Ever since people started buying expensive tsotske’s with free games like GTA bundled with it, publishers have been putting out limited editions of their big games. From Stranglehold being bundled with Hard Boiled to Halo 3 bringing feline cranial protection to the masses, it’s a trend that continues unabated. Infinity Ward have just announced their Modern Warfare 2 Super Platinum Elite Exclusive bundle that comes complete with night vision goggles, an art book and some other items of a collectible nature.
Of course, MW2 is expected to be the big hit this year, but what of the other Special Editions coming out? How do they top IW’s offering?
Splinter Cell Conviction is a another highly anticipated game coming out later this year. Sam Fisher our erstwhile hero, goes to prison. Ubisoft have put together a fantastic package for this game.
For $89.99, you get:
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction game
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction game slick
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction 8-page instruction manual
A piece of white paper with the words “Tom Clancy’s” printed on one side
Tom Clancy’s Soap
Not to be outdone, EA and Harmonix’s big game this year is Beatles Rock Band. Now while the instrument bundle is priced higher than the equivalent Rock Band bundle, the special edition take this to a whole new level.
Rock Band Beatles: Too Soon Edition features:
Rock Band Beatles Game
Rock Band Beatles memorial photo of the late John Lennon
Rock Band Beatles urn with “filling.” (May contain traces of Genius. We can therefore guarantee no McCartney)
And lastly, Activision, these days the most altruistic of publishers, are releasing a new Tony Hawk game alongwith a unique skateboard controller.
The Ride package includes:
Tony Hawk Ride game
Tony Hawk Ride controller
A letter from Activision
A roll of bills to cover purchase, storage and disposal costs.
Controller1.com is not a news site, its a blog so rather than being your one stop shop for E3 news, we’ll just have some opinion. The show hasn’t opened yet but half the big publishers have already had conferences and briefings so I’m going to change my pants, recap my reactions to the news from MS, Activision, EA Ubisoft and others.
EA
Lego Rock Band and The Beatles Rock Band shows that EA and Harmonix can do the exact thing as Activision/ Neversoft- that is make a game once and then reskin 15 times. Brutal Legend was demoed and I still don’t know what the hell the game is about- apart from Jack Black being involved somehow. Is it a driving game? An action game? Saboteur from Pandemic has been on my radar for a while and hopefully its not just Mercenaries 2.5. Mass Effect 2 looks to have more awesome than an awesome star going supernova. Crysis 2 is coming and its on consoles as well. APB (from the makers of Crackdown) coming early in 2010 should be fun. I might need to get a gaming PC this year.
Dante’s Inferno seems to be another hellish God of War game but Bioware made a splash with the Old Republic trailer that made people who want Ewok porn care for Star Wars again.
Left 4 Dead 2!!! A Valve game where there’s been a yearly update. And it looks like it does everything Dead Rising didn’t do. I am looking forward to this in a way most Valve MP-focused games don’t ‘click’ for me.
Ubisoft
Red Steel 2 looks like Motion plus might actually be a worthwhile pickup for the Wii. But while Assassin’s Creed 2, if it fixes the flaws of the first game might be a great game, its Splinter Cell Conviction that looks to be THE Ubisoft game you buy at full price. The rest, you just wait for a few months to get it for a third of the launch price.
Activision
Wow, another Guitar Hero game. I could pass this year and just stick with Beatles Rock Band. Tony Hawk Ride, with its fancy controller, doesn’t appeal at all. But Modern Warfare 2 looks just as good as anything Infinity Ward have done to date. It will be a HUUUUGE game in 2009. Wolfenstein looks great, despite the fact the trailer tries to hide the fact its a WWII game.
Microsoft
Halo 3: ODST came and went which should be fun, but then Bungie and MS are doing Halo: Reach.
Buy ODST and you get a MP beta invite for Halo: Reach so things look interesting. Forza 3 for you hardcore racing fans will make the 360-owning revheads reaching for the tissues. Considering its likelihood to go up against GT5, it has better be impressive.
