Gaming Season

Those in the know, and some of those not in the know know that this is the time that any true gamer has been saving up for over the last 4 months.  Each Friday brings a new excuse to not leave the sofa.  With so much coming out, I thought I’d look at what interests me in the coming months until December… (Release dates are an estimate)

Please note the Darth Vader Sensor Bar Bust and Nintendo Controller Mints (I want them for the tin) will not feature even though they’re really cool :)

Blood Bowl – 18th September – PC

Jesta: I already have this, and It’s awesome.  Controls and League Layout could do with an overhaul.  Plenty of bugs too but these are being fixed with free content updates.  Latest being Morg’n'Thorg.  I would pick this up on the DS but I’d miss the updates, plus the PC version cost way too much for an electronic download.  Great game though!

Diablos: After recently looking at the old Blood Bowl board game this is looking pretty interesting for me, I will probably wait for the price to drop though since I am too busy to play it right now. Will it be the best violent sports game since the Mega Drive Speedball? Probably, although that one om the 360 was good, can’t remember its name now though…

Here’s the official trailer in case you are interested in seeing some cut scenes and a little gameplay footage.

Dead Rising 2 – 25th September – PS3

Jesta: Better than the first? I hope so.  Main character looks like a knob compared to the first guy. (He covered wars you know)  Has some form of Multi-player too.  According to the games creator “”We’re at a point in game history that you need to have some form of multi-player component in a game”.  It didn’t work out great for Resident Evil in my opinion. They swapped a camera for a bike.  Not sure how that’s gonna be used either.  No more “up-skirting” lady zombies though :)

Diablos: I think most people really enjoyed the first game, I certainly did and I loved the whole two days to survive and get stuff done in, was a good twist on the existing zombie games. I agree with Jesta on the main character seeming to be a prick, hopefully he will pull off the cool jock thing and end up being like Awesome from Chuck but my hopes are low. Potential multi-player sounds great, I actually enjoyed it in Resi but finding a good partner could be very tough.

New item’s look fun and setting is a great idea, official trailer is below if you have been in a cave for 3 months but it’s quite entertaining to watch :) With it coming out for Ps3 this time I am pretty sure I will be buying it.

Formula 1 2009 – 25th September – Wii

Jesta: Looks good, but will probably wait for a PS3 version.  If there is one.  Depends which website you look at.  Seems that it will be “Formula 1 2010″ released next year, alos on 360 and PC.  It’s based on the Ego Engine that brought the every good Race Driver GRID and very poor Colin McRae Dirt.  Could go either way but I’ve trusted Codemasters since buying games for my Commodore 64.

Diablos: Meh Forumla 1 games are not my bag. The graphics will likely be cool but they are not gonna be a patch on the Ps3 version, plus annoying steering wheel for super accurate corners? No thanks.

Fifa 10 – PS3 – 2nd October

Jesta: Again the demo impressed me greatly, same as last year.  I’ll buy Pro Evo, same as last year.  Rooney on the box makes it look like Fight Night at first glance.  Graphics are pretty, game play is great and the controls are really responsive.  Sadly I will also regress back to the late 90′s when ISS on the N64 was miles better than “Bash C” Fifa on the Megadrive.

Diablos: Demo seems cool but for me there is nothing new here, a bit shinier sure and I will enjoy playing some multi-player should I be round someone else house/machine but I won’t be laying out money for this one.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 – PS3 – 23rd October

Jesta: “AI has been improved thanks to Teamvision 2.0. Now midfielders and defenders will work together, getting rid of soft goals and returning PES 2010 to its simulation roots”  Say no more, and I won’t.

Diablos: Not played the demo yet but I usually prefer PES anyway, if Jesta’s gonna buy it will get my sports game fix of that version in multi-player though! Interesting graphic preview from the games below, click for bigger version.

DJ Hero – PS3 – 30th October

Jesta: Good idea.  There’s a big DJing community and I assume the Activision’s market research team found a gaming crossover.  Maybe that’s why vinyl’s are next to the games in my local HMV? I’d like to play it to see what it’s like, but for £110, I’d rather pick up some kind of Rock Band variant, or a DSi.

Diablos: I see Activision are still set on exploiting that Hero franchise? Nice. I don’t know if you all remember but this game is a re-hash of late 90′s arcade and PS1 (i think) game Beatmania. Beatmania came out in the wake of the Dance Dance Revolution (see what I did there?) and was actually pretty cool. Unfortunately it to boasted a stupid price tag for buying it in to play at home and while I have no doubt the game will be fun to play I would rather spend that £110 on a few of the other games on this list.

