Did I mention to anyone that I got my 4th RRoD on my Elite last Saturday? No? Well, at least I have a backup Pro to use for when this happens. Gotta love that MS quality....
Well, here's the list. It doesn't include any Live Arcade or PSN games as those are always so shrouded in mystery for release dates, etc. I do know that I'll be buying the Metalocalypse game regardless of reviews.
360:
Tiger Woods 10- Out Now. Haven't picked it up yet because I've been too busy with so many other games. EA moving the release up to June from September also contributed to this.
Madden NFL 10- purchased
Halo 3: ODST- purchased
Dirt 2- Out Now. Will get around to buying it
NBA 2K10- purchased
Need For Speed: Shift- purchased
Forza 3- 10/27
GTA: Episodes From Liberty City- 10/29
Modern Warfare 2- 11/10
Left 4 Dead 2- 11/17
Smackdown vs Raw 2010- 10/20
Assassin's Creed 2- 11/17
PS3:
Uncharted 2- purchased
Tekken 6- 10/27 (might get for 360 instead, still on the fence)
Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack In Time- 10/27
God of War Collection- 11/10
PS2:
Motorstorm: Arctic Edge- 10/22
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories- 11/3
That's right, no more Guitar Hero this and that. No DJ Hero. No Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. Nothing for my Wii. I just don't see those things happening. I would love to buy more games for my PS3 this fall, but it doesn't look like Gran Turismo 5 is going to make it out this century. Overall, a 14 game list for September through December is mostly attainable. I try to only buy 2-3 retail games a month with all of the games I buy on Live and PSN along with DLC, etc.
My current gameplan looks like this:
September: Halo 3:ODST
October: Uncharted 2, Madden 10, NBA 2K10, Need For Speed: Shift, GTA: Episodes From Liberty City
November: Modern Warfare 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Assassin's Creed 2, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
December: Forza 3, Tekken 6, God of War Collection
Christmas List: Tiger Woods 10, Dirt 2
January: Ratchet and Clank, Smackdown vs Raw 2010, Motorstorm: Arctic Edge
It's always good to let a couple titles slip to January as it's not like there will be anything worthy of purchase after November until around March.
Let me start this off by saying that I love being able to buy a game for $10-$30 (after expansions, etc.) and have a great experience. I currently own 100 XBOX Live Arcade titles and 15 Playstation Network titles. With games like Battlefield 1943, Wipeout HD Fury, Worms 2, Turtles In Time: Reshelled and Trials HD purchased this Summer I didn't have to go through the painful Summer drought that gaming normally goes through. Sure, there was nothing to buy at retail and I'm pretty sure the last games that I bought at retail were Infamous, Riddick: AoDA and Virtua Tennis 2009.
But then the glorious gods of DLC came and offered me 5 great games along with the usual map packs for Call Of Duty: WAW, Gears Of War 2 and Halo 3. A bit on map packs. Yes, you are paying $10-15 for something that should be either $5 or free. Yes, you are getting ripped off. Yes, some of them are worth it. Anything for Call Of Duty is always worth it for me. I love Nazi Zombies and they always dole out a new map for that with each pack. The maps in the COD map packs are always top notch and are great for freshening the games up. Gears Of War 2 and Halo 3? Sure, I buy the packs and I enjoy the games less and less the more I play them. I honestly don't know if I will even touch the multiplayer disc that comes with Halo 3: ODST.
Back to the games! You really cannot do any better this Summer than these games. Sure, Madden 10 just came out, but what else? Nothing worth playing. I'm not going to go into detailed reviews or opinions on these titles, but you owe it to yourself to check out each of them and believe the hype. Marvel vs Capcom 2 is another good one to get but I passed as all I need to do is turn on my Dreamcast if I want to play it, haha.
Shadow Complex releases on XBOX Live on Wednesday and has already received high honors in reviews. Everyone is calling it the second coming of Super Metroid and I absolutely adore every 2D Metroid game that exists. Heck, I even bought a GBA player for my Gamecube just so I could play the two Metroid games for GBA (Zero Mission and Fusion). I'll gladly fork over my $15 for it and enjoy another great DLC game.
