February marks the release of a new console! Yay! Otherwise there are: 5 3DS releases, 1 standard DS release, 1 Wii release, 4 PS3 releases and 6 Mutliplatform releases. No 360, PC or PSP exclusives on the list, surprising no one.
So read on and see what’s coming out!
Note: this doesn’t include shovelware or games that we all known will suck, but rather gamse I think are noteworthy for whatever reason, may it be because they’ll be popular, or that I’m personally interested in.
PLAYSTATION VITA
(02/15 for the “first edition” package and 02/22 for the “boring package that only has the system and power cable”)
Sony is starting up on the next generation of gaming with their answer to Nintendo’s “currently kicking all sorts of ass worldwide” 3DS, the Playstation Vita (which is currently selling worse and worse every week in Japan, but I do hope that changes). It’s basically a HUGE upgrade to the PSP. Better graphics and processing, beautiful badass screen of awesome awesomeness, second analog stick, touch screen, back touch pad (I’m currently not convinced about it, but trying it out could change my mind… and yes, it’s a touch PAD, not a touch SCREEN as so many people have been saying), better standard media (carts/cards > discs, especially for handhelds)… The only big downfalls so far is the overpriced memory cards (I see no reason for Sony not using SD other than “we wanna make slightly more money”), the lack of a memory card coming standard with the console (some games REQUIRE a memory card to even play at all, why the heck isn’t there a 256MB card included or something just for saving?), and the high-ish price of the console… but, then again, I paid 250$ for a launch 3DS so… it could have been worse. This seems like a console with a LOT of potential, and I hope that potential is reached, rather than completely squandered like the PSP was.
As for games… there aren’t a lot of launch games worth mentioning really… Seriously, the launch lineup is almost as good as the 3DS’, there’s barely anything there. The only title I want at launch is Gravity Rush, and that’s STILL not clear if it’s actually a launch title (it seems not even Sony knows, despite the game coming out on Feb. 9 in japan and at launch in Europe… what’s the hold up on a release date guys?)… and maybe Army Corps of Hell. Here’s the currently known launch title list (that I can find…), which I hope Gravity Rush will join:
Escape Plan (PSN Only) (hopefully there’s a demo, that has potential, maybe)
Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational
Hustle Kings (PSN Only)
Little Deviants (only game I’m 100% sure of getting in here… since it comes with the first edition package… otherwise I wouldn’t have gotten it)
ModNation Racers: Road Trip (a modern racing game with no online racing… epic fail, especially for a game that should thrive so much on community involvement)
Super StarDust Delta (PSN only)
UNCHARTED: Golden Abyss (it’s gonna be a dumbed-down version of a sub-par cover-based TPS… interest=zero)
wipEout 2048
Army Corps of Hell (potentially interesting, kinda like Pikmin meets DMC meets Brutal Legends)
Asphalt Injection
BEN10 GALACTIC RACING
Blazblue: Continuum Shift EXTEND
Dungeon Hunter Alliance
Dynasty Warriors Next
F1 2011
EA SPORTS FIFA Soccer
Lumines Electronic Symphony
Michael Jackson The Experience
Plants vs. Zombies (PSN Only) (you HAVE to have a version of this on something already, right?)
Rayman Origins (the console version was bad (it looked nice though so that’s…. something), so my expectations are low on this one)
Shinobido 2: Revenge of Zen
Tales of Space: Mutant Blobs (PSN Only)
Touch My Katamari
Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 (rather pointless due to it being the same price as the console version… kinda like SSFIV3D)
Virtua Tennis 4: World Tour Edition
MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES
The Darkness 2 02/07 (PC, PS3, 360)
The first “The Darkness” sucked. Yeah they tried something new with the Darkness, a weird creature that attached itself to the main character or whatever, but in the end it was just a sub-standard FPS. I’m expecting much of the same here, though I will give the demo a try.
Shank 2 02/07 (PC(?), PS3, 360)
The first Shank was a very solid game. Some things weren’t that great, like the “parkour”-like segments which were just boring, but the combat was fun and fast paced, and the boss battles were pretty entertaining (and especially fun when you managed to kill a boss without getting hit). I think Shank 2 will be just as good, but less “wow factor” unless they add a lot of new gameplay elements.
Kingdoms of Amalur: The Reckoning 02/07 (PC, PS3, 360)
The demo felt a bit boring, but maybe the part the demo showed was the boring part of the game… It seems to have potential, but it feels quite button-mashy (like, as soon as you hit an enemy and make it fall down, just mash the attack button and win). Might be interesting for Western RPG fans, but not one I’m looking forward to myself.
Asura’s Wrath 02/21 (PS3, 360)
This game sucks. Why? QTEs! Seriously, the demo was basically QTE-only, any other gameplay actually has QTEs embedded into it (blocking/returning missiles, for example) and was only meant to build up a meter to get to QTEs. The gameplay, as far as the demo goes, is fricken boring, since QTEs just plain suck no matter what (it’s lazy on the dev’s side and not fun for the player). But I still really want to rent it, because the cinematics are completely crazy and awesome… Seriously, the second part of the demo is so crazy awesome, I want to rent it just to see how much more crazy it gets, that just looked so cool. If only the gameplay lived up to the awesome cinematics and visuals…
Syndicate 02/21 (PC, PS3, 360)
I’ve only seen videos for this a few minutes ago, wondering what all the hype was about (at least on news sites like Kotaku). And… well, it’s an FPS with nothing special (as far as I can tell)… I may be wrong, but what I’ve seen looks very sub-standard. The gameplay videos I just watch make it look really boring, like most modern FPS. “You can increase certain meters with adrenaline, by going in the middle of the action!!” the guy said, and then the meters went up while he was behind cover not going anywhere near the action… fail. (NOTE: I’m not familiar with the original Syndicate so that may not help… but it’s a completely different genre so… whatever, I’m guessing fans of the original are PISSED, just like X-com fans)
SSX 02/28 (PS3, 360)
It’s SSX…. The graphics look great and the gameplay will probably be pretty good. It’s not a series I ever really played, but I’m sure this is gonna be an enjoyable one nonetheless… Heck, I’ve seen videos and it actually looks really cool. A rental for me (at least for now), but this should be good.
Binary Domain 02/28 (PS3, 360)
I have no idea what this is, it’s just on there because Dave asked me to put it here. The only video I’ve seen it looked like a fairly standard TPS… Not really sure about this, but I’ll check it out when Dave buys it.
NINTENDO 3DS RELEASES
Resident Evil Revelations 02/07
RE isn’t a series I’m very interested in. Basically a series of games I have more fun watching someone play through than play myself. I’ve seen a couple videos and information about this game, and it looks like it could actually be very solid. The plot sounds interesting (as far as RE plots go) and the gameplay looks solid. Not a game I’m terribly interested in, but one I think fans will enjoy.
