This Week in Games: March 1 – 7
No need to change the headline this week as we see more major releases, including some hotly anticipated exclusives! The XBOX360 gets the hotly anticipated strategy game Halo Wars while the PSP gets Phantasy Star Portable, and a decent list for every other platform. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that there are five new games out for the PS2 this week! Check out the list!
- Halo Wars
- Tom Clancy’s HAWX
- Major League Baseball 2K9
- SBK Superbike World Championship
- Major League Baseball 2K9
- Tom Clancy’s HAWX
- MLB ’09: The Show
- SBK Superbike World Championship
- We Ski and Snowboard
- Major League Baseball 2K9
- Sonic and the Black Knight
- Grey’s Anatomy
- Spongebob Square Pants Happy Squared Double Pack
- MLB ’09: The Show
- Major League Baseball 2K9
- King of Fighters 98: Ultimate Match
- Tomb Raider Underworld
- SBK Superbike World Championship
- MLB ’09: The Show
- Phantasy Star Portable
- MLB 2K9 Fantasy All Stars
- SpongeBob vs. The Big One: Beach Party Cook Off
- Littlest Pet Shop: Spring
- Grey’s Anatomy
- Peggle Dual Shot
- Empire: Total War
- Major League Baseball 2K9
- Grey’s Anatomy
As for last week … well, Killzone 2 is apparently excellent, so all those who have been anticipating the arrival of their pre-orders have been rewarded. Most other things were a mixed bag – the XBOX360 Star Ocean game got mixed reviews but is apparently solid, while the Wii version of Dead Rising is generally seen as under-performing and somewhat disappointing. And the multi-platform 50 Cent game is, well, better than the last one anyway …
Last week I seemed to have torn through loads of games, including several more iPhone games including the excellent iDracula (think Smash TV) and The Quest (old school first-person RPG). I also finished up a load of other stuff, including the campaign for the solid PC RTS Warhammer Dawn of War II, as well as Fire Emblem: Dragon Storm, Blue Dragon Plus, and Legacy of Y’s on the DS and finally being done with replaying different parts of LocoRoco 2 on the PSP.
What I’m Currently Playing:
- PC: Drakensang: The Dark Eye – this is right up my alley: classic but modern RPG with loads of quests and character development and interactions and a fun ‘real-time with pause’ combat system!
- DS: Puzzle Quest: Galactrix – I love this franchise, so I put off touching it until I could put in some time – will report back next week.
- PSP: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII – replaying this one after a discussion with the editor on another sight – he puts it at the very top of the PSP library, I just reviewed it as ‘solid’ …
Enjoy gaming!
March 1st, 2009 at 1:15 pm
Oh yes, I’ve been gaming.
Still playing Left 4 Dead but enjoying it a lot less. I think there was a golden period when the game was released where everyone was new and the griefers weren’t around yet. Only took a few months…. Still, a wonderful game.
I’m enjoying Call of Duty WaW quite a bit. My main problem is how the enemy respawns forever, until you reach checkpoints. That’s a bit too artificial feeling for me. Is this what 4 did? Funny I don’t remember. The game begins with torture and murder and gets more violent after that. This is probably the best Pacific theater shooter Ive played and it made me think about my grandpa and why he’d never talk about his WWII island adventures. Japanese tactics – BANZAI – are pretty effective 70 years later.
The Lost and Damned for GTA 4 is like ultra violent biker gang catnip for mature gamers. As usual the portrayal of sex and drugs in the game are alarming and far more than almost any other game can offer. Very high quality game, even though I’m finding the biker world a lot LESS interesting than the adventures of Bellic. Also, I keep wishing I was portraying Billy rather than Mr. Bad Bald Scowly Whiny Face. Dammit Rockstar! I want my protagonist to be hairy for once!
Afrosamurai is neat, but hasn’t grabbed me. Love the cartoon and I have the song in my head and once again this isn’t a good one for kids. Anyone allowed to watch the uberviolent show is probably exempt.
But the main time culprit out of all of that is easily Street Fighter 4. Better graphics, amazing gameplay – it’s 1992 again and I’m a young kid just out of high school. Man that feels good.
Look for more on these titles in the coming days.
March 1st, 2009 at 1:44 pm
I don’t think I’ll have to buy another game for a long time, because SFIV is staying in my 360. Why have we not played yet?
My only gripe is that the online portion needs to be beefed up. We need support for party lobbies with an automatic winner stays on mode, ranked matches should not have changeable settings, quitters should get a loss, and blind character selects should be an option.
March 1st, 2009 at 2:27 pm
I’ve already played Street Fighter 4 with Simon. I want to play against GamerDad, too. That way he can see how bad I am at these games! 🙂 –Cary
March 1st, 2009 at 2:44 pm
We can set up a time. I’d recommend you set it BEFORE I buy the arcade stick. I’ve got to get serious if I want to show my face in random games. I agree with everything Simon says about the rules.
March 1st, 2009 at 5:20 pm
I might be getting some sort of PC game soon. Any recommendatons? I’m new to PC gaming and want to try something out. I was actually thinking about Civ IV because I played Spore on a friends computer and liked the Civ stage, but wanted to have more intricate control. I got a new graphics card that will probably run them but my RAM is lacking. I also need a DVD drive, but my mom’s computer has 2gb of RAM which seems to be doing little more than occupying space (which is to say I might be able to convince my dad to give me 1gb) and a DVD drive she doesn’t use. Anyway, I’m also thinking about getting Farcry 2 on 360 because even if it worked on my pc it would need to be ultra low settings.
March 2nd, 2009 at 9:57 am
Team fortress 2. Epic game.
March 2nd, 2009 at 1:49 pm
See, I already have most games worth getting on PC on my 360. I have the Orange box :P. I want to get something more in the RTS or RPG genre though, I’ve been leaning away from twitch games as of late since my computer isn’t the fastest thing out there to begin with.
March 4th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Dawn of war II, C&C Red alert 3, World in conflict, Eldar scrolls Oblivion.