May 2010: Financial Threshold Red

From downpour to drought to downpour.  Publishers high and low are jumping on the tail end of the school season to push out a large collection of tempting titles.  Most genres are represented in the flowery month of May, but it’s clearly the month of racing.  Split/Second, ModNation Racers and Blur all vei for a starting line position of our respected platform of choice.

Clearly there’s something going on with May 18.  The peculiar day has no less than five notable games being released.  I’d wager that its attracting publishers through nefarious means.  Illicit profit-enhancing drugs, obviously.

Thank god R.U.S.E. was delayed, otherwise we’d have had to make a new color for the chart.

Purchased:

• Lost Planet 2 (May 18) – Players get to tackle giant bugs with big guns.  The heavily-armored, six-legged (or more) fiends can be dispatched through the normal bullet spamming methods.  Or various other, often more disgusting, ways.  Four player co-op and extensive pre-release demo playtime make it an easy purchase for me.
• Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (May 18) -  I’ve been hooked on the Prince of Persia series for a long time.  It was one of the first franchises I played when I first got into PC games, and Ubisoft’s reboot during last generation was pure gold.  I missed the most recent offering, but The Forgotten Sands is a new beginning.   I’ll jump backflip, climb up a wall and sashay down a pole right in.

Likely:

• Alan Wake (May 18) – Alan Wake gets pushed down to the ‘Likely’ rank because it picked a bad month to be released in.  Had Alan Wake come out in April, or possibly June, it’d be a no-brainer.  But I’m bogged down by two adventures on May 18th already.  I’ll likely pick up Alan’s adventure after the wake settles.
• Red Dead Redemption (May 18) – My preview session with Red Dead Redemption didn’t bowl me over, but it didn’t ruin the game for me either.  The busy month (and day) have relegated RDR to a wait-and-see purchase.
• Split/Second (May 18) – Exhibit A in this month’s vehicle blitz.  BlackRock Studios sets its game apart from the rest of the pack by being decidedly arcadey.  We get to blow up the stage itself as we speed past or even through our destruction.  Sounds like a fun LAN session.
• Blur (May 25) – The entry by Bizarre Creations sticks to the studio’s winning formula.  Speed, impeccable handling, real world cars and (inspired) locations.  Kudos, who could forget about Kudos.  Mix in some Mario Kart weaponry and a fresh take on campaigns in racing games and Blur gives Split/Second a run for its my money.

Sorry:

• Skate 3 (May 11) - Anyone interested in skating games would be remiss to pass on Skate 3.  The dedication Electronic Arts is giving to the game and its community is something to pay attention to.  Unfortunately, skating games do not interest me.