deadly chemical cloud of Frontline, although that’s not a bad metaphor for what the games actually about. Also that’s a pretty damn good idea for a game; the ticks could be mobile command stations! Come on Ubisoft, my resume’s in your files, I’m crapping nuggets of gold here!

When Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood was first announced more than a few eyebrows were raised, lips pursed and ribs knowingly elbowed. It was accepted that Brotherhood was really a glorified expansion pack, with a multiplayer mode tacked on to justify a full retail price. It’s not like we haven’t seen Ubisoft keep squeezing long after the juice is gone with their franchises. But a few hours with the game will have most series fans writing a tearful apology letter to Ubisoft.

Brotherhood is a full and complete sequel in everything but name, with more content than Assassin’s Creed 2 in its single player and a multiplayer that is easily the best new experience of the year.

The next time you log into Monday Night Combat you'll be prompted to download some DLC called the Spunky Cola Special. The first thing you should know: it's absolutely, totally free!

Second, it adds a heap of fixes and changes to the balance of the game. The classes all seem, at least to me, about as balanced as they can get and the game plays very much as it should.

Thirdly, because you're all beautiful people, Uber Entertainment are treating us to a new Crossfire level AND a new Blitz level (the versus and cooperative modes respectively). There's a mess of other features as well, a new drop, 'Churros', that gives you a health boost and ability reset, new loading screens and animations and the long awaited inclusion of a blue team Pit Girl.

If you're looking for an excuse to ditch all the big budget release multiplayers and jump back into Monday Night Combat this is definitely your shove in the back.