Football Manager 2010 – PC – 30th October

Jesta:2009 soaked up far too much of my time.  I really want to get this one but I just can’t.  Maybe after the January transfer window if I have the time to veg.  Way too many new features to list.  Shouting from the sideline seems like the outstanding one.  New pitch and game effects are nice.  Problem with this game is that it’s TOO good. :)

Diablos : Being only a casual football fan this doesn’t really appeal to me. I am sure it will be great but I don’t have time for playing something that eats that much away for such a little reward. Sorry FM fans!

Dragon Age: Origins – PC – 6th November

Jesta: Wanted this since E3.  Love it.  It’s Bioware so it’ll be great.  I played all the Baldur’s Gate games and I’ve been waiting for a new one for too long!  Again though, I won’t have the time to play it!  I will get it once I can devote the right about of time to it.

Diablos: This one is looking pretty epic to be honest. I love the idea of making a little bit more of a grown up RPG world, video’s have got some pretty strong violence/sex/gore but I pray that this is done with tact inside the game and we don’t have some offbeat LS Larry things going on. I trust Bioware to pull it off though, they are the rising stars of the videogame industry and this game will give them another feather in the hat in the lead up to Star Wars: The Old Republic.

If you’re interested the site also has Penny Arcade doing a little strip for it, very cool artwork and cool little character setup.

I put in the trailer below but check out the site for more because if you like RPGs and/or action games then I think this is one for you. Oh also this game has a war dog, yes War Dog. That’s two of my favourite words! Oh biggest downside is no multi-player but I think I can deal with that. Please be aware this video is for mature viewers only.

Left 4 Dead 2 – PC – 13th (or 17th) November

Jesta: Very much a case of “I’m getting it if you do”.  Time to dust off the Fatal1ty headset and get down to some proper GF:UK gaming.  Looking forward to chainsawing a zombie clown.  20 weapons, believe the last one had 9?  Will be interesting to see how these H2H weapons work.

Diablos: I really enjoyed L4D so I am going to be pushing for us ordering this game, H2H looks amazing and even though this feels more like an expansion than a sequel so far it’s gonne be worth the £20ish quid for the Steam verison.

Assassin’s Creed II – PS3 – 20th November

Jesta: Watched a couple of vids and they exceeded my expectations.  Lots of new little bits, looks to have improved on an already great game.

Diablos: To be fair to it, Assassin’s Creed was the best game on the PS3 when it came out, it had amazing graphics, fun combat system, the whole free running thing. It was just good. Clips of this one so far are making it look like loads of fun and the bullshot trailer is awesome (see below).

The thing I am really looking forward to though? Continuing the story. The stroy was what made AC so epic and I just loved how they could have release the game with a totally shallow story and everyone would have still loved it but they didn’t. They wove a fresh, intriguing story for people willing to follow it and finding out what happens next is a must for me.

Tony Hawk: Ride – PS3 – 20th November

Jesta: £100? At least Diablos probably can’t cheat at this one.  :D  I like the board, twisted ankles and cracked heads a plenty.  I’ve seen it in action on E3 and I’m not that impressed.  I liked Shaun White on the Balance Board and that’s good enough for me.

Diablos: Cheat? Just because I can “actually” manual I get labeled cheat? Anyway I have to say I am just getting board with TH games now (see what I did there? That’s 2 video game puns in 1 post!) and I don’t think adding an expensive controller is going to change that. Extreame sports games have had their day and while I respect the innovation movement here I can’t see me being able to afford this one in relation to the amount of fun it will bring in.

New Super Mario Bros – Wii – 27th November – Yay!

Jesta: Multi-player Mario, awesome.  Hope the competitiveness doesn’t detract from the game.  Throwing each other down holes isn’t ALWAYS going to be funny. :)  Looks like a good single player game too.  Penguin suit with snow balls? :)  Would be nice to have a Mario game that’s finally better than the SNES Super Mario World.

Diablos: Oh dear this one is going to make us argue, but in a good way. Best idea for a Wii game since Smash Brothers so I am really looking forward to it I just hope we don’t do too much throwing each other down pits and power up grabbing.

Biggest downside so far is that jump SFX is going to get annoying. Here’s a taster if you have not already seen gameplay footage.

So not bad.  12 in total over 3 months.  £550 worth.

Did I miss anything? Any comments?

Follow Jesta on Twitter @JestaThaRogue or Diablos @CraigLParker or updates for the blog @GuardianForce.