June 2010: Financial Threshold Green

Thank heavens for June.  After an absolutely packed March, a short layover in April, followed by a bursting-at-the-seems May, my ability to stay up with releases is shot.  I’ve completed many of my purchases, only to see a handful of titles remain unfinished, unopened or un-purchased (gasp!).  June offers only a single title that I really want, Prince of Persia, so I should have plenty of time to finish the reboot and Super Mario Galaxy 2, which came late in May.  June gets bumped up to a yellow rating because the slow month contains a variety of titles that I’d be happy to pick up later, or at a discounted rate.

Purchased:

• Prince of Persia (June 1) – I’ve been tasked with reviewing the PC version of the reboot to the Prince of Persia series.  Yes, I know that the purchase will make me a hypocrite, but it’s a paycheck!  I absolutely loved Sands of Time and the earlier PoPs.  Skipping the reboot would have been very hard for me, glad I can justify loosening my morals now.

Likely:

• All Points Bulletin (June 29) – I’ve been following APB for quite some time.  Most recently doing  coverage for the MMOG on LoreHound.com.  Realtime Worlds is attempting to implement some unique ideas, including being heavily dependent on user-created content and developing an interesting PvP mechanic for a fresh universe.  The outside-the-box subscription model is perhaps the most intriguing aspect.
• Darksiders (June 24) - Darksiders is currently on my list of “Regret Missing Games.”  I hope to rectify that shortly after E3 2010.  Here’s to hoping THQ packs in some bonus material, ports the game correctly and keeps it at the attractive $39.99 price.

Sorry:

• Alpha Protocol (June 1) – Obsidian’s “Espionage RPG” (as if we gamers are too dumb to figure that out without the byline) has me mildly interested.  How could I possibly ignore a game based on the amalgamation of Jack Bauer, James Bond and Jason Bourne?  Mild interest doesn’t mean a purchase.
• Mega Man Zero Collection (June 8 ) – This is an easy buy for me, once I have time to play the four Mega Man Zero games it includes.  Or I see a price drop to $19.99. The included perks and tweaks are just gravy, since I haven’t played anything in the series in the first place.
• Transformers: War for Cybertron (June 22) - I love Transformers, but the games have been notoriously bad for the most part.  It looks like Activision is attempting to make a good game, but I’ll wait and see.