Videogames highlights - August 2009
Likewise the improbable perspective to witness the extinction of joypads, mice & keyboards in the forthcoming (and faraway too) future I talked about the past month, the other pointless and ballyhooed media hype going strong these days is the one about ubiquitous digital delivery, ie the idea that sooner or later physical supports will be outclassed or replaced by on-line downloads on consoles and PC, it doesn’t mind if users have to deal with 50 Gigabytes or a few Megabytes sized games. It’s a complete nonsense, as Stardock CEO correctly points out in an interview with Shacknews.
Electronic Arts
Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight is the new chapter of the well known real-time strategic games saga from EA. Developers promise a solid gameplay with many new things compared to the previous games including the graphic interface, the resources harvesting system and the base building mode. To be released in 2010 exclusively on PC Windows. Who dislikes always-on mandatory connections should know anyway that EA plans to force the user to stay connected if he wants to play both in multiplayer and single player modes.
The mid-August QuakeCon arrived and went away for a while now, bringing (among the other things) a good amount of screenshots and a video clip from id Software’s upcoming game. Rage is known for having a double nature of first person shooter and driving arcade, an hybrid built on the new, powerful id Tech 5 engine that was just showed in its full glory within the following contents. And if Rage wasn’t enough for Doom developer fans, co-founder John Carmack revealed that the company is currently planning to set up a third team to simultaneously work on three “triple-A” games.
It’s something difficult to believe to but Ultima Online, the original massive multiplayer role playing game appeared on the net in 1997, is still active after 12 years of fights, remarkable murders and isometric chats. And it continues to grow with the eighth expansion Stygian Abyss, available from September 8 in PC digital download with the new “Gargoyle” playable race, new foes, new areas to explore and “the largest dungeon ever”. And for the occasion of the game’s twelfth anniversary, EA is offering former players the chance to freely return to walk on the lands of Britannia until the sixteenth of October.
Square Enix
Final Fantasy XIII, the new episode of the endless RPG/action/jap saga from Square Enix, is awaited on PS3 and Xbox 360 within December 17 in motherland and 2010 in the rest of the world (screenshots 1-18). And for who has never enough of FF and the most bizarrely colored hairs, nay he or she would like to proudly show off the new shocking pink color of his two meters and 30 centimeters tall elf to a massive on-line world of players like himself, the Japanese company is already working on Final Fantasy XIV (screenshots 19-24). To be released in 2010 too, on PS3 and (read this) PC Windows.
Champions Online
Alternative superhero-themed MMORPG Champions Online (based on the RPG with the same name rather than on the cartoon adventures of the ordinary DC Comics muscle mountains) publicly opened its servers on the past September 1st. The game is searching for out of ordinary super heroes, maybe willing to pay a noticeable amount of money for out of ordinary subscriptions. Granted the servers would last enough time.
Muramasa: The Demon Blade
Well, I think it’s almost time for me to purchase a seventh generation console. Muramasa: The Demon Blade is already out in North America from the first days of September, and soon (in November) it will arrive in Europe too. The basic requirements to enjoy the new 2D action RPG from Vanillaware? A Nintendo Wii console and a Classic controller.
Serious Sam HD
Previously awaited for this summer, Serious Sam HD distribution is now scheduled for October on Xbox 360 and for a yet unknown date on PC. The remake of the first, serious Croteam shooter will use the new Serious Engine 3, will bring shovelfuls of gratuitous even though serious ultra-violence and will be aimed to a serious public loving the genre. Seriously loving the genre.
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty
While the game release should be still (relatively) far away, Activision Blizzard showed the single player campaign from StarCraft II. Which gains the subtitle Wings of Liberty to differentiate the base code from the two already anticipated expansions (essentially the campaigns of the other two races available in the game), a Marketplace for free or priced modifications and some kind of hybrid between the on-line mode and the LAN connectivity, being this last one available only after a proper “ping” to the Battle.net network home base. Stupid oddities of a multi-billionaire publisher…
Tales of Monkey Island - The Siege of Spinner Cay
Developer Telltale Games said that Tales of Monkey Island, the new episodic series featuring the everlasting pirate Guybrush Twinsendrop, is the most successful series made by the company so far. Such statements go on par with those from LucasArts on the old classics re-releases performance and clearly let predict a commercial success that’s more than welcome for the entire adventure games market. A success that should also continue with the second chapter of the game, released during August on PC and on the WiiWare platform afterward.
Tekken 6
Far from being just a “stupid” one-on-one beat’em up, Tekken 6 from Namco Bandai will give the player the opportunity to beat’em up in different game modes. And in (very) different suits that for female characters follow the general rule saying “the tighter, the better”.
Related posts
- Videogames highlights - August 2010
- Videogames highlights - September-December 2009
- Videogames highlights - July 2009
- Videogames highlights - June 2009
- Videogames highlights - May 2009
- Videogames highlights - April 2009
- Videogames highlights - March 2009
- Videogames highlights - February 2009
- Videogames highlights - January 2009
- Videogames highlights - October 2008 (part 2)
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