The only game I purchased last month has not seen any play thanks to my upcoming trip to Seattle for the Penny Arcade Expo – coverage to appear on LoreHound.com and Gamer Grenade News. Game developers and publishers don’t care that I’ve only been able to unwrap Metroid: Other M, not actually play it. The evil geniuses have already begun ramping up for the holiday season, breaking the long streak that is one-game-a-month summers.
Unlike the busier holiday months, September is being flooded with a handful of top-notch choices that cover a variety of genres, plots and platforms. Gamers aren’t being offered Shooter A versus Shooter B or Exclusive C vs Exclusive D. We have far more difficult decisions to make. Do we (re-)visit the apocalypse, mow down zombies, build civilization as we know it from the ground up or stress our brains with some puzzles? Or go broke and play them all?
Hide your wallet. This is the beginning of its yearly beating.
Purchased:
Civilization V (September 21) – I’m a sucker for 4X games. Most of the time I buy them, love them, but only play them a handful of times. I don’t know why that is, but it’s just how it goes. Cartoons aside, Civilization Vimpressed me enough to warrant a hard look and almost guaranteed sale.
Darksiders (September 23) – I really wanted to play Darksiders when it was released to consoles at the beginning of the year, but I was simply too busy with other projects. When I heard Vigil Games and THQ announced a PC version, I swore I wouldn’t miss it a second time. Awesome plot and previous stellar reviews made the decision that much easier.
Dead Rising 2 (September 28) – What a sleeper hit Dead Rising was. Released four years and a month ago, it became my go to 360 game for the rest of the year. Pure, unadulterated mayhem that was almost as fun to watch as it to play. Blue Castle Games could screw it up, my $60 hopes it does not.
Front Mission: Evolved (September 28) – SquareEnix is heading back to the well with FM:E and it has me holding a cup at the top. I’ll grab this third-person mech game after a nice discount and once I’ve cleaned the streets of zombie filth.
Sorry:
R.U.S.E. (September 7) – RUSE’s use of deception as much as strategy is intriguing. Too bad it’s coming out on such a busy month, right behind Other M and so shortly after StarCraft II.
Two Worlds II (September 14) – SouthPeak Interactive showed some impressive stuff behind the curtain at PAX East for Two Worlds II. Unfortunately, the game was horribly unfinished at that point. It’s been six months since the demo but Reality Pump had tons of work to do – unfinished game mechanics and missing visuals, to name a few biggies. Based on past releases, I do not trust SouthPeak/TopWare to let Reality Pump have the time it needs to make the game worth it.
Final Fantasy XIV (September 30) – I disliked Final Fantasy XI and enough of the recent single-player RPGs to cause an uproar. An easy pass for me thanks to an already full MMOG plate. If interested, other folks at LoreHound will be covering Square Enix’s latest grindfest.
F.E.A.R.: The Stupidest Subtitle Ever was one of the few games that I really played while I was on my WoW binge. Between November 2004 and the launch of The Burning Crusade in early 2007, few PC games managed to be completed. F.E.A.R. mesmerized by coalescing a horror plot with a deep first-person shooter experience. The finished product terrorized my psyche as I dismembered drones in slow motion. Glorious.
F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin moved the franchise in a less psychological direction, packing in far more action and destruction. Possibly in response to going multiplatform (adding consoles) from the start of development. The design shift is unfortunate in my opinion, but it didn’t stop me from getting giddy over the announcement of F.3.A.R.. You can imagine how happy I was to be invited to a private screening session at E3 2010.
Everything we’ve seen about F.3.A.R. has highlighted the addition of co-operative play. The third installment will let gamers play as the super-powered Point Man or his brother, and former antagonist, Paxton Fettel. Point Man, by all accounts, is going to remain largely the same. He’ll equip himself with various weapons, blow the crap out of enemies with bullets, spikes and grenades, and, if in a pinch, slow time for an unfair advantage. Day 1 Studios is giving gamers the same activities for Point Man that were experienced in the past two games.
Paxton Fettel is going to be an entirely new experience. Not only will Paxton be somewhat untouchable, being basically out-of-body, he’ll be able to possess Point Man’s foes. Meat shields or extra fire power, Fettel delivers. On the offense, Fettel is imbued with telekinetic powers, enabling him to fling objects, including people, around the map at will. Or just hold them in place for Point Man to gun down, then cause the body to explode. Sounds awesome, right? I mean come on, he’s near untouchable, can do all sorts of damage in a variety of awesome ways, and even scout. Who wouldn’t want to play him?
