New Game Releases — Thief, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, And More

Sometimes quality is better than quantity, right? This isn’t the most jam packed week for new video game releases, but any time you’ve got a remake of an old favorite, the continuation of a time-tested platformer brand, and a popular IP making its first foray into a new genre, all in the same week, it’s a good thing.

Now of course I’m talking about the quality of the concepts, not necessarily the games themselves. For all I know, all three of them could stink. But I have faith that at least one of them is going to turn out to be extremely fun. Which one? Read on and find out!

Here are the three most notable new games coming out over the next seven days:

“Thief” (PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360, PC) – February 25

The original “Thief” has a lot of fans. That became apparent once Square Enix began releasing details on this new iteration, because people got vocal about some of the changes the company made. Players like Garrett just fine the way he was back in the day it seems.

But you can’t say the developers at Eidos Montreal turned a deaf ear to the criticism. They scrapped the experience system and made it clear that Garrett can get through his missions without having to resort to combat at all if that’s the way you want to handle things. Will it work? We’ve got our own review coming as soon as the embargo lifts.

“Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare” (Xbox One, Xbox 360) – February 25

When you’ve got a super popular mobile franchise, the next logical step is always to … turn it into a third-person shooter? Yeah, the concept between “Garden Warfare” is an unusual one, but from what we’ve seen so far, it appears the plants and zombies make the transition just fine.

With both 12v12 multiplayer and co-op modes, this looks like a lot of fun, even for people like me who aren’t usually into shooters (because I’m horrible at them, mostly). PopCap doesn’t do anything half-heartedly, so you should rest assured that the game will be well polished. And there are no microtransactions, at least to start, so hooray for that! To top it all off, it’s abouthalf the price of the typical new release. Sounds like a winner to me.

“Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2” (PS3, Xbox 360, PC) – February 25

I honestly had no idea back in the NES days that “Castlevania” would still be a thing in the second decade of the 21st Century. I’m sure I’m not alone either. The series may not have the same cachet it once had, but that isn’t stopping Konami from trying to find new ways to keep it fresh for modern gamers.

The buzz on “Lords of Shadow 2” isn’t fantastic, but there are some cool ideas here. If nothing else, it’s Dracula versus Satan for all the marbles, or something like that. Long live “Castlevania.”

Also releasing this week: “Magus” (PS3) – February 25; “Tales of Symphonia Chronicles” (PS3) – February 25; “LEGO Marvel Super Heroes” (DS) – February 28