Missed me? Sorry about last week folks. E3, as usual, wreaks havoc on one’s schedule when you’re even remotely involved with it. Besides it’s not like you missed much anyways right? I’ll make you a deal, I’ll cover probably the only 2 noteworthy titles of last week here. That way, you’ll be all set. So then, shall we get started?
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
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (ECKM*)
Tuesday June 29, 2010
It’s funny. All those years ago Lego decided to try out their luck with the video game world by attaching itself to another franchise, like Star Wars. Fast forward to now and somehow Lego has attached itself to some serious heavyweights like Indiana Jones, Batman, and even Rock Band. Once again they’ve expanded their sphere of influence by piggy backing Harry Potter. Okay, that sounded a little kinky. Anyways, this pairing feels like a better fit compared to Batman or Indiana Jones. Whereas those 2 franchises have some draw with the younguns, Harry Potter’s main audience skews mainly towards the younger audience. The simple Lego gameplay, relatively unchanged here, is far better suited for them compared to the middling movie licensed games they had to put up with for the past 7 or so years. Fans of Harry Potter in general – young, old, or anywhere in between – will surely enjoy watching the key moments of book 1 through 4 with a dash of the signature Lego humor, so with LEGO Harry Potter, Traveler’s Tales seems like Lego finally finding their perfect counterpart other than Star Wars.
Singularity (Xbox 360, PS3)
Tuesday June 29, 2010
Sometimes I get the feeling that there’s a FPS component shop somewhere out there. The “Nazi’s are the bad guys” component sold like gangbusters back when Call of Duty was the premiere WWII shooter. “Bald space marine VS. aliens” component is still in fairly high demand although the new “Level based multiplayer” component seems to be the current fad. The guys who made Singularity though decided to peruse the aisle with the older component and must’ve picked up a bundle deal containing items like “Time manipulation” and “Russians are the bad guys.” Singularity’s defining mechanic involves a little device strapped around your arm, which is a combination time manipulating device and gravity gun. You can throw out a little bubble of slow time, which seems to act a lot like the Stasis ability from Dead Space wherein it can slow down enemies, but it also slows down projectiles like rockets. It can also instantly age enemies to death or repair broken machines by rewinding time around the machine. Basically it’s like a Swiss Army knife with way cooler stuff than a nail filer. The multiplayer is also fairly interesting. If you’ve seen the Beast Mode in the upcoming Gears of War 3, it’s basically that. One side has soldiers with their usual, boring, class-based weaponry while the other side are monsters and mutants from the single player mode played in third person instead. As for who copied off of whom, that’s up to the fanboys to decide. Where this shooter will end up in the pantheon of FPSes remains to be seen, but for what it’s worth, it looks pretty. The time mechanic could be interesting, and Gears of War 3 isn’t coming out for a while. I guess Singularity it is then.
Releases To Watch For This Last Week
Sin and Punishment: Star Successor (Wii)
Sunday June 27, 2010
Never underestimate the power of the minority. Case in point, Sin and Punishment. If you’ve never heard of it, there’s a good reason for that. The original N64 version was released almost 10 years ago and was never released stateside, but just about everyone who’s played it couldn’t shut up about. It was only 3 years ago when Nintendo finally decided to release Sin and Punishment on the Virtual Console. Given people’s general ignorance over the existence of Virtual Console, it undoubtedly didn’t sell all that well, and yet here we are with a sequel to a nearly decade old game that the general public have probably never even heard of. Sin and Punishment is really just an on-rails shooter, but it was so lovingly crafted with a startling, yet satisfying, difficulty curve that the people who played it simply fell head over heels for it. From the looks of the gameplay trailers, very little has changed, graphics not withstanding. Enemies still come at you in dizzying numbers while bullets come at you from just about every angle. You’re still on-rails shooting down all the enemies you could get your reticule on before they can get to you. All in all, it looks exactly like what the fans of this game have been asking for.
Transformers: War for Cybertron (Xbox 360, PS3)
Tuesday June 22, 2010
So Transformers doesn’t suck afterall. Transformers: War for Cybertron tells the story of the Transformers before they end up on Earth, and apparently, it looks a whole lot like a third person shooter... mashed with Twisted Metal. In robot form, the game plays out with the customary over the shoulder view, but when they transform into their vehicle mode, it plays out like Twisted Metal. The best part is that this can happen at any time in the game. Of course, the familiar cast of Transformers will undoubtedly be the big appeal of this game. Moreover, the game’s story is considered canon and will cover the early days of the big giant war between the Decepticons and the Autobots. The gameplay trailers I’ve seen makes it readily apparent that this could very well be the Transformers game that Transformer fans have long been waiting for. If you ask me, this is basically Karmic justice. After what Michael Bay did to the franchise, this is the universe’s attempt at reparations.
