Welcome to the first edition of what we hope will be a monthly feature detailing the games that are coming out in the coming four weeks and what we think of them, if anything at all. While this feature article will eventually be contributed to by several of our editors every month, for now we leave the next couple of month’s upcoming releases in the capable hands of our resident Deadpool fanatic, Mike Fiume! I have no idea how to even begin pronouncing that. Fee-umm-ee? Fume?
Castle Crashers
X360 - August 27, 2008
This might be the most awaited XBLA game ever. I’ve been looking forward to this for so long I’ve almost lost interest! With a style all its own, The Behemoth is taking everything it made awesome in Alien Hominid and expanding on it. It has the same wacky feel, the same crazy old school game play, but now it has a huge helping of RPG character building.
With so many huge retail releases in the coming weeks (or months), this is actually a perfect time for an awesome XBLA game. It snuggles in perfectly into both my time and money budget, and is definitely a day one buy for me.
Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
Various - August 31, 2008
I cannot calculate how many hours I wasted in the first Mercenaries game blowing the shit out of everything around me. It takes the fun, crazy and absurd action of GTA, wraps in it a military themed wrapper and pushes it to extremes. GTA would be so much easier if you could call in bunker busting air strikes and level Liberty city…
However, as good as the first Mercenaries was, GTA IV has given me enough of this style game for a little while. I would be definitely picking up Mercenaries 2 day one if there wasn’t a certain other game coming out September 7th…
Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise
X360 - September 2, 2008
The first Viva Pinata was quite a gem. It was actually one of the first games I picked up for my 360. Sure this IP has been milked for all it’s worth in Merchandising, but the game it self is still quite good. There are not many new games like this out there, and its style really shines on the current Gen consoles. Hopefully the sequel will bring more awesome to the table.
But then I look at the release date. The only way they could have picked a worse date to release this game is if they chose Sept 7th. While Viva Pinata and Spore very different games, they are also somewhat similar. They both are very open ended games with huge time commitments. Why release it so close to a game that’s going to blow it out of the water? This is one I’ll have to wait until some time next year to pick up, it will be much cheaper and I’ll have much more time to play it.
Spore
PC - September 7, 2008
I honestly don’t think I need to say much about this game. I’m just so happy it’s finally coming out. This is going to destroy all my free time for weeks. My other games are going to feel neglected.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Various - September 16, 2008
This is a game that looks really cool, but it has a very large possibility of sucking. The premise is pretty interesting – Darth Vader’s secret apprentice has an insane amount of control over the force. Now go destroy everything and everyone you meet. But over the years I’ve just lost hope with LucasArts.
I’m defiantly excited for this game, but I’ll have to wait and watch the community’s reaction after its release before I decide if I’ll be picking it up. Besides, I’ll probably still be busy with Spore…
The Witcher: Enhanced Edition
PC - September 16, 2008
About fucking time! Even with all the warnings about this game being neutered on the North American release, I still picked it up and played for a couple hours. Shortly after, I heard of this much better sounding Enhanced Edition and promptly sold my copy to quietly wait for this release.
My wait started many months ago - its been long enough that with all these awesome releases coming out around the same time… I can wait to pick this one up.
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