Coming Attractions 07.13.08
Posted by Drew Robbins on 07.13.2008
411 Columnist Drew Robbins takes a look at the games that will be hitting store shelves next week. This week he gives his opinions on this week's releases, such as NCAA Football '09 and We Love Golf!
Welcome to the newest column on the 411 games section, Coming Attractions! This column will take you through the games that are coming out in the next week, and will tell you whether or not you should shell out the cash for them.
I, Drew Robbins, will be your guide through this madness. Yes, I am related to Derek Robbins. In fact, I've actually written some 10th Hours in his stead (Top 10 DS and Top 10 64 games).
Before I start with the previewing, I'll do the usual "tangents."
- Slowpoke here, just bought Diablo II. I've spent the last 9 or so years listening to my friends telling me to get this game, and finally cracked when Diablo III got announced. It's a good game, it does frustrate me at times, but so did Sonic 2006 and that game was…..oh crap, that game was awful.
- Mega Man 9 has a trailer now…I almost shed manly tears of joy seeing that little blue guy running around. Man oh man, I friggin loved Mega Man.
With that out of the way…its time for the show to start!
Coming Attractions
Well now I figure I should run down the format for this column. I'll tell you the name of the game, describe it as much as I possibly can (or as much as I want to…this is my column dangit!), and then give it either Thumbs up, thumbs down, or the dreaded thumb that is stuck in purgatory. If a game particularly rocks/sucks, it will get two thumbs pointing in the direction of choice. But I don't like doing that, lifting up two thumbs is a chore, and not worth the work considering most of the games that come out nowadays.
I took a quick peek at the games coming out this week earlier….dark times my friends….dark times.
Rock Band: Track Pack Volume One (Wii/PS2) - Rock Band was released about half a year ago, and since then it has been loaded with tons of downloadable songs. However, if you got the game for the PS2 or just now got the game on the Wii (like me…), then this is the only way you can get extra songs. The pack comes with 20 songs, including "All the Small Things" and "More than a Feeling." Aside from those two, there aren't any songs I'm really too excited to play, but that was my feeling about Rock Band before I played it. I saw the track list, didn't see too much I knew, and then I finally played it and ended up loving most of the songs. However, there is just one problem. Lets say you have Rock Band on the PS3 and you buy "Snow" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers (by the way, if Harmonix doesn't bring that song to the Wii I'm putting my foot through my TV), when you play Rock Band its right there on the track list. On the Wii and PS2, when you buy your track pack, you have to get up, find your case, swap discs, and now you can only play your extra songs. It sucks that it has to be like that, but its better than getting no extra songs at all (I'm looking at you Guitar Hero 3!) My Rating: Thumbs up , this pack will extend your Rock Band experience on the Wii or PS2, and considering how good Rock Band is, that is definitely something you want to do.
We Love Golf! (Wii) - I'm going to take a moment to praise Capcom for their ability to resist naming this game "Wii Love Golf." I know it must have taken a lot of strength on their part. This game has one great thing going for it. You can golf as Chun-Li…..heck yes! Ever since I played Street Fighter II as a child I thought, man, these characters really belong on the golf course. Many years later my prayers were answered. Sarcasm aside, this game doesn't look half-bad. One problem though…where the heck is Mega Man. You have Arthur, Zack (of Zack and Wiki obscurity), and Apollo Justice (he is no Phoenix Wright), but NO MEGA MAN!! That is almost enough to give it two thumbs down. Aside from characters, this is what you'd expect from a Wii golf game. Motion controls, Wi-Fi play…wait, a game supporting Nintendo's online connection?! Really? About time. My Rating: Thumbs Up Wii Golf was fun but it was shallow, and this just looks like a deeper version of that, so I'd definitely recommend this to fans of golf.
- FINALLY! My golf games needed more Street Fighter in them.
1701 A.D. Gold Editions (PC) - Oh boy, my hopes, my dreams, a Civilization rip-off! You keep your citizens happy and defeat your opponents (which the descriptions refer to as ‘Wily antagonists' – not to be confused with Dr. Wily), through trade, diplomacy, sabotage…or even *gasp* military force? No way! You may say "Drew, this sounds too good to be true! A game where I can beat my opponents indirectly with my economy, or just rush in with my military?" Of course, if you are really saying that, you have never even heard of the RTS genre, or Civilization to be specific. My Rating: Two Thumbs Down I'll give you a scenario. You have $30 and you really want to buy an RTS that allows you to win in many different ways. You glance at 1701 A.D. and you realize that Civilization IV is the same price. If you don't buy Civilization IV, then you probably aren't smart enough for the genre anyways.
- Yep, never seen this before.
This Week's #1 Pick
NCAA Football 2009 (Multi) - Sports games today are, how do you say….awful. Maybe not all, that would be an exaggeration, but look at a franchise like Madden. Do you remember when those games were good? I remember being excited to play them, and having Madden tournaments with my friends. Those were the days. While Madden is an EA franchise that has fell from glory, NCAA has always held strong. Usually these games don't add a ton of features, but there is one big addition this time around, online dynasty mode! Dynasty mode was great, but online, this just sounds too good to be true. I didn't know this, but apparently the last few NCAA games on next gen consoles were lacking home-field advantage. If that's true, then this year marks the grand return (and also, what the heck, why would that feature EVER be removed), so expect to get that same college atmosphere feel when you play this game. My Rating: Thumbs Up If you have to buy one football game this year, then ready your wallets, because this one is shaping up (as always) to be much better then Madden.
