This Week in Games: March 8 – 14
Wait a second here … after three weeks in a row, I’m beginning to think that the game industry is starting to ‘get it’ and spread their releases around the year more! Well, whether or not it is true (I still expect a fall deluge), this is yet another week of strong releases. The XBOX360 and PS3 get the hotly anticipated and highly controversial Resident Evil 5 while the PSP gets Mana Khemia: Student Alliance, the Wii gets MadWorld, and there is a decent list for every other platform. Well, except that there looks to be a massive amount of ‘shovelware’ for the Wii and DS. Check out the list!
- Resident Evil 5
- Trivial Pursuit
- SBK Superbike World Championship
- Resident Evil 5
- Trivial Pursuit
- SBK Superbike World Championship
- MadWorld
- MySims Party
- New Play Control! Pikmin
- New Play Control! Mario Power Tennis
- Trivial Pursuit
- Totally Spies: Totally Party
- Marble Saga Kororinpa
- Vacation Sports
- Trivial Pursuit
- Totally Spies: Totally Party
- Mana Khemia: Student Alliance
- SBK Superbike World Championship
- My Pet Shop
- Avalon Code
- My English Coach – Spanish Edition
- ZUBO
- World Championship Games: A Track & Field Event
- Docomodake BOING!
- Animal Planet: Emergency Vets
- MySims Party
- Jake Power Handyman
- Codename: Panzers
- World in Conflict: Complete Edition
- Eve Online
- Tom Clancy’s HAWX
- Men of War
As for last week … well, Halo Wars is apparently solid, but is just as apparently a extremely scaled back version of a RTS – so it is one of those games that earns the title ;good … for a console game’, which is nice but also means it is nothing of interest for grognards. Which is fine, since they got the massively excellent Empire: Total War for the PC, which is better in every way than Halo Wars, but the lack of the fanboy title will ultimately mean lower sales – and will send the wrong message to publishers. Oops … won’t start on that soap-box … the bottom line is this: Empire: Total War is excellent and any PC RTS fan should grab it NOW. Most other stuff was pretty unremarkable, such as the multiplatform Tom Clancy’s HAWX and Phantasy Star Portable for the PSP.
I have played loads of stuff, but the one I said I’d comment on was Puzzle Quest: Galactrix. I have it for both the DS and PC, and have been playing it quite a bit this week. It remains asolid ‘match 3’ puzzle system with an interesting sci-fi story attached, yet it lacks much of the fun of the original. It remains a good game and I don’t regret my purchases, but there is no chance of me buying more versions (as a reminder I own 8 versions of the original). My advice – try the demo.
What I’m Currently Playing:
- PC: Drakensang: The Dark Eye – absolutely loving this game – they have done loads of things right with this one, it deserves so much more attention than it will ever get in the US (and playing it just again highlights how out of whack the scores and coverage for stuff like Fallout 3 was.)
- PC: Neverwinter Nights 2: Mysteries of Westgate – I was very fortunate to get a pre-release copy to play from the wonderful Alan Miranda of Ossian and am thoroughly immersed. I played an hour and realized I hadn’t fought a battle yet – was solving mysteries and uncovering information and so on… great stuff!
- DS: Retro Game Challenge – one of those things I meant to play more, and am not plowing ahead full speed!
- DS: My DoItAll – I love PDA’s and electronic organizers, so was intrigued … sadly, this is complete junk that is poorly done.
- PSP: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII – still working on the replay.
Enjoy gaming!
March 8th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
I’ve finished Call of Duty World at War and am working hard on Street Fighter IV – Grand Theft Auto IV Lost and Damned is enthralling and I’ve discovered new unlife in Left 4 Dead due to the purchase of some surround sound headphones.
The family has added Mario Tennis (Wii controls) to our mix – or will be adding it this afternoon. Maggie’s still on Club Penguin, Henry still plays Mario Super Sluggers, Mario Kart, Mario Party, New Super Mario Bros, DS versions of some of the above, GBA versions of some of the above, and he only gets maybe 10 hours of screen time per week! I have truly procreated here folks. Apple – Tree – Not Far From
March 8th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
So what are the (Wii controlls) games? New releases, updates to old released games, or updates to downloadable games?
March 8th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
It’s a “Buy it Again” strategy, which, given the Wii’s graphics limitations AND how relatively unwell the GameCube did, they could probably recycle a lot more than Tennis and Pikmin. And I bet they will. They games haven’t really aged much and there’s a whole lot of new people to sell it to. Mario Golf, Mario DDR, Luigi’s Mansion, even the Konga experiments – that’s just a few more who could benefit.. Pikmin barely has new controls btw.
So, to better answer your question, you’re paying $29 for the same game you might find in the bargain bin for a lot less (in GC flavor). But you’re paying for the Wii controls.
I’d like new content but frankl Mario Tennis is such a must have for me I think it’s worth the price.
March 9th, 2009 at 4:40 am
Just picked up the Orange Box for PS3. I’m dividing my time between Half Life 2 in the OB and Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. Still throwing in a bit of LEGO Batman with the kids and I’m helping my 5-yo daughter learn how to drive in Burnout Paradise. (Can’t start them too early.) The rest of the family is engrossed in Animal Crossing: City Folk–especially my “non-gamer” wife, who seems to love the AC games for some reason.