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  • 2012 Fall/ Winter Video Game Preview Part Deux

     

    • Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale- Oct 23 (PS3, Vita)

    There is no hard way to describe Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale. Have you seen, played or otherwise heard about Super Smash Bros.? It’s that….with Playstation characters. Don’t get me wrong, I am not faulting the game for it because I love Smash Bros. and I am definitely going to be getting this. Of course there are small differences in the gameplay but it is still a four player beat em up. Characters are slowly trickling out leading to the October release and include the likes of: Cole McGrath from Infamous, Jak and Daxter, Kratos and Sweet Tooth from Twisted Metal.

     

    • Assassin’s Creed 3- Oct. 30 (360,PS3, Wii U)

    Another year, another Assassin’s Creed game. I will admit I played 1 & 2 but after that I just lost interest in running around Italy and Europe caring about what Da Vinci is doing. Ubisoft was dangerously close to turning this into the Tony Hawk of action games. Then the reveal of Asassin’s Creed 3 came and it showed a switch in timeline to the American Revolution and I got excited. And for the better part of the year, every time they have shown new footage I have been more impressed. You will be running from snow tipped treetops and even commanding ship in cannon battles. Ubisoft has said that this game will also be the end to Desmond’s storyline.

     

    • Assassin’s Creed 3: Liberation- Oct. 30 (PS Vita)

    Finally! A big name game to play on my Vita! A man can only live on so many Minis and old PSP downloads. This side story to AC3 sees you take control of a female assassin in New Orleans and the surrounding swamp lands. It will take full use of all the Vita’s features like the gyroscope and front and rear touchpad. Whether those are used well remains to be seen but I am just glad to have a big title on the Vita. I do have to question Ubisoft releasing this the same day as AC3. It seems like it will just get lost in the big release of AC3 and other games.

     

    • Need For Speed: Most Wanted- Oct. 30 (360, PS3, PC, Vita)

    EA has finally done their long running Need For Speed franchise a massive favor by handing over the reigns to Criterion Games, the creators of my favorite racing franchise Burnout. A large open world environment welcomes gamers who will be racing around and evading cops. All info about racing times and takedows, etc. will be loaded automatically to servers and compared to friends in real time. The game is a beauty and seems to keep the spirit of Burnout alive, just in a different package.

     

    • WWE 13- Oct. 30 (360, PS3, Wii)

    THQ has fallen on about as hard a times as you can have without completely going out of business. But one bright spot is the resurgence of their WWE license last year. By going back and starting development over from scratch and using a vastly improved physics engine, WWE 12 enjoyed massive sales. Now that THQ has raised the bar it is now their task to try and surpass that and they are hoping to do that with the addition of the Attitude Era. The WWE Legends this year will be Attitude Era stars and allow you to play through storylines and shows set in the good old TV-14 days.

     

    • Halo 4 (360)

    Halo 4 is going to be a massive seller this fall. Of that there is no doubt. But even with the millions of guaranteed sold copies that will fly off the shelf this fall this game may be one of the biggest gamble ever for Microsoft. Bungie has left and gone their own way so it is up to 343 Studios to carry on the banner of Master Chief and they have to straddle a thin line of keeping faithful to the original Halo game while trying to blaze a new trail in the Master Chief saga. The first gameplay has looked very good and one can only hope the multiplayer can reach the heights of previous installments.

     

    • Call of Duty: Black Ops 2- Nov. 13 (360, PS3, PC)

    I am the first one to admit that I am not a big Call of Duty fan. I haven’t truly liked a COD game since the first Modern Warfare. I keep praying Activision doesn’t turn this into Tony Hawk but I understand you gotta keep striking while the fire is hot and the COD fire is still burning strong. I will say that I am decidedly intrigued about Black Ops 2. With it’s futuristic take on the franchise, to the script written by David Goyer and music done by Trent Reznor Treyarch is trying to hit the right notes to make me pick this up. And for the COD series, that may be a win.

     

    • Hitman: Absolution- Nov. 20 (360, PS3, PC)

    Eidos is becoming the king of bringing back dormant franchises. While about everyone has seen their footage of Tomb Raider, which is due next year, this fall they are bringing Agent 47 out of mothballs for some more garrote wiring fun. The gameplay is not ground breaking but it looks much smoother and forgiving that previous Hitman iterations. I hope this game turns out as good as it’s looking cause Agent 47 should have many more stories to tell.

     

    • Far Cry 3- Dec. 4 (360,PS3,PC)

    Far Cry is back and it is going back to the jungle. Leaving behind the African savanna for a setting like the first game will be a welcome addition because while I liked Far Cry 2’s openness I did not like the African setting. The thing that really has me excited is the four player co-op play with it’s own story and set of objectives. And one can assume getting mysterious powers during the game will be a guarantee.

     

    One omission is the Wii U. Since there is no release date confirmed I thought I would give the set games their time. We do know that New Super Mario Bros. Wii U should be a launch title as well as EA just announcing that Madden NFL 13, FIFA 13 and Mass Effect 3 would all be available for the Wii U at launch.

     

    This fall doesn’t look as strong as last year but there are still many quality games to be had including some new IP’s which is a nice breather from the sequels.

     

    Happy gaming everyone!!

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  • 2012 Fall/ Winter Video Game Preview Part 1

     

     

     

    • Borderlands 2- Sept. 18 (360, PS3, PC)

    Time for more cell-shaded, weapon upgrading madness on the planet of Pandora. New characters, weapons and equipment mods are just the beginning to this sequel of the best-selling shooter. Three new classes (Gunzerker, Ninja and Commando) will be introduced and every weapon will be brand new for the sequel. While the single player was fun in the first game the real insanity was in the two or four player co-op mode which one can only guess will be even crazier this go round. Not to mention the insane collector’s editions for the game.

