Nexon, the company behind MapleStory, Audition and Mabinogi, has launched Combat Arms, a micropayment-based first person shooter.

What is micropayment-based? It means it’s free to play. They make their money by selling weapons and other items to customize and upgrade characters which help but aren’t required. So if you’re an FPS fan give it a shot, you can’t beat free.

This one’s for the stat nerds out there. The type of fan who would rather read a box score than watch a game, who spends more time tweaking their fantasy team than sleeping, who can calculate VORP in their head. You know who you are.

On the off chance you stat nerds don’t know already, Out of the Park Baseball is a long-running series of stat-based baseball management sims for the PC and Mac. There’s no actual baseball in them in the traditional sense, bats don’t crack and the graphics are limited to player portraits and still shots of fields. Everything is a series of numbers, from scouting to games to lineups to every other minute detail about the game of baseball. And they’ve just released the ninth installment which, in addition to including 2008 opening day Major League rosters, now includes fights and suspensions, tracking of streaks, better scouting and more saved stats.

If that paragraph didn’t scare you off immediately you really have to download the demo. It’s extremely addictive if you see baseball as a math problem anyway and pretty easy to learn if you put some time into it.

The Creature Creator is officially, legally online (though some of you have downloaded it through…other means in the last few days) and, if you’re anything like me, you want as many people to see your awesome creatures as possible.

So here’s the deal; post links to pictures and video of your favorite creations here for all to see. After you’ve had some time to master the nuances and get into the really good stuff (by which I mean Saturday evening) I’ll post a gallery of submissions.

It’s not really a contest, there’s no prize, just a way to get your creatures out there. The one problem I have with the Creature Creator is that it’s single-player, it’s tough to really show off the final product. I have this blog as a way to show off my best work and now you do too.

So let us see your best work!

The latest version of Final Fantasy VII was out yesterday, a prequel this time. And yet they won’t do a graphical update of the actual game for next-gen systems. I just don’t get it.

Also there’s a lot of other stuff.

March 24:

• Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (PSP)

March 25:

• Dark Sector (360, PS3)
• Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword (DS)
• Universe at War: Earth Assault (360)
• Sword of the Stars: Collectors Edition (PC)

It’s a fairly slow week. I don’t really blame them, I wouldn’t want to follow Smash Brothers either. But if you like singing games is today ever your day.

March 18:

• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (360, PS3)
• Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword (DS)
• Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds (PS3)
• Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore (PS3)
• Singstar ’90s (PS2)

March 20:

• Condemned 2: Bloodshot (PS3)

For a while I’ve been thinking of putting up a weekly list of what’s new on store shelves. Tuesday seemed like the most logical day, and now is as good a time as any, so I decided to do it. Here’s this week’s crop:

March 10:

• Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)

March 11:

• Condemned 2: Bloodshot (360, PS3)
• Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates (DS)
• Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (360, PS3, PS2, PSP)
• House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return (Wii)

This feature is in beta so send your comments, let me know how to improve it. This is just the biggest titles, so do you want to see a longer list? Should I keep it shorter? Want it broken up by platform rather than date? I’m up for anything you tell me you want.