This game, a first-person shooter for the Playstation Network and Xbox Live Arcade, is a love letter to the video games and testosterone-fuelled action movies of the ’80s. Even the choice to cast Michael Biehn as the protagonist, cybercommando Rex Power Colt, is an inside joke for anyone born prior to 1979.

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Of this you can be sure: the developers at Naughty Dog know how to tell a story. The Last of Us (Sony; PS3; rated mature), released on June 14, begins with an unexpected prologue that sets the stage for the story you’ll play. The game overflows with thrills as well as tragedy, and at all times it will have you in awe.

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Also: The real science behind the creatures in The Last of Us

Max’s Pirate Planet, from Vancouver developer Slant Six, and Ridiculous Fishing: A Tale of Redemption, from Vlambeer, are reviewed in the Globe & Mail.

The last time gamers were anxiously awaiting new consoles, Ted Price and his development team at Insomniac Games were working on the PlayStation 3 hardware. Now, with the emergence of the PS4 and Xbox One consoles, he’s quite content to be releasing a new game for existing platforms.

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Kelowna is an unlikely location for a game-development studio. But Club Penguin isn’t a typical video game.

In fact, Club Penguin is not so much a game as it is a virtual world; think Second Life, but without the adult extremes like sex, swearing, and violence. Club Penguin is a place designed for kids, where they choose and customize a penguin avatar that they use to interact with each other and the world. It went live in 2005, and was sold two years later to the Walt Disney Company for a reported US$350 million. Since it started, more than 200 million penguins have been created.

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