Weekly Releases: Jan-15-2012

Mat Paget

Hello, everybody, it’s Monday, and this is the week of January 15. Thankfully, the titles are slowly starting to appear. And although this year doesn’t feel like it’s truly kicked off yet, I’m sure there’s something for everyone in this week’s releases.

The Games

Amy
Not-zombie survival-horror game Amy heads towards the PlayStation Network, and although it’s a week later than its Xbox Live Marketplace release, I’m sure it’s just as bad. If you still want to give it a chance, you can pick it up for the “fair” price of $9.99.

Dustforce

Janitorial action-platformer Dustforce sweeps on to Steam this Tuesday, and if you enjoy fighting against dust and disorder, this title might be right for you. Instead of your typical plumber-saves-princess platformer, the player must make their way through each level while cleaning things up in the process. Pick up a broom and join the Dustforce for the price of $9.99 on Steam. We will have a review for you sometime this week.

Gran Turismo 5 XL Edition

Was Gran Turismo 5 too small for you? Do you like your Gran Turismo a little baggy? Well then the PlayStation Store has something that will be perfect for you! Gran Turismo 5 XL Edition comes with the original title, all of the free updates and improvements, and a voucher for $20 worth of DLC. It sees a release on the PlayStation 3’s digital market for $39.99.

Order Up!

Order Up! makes its way on to the 3DS this week, and if I remember anything from the classic for the Wii, then this game is sure to prepare those for that dream job of working at Burger King. If food management is something that gets your heart pounding, you can Order Up! on the Nintendo 3DS for the budgeted price of $29.99

Other game releases:
Haunt for Xbox 360 Kinect

Gaia’s Moon for the Nintendo DSi and 3DS through DSiWare
Anne’s Doll Studio: Gothic Collection for the Nintendo DSi and 3DS through DSiWare
Stonekeep: Bones of the Ancestors for WiiWare

Fortune Summoners: Secret of the Elemental Stone for PC

The DLC

Saints Row: The Third – Genki Bowl VII

It’s just a few weeks before the Super Bowl, but who really cares when Genki Bowl VII is coming to town? Jump back into the crazy world of Saints Row: The Third and experience all the new insanity that Volition has in store for us. Tickets for the Genki Bowl VII go for 560 Microsoft Points or $6.99, but if you’re a Season Pass holder you get to witness the giant balls of yarn and crying pandas for FREE!

Gears of War 3 – Fenix Rising

Get back into the war with Gears of War 3‘s latest DLC map pack Fenix Rising. For 800 Microsoft Points (or free if you purchased the Season Pass) you’ll get five new maps, and four new skins. And if you happened to survive those sawed-off shotgun encounters, and have made it to level 100, you’ll be able to “Re-Up.” Re-Upping will send you back to Level 1 with an award, skin, and bragging rights. Sounds prestigious!

Star Wars: The Old Republic – Rise of the Rakghouls

If you’re still in the midst of Star Wars: The Old Republic, then you’ll be happy to know that the force is strong within Rise of the Rakghouls. You’ll also be happy to know that the update is free, and promises to bring new experiences including a Flashpoint, an Operation, some bug fixes, and more!

Other DLC releases:
Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012 – 2012 Weight Control

Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012 – Cool Down Pack 
Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012 – Cool Down + Weight Control Pack

The Demos

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
There’s only one demo announced for release this week, but it’s definitely a good one. If exclusive Mass Effect 3 in-game gear doesn’t sell you on trying this demo out, then the charactor creator, free exploration of a portion of the game’s world, and items for the full game will have to do. With talent such as Oblivion lead designer Ken Rolston, renowned Fantasy/Sci-fi author R.A. Salvatore, and Spawn-creator/artist Todd McFarlane, this game has to be good, right?

—

And those are the releases for the week of January 15. I hope all of you can find something to love this week, and I’ll see you in the next one.

[GOTY] The Big 5: Hella Exposed Edition

Nate Andrews

I typically have a disliking towards creating numbered lists. I have no problem with other people doing it, but for me I have trouble trying to explain why #3 is better than #4 and why #2 is better than #3 but not good enough to be #1. If I liked five games enough to put them on a list and call said list, “The Best 5 Games I Played This Year”, why should such a distinction be made?

Henceforth, I’ve chosen to merely gush about the following five games, since they were the five that really impressed me this year. Consider the following five to be equally loved by me, since all of these are really my #1.

Sounds heartwarming, doesn’t it? Almost poetic in a sense…

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Developer: Bethesda Softworks

Publisher: Bethesda Softworks

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC

Release Date: 11/11/11

I don’t believe there was any doubt in anyone’s mind that Skyrim would be a huge game, and yet we find ourselves amazed with the scope of the world and the breadth of the content within it. The sheer size of the province of Skyrim is made more enjoyable by your ability to explore it as you wish in any number of ways. Player choice is becoming fairly frequent in more games, but Bethesda combines that with the open world to create a remarkable and memorable experience. Will you sneak through that dungeon and loot everything without being seen? Or will you charge in like a barbarian wielding that sword you just acquired after raiding a Legion camp? Maybe you choose to avoid the dungeon altogether and climb a nearby mountain, hoping you find something awesome at the top. Perhaps you decide to follow that river off in the distance and see where it goes, which inevitably leads to an encounter with a dragon who was soaring over the trees.