September brings back the ridiculous flurry of retail releases leading into Christmas, but for now I'll just keep my hard drives spinning.
This blog is in response and mostly in agreement to Symphonycometh's "Get Over Yourself~Wii Edition" blog.
Well, there is much truth in a few of those things.
The Wii is definitely marketed at a casual crowd and they make up the majority of Wii ownership. There is a large Nintendo fanbase of "core" gamers that own the Wii and want more of the real Nintendo experience. The problem is that Nintendo isn't really interested in us.
As far as all the franchises being watered down, I have to agree with that. The gimmick of motion controls is not necessary for certain genres and actually detracts from the precision control that many gamers would prefer and could get from a more traditional controller scheme.
SSB Brawl....Considering that I play the game with Gamecube controllers, I may as well just be playing Melee. The game does look a bit better than Melee, but it screams "roster update" almost as badly as yearly sports releases.
The Wii is marketed as a toy! The target audience is small children and extremely casual gamers who have never been into owning the latest and greatest in gaming.
Proof that it is a toy:
*Wrist straps for the controllers so that Billy and Timmy don't throw them at the tv, out the window, at each other, etc. (I have never used the wrist straps and have not had one incident since launch day.)
*Rubber covers for the controllers so Susie and Alice don't give each other black eyes, bust their cat in the face, break the dog's neck, shatter the chandelier, etc. (Responsible adults do not use those rubber covers as they play with their surroundings in mind. One look at the things and all sorts of jokes can be made.)
*Gimmicky casual games and children's licensed games littering the shelves to the point where an uneducated consumer couldn't find a good game for the Wii if their life depended on it. Thankfully, most "core" gamers have an internet connection and this situation only applies to the casuals and kids who the horrible games are aimed at anyways. They buy the bad games and everyone is happy....except for the "core" gamers who then have to see even more garbage flood the shelves thanks to the good sales of the very games that should not exist and give the Wii its well deserved bad reputation.
*A million plastic peripherals that snap onto the Wii-mote and actually make the games they are designed forharder to play than if you just skip the plastic foolishness and play straight up with the Wii-mote and Nunchuk.
The Wii is obviously more powerful than the PS2. That is why it is so easy for developers to make a game for PS2 and then port it over to the Wii with motion controls slapped onto it. This has extended the life of the PS2 by several years past the point, hurt PS3 hardware sales in the process (why should your average person upgrade to a PS3 when they can still buy new games for their PS2?) and given devs the means to release watered down versions of games that are far superior on the 360 and PS3.
It's not just children playing the Wii, everyone has tried it! But then how many of those Wii consoles sit and collect dust after the novelty wears off? Too many according to the many people I personally know that haven't played their Wii in a very long time or play it once every 6 months when a game worthy of purchase comes along.
As far as the amount of kidz gamez for the Wii, it really iz scary and it'z like being in a toy store when I walk down the Wii aisle at Best Buy. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz.
The Wii has plenty of games that use motion controls properly. The problem is that devs feel the need to include them in nearly every game for the console to the point where they feel tacked on in some games. I don't own any kidz games or truly horrendous games, so most of the games I have for Wii use motion controls very well.
Is the Wii lineup full of shovelware? As certain as the sky is blue! Tons of casual games (some of them are good), tons of PS2 ports, tons of kidz gamez, tons of gimmick games that require any of 10 different plastic peripherals.
Well, I hit on every point and many of the so-called "myths" are very true. I also used the dreaded word "core" several times and I hate using that word as it waters down a hobby that I have been enjoying for 26 years. Being a gamer in the 80's and 90's was very hard from a social standpoint because games were viewed as a waste of time and as being for children back then. When the PS2 and XBOX came around my favorite hobby finally became mainstream and now after nearly a decade of gaming being a socially acceptable hobby it looks like Nintendo is trying to set the industry back 25 years.
What's next? R.O.B. 2?
