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Shippin' Out Dec. 7-13: Persona 4, POP PC

Altus' latest Shin Megami Tensei RPG and the Windows edition of Ubisoft's platformer reboot lead a supermodel-thin release list; Meteos Wars, PS3 Sonic Unleashed also launching.

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If brevity is the soul of wit, this week's release list is a charmer of Oscar Wilde-an proportions. The river of top-tier games has dwindled to a trickle, with a few final high-profile releases dribbling onto store shelves less than a month away from New Year's Eve.

First and foremost on this week's docket is Atlus' Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 for the PlayStation 2. The sequel to GameSpot's top role-playing game of 2007 features similar gameplay, but increases the emphasis on story and character. It follows a silent protagonist staying with relatives in Inaba, a quiet town tucked away in the Japanese countryside. Things don't stay quiet for long, though, as players quickly find themselves embroiled in a murder mystery that bridges the real world and a supernatural realm extant inside TV sets. (Insert "Kill Your Television" joke here.)

Other than Persona 4, the biggest release of the week is the PC edition of Ubisoft's second reboot of the Prince of Persia franchise, which garnered solid reviews when it was released on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 last month. Not so the PlayStation 3 version of Sonic Unleashed, which follows in the footsteps of its critically savaged 360, Wii, and PlayStation 2 siblings on Tuesday. The week also sees the launch of C.O.R.E., a first-person sci-fi shooter from little-known developer-publisher NoWay Studio.

On the downloadable front, the top gun is Meteos Wars from Tetsuya Mizuguchi's Q Entertainment. Previewed by GameSpot in October, the expanded Xbox 360 version of the highly praised 2005 DS title will go live on Xbox Live Arcade on Wednesday for 800 Microsoft Points ($10). Today, Nintendo's console got two WiiWare title: The puzzler Bruiser and Scratch and Canadian-friendly Hockey Allstar Shootout, as well as a Wii Virtual console classic, Sonic the Hedgehog (Master System edition).

This week's new releases are listed below (list taken from retailer information--actual dates may vary).

DECEMBER 7, 2008
C.O.R.E. - DS

DECEMBER 8, 2008
Bruiser & Scratch - WII
Hockey Allstar Shootout - WII
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 - PS2
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - WII VC

DECEMBER 9, 2008
Build a Lot - DS
Cate West: The Vanishing Files - DS
Drivers Ed Portable - DS
Dungeon Maker II: The Hidden War - PSP
Left Brain Right Brain 2 - DS
Neopets Puzzle Adventure - WII
Prince of Persia (2008) - PC
Sonic Unleashed - PS3

DECEMBER 10, 2008
PowerUp Forever - X360
Meteos Wars - X360

DECEMBER 11, 2008
No releases scheduled.

DECEMBER 12, 2008
No releases scheduled.

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