     

    • Street Fighter: 25th Anniversary Collector’s Edition- Sept. 18 (360, PS3)

    Capcom is celebrating the 25th anniversary of Street Fighter with a $150 collection that includes: Street Fight X Tekken, Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition, Super Street Fighter 2 HD Remix, Street Fighter 3: Third Strike Online Edition, a Street Fighter Blu-Ray documentary, Street Fighter 2, 4 and Super Street Fighter 4 anime movies, every episode of the Street Fighter anime series, an 11 disc soundtrack set, 64-page hardcover book, replica Ryu belt and an eight inch Ryu statue. Tired of reading yet? Say what you will of all the collector’s editions these days it seems Capcom gets it with this release.

     

    • Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse- Sept. 25 (360, PS3)

    Maybe getting lost in how awesome the South Park game slated for next year is looking is the fact that the Griffins have a game coming out this fall. Whether it is written by manatees or not remains to be seen but we do know that the game is being written by the team that does the show and that Activision is not shying away from an M rating. A sequel to the season eight episode “Road to the Multiverse”, the game sees Stewie and Brian making their way through alternate realities as Stewie’s evil brother Bertram tries to kill them.

     

    • World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria- Sept. 25 (PC)

    Blizzard is unleashing the pandas on us!! Have you ever wanted to play as Po from Kung-Fu Panda in Azeroth? Well now’s your chance mofos! And you know Blizzard has to keep their gravy train rolling so you will be able to buy the game in three editions (standard, deluxe and collector’s). How much do you want to panda around?

     

    • Resident Evil 6- Oct. 2 (360,PS3)

    Set to have three branching storylines with three past Resident Evil characters, Resident Evil 6 is certainly the most ambitious of the series but I hope that it turns out better than the soul sucking that was Resident Evil 5. Chris Redfield, Sherry Birkin and Leon Kennedy take over main character duties with a large interconnecting story that will span the globe.

     

    • Dishonored- Oct. 9 (360, PS3, PC)

    Bethesda continues on their roll with this steampunk/stealth game that looks like Bioshock had a baby with Half-Life 2 in Victorian London. Completely in first person players take control of a former bodyguard who goes on a mission of revenge for being framed for a murder. Players also have the option to play the game without killing anyone ala Splinter Cell. But with the kill animations looking as sweet as they do that will not be an option for me.

     

    • Fable: The Journey- Oct. 9 (360)

    After absolutely loving Fable 2 and being more than disappointed with Fable 3 (and we won’t even get into Fable Heroes) it seems like the ambitious series started by Peter Molyneux was on shaky legs. Enter Fable: The Journey and their less than stellar showing at E3 over a year ago and that seems to have put everything on life support. Heck, Fable: The Journey is being touted as the reason Molyneux left Lionhead Studios….the studio he created. But the game is still barreling towards an October release date with all Kinect controls set in the land of Albion and one can only guess if it will be a Kinect revolution or Kinect Star Wars 2.

     

    • XCOM: Enemy Unknown- Oct. 9 (360, PS3, PC)

    Don’t worry fans of the original XCOM from the looks of gameplay videos the guys over at Firaxis are doing a good job of keeping the originals heavy strategy roots while also giving today’s gamer a bit more of a shooter vibe from this reinvention of the 1994 game. Squad mates have certain abilities like mind control and stealth ability to enhance the strategy battlefield experience.

     

    • 007 Legends- Oct. 16 (360, PS3, PC)

    Activision is back back in the 007 game after their solid remake of Goldeneye. This time they are taking on a variety of different Bond films which get their own expansive mission essentially linking all the movies together. To date the movies that have been announced are: Moonraker, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, License to Kill, Die Another Day and the newest Bond film Skyfall which will be released as free DLC when the movie launches in November. The game even has Richard Kiel and Michael Lonsdale back in their roles of Jaws and Hugo Drax respectively. As a huge Bond fanatic (beyond a fan) this is one of my most looked forward to games this fall.

     

    • Doom 3: BFG Edition- Oct. 16 (360, PS3, PC)

    Hard to believe it has been eight years since Doom 3 blazed onto the PC with some of the best graphics ever seen in a shooter. And actually when you go back and look at the original Xbox version it can still pass for a first gen 360 title. Not too shabby for a game almost a decade old. Now the classic shooter is getting an HD upgrade and being packaged as the BFG edition. Only 40 bucks will get you Doom 3, the Resurrection of Evil DLC, a new single player campaign called The Lost mission as well as the original Doom and Doom 2 with achievement points and trophy support. It just may be the best video game deal of the holiday season.

     

    • Medal of Honor: Warfighter- Oct. 23 (360, PS3, PC)

    In the battle to overtake Call of Duty, EA has put a lot of focus on their Battlefield franchise and even though their reboot of Medal of Honor sold well it seems like the original war shooter franchise is kind of the red headed step child of the house that Madden built. This year brings a sequel titled Medal of Honor: Warfighter which is based on actual missions written by real Tier One operatives. With all the early attention that Battlefield received way before it’s release last year, it seems the new Medal of Honor is almost here with no fanfare. The franchise may have to settle for second fiddle….or third.

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  • News: Wii U Boxart Revealed

    Amazon.ca has put up some box art for three Wii U titles on their site and it may be the first look we have had at what the game cases will look like for Nintendo’s next home console.

    It remains to be seen if these are just artist’s renderings for the site or the real deal but they certainly do have a certain Gamecube look to them where the Wii U logo appears.The cases will be a blue tint akin to the Xbox 360’s green cases. Only three titles have been shown: Assassin’s Creed 3, Just Dance 4 and Avengers: Battle for Earth and although nothing has been confirmed one would assume all three may be launch titles.

    Wii U is expected to launch in November.