28th September 2010 - Welcome back, young and old to our bumper 2nd part of the 42nd Week that was! This Week AAG is turning Japanese with plenty of news coming out of the Tokyo Games show. If you missed it, there was a swag of new videos at the very least gracing the tubes of the interweb and showcasing just what fine form the video game industry is currently in. TGS might be over for another year, but it is not forgotten; but first: The week in releases...
Releases for week starting 27th September:
Fifa Soccer 11 (PS3, 360)
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock (PS3, 360, Wii)
Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions (PS3, 360, Wii, DS)
Scooby-Doo and the Spooky Swamp (Wii, DS, PS2)
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (PS3, 360, DS, Wii)
FIFA Soccer 11 (PS3, 360, PC, Wii, DS, PSP, PS2)
Camp Rock: The Final Jam (DS)
Quantum Theory (PS3, 360)
From the Editor
There are of course plenty more games coming out this week, but in theory the above list is the cream of the crop, which may mean sadly some games go unnoticed. This week, on the back of TGS I had a really frustrating moment; one I was not happy about. As we round out the last ¼ of this year in games, I started to get a nagging feeling, that maybe, just maybe Sony had won. It came with the announcement that a HD remake of all 3 original Mortal Kombat games was shipping to the PS3 and included is a demo for the 9th game next year.(on the back of the Team Ico collection)
Now don't get me wrong, that in and of itself is not such a big deal, but it highlighted that this year, Sony has stepped up and got so many things right. It frustrates me that developers are making 3D games for the PS3 but not the XBOX based purely on the fact that Sony is monopolising 3D TVs, it frustrates me that Sony has the foresight to start releasing HD boxes of older titles God of War, Mortal Kombat and other games. It frustrates me that maybe, just maybe the Move is slightly better than Kinect and that MS has no inclination to make sure that Abes Oddessey is a system exclusive. Whatever happened to LIVE releasing older XBOX titles (in HD). I love my XBOX and the PC market is currently exploding with the likes of casual gaming, MMOs and Steam sales but no doubt when I dream about a Nintendo 3DS over the new Windows 7 phone, the competition is doing something right.
Ian Crane
MICROSOFT
Now it's not all doom and gloom for the green and white, as XBOX Live continues to produces the sales with a preferable online system that consistently out plays the PSNs confusing network of pay to play and Plus features (not to mention the lack of party chat)
Halo: Reach was back in the headlines beating Modern Warfare 2 as largest number of sales (gross revenue for day one sales). In TGS news the exclusive Dead Rising episode Case: West was revealed, where journo Frank West returns to help Chuck Greene clean up the zombie mess (expect photographing shenanigans). Deus Ex: Human Revolution cut sick with another epic trailer of gameplay footage and trailers, revealing for the first time an area that is not Hangshai; what appears to be at the end of the game a floating factory in the ocean at “The edge of the end of the world”.
In MS PC news, keep an eye on Minecraft from up and coming game designer bla, Minecraft is one mans effort to make his own sandbox open world MMO and it's still only in Beta!
Civilisation 5 also dropped to much acclaim as “the” definitive Civilisation turn based strategy game. For fans of Tim Schafer news also came of Alice: Madness returns, the follow up to the under-the-radar game 'Alice' in 2000 of Alice in Wonderland fame. The twisted tale of Wonderland became a cult classic with the sequel set to be even darker.
Kinect as always is still doing the round with the usual suite of casual sports and dance title. Dance Central was a big hit at TGS, although again the limelight was lightly stolen by the fact that the PS Move launched DURING TGS thus leaving Kinect to showcase everything we had already seen before.
SONY
For obvious reasons,it's fair to say that Sony are the fan favourites over in Tokyo, with the PS Move launching at the same time, there was a lot to celebrate and a lot to look forward to.
Final Fantasy XIV has now gone live both on the PS3 and PC, serving up a healthy dose of MMO goodness. The biggest surprise though, perhaps came from Capcom with news of a reboot to the much beloved Devil May Cry series! Fans, may be worried though with a younger brunette sickly looking punk rock Dante, a far cry from the healthy sarcastic magical version before.
Other big Sony news include rumours that a HD remake of Mortal Kombat I II and III is in the works to ship with a demo of the new game, and now speculations on Kratos making a cameo leaves the MS fanboys wondering just who would appear in the XBOX version....
The advantages for Sony continue with their Asian audience as many times games are released differently or extended with extra content to cater for the Japanese audience or language. Birth by Sleep for the PSP is getting a special remake for Japan, and the PSP unit is being re-worked into a special Monster Hunter edition custom built to handle the rigours of Monster Hunting and although it will play all other PSP games the controls and button placement have been tweaked to maximise the MH fun, in what is sure to be both a collectible PSP console and also a lot of fan service.
Finally the tech talk doesn't stop with 5% of Sony TVs sold this year being 3D ones and an apparent jump to 20% next year. I think folks, 3D is here to stay.
NINTENDO
Not to be outdone by Sony, the 3DS took centre stage with a swag of apparent 'hard-core' titles now announced for the 3DS system and all in obviously, 3D: Including Spintercell, Zelda and Saints Row. Dead or Alive Dimensions is also coming to the 3Ds with a rehash of all 4 previous games together in one big story. This will mark the first Dead or Alive game in 5 years and not on the XBOX or PS3. The satirical Batman: Brave and the Bold launched on the Wii, a refreshing change of pace hearkening back to the Adam West days of camp value and cheesy one liners (Google it!)
Anything to do with Epic Mickey was also on the agenda with a lively speech from Warren Spectre co-creator and visonary of Deus Ex fame. Spectre postulates as he always does that games need to segregate from mainstream media, pushing itself as a viable media toward a new end goal that looks different to either film, tv or literature. Unfortunately what Spectre was getting at was interactivity and immersion, not gameplay or story, which frankly still needs to be addressed in many 'modern' titles. Epic Mickey continues to intrigue so results look promising for a new series to take the Wii, in new directions.
The weeks other news:
- Cop an eye full of a six minute trailer for DC Universe, epic stuff!
- Back to the future is back from the future- Doc Brown confirmed
- Australian made Blade Kitten goes live
- Twisted Metal Heats up with returning characters
- PS Move Battle Rifle: Who needs 'hands'
- Red vs Blue Season 8 finishes up where it all began
And that folks is it, for another week! Keep your eye open for AAGs 3 part series on Deus Ex as we explore the mythos and conspiracy and if you think we missed something important, drop a line or speak out in the forums, until next time, thanks for reading!
Written by Ian Crane