But that begs the question, who would want to play Point Man? His act is old, tired, repeated twice over and he’s mortal. I’m very interested to see what Day 1 Studios has at WBIE’s booth at PAX Prime 2010. You can bet Alma’s baby that I’ll be inquiring as to how the studio plans to make both characters interesting to play.
Blizzard must have learned about product licensing from George Lucas. The company constantly produces spin-off material for all of its franchises. Much of it is pointless fluff, like Star Wars, but also like Star Wars, it has continued to expand its respected universe through alternative mediums.
StarCraft II: Heaven’s Devils is the latest novel in the StarCraft universe and, in this reader’s humble opinion, it is easily the best. Dietz crafts a believable coming-of-age type backstory to some of the franchise’s major Terran characters. The tale is wrapped in the StarCraft universe, yet the writer does not use the known universe as a crutch. The action, characters and political-military plot is good enough to stand on its own; the highwater mark for any licensed product.
Dietz doesn’t ease us into the combat scenarios. This is war, spikes and rockets do not wait for typical novel pacing. The skirmishes are unpredictable, fast, furious; they’re full of action, gore and strategic decisions. Furthermore, Dietz’s knack for military fiction is well-represented in the StarCraft universe. His descriptions reference familiar structures, units and abilities in order to bring fans closer to the combat. Even more entertaining is the writer’s ability to flesh out even minor aspects of the lore, such as the history of Firebats or Reaper suits. He goes into great detail describing the technology, why a character would use it, and even its advantages. The skill with which Dietz integrates the universe into his story is seamless.
I used to be a StarCraft junky. Red Alert introduced me and hooked me on the RTS genre, but StarCraft took it to another level. The title tied together my two favorite aspects of video games, strategy and story. StarCraft had an immense universe, unique races with twisted histories and a mysterious overseer that we know exists only from what has been left behind.
The sequel took an astounding 12 years to craft, but Blizzard expanded the universe throughout. Novels, comics and manga have all been licensed and lorded over by Blizzard. The pieces have covered everything from artifact hunting to the rise of Mengsk to the backstory of the canceled StarCraft: Ghost console game. Not missing the beat, Blizzard timed numerous StarCraft products to release around StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. I’m digesting each one and reviewing it for LoreHound.
Gerrold purposely made the opening busy. By leaving Team Blue out of the picture until the midst of the first chapter, Gerrold is able to touch upon the bigger issues — The politics of the program, how it’s ultimately run by Mengsk, some tough decisions. He makes sure that Ghost Academy isn’t just about the training, but also what the people stand for, and who and why they fight. Readers are shown the bigger picture, not just the day-to-day lives of Nova and her teammates (We got plenty of that in Volume 1 anyways).
I collect a lot of SWAG when I go to video game conventions. I’ll stand in line for a trinket, do a little dance (damn you, Ubisoft!), make an ass of myself or simply beg. I’m shameless. All in the name of collecting stuff I’ll probably never use, might display and will certainly never read.
Instead of letting many of these sought after items go to waste, I’ve decided to give them away. It’s not going to be as easy for you though. The problem for you is that I thought of this contest before I went to E3, which means I had plenty of time to execute it. Therefore, finding my glasses in the MMOG videos is quite difficult. You’re going to have to work for it.
Best of luck.
Above is the video that introduces the contest (click for further details). After the jump you’ll see all the applicable videos. They just so happen to be all my MMOG coverage as well. Read More »
Looks like it’ll be two months in a row that our wallets can reset easy. Sure, nearly a million people pre-ordered StarCraft II (and surely over a million claimed the title otherwise), but that doesn’t mean we don’t need a break from the game. I can’t be the only one dreaming of hydralisk swarms and combating the nightmarish results of “Not enough psi energy,” right? Right?!
Too bad if I am though, because there’s shockingly little to interest me in August. And nothing of any interest to me is coming till the back half of the month. It’d be blasphemous of me not to mention the sure-to-be-number-one-selling game of August. It is in the list…
Purchased:
Metroid: Other M (August 31) – It really doesn’t matter which development team makes Metroid. I love the franchise too much to ignore a release (minus the pinball game). Yoshio Sakamoto is overseeing the project, so any fears of Team Ninja messing it up have been frozen and then shattered by a rocket blast.
Likely:
Elemental: War of Magic (August 24) – I love Stardock. The company knows how to treat its supporters, which is important to me after hitting game-stopping bugs (that still haven’t been patched). Stardock has dominated the 4X turn-based strategy for some time thanks to Galactic Civilization, GalCiv2 and Sins of a Solar Empire. Elemental is going to continue that trend, adding an “extensive” single-player campaign, 32-player multiplayer and highly optimized code allowing it to be played on “a crappy netbook.”
