Post-Mortem

So, made it through another holiday season. All the great games that were promised for X-mas, as you already know, failed to be delivered. Delays, delays, delays. So where the heck did they all go? January...nope, Februauuruurary...nope, March...oooh ohhh... Rainbow Six Vegas 2 ("more of the same" sequal...sigh). WTF! So we have gotten Mass Effect and Super Mario Galaxy? That's it!?!?

The game industry has let me down once again. And at this point all the delayed games from last year are looking at being artificially pushed back to the Fall so they sell more units (lame arsed trick they have used for years).

I'm going to go cry until GTA IV, Fallout 3, or something worth my $60 comes out. /weep

Release Delays

Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction [PS3]

ZOMG!!!!1 Looks like RaCF: ToD's release date has been moved back to October 23rd. Check out the Shack article.

Release Delays

I've decided that I should attempt to keep up with release delays, as daunting of a task as it may be. So, here is the first installment of what I'm sure will be many Release Delays (working title).

Get ready to pull your hair out if you were not already aware of these delays. This is making the Fall release season look pretty gloomy. I hope the gaming industry didn't plan on moving many units this holiday season.

Playstation Home [PS3] - At the 2007 Tokyo Game Show Sony announced that Home is being delayed until Spring of 2008

Super Smash Bros Brawl [Wii] - Delayed to February 10, 2008

GTA4 [PS3, 360] - Delayed to April 2008. There are reports circulating that Take-Two got in way over their heads with the game complexity for the PS3 platform. Additionally, it would seem that due to contractual obligations with Sony they must delay the 360 version (whatever, PS controllers have always been better).

Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction [PS3] - Delayed? or just adjusted? This was moved back a week to October 30 2007. I want to kill whomever posted the wrong date or decided to delay a week. In either case, I don't think Orange Box and Heavenly Sword are going to carry through until the 30th.

Folklore - October 9

Folklore - [PS3]

This action-adventure RPG looks phenomenal. Previews for the game seem to all agree that it's beautiful and immersive environments are without rival. However, I have not seen much talk about the game play. Kinda makes you wonder if the game is all show and no go. The premise kind of reminds me of Sierra Online action-adventure RPGs of yore and nostalgia can score big points in a wasteland of crappy games.

http://us.playstation.com/folklore/

Crysis - November 16

Crysis - [PC]

Crytek has developed an even more powerful (and power hungry) engine CryENGINE 2 and what would be a new engine without a new ground breaking game to go with it. Looking at some of the early estimated and "official" system requirements, Crysis is going to be a beast to play. Even if the game blows at least it gives me a good reason to upgrade...again.

http://www.crytek.com/games.html

The Orange Box - October 10

The Orange Box - [PC]

Half Life 2, HL2 Episode One, HL2 Episode 2, Team Fortress 2, and Portal in one box. If you haven't seen the mass of media around this compilation you should have your gamer membership card revoked, shredded, burned, and crammed someplace uncomfortable. Whether or not you already have HL2 and Episode One, the long awaited and greatly anticipated Episode 2, TF2, and Portal games make this a must have.

http://orange.half-life2.com/

Halo 3 Review

Graphics: Meh
Story: Good-ish
Ending(s): Meh
Game Play: Great

Yep, it's another Halo. So, I guess they decided that 15 hours of campaign game play was too much for one game. That must be why they split Halo 2 in half and made Halo 2 and 3 6 to 7 hours each with butt tons of cut scenes that progress an ill conceived sequel plot (sounds a lot like the Matrix "trilogy"...hmmm). Sigh. I will give it this... it's fun. Not quite fun enough to compensate for all of its shortcomings, but fun. All too often I see game makers create a great game (e.g. Halo) and take such a broad departure from what made it great that the original game is rolling in it's video game store "gently used" bargain bin grave. But for Halo 3 they did something very odd... they revisited many locales and levels similar to Halo. Only problem with them trying to recapture the greatness of Halo is that they merely gave the "oh yeah I remember this" excitement which quickly faded to "so... any NEW content you wanna dazzle me with."

Ok, ok. I know "..but the online play is rawesome homeslice!" If you say so. Frankly the lobby system still blows. The maps lend themselves to camping and slow paced play. And who doesn't enjoy getting dumped when the punk kid hosting doesn't like getting pwnd and "accidentally" kicks out the power cord to his router.

Bah, oh well. I'm glad I didn't have very high expectations for this game. In the meantime it'll keep me busy till the Fall release season really gets under way.