MS also showed off their new camera based controller. The thing is, it doesn’t use an actual controller. Natal looks to be goofy, Eyetoy-esque and fun for all the family. There needs to be more info. Peter Molyneux was there to talk about his new project with a boy called Milo. Its a virtual prisoner in a pit so the sadists should be satisfied. I’m still wondering why you would want to with Twitter and Facebook with your 360 but if it lets you do screenshots for sites like this, I’ll be interested. Alan Wake is coming early next year, and I continue to be intrigued but there’s Crackdown 2 from Ruffian games. Not only am I interested, but Cameron won’t be shutting the fuck up about this for the next year.
Oh and there’s a Metal Gear game on 360 featuring Raiden. To me, it sounds like a Ninja Gaiden style game but that’s just pure speculation.
And the show hasn’t even started yet.
Left 4 Dead left me non-plussed a few weeks ago when I last wrote about it. I have kept at it a little longer- still in the single player mode. I’m finding it a lot more fun than the Singple player of some other PC FPS’s I’ve played in my time. So much that I think the single player is a greatly overlooked part of the game. I’m not even sure I really want to play multiplayer all that much.
Years ago, my first taste of PC multiplayer was the coop mode Terrorist Hunt on Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield. I had skipped Quake, Unreal and BF 1942 for various reasons but I got heavily hooked on that MP game for months on end, playing at night on our work LAN. We played the games maps as well as custom maps and we never played adversarial modes. Why? Because my friend who mostly hosted hated playing against other people. This was before co-op was a major selling feature of most shooters. He probably would have loved left for dead. I don’t know I’ve not seen him in a while since he’s gone off games.
I’m currently on the last mission of the Airport level (or the third of four campaigns). Even though its the equivalent of playing BF1942 with bots, its still a highly agreeable single player game. But even though I love PC multiplayer shooters, well CoD at least, I don’t know if I will want to play much more multi of this. Something about Valve games that attracts the rather unforgiving hardcore. In SP, if you shoot your team mates by accident, you get a warning. In MP, if you shoot your teammates you get a smack on the head. One of the single best features of CoD WaW is the one-level zombie mode that is unlocked once you beat single player. I hope Treyarch can turn that success into something a little meatier in future iterations or even DLC.
Fallout 3 is one of those games that you know will just eat your time. I’ve been slack and am still only three hours in but I’ve only had time to play the game on weekends recently so my progress is slower than a Trabant on an economy run. I’m liking it far more than Oblivion. I made it 10 hours into oblivion before losing interest but I hate later had pangs of regret in selling it. Actually wait, I gave it to Clint and he wiped his ass on it, or something. Or he got a dirty disc error. Something like that. I like the setting but obviously in a game that can take 100+ hours, I’m only going to see a limited version of all the game has to offer. And that’s OK. I need an ending to games and if one isn’t in sight, boredom takes over, quality or no. Probably F3′s shooter presentation is what is making it more palatable to player over something set in another fantasy realm. F3 is SF which has always been more my cup of tea. Irish Breakfast, if I’m not mistaken. Mine’s strong with milk, no sugar.
Lastly I played a teensy bit of Rock Band ACDC. For various reasons, including a ridiculously cheap price tag (not RRP), I bought thsi rather than the full version. I am disappointed that you can’t use it to buy DLC, but it is weird for someone who’s played Guitar ero for so long to suddenly play exactly the same game with such a different look- despite it being exactly the same.
So, normally I wait until I’m done with a game before I right a review for the site. This means once the review goes up, I’m generally onto the next game. According a FAQ for Litle Big Planet, I’m about 3/4 of the way through the single player and I’ve been frustrated as hell by a specific level.
Frustrated is kind of being nice about it. It’s pissing me off. I reached a similar point in Super Mario Galaxy when I hit the mechano toy robot levels of that otherwise enjoyable game. Some people call this the shelf moment which is “the moment when you take the game out and put it back on the shelf, never to be touched again.” I felt that I had done all i was ever going to do in LBP, but something in me is saying, give it another go. I will probably do that sometime this week since I’d like to finish the game.