Demo impressions: Okay, I played the demo, and it’s actually really good. I mean, DAMN good. It looks really fun. It feels a lot like the original series, with the shooting/movement mechanics from RE4. Seems great really. Potentially a must have for the RE fan I’ll say.
Tales of the Abyss 02/14
I haven’t played much of the PS2 version of this, but I do remember not enjoying it much. Maybe I was just stupid at the time, I wouldn’t know, but I am interested at giving it another chance… Eventually, when I’m playing fewer RPGs.
Tekken 3D: Prime Edition 02/14
Prime Edition? What does that even mean? Anyways…. it’s Tekken. Not a fighting game series I’m particularly fond of. I just can’t get into it at all… I think it’s the whole “3D fighter” genre that doesn’t work for me, as I’m also not a fan DoA and Virtua Fighter (with the only exception being SoulCalibur). So yeah, this is gonna be Tekken, and it’s gonna come with a 3D Tekken movie. Not much more to say here, if you’re a fan of the series you’ll probably enjoy it.
Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D 02/21
I don’t even see a point to this… wasn’t there recently an HD version released in a package? Might as well get that for probably the same price since there’s more games… Unless there’s something really different here minus the fairly pointless 3D visuals… I’d say don’t bother. Heck, if you want to play it on a handheld… the Vita is gonna get its own version of the HD remake so… yeah.
Rhythm Thief & the Emperor’s Treasure 02/28
Some weird rhythm game that… looks sort of fun actually. The basic gameplay seems pretty simple, where you press buttons/tap the touch screen/move the system around when prompted, QTE-style, but the visuals are really interesting (almost Ouendan-like), and there’s multiple gameplay styles… it seems like it could be pretty cool. It’s just a rental for me though, since it’s largely QTE-like.
PLAYSTATION 3 RELEASES
Jak and Daxter Collection 02/07
I’ve actually never played a Jak and Daxter game.. I did play Daxter on the PSP (and only a little bit of it), but that’s really it, and I barely remember it… so I have no idea what this particular collection will be like… So yeah, nothing for me to say here.
The House of the Dead III 02/07
(not finding a boxart for this)
Didn’t the Wii get a version of this? … Yeah, it did, and it was in a package that had 2 as well… Not sure why this particular release doesn’t… Anyways… it’s House of the Dead, so obviously it’s gonna be entertaining. Just not sure how worthwhile this is since the Wii has a version with an extra game…
Twisted Metal 02/14
This looks pretty cool. It’s been a while since the last console Twisted Metal game, and this seems to add a few things to the formula and it looks quite fun to play overall. I’ll rent it since I’m not too sure about it, but it does seem very interesting.
Hyperdimension Neptunia MK2 02/28
Wait what? Already? huh…. Maybe I should finish the first one (which is a very solid and fun RPG, by the way) some time soon before getting to this one… The original was a fun but repetitive and rather easy RPG, but it gave me good laughs and could pretty easily be really good if a few modifications are made to the base gameplay.
Actually, this one seems to completely change the gameplay, seeming to have similar to Phantom Brave and Makai Kingdom rather thanHyperdimension Neptunia… Interesting.
NINTENDO DS RELEASES
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 02/28
Not a sub-series I’m familiar with, since I missed the original DS game AND the 3DS remake of the original, so there’s not much I can say here… Yeah, I’ll stop here.
WII RELEASES
Rhythm Heaven Fever 02/13
The DS game, Rhythm Heaven, was fantastic. The gameplay was simple with 3 actions (touch the screen, DON’T touch the screen and swipe the screen) which affected the animations on the top screen, where you basically had to mimic something or follow a certain rhythm or do different things depending on instructions given by the characters. The gameplay was actually very fun and quite exciting, especially as the rhythm went faster and faster and the patterns mixed became more complicated… But I’m not too sure how well this will work on Wii… I’ll rent it.
I haven’t made “Biggest Surprises” and “Biggest Disappointments” posts yet, not sure if I will… So here’s what we have right now! Again, no overall GotY post, but I don’t think it’s really needed, I think all the posts as a whole display a large variety of awesome games we got this year. Sadly we had to skip over a bunch of great games, otherwise we would have had 5-15 winners per category (other than Wii and 360), and I just decided to highlight my personal favorites. I’m sure other people/everyone else have different winners, and that’s obviously fine too.
So here it is:
2011 DS winners
2011 3DS winners
2011 Wii winners
2011 Xbox 360 winners
2011 PS3 winners
2011 Downloadable winners
2011 Multiplatform winners
Let’s see… for October 2011 we have: 9 multiplatform releases, 3 PS3 releases, 3 3DS releases, 2 Xbox 360 releases, 2 PC releases and the first truly great Wii release of the year (note: yes Mario Sports Mix was good, but definitely not GREAT)! Don’t forget this only includes interesting or potentially popular games, and it maybe be missing a couple hidden gems (and downloadable games, these rarely get release dates this fast). I try to not include shovelware in these lists.
So read on and see what you’ll be buying!
MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES
Dark Souls 10/04 (PS3, 360)
A spiritual successor to the highly popular Demon’s Souls on PS3. This time it’s a multiplatform title, but it seems to retain the gameplay style and difficulty-type of the original. I’ll only be renting this, but it’s looking mighty fine from what I’ve seen.
Spider-Man: Edge of Time 10/04 (PS3, 360, Wii, 3DS, DS)
Seems very similar to Shattered Dimensions. Not too sure about that one. Shattered Dimensions was… okay… but it was definitely not worth a purchase. I’m expecting the same here.
Rage 10/04 (PC, PS3, 360)
I always look reluctantly at FPS. This may have been made by id, and some things I’ve seen looked interesting (especially since it reminded me of Borderlands a little bit), but… I don’t know, FPS tend to disappoint me most of the time, so I’ll not get any hype for this. I’ll probably check it out eventually though.
Dead Rising 2: Off the Record 10/11 (PS3, 360, PC)
The first Dead Rising was boring, the second one was pretty much the same but with a few added gameplay elements so it wasn’t AS bad… This seems like it’s just gonna be DR2 with Frank West… meh (and no, I don’t care that he’s covered wars, you know).
Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure 10/16 (PS3, 360, PC, Wii, 3DS)
I don’t know about this one… You can collect figurines, and get them scanned into the game somehow. It seems to be a fairly standard 3D platformer, but here you have access to 32 characters…. as long as you have the figurines. I’ll be honest, I’m not expecting this to really catch on.
Batman: Arkham City 10/18 (PC, PS3, 360)
Arkham Asylum was a very solid puzzle-y brawler/stealth game, and ended up being one of the very few modern licensed games to not be terrible. I haven’t actually seen anything in regards to its sequel, but I am still excited to check it out (had it pre-ordered for months now). I only hope a few things are modified here, to make it even better than the first. I’m pretty hyped.