BioShock Review

Graphics: Greatness
Story: Great
Ending(s): Meh
Game Play: Greatness

Solid game. If you are a fan of the System Shock legacy, you'll enjoy this evolution of the franchise. Better look, same feel. Unfortunately the feel of the previous games was also present in the ending(s) of the game. Sadly, the game industry has in the past few years has been moving toward summary slide shows for endings to games. I've seen worse (Neverwinter Nights 2!!!1), but the ending(s) could have used a bit more polish.

Final Thoughts: Greatness. The most important thing in a game is fun factor and this game has plenty of fun factor.

PlayStation Home - Oct 10 2007

PlayStation Home (PS3) - Yes, I realize this is not a "game" per se, but I do feel it warrants a mention. Why? Cause I friggin' want to! Now, STFU. So, this is Sony's virtual world for gamers. It's supposed to act like a game lobby / hang out / Second Life knockoff. I'm sort of looking forward to messing with it, then like most trendy ideas, never really use it again. /bored

BioShock - Inital Thoughts

So...Wow. Visually stunning, except for the widescreen bug. Great game play. So far it seems to have captured at least the basic concept and feel of the System Shock games. Unlike so many FPSs this one is actually fun, not just some shoot 'em up (while shoot 'em ups do hold a special place in my heart). Full review coming soon.

Mass Effect - November 1st 2007

Mass Effect [360] - Lets see... science fiction RPG from the people that brought us Neverwinter Nights, KOTOR, and Balur's Gate... even if they just crap in a box and slap a $60 price tag on it I'm playing it.

http://masseffect.bioware.com/

Guitar Hero III - October 29th 2007

Guitar Hero III [360, PS3] - Yay! Just what I need, more friggin' specialty controllers.

http://www.activision.com

Beautiful Katimari - October 15th 2007

Beautiful Katamari [360, PS3] - Just another roll'em up or will the next-gen prince of the cosmos really shine? ...I feel it, I feel the cosmos.

http://www.namcobandaigames.com/games/beautifulkatamari/

Tabula Rasa - October 2 2007

Tabula Rasa [PC] - MMORPG promising dynamic worlds, fast paced action, blah blah blah. PlayNC looks to be cranking out MMOs faster than Korea on crack. Will this one hold anyone's interest for long or will it be another hack-n-slash go kill N units of X mob ...grind ...rinse ...repeat.

Fallout 3 - Fall 2008

Fallout 3 [PC, 360, PS3] - I know I have said that I avoid release dates further out than 6 months. This is one of those few exceptions, because of the anticipation... no... the importance of this title. Fallout 3 marks what may be the true (and long awaited) resurrection of a game franchise that has, quite frankly, ended up in the wrong hands all too many times.

Bethesda, from what I have seen so far, gets it. They seem to truly get that whatever-it-is that gave Fallout and Fallout 2 their greatness. Let's just hope they don't FIU like those that brought us fine POS titles like Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel. :\

http://fallout.bethsoft.com/home/home.php

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption - August 27th 2007

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption [Wii] - Much love for the Wii, but when is Nintendo going to get some titles that aren't rehashed franchises or repackaged versions of Wii Sports.

http://wii.nintendo.com/software_metroid.jsp

Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction - October 23rd 2007

RCF: ToD [PS3] - Ok... I admit I'm an R&C fanboy. But come on! This franchise has friggin' everything you look for in gaming. I usually reserve final judgment about a game until I have actually had an opportunity to play it, but unless Insomniac was taken over by a Korean MMORPG sweatshop of horrors this game will rock. Put this on your short list of must haves, it's at the top of mine.

http://www.us.playstation.com/PS3/Games/Ratchet_and_Clank_Future_Tools_of_Destruction

Lair - September 4th 2007

Lair [PS3] - Any real interest in this game? /shrug, but I need to put my beast of a PS3 to work with something.

http://www.us.playstation.com/Lair/

Halo 3 - September 25th 2007

Halo 3 [360] - ... meh ... I wish I could get excited about this, but I just can't.

http://www.halo3.com/

Blue Dragon - August 28th 2007

Blue Dragon [360] - Man, this thing has Ubergeek written all over it. Dragonball-esc artwork, Final Fantasy-esc music, RPG-esc ...RPGness. Could be good... Gawd knows 360 could use a decent RPG.

http://www.xbox.com/en-us/games/b/bluedragonxbox360/

BioShock - August 21 2007

BioShock [PC, 360] - The next evolution of the System Shock franchise...nuff said.
http://www.2kgames.com/bioshock/enter.html

Hellgate: London - October 31st 2007

Hellgate: London [PC] - The Hellgate: London posted an announcement that the official release date for what is becoming a less-than-anticipated game is October 31st.

http://www.hellgatelondon.com/news/