Next on the list is Left 4 Dead, which I’ve gotten on PC. I’m glad it cost me a whole lot less than the retail price since it’s pretty clear that it really isn’t my sort of game. I don’t know what it is about Valve multiplayer games that they never gel with me. I love the single player games like HL, HL2 and Portal, but Counter Strike, Team Fortress 2 and now this just don’t seem to be my game. I will play it for a few more sessions though since some games don’t always click with me the very first time I play.
Guitar Hero World Tour has been getting a bit of a play recently (It is the subject of our next and probably most awkward Focus Test). I’ve been mostly playing with others this last week. Yesterday, I played with some colleagues who’d never played the game before and they had a blast. We also went through some songs in the Rock Band AC DC play list. This was the only Rock Band title I was able to procure, alas too late for the Focus Test. It is very interesting to compare the two games sinc ethey basically do the exact same thing, but in a slightly different way.
And of course Call of Duty World at War has been getting a going over. I’ve been playing the Night of the Undead mode a few times this week and loving it to bits (Which is why Left 4 Dead leaving me a bit cold is surprising me). But I still can’t get online on the PC version so I’ve been playing some more CoD4 Team Deathmatch on PC. You know something? I so rarely did well on the PC servers before CoD WaW came out but In the few games I played since I came back, I’ve generally been in the top 3 of most games. Is it because the good players have migrated to WaW? We’ll see.
I’m starting to develop a pile of shame. I have more GHWT to master, and now the ACDC Rock Band (Which I assume allows me to sample the DLC for this game), Mirror’s Edge (PS3), Get some fun out of L4D, play more CoD WaW (360 and PC) and then find time for Prince of Persia, Fallout 3 and Banjo Kazooie.
Well our look back on the big hitters continues (part one can be found here)
THE BIG
SOUL CALIBUR IV (360, PS3)
This game hit in July at a time when there weren’t that many big games coming out. SCIV proved to be a decent hit despite having Star Wars characters muddying the waters for the hardcore.
SPORE (PC, MAC, DS)
Will Wright’s latest formed the basis of who-knows how many GDC keynotes over the last few years. It came and made a huge splash, and then the complaining began. Spore promised something unconventional, but delivered a compilation of other games.
LEGO BATMAN (everything. Colecovision coming 2009)
Lego Conquest of gaming continues. Its not linked to the Dark Knight, more based on the comics (but with some cues from the 80s/90′s Batman films. And its more or less identical on every platform. You liked Lego Indy, right? You liked Lego Star Wars, right? You like Lego, right? You like Batman, right? Then here’s a game you will like.
SAINT’S ROW 2
Despite smelling of xerox toner, this series has managed to carve a small niche of its own. It fixes some GTA flaws, adds its own and has its own slightly off tone to the proceedings that 13 year old boys love. They wanna play at gangstas, not soldiers.
FAR CRY 2
Another sandbox shooter. This time, its set in Africa and not as much fun as the original console Far Cry. We will focus test this title over Christmas so subscribe to the Focus Test through the links at the right of the page
DEAD SPACE (PS3, PC, 360)
EA’s new survival horror greatest hits game impressed those that played it. A sequel, while not ruled out might have to wait for these guys to finish the Dante’s Inferno game just announced.
FABLE II
Wow, they managed to outdo the original and also managed to deliver on a fair amount of the hype. The amount of complaining that usually arises after a hyped game hasn’t been as bad as say, Spore, but then maybe Molyneux’s learned his lesson. “My next game will be bigger than Jesus’ balls”
Oops, spoke too soon. REVIEW
ROCK BAND 2 and GUITAR HERO WORLD TOUR
I’m lumping these together for a simple reason. There are only really superficial differences between these games. RB is more fun off the bat if you just wanna play every song where GHWT makes you work for the cooler songs. GHWT has some extra pads on the drum kit and the song creator. The song creator is an absolute abomination to use with the controllers.
MIRROR’S EDGE (PS3, PS3)
Wow, this was meant to be the second coming before it came out to mixed reviews and stagnant sales. Clint loved this in the podcast and we will be posting a written review in the new year. The way EA talks about this game now in business circles does not bode well for the future of the series.
