This Week in Games: March 22 – 28
Looking at retail sales advertisements this week you would get the impression there is only one gaming being released this week: Pokemon Platinum. And while that will likely sell as much as every other game coming out this week combined, there are several other new releases, including a new Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles for the Wii and DS, a shovelware-looking Monsters & Aliens for the upcoming shovelware movie, and some random decent looking action games … Check out the list!
- Wanted: Weapons of Fate
- Stormrise
- Legends of Wrestlemania
- Wheelman
- Monsters vs. Aliens
- Wanted: Weapons of Fate
- Stormrise
- Legends of Wrestlemania
- Wheelman
- Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
- Monsters vs. Aliens
- Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time
- Monsters vs. Aliens
- Broken Sword: Shadows of the Templars (Director’s Cut)
- Ultimate Ninja 4: Naruto Shippuden
- Monsters vs. Aliens
- Tenchu: Shadow Assassins
- Pokemon Platinum
- Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time
- Monsters vs. Aliens
- Broken Sword: Shadows of the Templars (Director’s Cut)
- The Last Remnant
- BattleForge
- Wanted: Weapons of Fate
- Stormrise
- Wheelman
- Dark Sector
- Monsters vs. Aliens
- Hinterland: Orc Lords
As for last week … well, the handheld onslaught left many folks such as myself quite exhausted! The best games were also the most hyped – Resistance: Retribution for the PSP and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for the DS. Resistance: Retribution is fairly light on the story and repetitive at times, but has wonderful shooter gameplay for a PSP game. I was doubly impressed because I was left cold by the demo so my expectations were quite low.
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is interesting … I’m not a huge fan of the GTA series, although I did enjoy the PSP games. In fact, one reason I never did a ‘games of 2008’ list was because I would have led off with the line “With GTA 4 and Fallout 3 lead the voting for Game of the Year everywhere, is 2008 possibly the worst year ever for gaming?” That would have put me in direct opposition to GamerDad’s oft-professed love for GTA 4… and I still see it as a 7-8/10 game even after they patched the inexcusable bugs in the PC game. So I decided to leave it alone, but I’m glad that waste of $50 didn’t deter me from getting the DS game, which is loads of fun.
What I’m Currently Playing:
- PC: Drakensang: The Dark Eye – I finally got through the Moorbridge puzzles and on to the rest of the game. This is a wonderful game that I hope many of you are also enjoying.
- PC: Neverwinter Nights 2: Mysteries of Westgate – continuing my way through this excellent module, enjoying it quite a bit … hopefully the general public will get it soon!
- PSP: Resistance Retribution – very much enjoying this game – not perfect, but looks and plays very nicely!
- DS: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars – regularly failing missions isn’t fun … but when you know you’ll take a couple of tries, it is easier to accept … and that is how I play.
- iPhone: iDracula – after finishing ‘The Quest’ I am just absorbed with this – and the recent update makes it like a whole new game!
- Pocket PC: Call of Duty 2 – pulled my Dell Axim x51v out of ‘mothballs’ and am enjoying this classic game with the best graphics ever on a handheld PDA.
Enjoy gaming!
March 22nd, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is interesting … I’m not a huge fan of the GTA series, although I did enjoy the PSP games. In fact, one reason I never did a ‘games of 2008′ list was because I would have led off with the line “With GTA 4 and Fallout 3 lead the voting for Game of the Year everywhere, is 2008 possibly the worst year ever for gaming?” That would have put me in direct opposition to GamerDad’s oft-professed love for GTA 4…
Bah. My volunteers are always free to disagree – I just prefer that disagreement not be flippant or based on the assumption that everyone is reading exactly what you’re reading. For example, when did Fallout 3 become a bad game? I didn’t play much but all I heard was praise. I didn’t frequent any Fallout shrines or RPG grognard havens though. But when you toss a bon mot like that out there you make me lose my monocle and go “WHAAA?”
2008 was only a bad year – maybe – if you only play PC and handheld games, 😉
In fact, GameSpot called it “arguably the best year ever” which is absurd in the face of 2007, much less 1998, but hey, it’s GameSpot..
The standouts that I played were No More Heroes, Left 4 Dead, GTA 4, Call of Duty WaW, Wii Fit, Little Big Planet, Braid, Mario Kart, Battflied: Bad Company, Okami for Wii, Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero World Tour, Super Smash Bros Melee, God of War on PSP, Patapon. I personally think Left 4 Dead is the one that’ll prove most influential – if it weren’t for Wii Fit (just past Halo 3 in sales!)
But if you like Eastern European RPGs, maybe 2008 wasn’t so hot.
March 22nd, 2009 at 4:56 pm
ANYWAY, right now I’m REALLY enjoying Legacy of Ys: Books 1 and 2 on the DS. Good, simple, hack & slash fun, and you have to put on your classic gaming cap to play it.
I”m playing another game right now as well, but I can’t talk about it because it’s embargoed until the 24th. But I will say that it’s based on one of my favorite animations. –Cary
March 22nd, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Looking at your list, GamerDad, I can see it quite heavy on the FPS style front. As a non-fan of that genre (and the violence in GT4) the year in gaming isn’t as great.
However, Wii Fit, Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros Melee (is that still 2008)? are all great titles. Guitar Hero & Rock Band continued solidly. I probably would have liked Little Big Planet if I had ever played it…
I was quite interested in Fallout 3, but I think I’d end up in the camp that enjoys the “classic” style Fallout more than the “modern” one… Its on my list of games to play someday when it gets pretty cheap…
March 26th, 2009 at 5:33 am
See – that was exactly the reaction I expected.
I didn’t say that 2008 WAS a bad year, nor did I say GTA 4 or Fallout 3 were BAD games. What I certainly implied was that I was of the opinion that they were over-rated, and that *if* they were the best the year had to offer that it must have been a sad year. In fact I *don’t* think they were the best the year had to offer … not even close. As for the stuff *you* implied … as I said, that was the reaction I expected.
March 26th, 2009 at 10:32 am
You completely ignored most of what I said. I don’t want my writers IMPLYING anything. EVER. It’s sloppy for all the reasons it annoys me. And I didn’t imply anything above, it sounds like you read it right.
Question: If you knew it’d annoy the site owner, why’d you do it? Are you implying something?
March 27th, 2009 at 8:12 am
Sorry about the nonsequitor, but any idea when the “community” message board is coming back? Or, is this your subtle way of encouraging us to write more here instead?
Oh, and on the gaming front, with this week’s Wii update, it now supports SDHC memory cards of up to 32G, and permits downloaded games to be stored entirely on the SD(HC) card. For many of us, this helps reopen the gates for downloads, since the built-in memory + the old maximum 2G SD card had pretty much reached its limits.
March 29th, 2009 at 11:03 am
As much as I’d personally like to see the MB go away in favor of posting and having long useful discussions here — I understand it’s value to you and me. I haven’t been there for a long time, too much noise, I’ll be back there soon. But if you see a post on the front page and you have ANYTHING to say… please do.
The board had a glitch. It’s fixed now.