Games On Net :: New Releases: Coming Attractions

Coming Attractions - 11/03/2009

By Matt Keller - Wed Mar 11, 2009 7:17pm

The long wait is over for Resident Evil fans this week as Resident Evil 5 makes its way onto shelves this week. Joining Capcom’s latest survival action extravaganza is the highly anticipated Soviet Assault expansion for World in Conflict, the second of Sonic’s storybook adventures in Sonic and the Black Knight, the long delayed farming/RPG hybrid Rune Factory, Atlus’ latest school-based demon summoning RPG Persona 4 and the girly drama adaptation Grey’s Anatomy: The Video Game.

Don’t forget to check out the full release schedule for the latest changes and information on upcoming games.

11/03/2009

*Cabela’s Dangerous Adventures 2009* Platform: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii (coming soon to PlayStation 2) Developer: *Activision* Publisher: *Activision* RRP: $AU69.95 (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360), $AU59.95 (Wii) The breakout success of Deer Hunter about 10 years ago spawned a variety of hunting games. In more recent times, Activision’s Cabela license has dominated the sphere. The Dangerous Hunts line deviate a little from the standard hunting conventions and lean a bit more towards the standard first person shooter style of gameplay due to your encounters with more vicious animals like lions and bears. Still not worth the time of day, though.
*Championship Paintball 2009* Platform: PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360 Developer: *Activision* Publisher: *Activision* RRP: $AU69.95 (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360), $AU59.95 (Wii), $AU29.95 (PlayStation 2) Take your average first person shooter, remove the gore and bullets and replace them with bruises and paint stains. In that case, you’d have a decent paintball game. *Championship Paintball 2009* isn’t, however. It’s a serious sports-game style attempt at producing a paintball game (complete with National Professional Paintball League license/endorsement) which falls flat on its face. If you’re tempted, round up a few friends and do the real thing instead.
*Crystal Defenders* Platform: Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network (coming soon to WiiWare Developer: *Square Enix* Publisher: *Square Enix* RRP: 800 Microsoft Points ($AU13.20, Xbox 360), $AU12.95 (PlayStation Network) Tower Defence seems to have been a concept run into the ground as of late, particularly by downloadable games. Square Enix has jumped onto the bandwagon, shoehorning Final Fantasy Tactics characters into a Tower Defence game. Previously released on the iPhone/iPod Touch, this is an enhanced port with a few new features like online leaderboards. So if you’re a Final Fantasy fan and haven’t grown tired of the Tower Defence concept, this might be worth checking out.
*Peggle* Platform: Xbox Live Arcade Developer: *PopCap Games* Publisher: *Microsoft* RRP: 800 Microsoft Points ($AU13.20) PopCap’s peg bouncing puzzle game hits Xbox Live Arcade this week after a lengthy tease. This version contains over 55 levels with more than 75 challenges, and adds four player online multiplayer, online leaderboards and the usual XBLA trimmings. I’d also like to take this opportunity to say that Peggle fans scare me and that I swear that they belong to some sort of cult.