Battlefield 3 10/25 (PC, PS3, 360)
This has been played up to be the competition for MW3, with both the advertisers, gamers and overall press talking about how much greater it’s gonna be… but from what I’ve seen it’s just another bland military FPS with no defining elements, it might as well be called “MW3 with more vehicles and better graphics”. The non-vehicle moments are 100% identical to any CoD game… Even the box art has the exact same lack of originality/fun as the CoD series’ box art… Get Serious Sam 3 instead!
The King of Fighters XIII 10/25 (PS3, 360)
King of Fighters XII kinda disappointed me… I can’t say why though, it just didn’t get me like older KoF games. I’m not even sure I’ll try this one. We’ll see.
Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi 10/25 (PS3, 360)
DBZ fighting games always kinda failed to really impress me. This seem very much the same as previous Tenkaichi games.
3DS RELEASES
Tetris: Axis 10/07
Looks like Tetris! Not really much to say here…
Harvest Moon: The Tale of Two Towns 10/11 (also coming to DS, but I decided to ignore that)
To be completely honest, I haven’t played a Harvest Moon game since the SNES… I have no idea if the series has done any changing since then. Maybe I’ll have to check a newer one soon…
Pokemon Rumble Blast 10/24
I played the demo for the original Pokemon Rumble on Wiiware, and it SUCKED. You’d think a Pokemon action game like this would have the potential to be great but… Yeah, my expectations for this are super-low.
PC RELEASES
Dungeons & Dragons: Neverwinter 10/04
I have no idea what that’s gonna be like. So I won’t comment on it! *thumbs up*
Might & Magic: Heroes VI 10/11
The Heroes of Might and Magic series is a very cool Strategy-RPG series. By building up your city and conquering other cities, you can build an army and take over the rest of the land. As of now my favorite in the series remains the third, but I’ll probably end up checking this one out eventually. Should be good.
PLAYSTATION 3 RELEASES
Twisted Metal 10/04
(Haven’t found the official box art, will update when I do)
The videos I’ve seen look very… Twisted Metal-like (duh). You have access to more vehicles, and you even have sniper rifles to take out enemies from far away… I’m not really convinced about this game though, I might rent it.
Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One 10/18
Ratchet & Clank with 4 players! It looks like a simplified and super-linear version of Ratchet & Clank. It DOES look fun though, but it’s probably not terribly interesting to play alone.
The House of the Dead: Overkill – Extended Cut 10/25
House of the Dead Overkill was an amazingly fun on-rails shooter on the Wii. I don’t know what kind of extra content this is getting, but it’s probably gonna be awesome. Sadly, I don’t have a Move to check it out.
NINTENDO WII RELEASES
Kirby’s Return to Dreamland 10/24
The first really good Wii release of the year! This was a very long time coming. This is the first real Kirby game on a console since Crystal Shards on the N64. And it looks AMAZING. No offense to Epic Yarn, I quite liked it (despite the slow gameplay and total lack of challenge), but THIS is what a Kirby game should be like. And a 4-player option kicks ass here too, it’s probably gonna be a fun game to play while hanging out with friends (since all the playable characters look to play differently).
XBOX 360 RELEASES
Forza Motorsport 4 10/11
Forza 3 was solid. I’m expecting the same amount of solid-ness from this one. Not sure what Kinect really does in regards to the gameplay here though, seems kinda pointless to me.
Dance Central 2 10/25
It’s Dance Central… If you liked the first one, this seems to be identical beyond having new dance moves and new songs.
September sees a good amount of interesting/popular games: 7 multiplatform (Wii, PC, PS3, 360) releases, 8 PS3 releases, 3 3DS releases, 3 DS releases, 1 PSP release and 2 Xbox 360 releases. Don’t forget this only includes interesting or potentially popular games, and it maybe be missing what will be hidden gems. We never know.
So read on and see what you’ll be buying!
MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES
Dead Island 9/06 (PC, PS3, 360)
As far as I’ve seen, it just looks like L4D with slower gameplay and maybe a deeper plot (or at least some character development). Not interested.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 9/06 (PC, PS3, 360)
Seems like a God of War rip-off with a space marine and orks… I’ll keep an eye out just in case it ends up being a competent action game, but I’m not keeping my hopes up.
(Note/correction/whatever: The demo was very unimpressive… it’s a clumsy hack n’ slasher with the controls of Gears of War which just doesn’t work for action like this… BUT the jetpack level in the demo was fun… I guess jetpacks DO make everything better… it’s a rental)
NHL 12 9/13 (PS3, 360)
*insert same text as madden release from last month*
Resident Evil 4 HD 9/20 (PS3, 360)
It’s RE4… I shouldn’t need to say much more, because you already know if you want an HD version of that.
Resident Evil Code: Veronica X HD 9/27 (PS3, 360)
I’ve never played Code Veronica… So I don’t have much to say here.
X-Men: Destiny 9/27 (PS3, 360, Wii, DS)
Haven’t seen much of this… it seems like a possibly interesting beat ‘em up with RPG elements. Doesn’t look too bad, but it’s a rental for me.
Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny 9/27 (PS3, Wii)
I had no idea this was even coming. But I’m also not terribly familiar with Rune Factory so I have nothing to say about it.
PLAYSTATION 3 RELEASES
Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten 9/06
Disgaea always kicks ass. Nothing more to say. Buy this!
Resistance 3 9/06
First sucked, second sucked but had fun online, this one will probably also suck (don’t know about the online, don’t care). I’ll rate this game a “boringfps/10″
God of War Origins Collection 9/13
Portable lameness, redone in HD!
White Knight Chronicles II 9/13
Includes the first game with the modified engine from the sequel, so, if you don’t get bored of this fast, you have a LOT of content to go through here.
Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland 9/27
The Atelier series is generally great. I’m pretty hyped for this one
ICO and Shadow of the Colossus Collection 9/27
Ico looked boring to play (haven’t played it myself, just judging from the boring-looking gameplay videos I’ve seen), Shadow of the Colossus was stupidly boring (a game where you spend most of the time basically doing nothing isn’t terribly exciting), not hyped for this at all.
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Classic Trilogy HD 9/27
Despite having all the old splinter cell games, I haven’t played them…. May be worth it, I wouldn’t know… yet.
Child of Eden 9/27
Wasn’t interested in the 360 release, not interested in this one.
3DS RELEASES
Star Fox 64 3D 9/09
This is my favorite N64 game, by far. I must have completed it over 100 times as a kid, and I still replay it from time to time. I’m pretty hyped to see it with even better graphics and 3D, should be quite interesting.
Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection 9/13
This game is great. It features amazing pinball tables like Funhouse and Pinbot and Taxi, and is overall really fun to play. One drawback on the 3DS version though… as far as I can tell, it’s missing 5 tables that are in the PS3/360 version: Tales of the Arabian Nights, Medieval Madness, No Good Gofers, as well as MAYBE Jive Time and Sorcerer that are in all the other versions…. If you have a PS3/360, get those versions, Wii if you don’t have a PS3 or 360… This is a nice alternative, but the HD versions kick its ass.