LITTLE BIG PLANET (PS3)
Remember when I said GTA IV was the most overrated game of the year? Well, meet number 2.
Little big planet is a fun platformer with a ton of replayability (if you want everything) and those
tools for making your own levels. However, to call it Game of the year is misleading as the make your own level is a toy. I played a few levels that had been posted online and was amused more than impressed. Is it youtube for gaming? Yes, in the same way You Tube is filled with Videoblogs from people whose emo angst you don’t give a fuck about. Is it worth buying a PS3 for? No. Is it worth getting if you already have a PS3? Hell yes. Its a cool platformer with some infuriating difficulty in later levels. REVIEW
GEARS OF WAR 2 (360)
Why lie? I loved this game. So do the guys who play this on Live. That is when the matchmaker service actually works. Horde mode is fantastic and a lot of fun and the single player managed to do enough new and different than the original (which I liked but not loved) REVIEW
RESISTANCE 2 (PS3)
Another on on my list to play when time is available. R2 features, by some accounts, excellent multiplayer, great coop and so-so single player. Its been outsold by our next contender, but if you only buy one alternative universe WWII shooter, don’t buy a used copy of Resistance: Fall of Man cos that’s shit, get Resistance 2.
CALL OF DUTY WORLD AT WAR (PC, PS3, 360, Wii, PS2, DS, PSP)
The haters expected to hate it. Most of those who’ve migrated from CoD4 are finding it like minded but different enough for it to be a draw. Back to WWII with M1 Garands, KAR98′s and Thommy guns. BLISS! Its a pity Activision couldn’t have actually supported CoD4 properly a bit longer with map packs and the like. I mean, it’s not like they don’t like money. REVIEW
WORLD OF WARCRAFT: WRATH OF THE LICH KING (PC)
Well, it makes money hand over fist. The WoW fans love it and are lapping it up. They’ve even made it easy for people who’ve never played WoW to step in (you know the type, gank fodder and people with jobs/ sex lives)
LEFT 4 DEAD (PC, 360)
Left for Dead is the Horde Mode in Gears 2 and the Nazi Zombie mode from CoD WaW and is a whole game based around it. The thing is, its full price and compared to orange box, which offered so much more, it hard to say this is a good value proposition. OB was great on console apart from TF2 which sucked ass since Valve don’t seem capable of coding an XBL game.
De Blob (Wii)
Hey I was writing this and thinking to myself “were there any decent Wii games from the second half of 2008?” Well, there’s De Blob. Paint the town red. Or green. Or Blue.
Animal Crossing: City Folk (Wii)
This game seems to be going down very will south of the Mason Dixon line. Who knew?
Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts (360)
Well, I was a HUGE fan of the originals back in the N64 days but yet I still haven’t picked this one up despite its cheapness. Why? I will, I promise. Building things- not my forte (see LBP) but the Banjo universe has always held a special charm.
Prince of Persia (PC, PS3, 360)
Well, there I was all set to ignore this title. I was fooled by PoP Warrior Within and Two Thrones. I even lowered my guard and bought Assassin’s creed (eventually). I was done with Ubisoft games for a bit. Then its come out and wowed everyone. So now I will play it. You should probably take a look as well. If this comes close to replicating the bliss I found in POP: Sands of Time, I will be happy.
Fallout 3. (360, PC, PS3)
I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while. I ‘d have played it by now if time had been available and Fable II hadn’t turned up first. Its a huge city full of choices and spoilers. Play this when you can.
AND THEN THERE’S…
Dazed and Confused:
Guitar Hero Aerosmith (everything bar the 3DO)
Yes I bought this and it was fun enough for what it was. Its the last guitar only Guitar Hero game to be released and I don’t mind this band’s catalogue but there’s not enough material to fill a full priced game with no DLC and no compatibility with the new GHWT games.
BROTHERS IN ARMS (360, PC, PS3)
Too late, Too dated and Too Meh. Its not because its a WWII game, its because its just not as much fun as the other WWII games.
