Videogames highlights - September-December 2009
Welcome to a new installment in the Videogames Highlights series. It is, considering the long period of time passed since the August one, a “remedial” post covering no less than the last four months of year 2009. These were intense months, from a video gaming standpoint, still the following contents collection is personal and variously assorted as usual. And seeing that there is so much to talk about I cut short with the intro and just report, after Stardock’s CEO opinion of the last time, the statements from UK accountable people for the three main gaming consoles (Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo) regarding the misleading theory according to which digital downloads should replace optical disks during the upcoming years.
Capcom
Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles was released in November worldwide and in mid-January in Japan. It seems however that the combination of zombies, old and new characters and locations wasn’t enough for the nth Capcom’s on-rails shooter to achieve acceptable sales results. To justify the poor performances of its game the publisher talked almost big, I would suggest to also evaluate the possible lack of quality of the title and the not-so-great appeal of a gameplay where the user just presses the trigger to go on.
What contrariwise doesn’t seem to have annoyed yet is the highly succeeded (and highly entertaining) Street Fighter IV, hence it isn’t a surprise at all that Capcom decided to exploit to the bone the historic beat’em up revival by making Super Street Fighter IV. The upgrade will offer 8 new characters (some of which taken from the previous games of the series), the “bonus stage” return with its destruction of cars, barrels and other things, a renewed and richer-than-ever multiplayer mode. The story repeats itself and SF IV threatens to have the same inglorious destiny of SF II with tens of alternative versions, remakes and updates that add very little to the base game and stinks of commercial operation kilometers away. To be released on April 2010 only for Xbox 360 and PS3.
Some things need to be seen to be believed, and as for me this Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars is exactly part of this category. The game is a one-on-one beat’em up in which two team of two elements fight each other, it’s part of Capcom’s Vs. series and confronts the characters from the gaming publisher’s squad with the ones taken from Tatsunoko Production animation studio. Where is the incredible thing? To see some of the animated heroes of your childhood (Hurricane Polymar above all) kick in Ryu’s, MegaMan’s and all the other’s face isn’t something you see everyday. Originally released in the Japanese arcades, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom is being released worldwide during these days. Exclusively for Nintendo Wii.
Electronic Arts
Published near the middle of January on all the main international markets, Army of Two: The 40th Day is the sequel to the co-operative shooter which tells the story (and the fights) of Elliot Salem and Tyson Rios, two American soldiers that eventually change into mercenaries but don’t change their mission to oppose terrorism in several parts of the world. In the new game they are protagonists as usual, the co-op is even richer and (contrariwise to the original one) region-free in multiplayer mode and this time the combat area is Shanghai. Blows all around, tactics and a bit of macabre humour (just see the following video featuring the customizable masks) in a fight to survive are available on Xbox 360, PS3 and PSP.
Worsening an already terrible reputation and the personal disapproval of who is writing, those Visceral Games/Electronic Arts smartasses decided to promote their Dante’s Inferno with a fake advertising of a “church simulator”. With its crucifix-remote, the benediction contests with holy water and genuflections, Mass: We Prey would even be a funny mockery if behind it there wasn’t the nth trailer of a God of War shameless clone which destroys the Italian literary tradition and pulls out some gaming garbage from it. For the genre’s lovers the game is being rolled out in the first days of February on Xbox 360, PSP and PS3.
Microsoft Game Studios
I’ve just realized that I’ve never talked about automotive games. Actually this isn’t exactly my favorite genre, but sometimes I spend some moments on the speedways as well above all if they are made up with so much details as in the case of Forza Motorsport 3. The new, massive iteration of Microsoft’s driving simulator, an Xbox platform exclusive since the beginning, was rolled out in October 2009 and was very favorably received by the public. Now, if only I could get excited about one of these things for more than 10 minutes and I found something interesting in them other than the realistic graphics and my ridiculous ways to go offtrack…
After the Halo Wars RTS digression, the renowned Bungie series returns to focus on the battlefield as seen by the eyes of an elite soldier in Halo: ODST. The game should have been a side project waiting for Halo: Reach, but developers came to enjoy it and ODST has eventually become a full-featured, stand alone shooter arrived on the market on the past September 22. Set in a ruined city after the Covenant invasion, ODST accompanies the deeds of one of the aforementioned elite soldiers known as Orbital Drop Shock Troopers while he’s searching for his comrades. There are no Master Chief super-human skills here but players have appreciated the same. Exclusively for Xbox 360.
Sega
I don’t know if Bayonetta will revolutionize the action genre as Hideki Kamiya would like, surely I can say that if we’re talking about over-the-top fights and game sets dynamism the new title from the creator of Devil May Cry is second to nothing. The problem is that everything is very confused on the screen, or at least it seemed so to me after having tried the demo on Xbox 360. Anyway Bayonetta has been released on October in Japan and on January worldwide for Xbox 360 and PS3. The latter version apparently came worse than the one for the Microsoft machine.
And talking about revolutions there is this Project Needlemouse too, ie another Sega attempt to bring back the venerable Sonic at the center of attention of modern gaming platforms owners. Announced during the past September as the answer of the Japanese developer to the long time fans never soothed desire for 2D speed, P.Needlemouse continues to be a complete mystery except for the fact that it will feature high-definition graphics and will be out in 2010.