Frogger 3D 9/20
This actually looks really interesting. It’s classic Frogger gameplay, but in various environments, featuring a lot of new gameplay elements… I may check it out.
DS RELEASES
Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 9/19
Loved the first one, and the other games in the previous Monster sub-series. This should also be great.
Kirby Mass Attack 9/19
The videos I’ve seen make it seem like a Kirby/Pikmin hybrid… looks pretty fun.
Solatorobo: Red the Hunter 9/27
Random Action-RPG, actually looks cool.
PSP RELEASES
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 2 – Innocent Sin 9/20
Oh, this is actually the first time this comes out in the US. I know people will point me to Persona 2: Eternal Punishment on the PS1, I will point out that it’s actually a different game from the first Persona 2, one that takes place in a parallel world. So yeah, this could be interesting.
XBOX 360 RELEASES
Otomedius Excellent 9/01
It better not get delayed AGAIN. Well, I don’t have a 360 anymore, but, if I did, I would be all over this. It actually looks like a solid Gradius game.
Gears of War 3 9/20
It’s Gears of War. You’ve played one of the 2 before it, you’ve played this one.
It may be the summer drought, but there’s still a few interesting releases, right?
Here we have: 1 3DS game, 1 DS game, 2 PS3 games, 1 360 game that was delayed from last month and 3 multiplatform title. Keep in mind this is just “hardcore” games and potentially good games, there’s tons more if you count the shovelware (though I DO include one or two pieces of shovelware this time, by obligation).
So check it out and see what you’ll be buying in August!
MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES
El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron 8/16 (PS3, 360)
After playing the demo for this, it looks like this may be the top action game of the year. The fighting is fun, you get a nice variety of attaks from just one attack button and it seems to offer a good challenge. I’m looking forward to this one.
Bodycount 8/23 (PS3, 360, PC)
(did they just open up photoshop and do that in 2 minutes? Worst cover of the year, seriously)
A First-Person Shooter. Yay…. we definitely don’t have enough of those this generation… Low expectations on this one, doesn’t seem like it’s anything special.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution 8/23 (PC, PS3, 360)
Whoa, new Deus Ex! I haven’t seen that much of this game, but the few gameplay videos I did see were quite interesting, with the character customizing and actually fun-looking/varied gameplay. I’ll give it a look.
Madden NFL 12 8/30 (360, PS3, PS2, Wii, PSP)
Same game as last year with roster update that should seriously be DLC by now… What more is there to say? Millions of idiots will go out to buy it even though they’ve bought it already every year for the last 14 years, and nothing is gonna stop that.
3DS RELEASES
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclocked 8/23
I haven’t played the original DS version of Devil Survivor, so I’m pretty excited to check out this updated version. It seems quite interesting, and apparently it’s challenging (as is a tradition with SMT games). An early but probably really good RPG for the 3DS, yay!
PLAYSATION 3 RELEASES
Bleach: Soul Resurreccion 8/02
This basically looks like Dynasty Warriors with Bleach characters. It actually seems pretty good as far as Dynasty Warriors clones go.
No More Heroes: Heroes Paradise 8/16
It’s No More Heroes. It was a pretty good game on the Wii, and it’s probably gonna be pretty good here too. And, looking on amazon.com, it’s budget-priced too! (not on amazon.ca, but amazon.ca sucks anyways)
So this month we have: 18 3DS games for its launch, 10 multi-platform titles, 4 interesting DS games, 3 PS3 exclusives, 2 PC exclusives and 3 PSP games. There should be interesting games for everyone in March. And keep in mind those are just the interesting/popular titles, no shovelware in there.
Read on!
3DS LAUNCH!
March 27th 2011
Ah yes, the 3DS by Nintendo is finally coming out. Dave, who played it at E3 last year, was quite impressed with it, and, well, let’s face it, it’s a Nintendo handheld so it’s 100% sure to be a great handheld system (call me a fanboy if you want, you still know it’s the thruth… and no, the Virtual Boy is NOT a handheld system), and it’s 100% sure it’s gonna sell well (heck, it’s already sold out in Japan, selling almost half a million in a day). It features an analog stick, multi-touch touch screen, motion-control, multiple cameras that can take 3D pictures and of course a 3D screen that doesn’t require glasses (which is awesome) that can have the 3D effect de-activated if you don’t want it/can’t see it. The launch price is 250$, which is fair. The launch is a bit on the weak side, and there’s no dates for the currently announced “big” games (Ocarina of Time, Star Fox 64, Paper Mario, KID FUCKING ICARUS), but what does it matter, the system’s lineup will end up being great sooner or later.
Launch Titles
Pilotwings Resort
Steel Diver (I haven’t seen much about this, and what I did see didn’t look terribly interesting, but people are excited about it)
Nintendogs + Cats
Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition (will be worth getting if you don’t have the console versions… looks very impressive graphically)
Samurai Warriors: Chronicles (this actually looks quite interesting)
The Sims 3
Madden NFL Football
Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 3D
Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars
Ridge Racer 3D
Super Monkey Ball 3D
Bust-A-Move Universe (Probably won’t be worth getting if you have another version of bust-a-move)
Asphalt 3D
Combat of Giants: Dinosaurs 3D
Rayman 3D (didn’t this come out on the normal DS? yeah, it did, the only apparent difference is the 3D effect)
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Shadow Wars (It’s a turn-based strategy game)
MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES
Fight Night Champion 03/01 (PS3, Xbox 360)
I played the demo for this. It sucked. I loved FNR3, and then realized that it sucked in comparison to FNR4, which was REALLY well done and ended up being very underrated. This, on the other hand, seems to use a similar graphical style to FNR4, but the camera angles are dynamic and completely changed, making the gameplay harder to get a hang of since you can barely see what you’re doing, and the actual fighting is very downgraded from FNR4, with half the punches you could do being removed, and less control over where you can hit, and NO control over where you block. I might rent it, but the demo left me REALLY unimpressed.
Beyond Good & Evil HD 03/02 (PS3, Xbox 360)
Oh, I didn’t know this was coming out. I actually don’t know much about this game, I never ended up playing it last generation despite having many chances of buying it, and people constantly telling me how good it was. So yeah, this could be a chance for me to finally check it out.
Dragon Age II 03/08 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
I played the first Dragon Age. It was incredibly boring to me, and I lost interest after about an hour. The fighting system was dull and I had no interest in the story and characters. But I know that other people loved it. Though, from what I’ve heard, this is a downgrade from the first game.
Homefront 03/15 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
Crappy brown military first-person shooter, nothing to see here…. OH, but, if you pre-order it with OnLive, you can get the Onlive Console, as well as that piece of shit Metro 2033, both for free. That’s pretty interesting at least.
Crysis 2 03/22 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
The first Crysis was basically a standard brown military FPS, but the Nanosuit added some variety and fun features. This seems like more of the same. It has an advanced graphics engine, but from what I’ve seen it’s no different from the first game gameplay-wise.
LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars 03/22 (Everything)
It’s a LEGO game. Yet again based on the Star Wars series. It’s probably gonna be a fun and popular game, the LEGO games are rarely really bad.
Dynasty Warriors 7 03/22 (Xbox 360, PS3)
Dynasty Warriors! There’s hundreds of enemies, and you have to button-mash to kill them all! Those games are generally fun to play, despite the simple fighting system. Killing tons of enemies is very satisfying. So yeah, this should be good enough.
Rush’N Attack Ex-Patriot (03/29 for the PS3, 03/30 for the 360)
Oh, that’s really interesting. Rush ‘N Attack, also named Green Beret in its original arcade release, was a very simple but very fun side-scrolling… hum… platformer? Brawler? Either way, your main attack was a fast stab with a knife that killed almost anything in one hit, and each enemy type had a different method to fight them, like different timing for jumping before stabbing and such. You also got different weapons which have limited ammo. It got pretty tough. This looks a bit different from the original, and graphically it has similarities to Shadow Complex. This is hopefully going to be awesome.
Shift 2 Unleashed: Need for Speed 03/29 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
The first NFS Shift was surprisingly good. It wasn’t as deep and well-made as the big simulation racers such as Forza and Gran Turismo, but it was still very fun. So this should be good.
Space Channel 5 Part 2 03/31 (PS3, Xbox 360 (maybe))
I put this in the multiplatform section because, while the Xbox 360 version doesn’t have an official release date, it should be coming either at that date, or close. Anyways… the original SC5 was a fun rhythm game with a very fun and simple gameplay and a cool presentation, so this should be just as good. Never played it though, so I’m interested.
NINTENDO DS RELEASES
Pokemon Black and White versions 03/06
Pokemon is always awesome. Great simple RPGs all the way through. This is probably gonna be great. Not much more to say here really. This one features a completely new set of pokemon, so that means the caves won’t just be populated by Geodudes an Zubats. EVOLUTION!
Atari’s Greatest Hits Volume 2 03/08
A big compilation of badass Atari 2600 games. There’s a lot of really awesome games in there like Yars’ Revenge, Millipede, Star Raiders, Demons to Diamonds, Warlords and various others.
Okamiden 03/15
A “cute” version of Okami. It seems to have a lot of similarities to its PS2/Wii grand-daddy, with some top-down puzzle segments. It should be really good, I have high hopes for this.
Monster Tale 03/22
Oh look, a game made by a completely new developer that no one has ever heard about, gotta have at least one of those every month… Well I think this looks really interesting. You have a sidescrolling action-platformer on the top screen, and the bottom screen seems to be where (I think) you train a monster using the touch screen to make it fight its own battles and such, and, from what I’ve seen, you can summon the monster to the top screen so he can provide support. I think it looks good.
PLAYSTATION 3 RELEASES
Ar tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel 03/15
I was never a big fan of the Ar tonelico series. They somehow never had the same fun feel as the Atelier/Mana Khemia games which these are pretty similar to. Apparently this is going to be the final game in the series, so fans of the series should check it out. I’m not too interested though.
Yazuka 4 03/15
I have yet to play a Yakuza game, but Dave was a big fan. This should be pretty fun.
PlayStation Move Heroes 03/22
Sly, Ratchet, Jax, Daxter, Clank and a few more team up in this multiplayer 3D platforming action game. Obviously it makes use of the Move controller and it’s required to play this. Could be interesting. Maybe Dave will check it out?
PC RELEASES
Shogun 2: Total War 03/15
The original Shogun: Total War was a fun Strategy game. I was terrible at it when I was younger since it’s sort of complicated, but I still enjoyed it. This should be pretty cool as well.
PLAYSTATION PORTABLE RELEASES
Phantom Brave: The Hermuda Triangle 03/08
Phantom Brave was an amazingly fun Strategy RPG on the Playstation 2 by Nippon Ichi. The story and characters were fun, the fighting mechanics were actually pretty unique to the SRPG genre, and it has the usual grinding present in Nippon Ichi games.
Dissidia 012: Duodecim Final Fantasy 03/22
The first Dissidia was a really fun and unique fighting game with fast-paced fighting and a nice cast of fun characters to use, each with their own play style. From what I’ve seen the gameplay here is nearly identical to the original, but it adds more characters and probably balances some things out, and it adds a few new elements like assists. I’ll get it eventually.
The 3rd Birthday 03/29
Oh, a new Parasite Eve! Not a series I’m terribly familiar with, but this looks not too bad. It seems more action-oriented than the other PE games, but it should be interesting to play.
*EDIT* Dave tells me that fans of the series who played the japanese version have been highly disappointed in the game. So you might want to not keep your hopes up too high.
Being a fairly tame month, there’s only a few interesting releases: 3 multiplatform games, 2 PS3 exclusives, 3 DS games and 1 PSP game.
Read on!
MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES
DC Universe Online 01/11 (PC, PS3)
Having seen the beta version of the game, I think it looks pretty fun. It’s an MMORPG, with an action-based gameplay style, and lots of customization, and it’s set in the DC universe so you’ll see a bunch of familiar vilains and superheroes. It seems interesting enough. At 15$ a month it’s definitely steep though.
Mindjack 01/18 (PS3, 360)
Well I’m not actually expecting this to be any good, what with it being a standard cover-based shooter, but it does have that mind-hacking element that enables you to control other people and machines, which might potentially make this interesting… Maybe.
Dead Space 2 01/25 (PS3, 360, PC)
The first Dead Space was a fairly good action-based survival horror-like game, and this one seems to be very similar to the first, other than the fact that it continues the story, and it has multiplayer for some odd reason (seems like it could be fairly good though). If you were a fan of the original, this should be just as good.
PLAYSTATION 3 RELEASES
LittleBigPlanet 2 01/18
The first LBP was an okay game. It had its problems, like the huge floatiness of the platforming which kinda annoyed me, but it sported a very interesting level design tool that could make not only platforming levels, but a bunch of other stuff. I’ve seen Tetris, shmups, calculators, and more. LittleBigPlanet 2 seems to be going even deeper with its level building system, with people in the beta making really bad FPS, or really bad fighting games. I’m joking here a bit, but what we’ve seen of LBP2 for now is very promising.
Mass Effect 2 01/18
I really wasn’t a big fan of ME2. It felt more like Gears of War with very minor stat-customization and lots of really boring conversations. I enjoyed the first one a bit more (though the huge amounts of boring conversations in that one annoyed me as well), but people LOVE this game, and it getting a superior (apparently) release on the PS3 is quite a big thing. It apparently lets you do some of the major choices from the first game before getting into the actual game, which is interesting, though maybe not as much to some people as it would be to actually play the first game, but I guess releasing a port of the first game could have been too annoying for BioWare to do… or something.