Quick Previews
I decided that I wouldn't give too many games a paragraph for explanation. When I started writing a part about…Space Chimps, I decided that it wasn't worth it at all, I'd like to think you have better judgment than that. These will be quick, one-sentence, previews of the other games coming out this week that I didn't mention.
Nancy Drew and the Phantom of Venice (PC) Thumbs Down Nancy Drew books aren't any good, so what do you think the game would be like?
Space Chimps (Multi) Two Thumbs Down No…just no.
Mister Slime (DS) Ehhh… doesn't look awful, but I honestly doubt its anything special.
Code Lyoko: Quest for Something (PSP) TWO THUMBS WAY DOWN Oh god…American…and Anime?! NO!
The Scoreboard
Well this was a feature that was SUPPOSED to start this week, but thanks to a certain multiplatform title winning my #1 pick award, I can't start quite yet. Next week, hopefully, I will begin keeping track of which consoles have the game I deemed "#1" and will start a scoreboard. At the end of the year, the system with the most "#1" games will be deemed the console of the year! Woo!
Attractions of the Past
I looked at this column and decided that it was just too short. The games don't come out enough for this to be a long column, and I was thinking of ways to expand it. So I came up with this feature. This will take a look back at games that are closely related to the games on this list..so you can say "Well I liked that game...maybe I will like this other game as well.
Mario Golf - This was the first Mario sports game, before they were making one every other month. I was never into golf games, but the concept of Mario brought me towards this genre. Mario Golf is almost exactly like Hot Shots golf, but with the mascots you know and probably love from the Mario games. The weird thing about this game was the fact that you didn't have Mario from the beginning, and most of the characters you could use were no-name human characters (and I'm pretty sure they didn't appear in the much less spectacular sequel.) In retrospect, that wasn't too bad, but when I was young, nothing was more infuriating. "You're telling me that I spent about $40 to play a Mario game where I don't get to use Mario till way later?" As I said, in retrospect, it wasn't awful, considering that it gave you actual reason to play through the single player mode. I'm aware of the fact that you still unlock characters in Mario sports games, but the people you unlock are never really that impressive. Petey Pihrana, King Boo, Toadette? Compared to Mario, Metal Mario, and Bowser, that is a pretty lame list of unlock able characters. I most fondly remember this game for being one of the only games that my whole family played. My dad was better than me, and he hates video games. Equivalent to: We Love Golf (duh) My Rating *** 1/2 out of 5.
Guitar Hero ONE - Or as I call it, Guitar Hero before it got raped by Activision. Man, its hard to remember that there was a time when these games weren't awful. There is one reason, and one reason only for the failure of Guitar Hero III and beyond. No Harmonix. After playing Rock Band, it made me realized just how important they were to the success of Guitar Hero. Now with the sequels the notes are all crazy and don't make any sense with the actual notes in the music. Guitar Hero 3 was just hitting one fret over and over....you finish it up and there is another string of that fret...and another one...and another one. And ANOTHER ONE!! I feel ashamed to even own the Guitar Hero Wii guitar, like I've sold out or something. Soon Activision will move on to whoring out my other favorite franchises, World of Guitarcraft, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater: Tristram Nights, and I don't even want to know what they would do to Starcraft. Oh...where was I at, have I even talked about the first Guitar Hero? Well, there isn't much to say besides that it was great, had a better soundtrack than 3, and did almost everything better than 3 (multiplayer improved throughout the series). It appears that Activision is trying to get the series back on track with World Tour, but I think it will just be a messy version of Rock Band. No, I KNOW that it will just be a messy version of Rock Band. Related to: Rock Band: Track Pack My Rating: **** out of 5.
- The new face of evil.
Madden NFL 2008 - Screw this game. THIS. GAME. IS. HORRIBLE. Madden NFL 2008 is last year's edition of the annual crapfest known as Madden. I was smart enough to avoid purchasing it, but lacked the mental ability to avoid renting it. I played about three matches in the game. In my first match, I played my brother, I used the Rams and he used the 49ers. There had to be at least 20 interceptions. If you don't follow football, I'll take this time to tell you that the Rams and 49ers are not particularly well known for their defense. In fact, they are teams that are now know for sucking, at an epic level. So tell me, if this game is so "realistic," THEN WHY WERE THERE 20 INTERCEPTIONS?! My least favorite part of this game was the Superstar mode (or do they call it Hall of Fame mode now?). You made a player and took him through his career, but you only get to control that person's actions. How fun is it to play the Quarterback, you just press a button and then BOOM, right back to the menus, because you know that is what everyone likes about sports games, navigating the menus. Related to: NCAA 09 My Rating: 1/2 * Not even a whole star, just thinking about that game makes me spit.
--It should be noted that this is almost completely opposite of how the NCAA series is done. There seems to be balance and skill is more necessary for victory. Also, the Dynasty mode (Superstar mode in NCAA) lets you play as the whole team. Because...you know, its actually fun.
- Madden 08, just as overrated as its cover athlete.
That's all for this week, hopefully next week will have more games (I'm pretty sure next week has Soul Calibur…so I already know what's getting the #1 award). If you have any feedback you can email me at drew_robbins@hotmail.com or you can just comment down below!