FACEBREAKERS
EA’s Boxing game took a dive in the third quarter.
MERCENARIES 2
It has its it champions. A month or two earlier and it could have gained some traction
FRACTURE
Oh dear. A case where the central tenet of the game is destroyed by a Penny Arcade Comic
PS- some games not mentioned for ethical reasons. We don’t write about projects we’re involved with.
Jesus, it seemed like a good idea at the start.
oh wait, you think I forgot Too Human?
TOO HUMAN (360). Oh dear. What’s to be said that hasn’t already been said.
These days its trendy to describe your game as a platform. This conjures images of one large purchase that is the basis for more content arriving later. Its not meant to sound like they’re nickel and dimeing you, but really it is.
Rock Band was the first game to describe it self as a platform. The idea is you don’t need to have every Rock Band disc that comes out in order to have everything. If you bought Rock Band 1, you could import all (bar) 5 songs into Rock Band 2. They’d be stored on your hard drive. If you wanted to play a RB 1 song whilst you have the RB2 disc in the tray you can. There’s a $5 fee, ostensibly to cover the placate the rights holders of the music licensed for the first game, but it doesn’t matter, you can have all those songs. But at some stage you need to have both discs in your possession to do this (though yes, you can rent RB1 and import). You can’t just buy RB2 and DL songs that were in RB1 from the Rock Band store. You will likely have to do this for every iteration of RB that comes down the pipe.
Guitar Hero World Tour is late to the party on this whole platform thing. You cannot import DLC you bought for GHII or III into world tour so I’m guessing that’s reserved for World Tour 2.
Singstar on PS3 has a good way of dealing with this. On PS2, there are dozens of disc-based standalone track packs for Singstar. On PS3, there’s Singstore. You only have to have one singstar PS3 disc to use as a key and you can download new tracks all the time. I have Singstar PS3 vol 2 and have bought some Queen songs from the store- these play back fine in Singstar ABBA. I’m not sure if the ABBA tracks will make it onto Singstore but for most part you can buy any track that’s been released for any singstar game (in your territory, at least). There’s apparently a patch coming for non-backwards compatible PS3′s that will let you play PS2 Singstar Discs on a PS3. Yes, the Singstore is rather slow and clunky, but it works (eventually).
Burnout Paradise is a good example of a platform in a more traditional game. Criterion have made Paradise City and have been constantly adding new features via free (and soon, pay to play) patches. Its almost as if Paradise City is what you get if you want Burnout for the next few years. GTA IV is also going down this road with its DLC. You spend a lot of effort making a huge sprawling city, why make it obsolete within a year (a la Vice City), you can make DLC cheaper and quicker than a full game or expansion pack.
PC Gamers will tell you PC has been doing this for years. WoW is a good example of a platform in this context. But so is the Source Engine and Steam, home as it is to CS: Source, DoD: S, HL2 and its episodes, TF2, Left 4 Dead etc. Any popular games with moddability (Oblivion, Neverwinter Nights) have had their life extended for years thanks to all the new content that’s been made available.
Console gamers are seeing this with Little Big Planet. But you don’t hear too much about this being a platform- which means LBP2 is coming next year. Games such as CoD4 Modern Warfare have proven to be incredibly popular but for some reason, possibly related to money, Activision has chosen not to support the game as a platform, for which they could sell more map packs and expansions and gone straight to another standalone game in CoD WaW. Why? Well $5 or $10 map packs are nice. But a $50 or $60 game is nicer.
Little Big Planet is a 2D platformer with a level editor built in. We have recorded a focus test for this and the instant gratification factor in wanting to build a level is zero. You need to sit though tutorials before you can do anything which insta-fail.
Hoewver the singleplayer platforming is so delightful that its a lot of fun to play. Even though I loved All New Super Mario on DS (the last great new 2D platformer), it didn’t feel all that different to what had come previously. This feels boh new and familiar. I’ve heard complaints abut the jumping, but its fine, no worse than Braids and probably more forgiving than than XBLA game.