NINTENDO DS RELEASES
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective 01/11
This looks like a very fun adventure game. You play as some guy who died. You “relive” other peoples’ last few minutes before dying, and you can posses objects to hopefully change the character’s destiny, saving their lives. It definitely looks very interesting.
Kingdom Hearts Re:coded 01/11
Hmm… After looking at some gameplay videos, it looks essentially identical to the first KH game at least gameplay-wise…. until it becomes a turn-based RPG. It will probably be a good game, since the only KH game that I found to be completely unplayable was Birth by Sleep (damn loading times), but it still remains to be seen.
Plants vs. Zombies 01/18
It’s Plants vs. Zombies port! It’s good on the other platforms it’s on, so it should be just as good here. And this seems to have a few new modes, it has versus and maybe some other stuff. Should be worth playing. Again.
PLAYSTATION PORTABLERELEASES
Prinny 2: Dawn of Operation Panties, Dood! 01/11
Yay! A Prinny sequel! This time you play as a thousand Prinnies questing to get Etna’s stolen panties back.The original was a tough game with very strict platforming and fun boss fights. This one looks just as good, except now there’s an Asagi mode, where you play as a Prinnified Asagi, who has different weapons, which looks really awesome.
Sonic games on consoles have been pretty terrible after the Genesis. The Adventure series was a step in the right direction (I mean, all the non Sonic/Shadow levels sucked, but the Sonic and Shadow levels were good), but everything afterwards has sucked. The more recent Sonic Unleashed, however, DID get some praise. Why? Well, while half the levels were a completely terrible GoW rip-off, the speed-based levels did manage to find an audience. But… they weren’t actually any good, it’s just that, in contrast to the crappy Werehog levels, they actually seemed sort of fun.
Listening to the criticism from the previous game, Sega did what they thought was the logical thing, and made the whole game just like the daytime levels in Sonic Unleashed. Was it a good or bad thing?
Read on and see!
Developer: Sonic Team
Publisher: Sega
Date of Release: November 16th 2010
Platforms: Nintendo Wii (reviewed), Nintendo DS
Genre: Platformer
Rated E for Everyone
What is good about this game
Presentation
The graphic design here is really awesome. The game takes place in an inter-stellar theme park built by Robotnik, which, in addition to the main theme park area, is surrounded by planets and various other places. What this basically means is that you have a bunch of completely different-looking areas, and they look fantastic. Mechanical areas, nature being corrupted by machinery, a planet made of cake and cookies, an aquarium, an armada of spaceship with asteroid and small moons… And there’s more. It just looks so damn good. There’s lots of detail put into the environments and it all looks really pretty. No problem here whatsoever.
The music is also fine. While not particularly memorable, but it has a very video game-like property to it (yeah, surprising, I know). Most tracks are very fitting and fun to listen to, and a lot of them really have that Genesis Sonic feel to them which is nice.
The map
No more random talking to NPCs and going through hubs or anything. Instead, you have a Super Mario Bros 3-style world map, where you can select the world/level you want to go. Huge improvement.
Wisps
I really like the idea of the wisps. Aliens that you can absorb, which give you super powers, like turning into a rocket, clinging to walls, eating through obstacles, turning into a bouncing laser, a balloon to float and speed through rings… It really gives you interesting things you can do to, and has the potential to really add variety to the gameplay.
Things I’m neutral about
Story/voice-acting/cinematics
I don’t really like it myself. The story is stupid. “Eggman (I reserve the Robotnik name for good Sonic games) built a theme park, let’s go destroy it just in case it’s an evil scheme!” It’s completely random and makes no sense. Turns out he WAS building that theme park for evil needs but…. wow. This is stupid. The voices are okay, but the script is laughably bad, the jokes are just bad…
I don’t like the story and related stuff here, but some people might like it if they don’t mind such a stupid plot. At least there’s no one other than Sonic, Tails and Eggman (and 2 random robot slaves he has).
What sucks about the game
Controls
The problem with the Wisps is that they control like shit. Other than the rocket that launches you vertically, all the wisps control terribly, especially when you’re in 3D “free-roaming” mode, where they just become uncontrollable. The non-Wisp controls don’t fare much better, with Sonic being incredibly floaty, the movement being slidy, and the whole thing lacking precision. Oh, and you have to shake the Wiimote to activate the wisp powers, fantastic (not).
Gameplay
Hum… wow. This is bad. Really bad. Let’s be completely honest here. The daytime levels in Sonic Unleashed, while better than the Werehog levels, WERE NOT GOOD. They were fast, true, but Sonic isn’t all about speed. The big problem they had here is that the levels were barely designed at all, just random ramps and things to duck under. It just wasn’t very interesting.
This is…. just more of the same. The parts where you control Sonic from behind are just about speed, and half of them are completely automatic… literally, there’s a bunch of segments where you don’t actually have to do anything. The parts where you actually have to do anything in those segments are so easy you barely have to try to get through them. Some parts even have button mashing with the homing attack… Which is lame.
The side scrolling segments are a mess. There’s no spin dash so that sucks. You have a double jump, which is done by pressing the jump button a second time… but you know what else happens when you press the jump button a second time? The homing attack. And it’s impossible to aim the homing attack at what you want. Sometimes there’s gonna be 2 enemies on screen, the icon saying which enemy you’re aiming at will be on one enemy, but doing the homing attack will choose a random enemy, frequently not the one the aiming icon was on. Â The problem here is that, a lot of the time, I want to do a double jump, and end up dying because I do a homing attack. Having to duck under obstacles is annoying, it constantly stops you. You also have a boost, which gives you a bit of extra speed. It works to a limited extent in the air at all times, but not on the ground, where it only works when you have energy. But using the boost just doesn’t really work, it gives so much speed that you can’t really follow the action anymore. The side scrolling segments just don’t really work and aren’t fun. Oh, and the level design sucks, it’s just a random array of random platforms.
Boss battles
Button-mashing… in a Sonic game? That’s… weird. The boss battles that I’ve gone through (5 of them) have been the cheapest, laziest bosses in video game history. 2 of them are actually clones of previous bosses. One of them can be beat by just waiting for a minute and then mashing the A button. The rest have cheap platforming levels, and then you button mash to kill the actual boss. It’s just… terrible.
DS version
Just a quick mention of the DS version, since I played a bit of that one… It’s actually a lot better than the Wii version. It takes a more classic approach to Sonic side-scrolling gameplay, and is a much better game due to that. It actually plays a lot more like Sonic 4, with the homing attack, and it adds the Wisps which is a nice addition. But the game also suffers from the same problems as the Sonic Rush games… Despite Sonic being fairly small on the screen, you can barely see anywhere around you, and you keep falling in holes… it’s just annoying. It just overall feels a lot cheaper than Sonic 4, and the bonus levels to get the Chaos Emeralds just really suck, and the bosses are as bad as in the Wii version. Not bad, but still not great.
