The anemia has ended. Let the feast begin! Seriously, the last two weeks were incredibly lackluster, but that’s over now. The darkness has given way to dawn.
Remember. Release dates are quite literally made at the whims of the publisher. The following are subject to change without any warning.
Releases To Watch For This Week
Portal 2 (Xbox 360, PS3)
Tuesday April 19, 2011
Oh GLaDOS. How your programmed mania endeared us so. Who knew you could make an AI that’s out to kill you actually be funny? That along with the absolutely brilliant level design, a catchy as hell song, and the questionable existence of a certain dessert made the first Portal a roaring success. Naturally, Valve made a sequel.
Portal 2 takes you back into the labyrinths of Aperture Laboratories. Once again, you play as Aperture Science’s lab rat, Chell as she makes her way out of the laboratory. Along the way, you’ll meet up with a new computer AI that isn’t out to kill you, Wheatley. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on who you ask, GLaDOS survived your initial attempt to murder it back in Portal and will make a return in Portal 2.
As for what’s new in Portal 2, Chell gets new toys like spreadable gels that make you practically glide across the floor. Springboards can propel Chell all over the place. You’ll get plenty of other new gameplay elements, but the co-op mode will undoubtedly be the one that everyone’s talking about.
Co-op mode has you playing as one of two Aperture Science robots, whose adventure plays out separately from Chell’s adventure. Each robot has their own portal gun giving you 2 sets of portals to work with. Just thinking about the kind of puzzles that opens up makes me dizzy.
If Portal had any faults at all, you could point to the 3 or so hour game length of Portal. Valve has stated that the single player mode for Portal 2 will be about 2 and a half time longer than the original Portal while the co-op mode will be about 2 times longer. It sounds like Portal 2 will most certainly not have that same issue.
The fervent, almost fanatical following for Portal have elevated the Portal franchise to stratospheric levels in the minds of many, and Valve’s track record can be described as almost spotless, discounting delays that is. All signs seem to point to Portal 2’s inevitable success.
Honorable Mention
Conduit 2 (Wii)
Tuesday April 19, 2011
The Wii has first person shooters that aren’t ports of a 360 or PS3 game? Surprising isn’t it? High Voltage Software’s attempted to bring the hardcore FPS genre to the Wii with The Conduit back in 2009. Given the lack of any kind of a following for a hardcore FPS on the Wii, they failed. Somehow, that didn’t stop them from trying again.
Conduit 2 puts you back in the shoes of Michael Ford on his one-man mission to fight off aliens known as the Drudge. Unlike the first one, Conduit 2 will have Ford traveling to a number of locales like Siberia, China, and even Atlantis. He’ll also find some snazzier weapons compared to the first one like the Phase Rifle, which can let you see through walls as well as fire through it, or the AR-C Eclipse, which can turn you invisible.
Believe it or not, The Conduit had online multiplayer, and Conduit 2 will be continuing that tradition. From the looks of it though, it won’t have anything out of the ordinary. You can expect the usual complimentary of modes like Free-For-All, Team Deathmatch, and Team Objective. Each mode has several variations like and Oddball style mode, but don’t expect anything completely unique to Conduit 2. It even has a co-op mode, but don’t get your hopes up. Co-op mode has you playing Conduit 2’s take on Gears of War 2’s Horde mode.
The Conduit deserves a lot of credit for trying to take a popular genre on other platforms and make it viable on the Wii, and High Voltage Software managed to make a the controls work relatively well. Unfortunately, they did stumble quite a bit in the execution, and by and large, gamers just didn’t want to give it a fair shake. Conduit 2 looks to be High Voltage Software trying to redeem itself. Let’s see if they succeed.
Who knew athlete's foot can be this awesome?
Mortal Kombat (Xbox 360, PS3)
Tuesday April 19, 2011
Some Franchises just can’t die, it seems. Oddly enough, I’m not even talking about Sonic. If the developers had to put a number by it, this would be Mortal Kombat number god-knows-what. NetherRealm Studios has decided that this fighting series may have veered too far from its roots causing the series’ general decline in popularity, which is why they’ve decided to reboot the series.
Unlike the previous couple of Mortal Kombats, this Mortal Kombat plays out on a 2D plane. No more sidestepping shenanigans for these fighters. Don’t worry, they’re not going back to the days of digitized actors or anything, even if that would be kind of awesome. Everything will be rendered in 3D, but everyone in the game will be doing their darnest to pretend that they can’t sidestep Sub-Zero’s ice balls.
Speaking of Sub-Zero, the character list remains unconfirmed, but you can count on the classics like Sub-Zero, Johny Cage, Cyrax, Sonya Blade, Kitana, Raiden, and the various palette changed versions among others. The PS3 version exclusively gets Kratos as a playable character. With all of his appearances on fighting games, it kind of makes you wonder when he’ll show up in Street Fighter or Tekken or something doesn’t it.
