AU Shippin' Out February 8-12: BioShock 2

While 2007 was a massive year for gaming, one of the standout titles was the new original IP BioShock. 2K Boston's game was met with critical success, so not too surprisingly, a sequel was commissioned. Set 10 years after the first game, BioShock 2 sees players return to the ocean floor city as the original Big Daddy. 2K has outsourced the development of the multiplayer portion of the game to Digital Extremes, bringing the franchise online for the first time. As you'd expect, there's the standard offering of deathmatch and capture the flag, as well as other multiplayer modes to boot. BioShock 2 is hitting Aussie shores on Tuesday, February 9.

Two weeks after its release in North America, MAG is just about to deploy Down Under. Developed by Zipper Interactive, MAG takes first-person multiplayer combat to the grand scale of 256 players. There would be chaos in the game without some organisation, so players are divided up into squads, which fall into platoons (just like the real military), with the focus on promoting teamwork by awarding extra experience points to those who stick to their squads. Keep an eye out for MAG later this week when it's released.

Star Trek Online boldly goes where the franchise hasn't been before, with the launch of the first massively multiplayer online role-playing game to be set in the popular sci-fi universe. STO is set 30 years after the events chronicled in the Nemesis film and lets players join either the United Federation of Planets or the Klingon Empire. STO is being distributed by Namco Bandai and should be in stores this Friday.

February 9, 2010
BioShock 2 (360, PS3, PC)

February 11, 2010
MAG (PS3)
Star Ocean The Last Hope: International (PS3)

February 12, 2010
Star Trek Online (PC)