Lots coming out this week. Gears gets a prequel, the Wii U gets a new, non-licensed LEGO game, a new Walking Dead game hits as does a new Monster Hunter game and a whole bunch of other stuff drops. This is way too much activity for March. Don’t these people know that I have a move to plan?
As for me, I’m continuing my run in God of War: Ascension despite hitting a game progress glitch that forced me to restart. Oh Kratos, all sound and fury and no brains in that big, ashen head. Fire Emblem: Awakening continues to impress despite me getting my heart broken (more on that later in the week) and I continue to fill all manner of aquatic creatures with hot, hot lead in Ridiculous Fishing.
New Releases
I had planned on playing Gears of War: Judgment
but proper GameFly queue management took priority. Gotta keep my eyes on that BioShock: Infinite prize. I still want to play it, especially on the heels of God of War because I have a feeling both games will share some similarities other than steroid fueled rage monsters fighting amid ruined cities.
I have to think that Lego City: Undercover
will do pretty well, if only because the Wii U hasn’t had a new release in a very long time. Way to go, Nintendo! I’d love to play the game as I really enjoyed the open world parts of LEGO Batman 2. Hopefully the 3DS version will have the same free roaming content so that I can enjoy it in April.
Speaking of Wii U releases, oddly enough, The Walking Dead: Survival Instincts (360
, PS3
, Wii U
, PC
is getting one. I love me some Dixon brothers, but I don’t have a lot of faith in this one. I’d be amazed if anyone did.
Continuing the new Wii U releases (three in one week must be one sort of minor miracle) is Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (Wii U
, 3DS
). I played the demo for the 3DS and got my butt whipped soundly. I’d love to try it again as clearly I was doing something wrong. Then again, I do think you’re supposed to die a lot in this series, so maybe I was right on track.
Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory
continues the saga of the console wars turned JRPG. I don’t quite understand it, but hey, whatever floats your individual boats.
Finally, Resident Evil 6 hits the PC, Need for Speed: Most Wanted hits the Wii U, Trials Evolution: Gold releases for the PC, Assassins Creed III gets the second of the Madness of King George DLC, Dead or Alive 5 Plus gets a Vita release, The Croods movie tie-in game drops and platforming fans get Giana Sisters for the 360 and Alien Spidy for the PC, 360 and Mac. Phew!
Deals
Toys R Us – All Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure single pack figures $4.99 each. Free $5 gift card with $20 of Skylanders purchases. Free $25 gift card with $80 worth of Skylanders purchases. Buy any of the following games, get a free $10 gift card, buy two, get a free $35 gift card: MLB2k13, Gears Of War: Judgement, Forza Horizons, Halo 4, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, Aliens: Colonial Marines, Crysis 3, Tomb Raider, Dead Space 3, NBA2k13. Buy any of the following 3DS games, get a free $5 gift card, buy two, get a free $30 gift card: Angry Birds Trilogy, Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion, New Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Paper Mario: Sticker Star, Lalaloopsay Carnival Friends, Brain Age: Concentration Training, Moshi Monsters Theme Park, Scribblenauts Unlimited, Naruto Powerful Shippuden, Monster High Ultimate Roller Maze. Get a free $50 gift card with purchase of a Wii U and Super Mario Bros. U or Lego City Undercover.
Target – Buy two, get one free on all games and Skylanders figures. Free $50 gift card with purchase of Wii U Basic console. Free $20 gift card with purchase of Xbox 360 4GB. Get a 3DS for $149.99. Get a DSi for $89.99.
Best Buy – Save 15% on the Gears of War: Judgement strategy guide with purchase of Gears of War: Judgement. Save $15 with purchase of The Walking Dead: Survival Instincts and Walking Dead season 2 on DVD or Blu-ray. All Skylanders Giants single character packs for $7.99 each (excludes Giants). Get Halo 4 for $39.99 , get AC III and Far Cry 3 for $29.99 each.
I would love to try Lego City and Gears and Monster Hunter AND Need For Speed. But with so much to play, I really don’t feel like plunking down cash this week.
Bioshock Infinite is paid in trades, so think I will just wait around for it to come out and go from there.
Almost finished Tomb Raider! Next stop will be all the side crap I missed. Then maybe pick away at a JRPG before Bioshock hits. Or hook up the Original Wii to play the REmake. Also playing back through Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrows. God that game has tight design; it’s almost as good as Symphony.
Brandon, I look forward to your tale of woe from Fire Emblem ;).
My heart, it is broken.
Don’t feel bad about Monster Hunter. As much as I love the series, it desperately needs to do a better job of explaining itself to new players. The fact that the demo didn’t even contain a control scheme, much less any basic sort of tutorial, is testament to this.
On a completely different note, how did that piece of junk Hyperdimension Neptunia possibly do well enough to warrant a sequel?
I can’t muster any kind of meaningful excitement for that Gears game. It’s getting great reviews, but I can’t imagine wanting to play a game LESS than that right now.
Monster Hunter is great, but it is quite opaque at first. The key is to approach the concept like the movie Dragonslayer. Remember how he had to make weaponse from the dragon parts, he had that scale shield and all that? That’s really what MH is all about, and it’s about preparing, training, and crafting to get ready to hunt the big monsters. You have to learn about them, experiment, observe, and develop working tactics. But there’s virtually nothing on the game that is on rails or that provides any kind of direction. It’s very exploratory.
But man, when you bring down a really tough monster…it is so freaking rewarding.
I think the Souls games are very much inspired at least in part by MH- there are some very similar design concepts at work, including that opacity. The combat is similar too- you’ve got to pay close attention to position, stance, timing, and so forth.
It’s odd that to the inexperienced, the MH games are kind of regarded as some kind of Pokemon like thing or JRPGs. They’re definitely not either. They’re pretty hardcore, and very action-oriented.
I’d like to get the new one…but my “no game is worth $60” policy is in full effect.
I started Tomb Raider last night…it’s pretty darn good. I don’t think it’s doing anything particularly new or innovative, but it’s a solid, well-made, expensive-looking game.
It’s also complete. It leaves nothing hanging and never makes you feel like you had to buy this thing or that thing to get more out of it. Maybe MP is different, but I didn’t even bring up the MP menus.
I don’t have Twitter so I couldn’t respond to Brandon’s question about upgrading to a 3DS XL there, but I would like to say that the larger screens enhance the 3D effect a great deal. Fire Emblem, Super Mario 3D Land, and Ocarina of Time really look stupendous!
Brandon has said that he usually plays with the 3D effect off though, and the effect on non-stereoscopic graphics is less pronounced. A plus overall, but maybe not enough to warrant the cost.
All my local Best Buys have demo kiosks for the 3DS XL. I’d recommend spending some time at one of those and seeing how the graphics strike you before giving up the unit you’re already enjoying.
Thanks for the thoughts. I play Fire Emblem with the 3D on, so better 3D would be right up my alley. More importantly, I can give my old 3DS to my son and we’ll both be set when the next Pokemon game comes out.
nice games post…….update