Coming This Week
Tuesday June 29, 2010
The Last Airbender: The Movie (Wii, DS)
Hmm. I wonder why it’s not called Avatar: The Last Airbender? You get to play as Aang, Zuko, and the Blue Spirit in this game based off the movie of the same name. It’ll probably be a Third Person Platformer complete with the special powers these guys possess in the story. One of these days, these video game licensed games is going to give us something mindblowing and completely out of left field. Also, one day I’ll be president and memorize the entirety of Pi.
N3: Ninety-Nine Nights II (Xbox 360)
You’d think that Koei has the “Beat up a million identical thugs” market cornered with their various Warriors franchises, and given the saturated status of that market it’s a wonder why anyone would want to add anymore entries into it. But enter Konami and their Ninety-Nine Nights series. At least in this sequel, there’s platforming and some puzzle solving. Now let’s see if that can make the rest of game any better.
Sniper: Ghost Warrior (Xbox 360)
So you get to play a sniper through out the whole game right? Apparently not. During some parts of the game, you play as a plain old soldier with the usual run and gun stuff. At least the sniper parts are a little bit different with a Metal Gear style Cammo Index and having to deal with your heart which, depending on your condition, could affect your shot. Sounds interesting enough especially with a slightly budget price of $40.
Trinity Universe (PS3)
What does Japan love beside their Anime style RPGs? Crossovers. Trinity Universe crosses the universes of Disgaea and Atelier complete with two storylines that seems to be attacking the main story from different sides. All that sounds cool if you can get over the whole Japanese aesthetic, which if history is to be believes none but a few of you can. I guess I know who this game is aimed at.
Combat Wings: The Great Battles of WWII (Wii)
Our lust for WWII seems insatiable. In Combat Wings: The Great Battles of WWII, you get to take on various missions from the war using one of the 20 type of aircrafts available. I suppose if you just can’t get enough dogfights here’s your fix until... whenever the next dogfighting game comes out.
PDC World Championship Darts 2010 (Wii)
Meet the Madden of Darts. Well okay it’s the only darts video game probably in existence, but hey, if you’re going to play a darts video game, you might as well play the best.
Vampire Legends: Power of Three (DS)
Damn vampire fad! Why can’t it be something I can get behind like hot bikini models, hot porn stars, or hot strippers? As one of three siblings with magical powers, you must find six magical amulets to defeat the forces of darkness and the vampire, Gorazul. Sigh.
XG Blast! (DS)
Box arts should at the very least tell you what to expect of the game. I dare you to look at the box art for this game and try to figure out how it conveys a shmup (an auto scrolling shooter).
Runaway: A Twist of Fate (DS)
I love me a good point and click adventure, and the Runaway series is very popular over in Europe. This would be the first time the series is being released in the US on something other than the PC. Here’s to hoping all that popularity translates over to us.
Ace Combat: Joint Assault (PSP)
I never did get the appeal of these jet plane combat games. Like every other Ace Combat games before it, you get access to 40 fully licensed aircrafts for the various missions where you get to blow up other jets taking place in real life locations. As the name implies, now you get to that with up to three of your friends in campaign mode or just the hell out of each other. Funny though. The second you stick in some lasers is the second I’m interested.
Hot Shots Tennis: Get a Grip (PSP)
The Hot Shots series did fairly well with golf. It tried its hand on Tennis way back in 2006 for the PS2, but the critics seem to have found it lacking compared to the golf series. Now it’s going to try again on the PSP. Will they be able to pull it off this time? Will it have the depth of customization that critics felt was lacking? Will Johnny get the girl of his dreams? Find out on the next episode of... wait where was I?
LTTP
- Naughty Bear (Xbox 360, PS3) 6/7/2010
- TNA Impact! Cross the Line (DS)
Not the most dazzling list of releases, but for once I’m actually slightly interested in a Lego title. How about you guys? Who’s up for some Dynasty Warriors action that isn’t Dynasty Warriors?
* = Every Console Known to Man
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