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
It was predictable: together with the release of the film based on the video game, on May 2010 Ubisoft will publish the new chapter of the modern Prince of Persia saga on all the main platforms (PC, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, DS and PSP). According to the few details revealed on December, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands will resume The Sands of Time storyline (on which the homonymous film from Disney is based) confronting the acrobatic Persian hero and a horde of zombies threatening to destroy his brother’s reign. New sands powers, a renewed engine (the same as Assassin’s Creed II) and a new epic story will mark the return of the prince of sands and time. And maybe Jordan Mechner will be involved too and the fact couldn’t be more welcomed to me.
Quantum Theory
This Quantum Theory is an interesting project… Developer/publisher Tecmo describes the new third-person shooter (on the Gears of War genre, to be clear) as the attempt to catch the attention of the Western public (more interested in action) and at the same time the attention of the Japanese public (which would be more interested in story and characters). Syd and Filena, the two protagonists, must face the monstrous beings bred by the “Living Tower” that taints a destroyed world. The former is a soldier which likes heavy weapons, the latter is some sort of kunoichi that must survive at any cost or it will be game over in single as like as in multiplayer mode. To be released on PS3 and Xbox 360 during March (EDIT: or maybe not).
Shank
After the exploit of the wonderful Braid, I’m seriously starting to become excited by the indie gaming development scene. Realized by Canadian studio Klei Entertainment, Shank is exactly part of the aforementioned scene and it’s a strictly 2D horizontal scrolling action game, a bit like there were so many back in the days of 16 and 32 bits. A cartoon graphics that slightly softens the extreme violence with which the protagonist slices his enemies, giant bosses and many weapons complete the game’s formula. Available on PC, Xbox 360 and (maybe) PS3 on an unknown date.
Splatterhouse
Even Namco Bandai follows the trend of old classics remakes. Splatterhouse (one of my favorite games ever) is based on the original arcade game released in 1988, the story is more or less the same and always acts as the excuse to dismember the monstrous creatures assailing the protagonist in waves. What’s different is obviously the advanced technology and the 3D graphics, thanks to which it is now possible to render on screen a violence that wasn’t even conceivable 20 years ago. And if at that time Splatterhouse already set off controversy, I can very well imagine the reactionary hostility this remake will have to face. To be released during the third quarter of 2010 for Xbox 360 and PS3.
Tales of Monkey Island capitolo 5
And so even Tales of Monkey Island come to an end, with the release of the fifth chapter (”Rise of the Pirate God”) for PC at the beginning of the past December. And it surely must have been a remarkable finale, judging from the following screenshots and video clip. Anyway I will wait for the publishing of all the five episodes on DVD before playing the game, maybe I will be able to even enjoy an Italian translation then.
Torchlight
Ok, Blizzard is currently developing a sequel to the never too much praised (and played…) Diablo II. But the company of Blizzard original founders (Runic Games) designed, developed and marketed (on October as digital download and on January through retail channels) what has already been described as the best Diablo-inspired game in years. In Torchlight (PC) the player controls a character belonging to one of the three available classes (Destroyer, Alchemist and Vanquisher) and kills monsters after monsters in randomized dungeons, until he/she confronts the source of all the evilness affecting the fantasy world on the background.
A pleasant graphics even though able to run on aged hardware (the game is based on the OGRE open source engine and incredibly doesn’t need a GPU which supports programmable shaders), an almost-isometric perspective even if in 3D, a Diablo-alike game system and a strong vocation for modding are the traits of a game that ends up being a lot upward in my long list of games to install. It would be worth the effort just only to listen again to the magical music atmospheres that composer Matt Uelmen is able to create.
Tron: Evolution
The long awaited movie return of the “grandfather” of all the videogame-themed films couldn’t help but bring a new game for Xbox 360, PC and PS3. So on November 2010 the currently enigmatic videogame Tron: Evolution will be the forerunner of the film Tron Legacy that Disney will release just before Chrstmas. I’m already warming up the virtual engines of my Light Cycle…
Zombie Driver
Among the many ways in which it is possible to wipe out hordes of ravenous zombies, the one aboard a car equipped with any sort of weapons must surely be one the most funny. Zombie Driver developers must have thought so, and the result is exactly a game in which everything that needs to be done is to slaughter an endless amount of undead aboard a taxi or other four-wheeled vehicle by using machine guns, flame-throwers, lasers, rocket launchers and many more. Zombie Driver has been released on December 4, 2009 for Microsoft Windows, the download price is cheap ($ 9.95) and I’m already taking my credit card to purchase it. This February will be a bloody month…
Related posts
- Videogames highlights - June-December 2011 special (part 2)
- Videogames highlights - June-December 2011 special (part 1)
- Videogames highlights - September 2010
- Videogames highlights - February-May 2010
- Videogames highlights - June 2009
- Videogames highlights - April 2009
- Videogames highlights - March 2009
- Videogames highlights - February 2009
- Videogames highlights - January 2009
- Videogames highlights - December 2008
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Thanks for this post !
Always an excellent (p)review.
[ ]´s from a Brazil fan of this site !
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