There is one thing about LBP. It can overload you with crap. You only have a few buttons (jump, grab and your menu- popit- buttons), but the amount of stuff you collect will get pretty daunting to manage. You need this stuff for making your own levels (or, as is more likely to be the case, just redoing someone else’s levels- oh look 1:1 again) but without the create a level- the SP is almost a collect-a-thon. Hey but its a good collect-a-thon.
I’ve been playing a bit of GHWT, mainly just guitars and occasionally busting out a hit on the drums. I’ve recently investigated what I would get if I picked up Rock Band 1 and 2 as well. All of the songs I like in GHWT are also in Rock Band 1 or 2 so that sucks. New songs unique to the RB 1 or 2 discs? Nothing I like much. The DLC is where there are a few choice morsels, particularly Still Alive from Portal. So I’ve decided to get the cheapest iteration of RB which is the AC/DC track pack and just use that (assuming I don’t also need a RB 1 or 2 disc).
The thing I love about DLC is that there might be songs I like, but aren’t the best for playing in these games. I got the Quantum of Solace song for GHWT the other day. I love the song but as GHWT fodder, its quite average. So the question must be asked. Why is Bohemian Rhapsody in Singstar but not in RB/GHWT?
10. For guitarists, trying to emulate some performance histrionics of popular guitarists (you know, real ones), be careful. AC/DC fans may want to emulate Angus Young’s duckwalk (or Chuck Berry’s duck walk if you think about it). This is dangerous, especially if you’re playing with a wired controller. If you get too carried away, you’ll end up pulling your PS2 or 360 of its shelf and onto the floor (let’s get our stories straight- it ‘fell,’ right?)
9. Drummers. What’s the difference between a drummer and a drum machine? You only have to punch in the notes once on a drum machine. A favourite trick of music videos and stadium concerts in the 80′s was to pour a little bit of water on a drum skin so that all these impressive droplets shoot up every time the drum is hit. Now think about this, Putting water on a GHWT Drum controller is not a bright idea.
8. Vocalists. Well to be honest, there’s no way to not look like a dick if you’ve drawn the short straw to handle the vocals. 9/10 Rock Band/ GHWT vocalists are too ashamed to actually perform properly (its the only bit of Rock Band/ GHWT that relies on talent rather than coordination. That’s why most singers look like they’d rather be somewhere else but someone had already called shotgun.
7. Smashing your instruments/ Setting them on fire. Now Jimi Hendrix famously set fire to a guitar at a concert and Pete Townsend accidentally but the neck of his axe through a low ceiling which led to the destruction of the instruments being a major set piece in some band’s shows. Now think about this. You’ve already paid good money for these toys and smashing them on the floor means its really hard play them. NOTE: Smashing your instruments may invalidate your warranty.
6. Trashing you hotel room, throwing the TV into the pool. Now you need the frickin telly in order to play the damn game. ‘Nuff said.
5. Tieing a scarf to your mike stand. You are not Steve Tyler and chances are you haven’t sired a child with a Playboy Playmate. Also, statistically speaking, your mouth is not big enough to pull this off.
4.Trying to get wild feedback through the guitar amp. Sorry to break it to you, you don’t have a guitar amp.
3. Say to your friends in poor attempt at a cockney accent, “Turn it up to 11.”
2. Telling people you don’t play covers. Although you can make your own tunes in GHWT, you can’t make good ones. If you could, you wouldn’t be trying to make songs in GHWT.
1. Busking in a crowded subway station. There tends not to be large screen TV’s and PS3 consoles available in train stations. When I see a busker in a street, I feel sorry for them and give them some coins. When I see guys playing guitar hero, I feel like giving them a smack on the head.
Care to add ways to look like a Dick playing Music games? Add a comment.
There’s also the following ways to look like a dick without playing Guitar Hero or Rock Band
1- playing Rock Revolution
2- going on about how if you want to play the game on hard, you might as well learn a real instrument.
3- Wanking on about how Konami created the genre with Guitar Freaks.