Overall
This is so disappointing. Sonic 4 was such an good side-scrolling Sonic game, and easily the best post-Sonic CD game in the franchise. After seeing some gameplay videos and hearing impressions from E3 and reviewers, I thought this might end up being at least half-decent. But no! The game is just a recycling of the Sonic Unleashed daytime levels, which weren’t fun. The addition of the Wisps actually seems like it could add fun and variety to the game, but the controls for them are so broken it makes them really hard to use. The platforming is mostly really bad because of the loose, slippery and floaty controls and physics, as well as the broken homing attack and double jump controls.
It’s really annoying that it sucks since I had high hopes for it, and the fact that Sonic 4 was awesome. Maybe I had too high expectations, but how couldn’t I, considering how good of a reception it seemed to be getting? The only bad review I saw was from GameTrailers (whom I hate), but it turns out they were closer to how good the game actually is than every other reviewer.
Ah, there’s the problem: Sonic Team. Clearly they have no fucking clue what they’re doing with Sonic. See what Nintendo is doing with Donkey Kong Country Returns: giving their game to a competent studio to make a great game… Why isn’t Sega doing that? I’m 100% sure that there’s a good developer somewhere that would want to save Sonic. Heck, give up on 3D games for Sonic altogether, just look at Sonic 4, if that’s not proof that Sonic is better in side-scrolling games, I don’t know what is.
I have no idea what other reviewers have been smoking.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Looks awesome
- Has some good ideas
- Some replay value if you actually end up liking the crappy gameplay (red rings hidden in every level)
Cons
- Doesn’t control well
- Wisps control especially badly
- Story and characters are boring
- The overall gameplay is badly designed
The Save Factor
Well, let’s put this in perspective. You have Sonic 4 Episode 1 on the PSN/XBLA/WiiWare (and the inferior iPhone version), which is a great Sonic game, for 15$. And then you have this game, which sucks, for 50$… What a rip. So the Save Factor for this one is 10$. There’s a much better option available for much cheaper than the full retail price, so there’s no reason to pay the full price.
]]>
I recently heard about this new Batman cartoon… because the games were announced… maybe I should watch more TV. Anyways, the game itself looked fairly interesting from what I had seen, with it being a good-looking side-scrolling beat ‘em up. I thought “that’s gonna be a fun little downloadable game on PS3/360″. But, sadly, I found out it was a disc-based game on the Wii, so I was reluctant to buy it. Which is why I only rented it.
I tried the DS version, but decided not to review because…. it wasn’t bad, but it was stupidly easy and took an hour and a half to complete. So I didn’t feel like I played enough to review it, even if I finished it…
So read on and see if this new Batman is worth checking out, since the DS version isn’t! This is gonna be a short review.
Developer: WayForward
Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Date of Release: September 7th 2010
Platforms: Nintendo Wii
Genre: Side-scrolling beat ‘em up
Rated E10+ for Everyone over 10 years old
Presentation
The graphics are very nice. The characters look just like their cartoon incarnations, and the animation is fluid. The areas get a bit repetitive, but there’s some nice variety. The cutscenes look exactly like the cartoon, they might as well be taken directly from an episode of the cartoon (maybe they are, I wouldn’t know). The one problem, graphic-wise, is that, when you summon a helper, their short animation is SUPER pixelated and looks terrible. Otherwise, the graphics look great. Makes you wonder how good they’d look in HD.
On the sound side, the music is unmemorable. The sound effects are appropriate and they sound nice, and not many of the sounds are annoying. The voice acting is solid, using voices from the TV show. Some of the voice are a bit annoying, like Blue Beetle’s, but overall the voice work is good.
Gameplay
Controls
The controls are… a bit confused. It uses the wiimote+nunchuk combo. With the Wiimote, A attacks and B jumps, which is reversed and annoying. The d-pad switches gadgets. The 1 button summons an ally. Shaking the wiimote does a heavy attack, shaking it in the air does a ground pound, and shaking both the wiimote and nunchuk does a power attack. On the nunchuk, you use the analog stick to move, C to block and Z to use gadgets. There’s various moves you can do by pressing a direction with the analog stick while pressing the button. The controls should be a lot better than they are, I constantly find myself pressing different button than what I want to press because the buttons aren’t mapped properly. The motion control isn’t very useful either, you’ll find yourself mostly using basic attack combos rather than shaking the wiimote for heavy or power attacks.
Fighting
Fighting is fairly simple. Hit enemies until they die. In addition to normal, heavy and power attacks, you can use gadgets, grabs, and throws. Â Blocking is fairly useless, since, other than against a few enemies, just hitting them with a normal attack to stop their attack is more effective. You have a variety of attacks: uppercuts, sweeps, normal punch combos, grabs (you can either hit enemies or throw them), aerial attacks and a few more.
The problem here is that all the attacks are rather pointless, because the fully-upgraded Batarangs destroy anything in only a few hits, other than bosses… and the Batarangs are still the most useful attack against them anyways, other than whe you’re fighting the Gentleman Ghost. That sort of cheapens the whole game since you can go through any battle using only one attack.
But, if you decide not to use the Batarangs, the combat is quite fun. The variety of moves you can use and the different enemy types make combat interesting, if not a little bit repetitive.
At the beginning of most levels, other than boss battles, you can choose an ally character, which you use as a special attack. There’s a few cool choices, like The Flash, Captain Marvel and Green Lantern (Hal Jordan). When you use the attack, you have to shake he wii remote to make the attack stronger. Afterwards, you have to wait before using it again.
One thing I’ll mention about the gameplay as a whole is that you’re constantly being followed by an AI partner (unless you’re playing with someone), and he SUCKS. He’s usually useless in a battle, and, if you’re not fighting, he has trouble following you during platforming segments.
Powering-up
Killing enemies gives you money. Money can be used to power up your gadgets, or buy some of them. Generally you get added effects or just more power if you power-up a gadget. Not only can you boost Batman’s gadgets, but the other playable characters’ too (Robin, Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes), Hawkman (AKA “almostaslameasaquaman”man), Green Lantern (Guy Gardner)), though that’s slightly useless since you only get the characters in certain chapters.
Overall
This is a really good game for kids. It’s not too hard, though it does have some tougher enemies. For veteran gamers, it can be good for a rent, but nothing more. It’s definitely a step above the DS version though, considering each chapter is almost as long as the DS game as a whole. The controls need a bit of work, and the game is just super easy since you have infinite lives and barely any penalty for dying. But it’s still fairly fun to play. Fighting enemies is fun, though cheapened by the fact that the Batarangs are way too overpowered. The boss battles are quite interesting, if not a bit easy.
The story are “episodic”, there’s no overarching plot that is covered in all of the game’s chapters. The humor is very tongue-in-cheek and is mostly comprised of really bad puns. Each individual story isn’t great, but they can still be sort of entertaining.
