We’re through the big September releases - BioShock and Metroid 3 are distant memories, and Halo 3 soon will be as well. Now it’s time to turn our attention to the major titles scheduled for release in October. They include a couple of team-based multiplayer shooters, some highly anticipated sequels and some new MMOs and RPGs. Let’s get to it:

Enemy Territory: Quakes Wars

Description: The long-awaited follow-up to Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory has been on the radar of many fans of the online multiplayer shooter. And it’s easy to see why - not only does ET: QW continue the Quake mythology, but the game also uses id Software’s new MegaTexture rendering technology. MegaTexture is used to create unique and highly detailed environments and terrain graphics without having to repeat the same sections over and over again. Will this be the best-looking online multiplayer shooter yet? It’s possible, but there have been some differing opinions about the game. Rob played the E3 2007 demo back in July and came away impressed, but Travis played the Beta and found some aspects to be less than desirable.

Id Software’s MegaTexture rendering technology should give Enemy Territory: Quake Wars a nice polish for outdoor combat.

Still, Quake Wars will have the type of features that one would expect for a team-based online multiplayer shooter. The game has five character classes for both the human of the Global Defence Force (GDF) and the Strogg aliens, and each class has distinct abilities. Engineers and Constructors can set up anti-vehicle turrets and mine fields as well as repair their own vehicles. Covert Ops and Infiltrators can hack and disrupt enemy equipment and use various gadgets to take out opposing camps. There are also a number of deployable vehicles with which to do battle, including hover-copters and armoured personnel carriers for the GDF and Cyclops mech-walker and Desecrator hover-tanks for the Strogg. The game’s developer Splash Damage has built in a wide variety of different weaponry, vehicles and assets, such as radar and strategic missile strikes, which should make the team-based strategy even more complex. The game features objective-based missions that are linked together for a rich multiplayer campaign. In addition to being really good looking thanks to MegaTexture technology, the extensive, open-ended environments are designed to encourage improvised missions and tactics. Quake Wars should satisfy gamers looking for strategic multiplayer action.

PC Requirements (for demo): Minimum requirements include Windows XP or Vista, Intel Pentium4 2.8 GHz or AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (Pentium 4 3.0GHz or equivalent for Windows Vista), 512MB of RAM (768MB for Windows Vista), 128MB Nvidia GeForce 5700 or ATI Radeon 9700, DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card.

Clive Barker’s Jericho

Description: A while back, best-selling horror novelist Clive Barker lent his considerable talents and namesake to a highly-underrated PC game called Clive Barker’s Undying, developed by DreamWorks Interactive. While Undying stands as one of the more original and effective survival horror titles in recent memory, the game went largely unnoticed and was deemed a commercial failure despite excellent reviews. Now Barker is giving games a second shot with Jericho, which is getting a bigger treatment - Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions as well as the PC - and much more hype, including some interesting trailers and compelling viral videos.

L.t Black is one of the seven members of the elite Jericho team.

Jericho will attempt to combine first-person shooter action with the survival horror genre. The story focuses on the Department of Occult Warfare and its investigation of supernatural phenomena in the Middle Eastern city of Al-Khali. A group of seven soldiers, dubbed Team Jericho, is dispatched to battle evil forces at the ancient city. Their mission is also to uncover a connection to the legend of the First Born, which is God’s first-and failed-attempt at creating man. If all of this sounds a little too freaky and "out there," well, then that’s the point. After all, Barker himself wrote the story, and if you’ve ever read any of his fiction, then you’d know that Jericho doesn’t sound half as bizarre as, say, "Imajica" or "The Great and Secret Show." According to Codemasters, players will have conventional firearms and range-based weaponry but will also be able to harness psychic abilities on their missions. Of course, this sounds a lot like BioShock’s stunningly good gameplay combination, and while it may not earn Jericho points for originality, it still sounds like the game will have plenty of action and excitement. Jericho also features squad-based gameplay, as players can shift to and control different members of the team. Each character has his or her own special ability; the main character, Capt. Devin Ross, is telepathic, while Lt. Abigail Black is a telekinetic. Early footage of the game’s next-generation visuals looks impressive, but the key for Jericho will be to combine entertaining FPS gameplay with enough frights and unexpected thrills to satisfy jaded gamers.

PC Requirements: minimum requirements include a Pentium 2.4 GHz or Athlon XP 2400+, 1GB of RAM, an Nvidia GeForce 6600 or ATI Radeon X1600 GPU or better (both for Windows XP/Vista), a DirectX 9 compatible sound card and 2GB of hard drive space. Recommended requirements include an Intel Core 2 Duo or Athlon 64 X2, 1GB of RAM, an Nvidia GeForce 8800 or ATI Radeon X1950 or better, a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi sound card and 2GB hard drive space.