Mafia II (August 24) – I didn’t play the original Mafia. That would normally mean I’d skip the sequel. But the game played very well during my PAX East demo. Yes, it’s safe to call it GTA: 1950.
Sorry:
Madden NFL 11 (August 10) – It doesn’t matter the sport, I simply don’t enjoy full-simulation sports titles. I’m one of those weird people that would much rather go play a sport rather than some digital representation of it. Doesn’t float my boat, but I understand the interest.
Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days (August 17) – I skipped the first one even though the character dynamic – an ex-mercenary and a psychopath – interested me. Nothing else drew me in. Rinse and repeat.
E3 2010 was a heck of a trip. I spent three days running from appointment to appointment. Any “free” time I had was spent making new appointments or randomly creating them. By the end of that 72-hour stretch I had recorded almost a full day of footage, gone through countless battery changes, mic checks and far to few hair styling sessions. Friday brought a painful back and dogs that wouldn’t stop barking. I needed a vacation, so I took one. A long, fifteen day excursion, largely cut off from all the trappings of a typical American getaway (ie no internet).
Well, I’m back from that much needed vacation! Refreshed and ready to get back in the writing/video producing saddle. To prove my point, I’ve included two exclusive videos for the viewers of this very blog. Above you’ll find a compilation of Hudson’s offerings, Bomberman Live: Battlefest and Bonk: Brink of Extinction, which will be released on the downloadable networks this fall.
Below the jump you’ll find an almost-abandoned interview for Sonic Colors (Wii/DS) with Dave Allen from Sega. It wasn’t his best day driving the game or even talking, but I feel bad wasting content, so there it is. In addition to the exclusives, I’ve embedded all of my (more-or-less) console specific coverage that Gamer Grenade News ended up running.
A special thanks to GGN’s Bifordus Maximus for all of the editing work. Hit the jump for the rest of the videos.
Since everyone here follows my twitter, you all should know that I am currently on vacation. Thanks to the awesomeness of automated publishing, this document, this one right here, has gone online without my intervention. Go, go automation. Be back on July 13.
July, a sweltering month across North America. One with millions of people surrounded around air conditioners, itching for something to do. There’s little TV, some crappy blockbuster movies and only a trickle of video games. Why the hell doesn’t anyone realize that so many of us fear the giant ball of fire that passes overhead? That we, the pale skinned denizens of this planet, long for something to do inside during those peak UV-laden hours? Seriously, my screen is giving me a sunburn.
I guess publishers are just scared of StarCraft II.
Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Sky (July 11) - I’m going to be on on the tail end of my vacation when DQ9 releases, otherwise I’d pick it up in a heartbeat. I’ve skipped the last few DS games I intended on purchasing because of time and an uncanny amount of unplayable portable entertainment. Considering the illustrious franchise, and the fact that DQ9 is the first Dragon Quest launched on a handheld, it’s going to be difficult for me to pass up.
Sorry:
Crackdown 2 (July 6) – Crackdown never took hold with me, absorbing only a few hours of my time. Sure, Crackdown 2 promises more campaign love, but the game is a multiplayer romp at heart. I already have plenty of those that I don’t play; Looking at you Bad Company 2.
Tournament of Legends (July 6) – High Voltage Software has done some amazing things with the Wii’s admittedly weak tech, and Tournament of Legends looks to be no different. But a 3D fighting game from a company that’s never done one…I’ll wait for first impressions.
A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of covering my first fighting game tournament of my professional journalist career. I’ve been to tournaments before, but they were all small and local. Everyone knew each other, knew each other’s play and each other’s shit talk. They were tight knit affairs that lasted only a few hours, or perhaps a night.
When VideoGameCentral asked me to cover East Coast Throwdown 2, I had my reservations. As I said, I played fighting games at a (barely) tournament level in the past, but I’d been out of the loop for some time. The last fighting game I took serious was Soul Calibur IV, an entire generation ago. I cautiously agreed to the task, packed up my stuff and headed to North Jersey for the tournament.
It turns out that my previous tournament experience, and extensive LAN training were all I needed. Players still knew everyone by name, they still knew each other’splay and still shit talked like they’ve played together for years, despite the tournament’s size and prestige. The only differences were a larger venue – a hotel ballroom – and a couple hundred players. Size matters.
Above is the intro video, hit this link to find the full coverage hosted by VideoGameCentral’s YouTube account.
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.