If you’re a fan of the show, or if you want to play a very easy side-scrolling beat ‘em up, check it out, otherwise don’t bother.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Fun to play
- Multiple playable characters
- Nice visuals
- Co-op is fun
Cons
- Too easy
- Controls suck
- Very little replay value (if you REALLY want to, you can revisit levels to get to places you couldn’t before, or upgrade all your gadgets which is pointless when you’re done with the game)
The Save Factor
The game costs 40$. Since I was expecting this to be a 10-15$ downloadable game, it is rather high. The right price for this would be 20$ at most. There’s better options on any of the modern systems.
This time there’s releases on every system which is good. 3 DS releases, 2 PC releases, 3 PS3 exclusives, 2 PSP releases, 1 Wii release, 2 360 exclusive releases and 10 multiplatform releases. Everyone should at least find one interesting game to play in here.
So yeah, read on to see what possibly interesting games are comming in september 2010!
MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES
NHL 11 09/07 (PS3, Xbox 360)
The canadian equivalent to Madden! Every year, a new Madden game comes out and sells millions in the US and Canada despite being the same game as the year before. This also happens with the NHL. Same game as the year before, but with new players. And it sells like crazy in Canada, moreso than Madden.
H.A.W.X. 2 09/07 (PS3, Xbox 360)
I don’t have anything to say about this one… I haven’t played the first one, and I won’t play this one.
R.U.S.E. 09/07 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
This looks like it could be not too bad. I played the beta a few months back and, while it did nothing for me, I can see why some people might be really interested in the game. Though it probably loses a lot of its audience with the previous release of Starcraft 2… It really shouldn’t have been delayed.
Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions 09/07 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii, DS)
Will this redeem Spider-Man in the video game world, after the disaster that was Web of Shadows? Well, it definitely looks really interesting, with 4 different Spider-mans (Noir, Amazing, 2099, Ultimate), each with its own gameplay elements and graphical style. I’m quite interested in trying it out.
Front Mission Evolved 09/28 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
A new Front Mission game! But… this one is an action game? Weird choice. I know lots of fans are pissed that the game isn’t a turn-based strategy game like the other games in the series. But, from what I’ve seen, it still looks fairly decent. I don’t know if it’s going to be as good as Armored Core, but it should be worth checking out.
Dead Rising 2 09/28 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
I’m one of the very few who wasn’t impressed by the first Dead Rising. The actual gameplay just wasn’t very fun. Yeah, finding various things to kill zombies with was entertaining for a few minutes, and there was a good number of enemies on screen, but it got old fast, and the actual objectives/story and such just gave me no incentive to play. Maybe the sequel will fix the problems I had with the first? Well, at least you don’t have to take pictures this time, big plus.
Quantum Theory 09/28 (PS3, Xbox 360)
Constantly called the Gears of War on PS3 (despite it being multiplatform). I actually haven’t seen any actual gameplay for this… I’ve seen a screenshot, and a cinematic trailer, but that’s it. From the information I’ve seen it does have interesting concepts (like the tower constantly changing in real-time), but I’m not too hyped for it. Run-off-the-mill TPS. (NOTE: I have no idea if this release date is right, and will edit the post if it ends up being false)
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock 09/28 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii)
It’s Guitar Hero… The setlist I’ve seen, though I don’t know if it’s official, is kinda lame, even if it does feature a handful of good songs. (and a handful of those being  available on rock band…)
FIFA Soccer 11 09/28 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii, DS)
I’m not too familiar with the FIFA series. I have no idea if it’s just like Madden, where it gets a roster update and not much more every year. But hey, this series is incredibly popular, so it’s on here.
PC RELEASES
Sid Meier’s Civilization V 09/21
I actually never played a game in the Civilization series. I don’t know why. So I have no idea how they’re like. But they’re a pretty big deal usually. So this could be worth playing.
Final Fantasy XIV Online (Collector’s Edition) 09/22 Final Fantasy XIV Online 09/30
It’s a Final Fantasy MMORPG! Again! I didn’t check lots of information on it, since frankly I don’t care for games that require you to pay every month to play . But, from what I heard of friends that played the beta, it seems like it’s a very well-done game. I can definitely see it getting big.
PS3 RELEASES
EyePet 09/07
How long ago was this announced? I didn’t think it would actually come out, but here it is. It has Playstation Move functionalities for when the Move comes out later in the month. It… also really doesn’t interest me. I think some of the technology in the game is interesting, but the game itself doesn’t seem like something that I’d want to play for more than 2 minutes.
Playstation Move (also comes bundled with Sports Champions) 09/17
Well, it was frequently joked that Sony would eventually copy the Wiimote, but lo and behold, here it is… except with a stupid ball on top. So, to buy enough to play 1-player games, you need to spend 170$ (Camera, 2 Move controllers since some games require that, the Navigation Controller (AKA Nunchuk)). Maybe more if you want to play with more than one person at a time. The little gameplay for this thing I’ve seen shows that there’s, depending on the game, up to half a second of delay from when you do something with the controller and it actually happening in the game. That’s pretty bad. I have no good expectations for this. Let’s wait until it’s more properly supported… maybe it won’t end up being as bad as I’m expecting, you never know. (NOTE: Dave, who tried the thing at E3, tells me that, if there’s delay in the input, it’s barely noticeable… or maybe it depends on the game, I wouldn’t know)
Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland 09/28
I quite like the Atelier series. Usually pretty fun RPGs, with fun alchemy systems and a good battle system. It has been a while since this was released in Japan, but we’re finally getting a taste of it… after Japan already got a sequel… YAY!
XBOX 360 RELEASES
Otomedius Excellent 09/07
Gradius with half-naked loli anime girls. Do I need to say more? Well, I can say that it’s a disc release, so it’s going to be way overpriced like all shmups that get disc releases.
Halo: Reach 09/14
It’s Halo.
WII RELEASES
Batman: The Brave and the Bold the Videogame 09/07
A side-scrolling Batman beat ‘em up. It seems  similar in gameplay style to The Adventures of Batman & Robin on SNES. Looks like it could be good. (There’s a DS version coming too, though my expectations for that one aren’t too high… but it does have DS/Wii connectivity which is a small plus)
NINTENDO DS RELEASES
Professor Layton and the Unwound Future 09/12
The Professor Layton series is a solid puzzle game series. I actually quite liked the first one I played (which was the second in the series). It had interesting gameplay elements and good puzzles. I have good expectations for this one as well.
Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City 09/21
The Etrian Odyssey series is pretty fun. It uses a very classic style first-person RPG gameplay, including the classic difficulty, but changes it around slightly with some JRPG elements, and an automatic map-making system.
SONY PSP RELEASES
Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep 09/07
A new Kingdom Hearts game, which, from what I recall, takes place before the events of the first game. The KH series is generally very high quality, even the DS game which wasn’t nearly as good as the PS2 titles, so I have high hopes for this.
Phantasy Star Portable 2 09/14
I have yet to play a Phantasy Star game that isn’t Phantasy Star Online(though I’m hoping to change that very soon). So I have no idea what to expect from this, nor do I know if I’ll end up playing it. We’ll see.