April 2011: Financial Threshold Yellow

Oh, hell freaking yeah!

What’s the deal with Ovaltine April 19. We’ve got a literal handful of games coming out on that date, and many of them are top notch properties. The return of Mortal Kombat is tagged with three major sequels and an HD remake to one of last generation’s flagship trilogies. All coming on one freaking day. What the hell?

The rest of April is a barren wasteland in comparison. There is only a pair of titles worth mentioning outside that window. None of which are all that intriguing, to be honest. Nintendo’s terrible launch of the 3DS continues, with an anemic amount of software coming out across the whole month. A new platform with less than a dozen titles coming in its second month. Blasphemy.

You’ll notice I’ve added a new section to the list, Honorable Mentions. This area is for DLC, game-based novels and the like.

Purchased:

• Mortal Kombat (April 19) – Every interview I’ve done, every time I get my hands on the game, every facet of information has drawn me back to the Nether realm. I’m a believer. The Tournament Edition is proof of that. Can’t. Freaking. Wait.
• Portal 2 (April 19) – An expanded single player campaign and an all-new co-op feature of equal length in a sequel to one of the best-written and innovative games this side of 2000? Count me in.

Likely:

• Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell 3D (April 10) – Ubisoft had a surprise launch gem for the 3DS in Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars. While Splinter Cell 3D doesn’t promise to be as inventive, the platform is so poorly stocked that I’ll likely take the plunge. I never did get to play its base material, Chaos Theory.
• Conduit 2 (April 19) – I applaud what High Voltage Software and Sega is trying to do. The companies are both serving that small core gamer segment on the Wii with their products. The Conduit was a decent effort, but fell short in many areas. The poorly selected release day will have me delaying my support for the promising second entry.

Sorry:

• Prince of Persia Trilogy HD (April 19) – Well worth it for any player that missed this gem of a franchise. I already own all of them and completed two of them (grrr), so I’ll pass.
• SOCOM 4 (April 19) – The long-awaited sequel is finally here, but I’ve never been in to the franchise.
• Driver: San Francisco (April 30) – Taking the franchise to the sandbox action-driving hybrid genre sounds interesting, but it’s another franchise I have never been a part of. There’s a chance, depends on reviews.

Honorable Mentions:

• StarCraft: Devil’s Due (April 12) – I’ve never read anything Christie Golden has done outside of Blizzard’s universes, but what she’s done inside them has been fantastic. Her work in these universes just keeps getting stronger, more powerful and with a further-reaching impact on the mythoi with every installment. Look for a review in The Novel Post column for LoreHound.com.
• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow ‘Resurrection’ DLC (April ?) – Lords of Shadow was a dramatic overhaul of the venerable series. By and large, I enjoyed the game, even if it didn’t feel much like the Castelvania I grew up with. Konami is releasing actual honest-to-goodness content in the just-released (two days ago) and upcoming DLC packs. Reverie and Ressurection will be my first DLC purchases since Resident Evil 5’s packs.