The dungeons and caves in the game are astonishingly better and more exciting to plunder through than anything in Oblivion. Likewise, the combat system sees improvement in just about every aspect. Each hit feels menacing, and the new Fallout-like finishing moves add a new layer of satisfaction. Combine that with a nearly endless amount of side quests and other objectives you can take on and you get one of the greatest open-world RPGs in quite some time.

Bastion

Developer: Supergiant Games

Publisher: WB Games

Platforms: Xbox 360, PC

Release Date: July 20, 2011

Bastion was the first Xbox Live Arcade game that I got really excited about since Shadow Complex back in 2009. The game’s unique style of narration and art direction were the things that really grabbed me at first. It wasn’t until I actually played the game a few months before it came out at PAX East 2011 that I realized how deliciously fluid the combat is. The Kid can easily attack from a distance with a rifle, put in some meaty swings with a hammer up close, and then roll right around his foes to continue the assault. It feels skill-based, but not in a way that’s overwhelmingly difficult or too easy. There’s a perfect balance here that some games just don’t achieve. Some enemies are definitely more challenging than others, but the key to beating them often lies in how you combine your weapons and abilities to take advantage of their weaknesses. That there isn’t really a “correct” strategy for each and every foe is an enticing thought, since it encourages you to find which weapons you like best and to stick with them as long as you learn how to adapt to certain situations with what you have.

Bastion exists as a wonderful example of a great game that came to fruition without the need of a huge budget and a high price point. As their first game, Bastion makes me very excited to see what Supergiant Games has in store next. What a fantastic experience.

Gears Of War 3

Developer: Epic Games

Publisher: Microsoft Studios

Platforms: Xbox 360

Release Date: September 20, 2011

As a huge fan of the Gears Of War series since the beginning, the final game in the trilogy represented something both exciting, and slightly depressing. Being able to see these characters finally get some closure and to accomplish what they had set out to do was great, but at the same time I didn’t want it to end. I have no doubt that there will be more games in this franchise in the future, but I can’t help but feel a bit gloomy about closing the book on Marcus’s story, at least for now. As a whole, the story (and really the whole campaign) was an absolute blast to see through to the end.

Gears Of War 3 is the most accessible game in the franchise. The online competitive multiplayer is still a pretty rough place for beginners, but as someone who was never really good at curb stomping and chainsawing other humans in the previous games, I found it much more approachable thanks primarily to better weapon balancing. And for those who don’t roll with the competitive scene–or even those who do–there’s a pretty amazing upgraded Horde mode, and the new Beast mode that allows you to have just as much fun–or even more fun–with friends cooperatively online than in competitive multiplayer.

As a whole, Gears Of War 3 is the best game in the franchise. Practically every aspect of the game is simply better than their previous counterparts, and the sum of all of this is one of my favorite games of the year.

Battlefield 3

Developer: DICE

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC

Release Date: October 25, 2011

Before Battlefield 3‘s release, the thought of playing another modern military first-person shooter was a pretty exhausting one. They do have their moments, but I was struggling to find the “newness” that you feel with recently released games in these ones. Battlefield 3 seemed extremely promising, with large-scale multiplayer engagements across giant maps and intense vehicular combat to keep things unpredictable.

I realized that Battlefield 3 was probably going to be pretty great, but what I didn’t realize was that it would become one of the greatest games I had played all year, and one of my all-time favorite shooters. This is a pretty amazing feat considering that I was playing on a console and not the superior PC version of the game. Even with the smaller player cap, I was able to have an astounding time participating in huge, chaotic firefights. Not since Battlefield 2 did I get this feeling that there were many different ways I could help my team out. You can be a sniper who sits back and spots enemies from afar. You could charge headfirst into each firefight with an assault rifle, reviving fallen comrades along the way. Maybe you like to keep an eye out for vehicles so you can send a a missile into it. Perhaps you chose to support your team by setting up an LMG in a window and raining down suppressing fire on the other team. All of this is happening while dogfights and bombing runs, all done by other players, occur overhead.

It says a lot about the strength of the competitive multiplayer when I say that Battlefield 3 is one of the best games I played this year considering how weak the single player and co-op portions of the game are in comparison. The former feels uninspired and has your squad mates awkwardly referring to each other as “dawg” and describing an open street as “hella exposed”, and the latter is just plain dull. The competitive multiplayer, thankfully, is full of non-stop frantic action, and the persistent unlock system is sure to keep anyone going for quite some time.

L.A. Noire

Developer: Team Bondi

Publisher: Rockstar Games

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC

Release Date: May 17, 2011

Many people, including myself, simply had no idea what kind of game L.A. Noire was going to be. We all heard about the revolutionary facial technology driving the character interactions and representing what was probably going to be the game’s biggest feature. But what about the actual gameplay? I myself wasn’t entirely sure of how the game even played until it came out in May.

Surprisingly, I was immediately hooked when I saw how the player goes about solving each case in the game. The investigative process remains intriguing throughout, and the interrogation system is mind-blowing thanks to the game’s incredible facial animations. L.A. Noire also has an enthralling atmosphere, complete with a beautiful of 1940s Los Angeles with period appropriate music and attire. L.A. Noire is one of several very unique games that came out in 2011, and the engaging gameplay and spectacular atmosphere are the main reasons why it’s one of my favorite games.

—

2011 was another great year for games. It saw the release of some pretty amazing titles, some of which are sure to keep players occupied for literally hundreds of hours. Let’s hope that next year will be another one to remember. By the looks of things, it won’t disappoint.