September 2006 is the month of CDV. The German publisher has four games on the way this month, and a couple of them might be good. The monthly release calendar (pruned from Gamespot’s release list) follows, with the publisher and developer following the game title.

Septemer 8 – Silent Heroes (Paradox/Dark Fox), Perimeter: Emperor’s Testament (Paradox/KD Lab)

September 11 – Pacific Storm (CDV/Lesta), Company of Heroes (THQ/Relic)

September 12 – Joint Task Force (Sierra/Most Wanted), Faces of War (Ubisoft/Best Way)

September 25 – Paraworld (Sunflower/SEK Ost)

September 26 – Caesar IV (Sierra/Tilted Mill), Heroes of Annihilated Empires (CDV/GSC)

Septemer 30 – Warfront: Turning Point (CDV/Digital Reality)

Going purely on buzz, Company of Heroes will be the big hit of the month. I’ve been wary of trying the demo, in case it pushed me to make yet another purchase in a year where I’ve already bought a lot of software. Plus, I have to admit to being a little exhausted with the WWII RTS thing. Who isn’t? But when three or four different people take time to tell you that it is a very, very good game, you have to take notice.

Paraworld is probably the most interesting game coming out this month. It’s dinosaurs versus the recent past. Certainly an original theme and it looks very, very colorful. I’m a sucker for new themes and new worlds so I’ll grab the first demo I can and weigh the wallet.

Then we have Caesar IV, a game that I was greatly looking forward to until the spate of Rome city building games this year. C4 has the advantage of being made by Tilted Mill, the developers of Children of the Nile, one of my top games of the last five years. But where crossing the Rhine to kill Nazis is the dead horse almost everyone has beaten over the last decade, Rome is the civilization that the others seem afraid to stray from. Three cheers for familiarity, I guess. When making anything it is important that the audience have some schema to hang their expectations on.

And I say all this as a man obsessed with ancient Rome. (I’m typing this in my toga right now.)

September 25 – Paraworld (Sunflower/SEK Ost)

September 26 – Caesar IV (Sierra/Tilted Mill), Heroes of Annihilated Empires (CDV/GSC)

Septemer 30 – Warfront: Turning Point (CDV/Digital Reality)