4- Owning Guitar Freaks
5- Mentioning Frets on Fire in the comments
For the past three months I’ve been trying to decide between getting Guitar Hero: World Tour and Rock Band. Both EA and Activision are making this a stupidly hard and frustrating progress.
I decided early on that I’ll get Rock Band. After all, Guitar Hero 3 sucked so it’s a no brainer.
But wait! After months and months and months Rock Band still isn’t on Australian shores and Rock Band 2 is on the way. This sucks. I’ll get Guitar Hero: World Tour.
But wait! Rock Band is the better moral choice, right?. The real creators of the game have gone onto their own thing, so it’s best to support the ‘real’ game, right? And Activision are treating the GH franchise like a hot step daughter, giving it to any developer with five bucks and a case of beer.
But wait! Rock Band is rumored to cost roughly equivalent to a house mortgage. I’m married, I’m not made of money! Guitar Hero: World Tour becomes the better choice again.
But Wait! Rock Band just signed a deal with the Beatles. The Beatles! How can you say no to The Beatles! Rock Band is the clear candidate.
But Wait! You can’t get just the Guitar + Game pack for Rock Band, and I don’t have room (or inclination) for a drum kit, so Guitar Hero: World Tour becomes the best choice again!
But Wait! Rock Band suddenly becomes a lot cheaper than we originally thought! Rock Band wins!
But Wait! People all over the world are complaining about the quality of the Rock Band instruments. Time to get Guitar Hero: World Tour!
But wait! The single player experience in Guitar Hero: World Tour isn’t as polished as Rock Band’s. I should get Rock Band.
But wait! One of my favourite songs is on Guitar Hero: World Tour. Maybe I should get….AAAAAGH MY HEAD IS CAVING IN, I CAN’T TAKE THE PRESSURE ANY MORE MAKE IT STOP
November is more than pale guys trying to grow handlebar moustaches, its also the month in which publishers decide to release their big games. This November is a corker. Let’s go through the biggies.
Gears of War 2
Gears of War is Xbox 360′s trump card this year. Fable II was great and Banjo looks to be of similar quality, but neither has that holy-fucking-shitness that Gears 2 has. I liked Gears 1 but wasn’t in-love with it the same way I loved Halo 3 and CoD games, but I’m still highly hyped to be playing Gears 2.
Will multi be better than the first game? maybe. Will the single player be better? Looks to be the case. Can we get more hyperbolic? 1000 times yes!
Resistance 2
You can tell who was an early adopter of PS3. They have two easy to spot traits. They are still eating noodles after they knock off from their second job and they say Resistance was the best game ever. I played it as a long as I could. While it was decent enough, it felt like a PS2 game. It played like one.
Resistance 2 is supposed to be the second coming. I will play it, but I’m not going to rush in to play it.
Quantum of Solace
Decent reviews. But not great reviews. This means this game goes in the post Christmas cheapie pile. I would like to play it at some stage, but not today.
Banjo Kazooie
I am a bit of fan of the original game and its sequel so I’m hanging out for this. I don’t really car about the building aspect, I just want a Rare game I can recognise as a game.
Little Big Planet
No next gen platformers for ages and t hen two come along at once. Will be picking this one apart when I get a chance. It was an October game until it good pushed back to November.
Mirror’s Edge
The demo is downloading as I type. Its such a busy season I don’t really know how I’m possibly going to play this before Christmas
Left For Dead
More cool games? Jesus.
Guitar Hero World Tour
Oh for fucks sake, I just got married and you’re trying to get me to leave my wife for
more games so cool my ass has gotten frostbite
Call of Duty World at War
YOU BASTARDS!!!! DAMN YOU, YOU BASTARDS!!!!!!
As you can see, I have some work ahead of me. I suggest you do what I do. Buy them all straight away at full price and watch half of them hit the bargain bins before you get a chance to unwrap them.
Oh, the pain. The pain, the pain.
I still haven’t finished Fable II let alone started on Fallout 3 or Rock Band.
Its probably for the best that December is actually quite bare and there’s really not much scheduled for January worth bothering about at this stage…