In keeping with the times, Mortal Kombat has an online versus mode. In addition to just plain ol’ 1-on-1, you can join with 3 other players for a tag-team, 2-on-2 battle mode. Mortal Kombat even has an online co-op arcade mode, whatever the hell that means.
Mortal Kombat didn’t exactly get famous for being a deep fighter. It got famous for the shock value of ripping digitized actors heads off and various other gruesome deaths, which by the way is still very prominently present in this version. Chances are, that’s not going to be enough to draw people in, 2D or not. Nevertheless, the series has never looked better. I guess we’ll have to see if people are still craving for more Fatalities
Prince of Persia Trilogy HD (PS3)
Tuesday April 19, 2011
You like Uncharted right? How about Assassin’s Creed? Guess the game that inspired them.
Prince of Persia may have started life as a balls hard 2D puzzle platformer on the PC, but Prince of Persia: Sands of Time propelled the series to genre defining status. Instead of the 2D platforming of its predecessors, Sands of Time puts the prince in a 3D environment wherein he must use every acrobatic, Parkour skills up his sleeve to overcome the myriads of obstacles the crumbling environment has created. It could’ve been a recipe for frustration though, given some of the tricky timing, but Sands of Time gives the prince the ability to rewind up to about 10 or 15 seconds to undo whatever mistake you may have made giving you just enough room to experiment or take chances with your jumps.
The next two installments after that may not have been as revolutionary, but don’t discount them just because they couldn’t get out of their older brother’s shadow. The Sands of Time formula makes for a very fun experience and lifted the two sequels out of mediocrity.
Just for the hell of it, Sony also added 3-D support because they desperately need to sell their 3-D TVs. Get it! This compilation, I mean.
SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy SEALs (PS3)
Tuesday April 19, 2011
After almost 6 years, the original 3rd person shooter, SOCOM finally has the guts to attach a number to its title once again. Helmed once again by Zipper Interactive, arguably the developers who made SOCOM good, SOCOM has you taking control of an elite, five-man squad as they try to take down a revolutionary army in South East Asia. Interestingly enough, these guys aren’t Navy SEALs. They work for NATO, and I’m guessing SOCOM 4: NATO just doesn’t have the same panache.
SOCOM’s popularity came about from being a great tactical multiplayer shooter. As such, SOCOM 4’s online multiplayer will be the real draw for this game. The modes themselves don’t really stand out from other multiplayer shooters though. Modes like team deathmatch, CTF, and territory control can be found in even the most basic multiplayer modes in other games. At least SOCOM 4 will support up to 32 players, and because we live in a post-Call of Duty: Modern Warfare era, you get to level up your character by playing and doing well. Quite possibly antithetical to the SOCOM way of multiplayer shootery, you have regenerating health, can take cover, and can respawn back into the game. Zipper understands your fears and adds Classic Mode, which takes away all of that.
SOCOM 4 also supports both the Playstation Move and 3-D TVs, in case you were dying to play this game on your 3-D TV with your Sharp Shooter accessory.
SOCOM’s has a pretty niche audience in the grand scheme of things. Although this iteration seems to have incorporated a lot of modern features like regenerating health, I’m not sure if that’s enough to get the attention of gamers who knows of SOCOM’s take-it-or-leave-it reputation. You either love it, or you don’t. Ah hell, just give it a shot anyways. What have you got to lose?
Coming This Week
Tuesday April 19, 2011
XBLA Triple Pack (Xbox 360)
What’s that you say? You don’t have your 360 connected to the Internet, but you want to get Limbo, which is only available on Xbox Live Arcade? Worry no more young man... or woman! Microsoft has seen fit to put Limbo along with ‘Splosion Man and Trial HD onto a retail disc exactly for this kind of situation. How considerate of them.
Gem Quest: 4 Elements (DS)
You know what draws a person to play puzzle games? I don’t know, but I can tell you one thing that won’t draw them in. The backstory. In Gem Quest, the 4 elements are in chaos. Play a bunch of gem matching puzzle to set everything straight once again. Maybe the generic story supposedly matches the generic gem matching gameplay because I have no idea how the game works at all.
Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection (PSP)
Under normal circumstances, this PSP port of the highly influential, Japanese RPG Final Fantasy 4 would go up there alongside Portal 2, but given how this is the 5th time in 10 years that the game has been ported, it gets rather difficult to recommend it yet again. In its defense, the graphics and music have been redone, but not with 3D polygons or anything. The art remains sprite based. This port also includes the Final Fantasy 4 sequels like The After Years and The Interlude. I suppose this collection has some merits after all.
Late to the Party
- Remington Super Slam Hunting Alaska (Wii) 4/19/2011
How’s that for a jam packed week. You have enough games up here to last you through the supposed dry months of summer. Like all the other sheep out there, I’ll be playing Portal 2. I’m guessing you will too.
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