12/03/2009

*Bleach: Dark Souls* Platform: Nintendo DS Developer: *Treasure* Publisher: *Sega* RRP: $AU69.95 One would have thought that *Bleach: Dark Souls* would have been released to more fanfare, what with the popularity of the Bleach anime and first DS game, and the fact that the game’s development was handled by Treasure, one of the finest 2D developers ever. The game combines fighting and card battles for exciting battles with all sorts of ridiculously over the top attacks. 17 new characters are introduced in the sequel, and online play is supposedly more functional. Sounds promising.
*Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box* Platform: PC Developer: *Criterion Games* Publisher: *Electronic Arts* RRP: $AU69.95 The PC version of *Burnout Paradise* finally lands on Australian shores. The “Ultimate Box” version of the game includes all of the free downloadable content to date, along with the new Party Pack. The game handles pretty well on the PC, and looks nicer than its console counterpart, provided you’ve got some decent hardware. A fully featured demo is available, but limits you to 30 minutes of play.
*Grey’s Anatomy: The Video Game* Platform: Nintendo DS, PC, Wii Developer: *Ubisoft* Publisher: *Ubisoft* RRP: $AU49.95 (Nintendo DS, Wii), $AU29.95 (PC) Ubisoft continues its licensing agreement with ABC with *Grey’s Anatomy, a drama program following the exploits of a group of surgical interns at a Seattle area hospital. The game is kind of a mix of your standard point and click adventure game and Trauma Centre*, with pixel based puzzles mixed up with surgical procedures. Probably not going to be much chop, but I’m sure someone out there cares.
*Jake Power: Soccer Star* Platform: Nintendo DS Developer: *Magic Pockets* Publisher: *Ubisoft* RRP: $AU49.95 Ubisoft’s Jake Power series continues with the Soccer Star game which, you guessed it, has the titular character working on becoming a football champion. They churn these out with little concern for quality, so don’t expect anything good. Get your kid a soccer ball instead, and start praying that the cash cow dries up soon.
*MySims Party* Platform: Nintendo DS, Wii Developer: *Electronic Arts* Publisher: *Electronic Arts* RRP: $AU79.95 (Wii), $AU49.95 (Nintendo DS) *MySims Party* is the fifth Wii mini-game collection in just two weeks – oversaturation at its finest. The brand remains successful for Electronic Arts, but mini-game collections like this are the best way to kill any goodwill built up by previous games in the series. It does look more promising than Activision’s bevy of crap last week, with more than 50 mini-games on offer, supporting up to four players.
*Persona 4* Platform: PlayStation 2 Developer: *Atlus* Publisher: *Atlus* RRP: $AU49.95 *Persona 4* moves the series out to the country, where you control a youth who has discovered The Midnight Channel, a mirror-world that can only be seen by certain individuals on rainy days. Like all Persona games to date, the events take place over the course of a school year, where players must balance their investigation of The Midnight Channel with their studies, while building and maintaining friendships. Heavily praised by the US and Japanese press last year, *Persona 4* may be the PS2’s last great release.
*Petz: My Horsez Family* Platform: Nintendo DS Developer: *Ubisoft* Publisher: *Ubisoft* RRP: $AU59.95 Ubisoft pulls down on the lever and churns out another Petz title, this time involving horses, and adding a Z to the end to make it more marketable. If you’ve played one, you’ve played them all, though you should probably avoid them and spend your money on something better.
*Resident Evil 5* Platform: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 Developer: *Capcom* Publisher: *Capcom* RRP: $AU119.95 (Standard), $AU129.95 (Steelbook), $AU169.95 (Collector’s) Chris Redfield, one of the survivors of the original mansion incident, is called to the African country of Kijuju to investigate a new bioterrorist threat. I’m in two minds about *Resident Evil 5*; on the one hand, it looks fantastic and be a blast, but on the other hand it feels extraordinarily dated, particularly considering it was in development for over four years. It seems like more effort has been put into making an online cooperative experience than producing new animations, furthering the gameplay or bringing it up to modern shooter standards.
*Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon* Platform: Nintendo DS Developer: *Marvelous Entertainment* Publisher: *Rising Star Games* RRP: $AU59.95 Almost two years after its US release, Australian gamers get their first taste of Marvelous’ new take on Harvest Moon. After releasing far too many Harvest Moon games in a short period, they’ve decided to experiment a bit with the formula. *Rune Factory* combines the farming/life simulation experience of Harvest Moon with traditional role-playing gameplay. Instead of breeding animals, you now befriend monsters who will supply you with goods. It’s got a steep learning curve and can be a bit of a grind, but it’s fairly deep and enjoyable.
*Scrabble 2009* Platform: Nintendo DS Developer: *Electronic Arts* Publisher: *Ubisoft* RRP: $AU49.95 It’s Scrabble with a touch screen interface and built-in Collins 2009 Dictionary. There’s not really much more to it than that.
*Sonic and the Black Knight* Platform: Wii Developer: *Sega* Publisher: *Sega* RRP: $AU79.95 Sonic’s back to stink up the world of video games once again. The second instalment of the Wii-exclusive storybook series, Sonic visits the fantasy world of King Arthur, who has been possessed by an evil power contained from within Exclaibur’s scabbard, and now rules the realm as the Black Knight. Looks nice, but has horrendous controls and broken gameplay. Perhaps it’s time for Sonic to sit on the shelf while Sega figures out what to do with him.
*Tenchu: Shadow Assassins* Platform: Wii (coming to PSP in April) Developer: *From Software* Publisher: *Ubisoft* RRP: $AU79.95 Several really bad Tenchu games during the last couple of years have really killed any enthusiasm I had for the series, but the latest one is meant to be a significant improvement. Rikimaru and Ayame are summoned by Lord Gohda to investigate the continued civil unrest, which has not subsided even after the defeat of Tenrai a year earlier. Looks considerably better than recent Tenchu games, even the one on the Xbox 360, but the quality of the Wii Remote implementation seems to be a point of contention.
*Trivial Pursuit* Platform: PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360 Developer: *Electronic Arts* Publisher: *Electronic Arts* RRP: $AU79.95 (PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360), $AU49.95 (PlayStation 2) The world’s most popular trivia board game gets adapted into yet another video game, this time with another huge set of new questions, stat tracking and a new Facts & Friends gameplay mode. Is it really worth having a video game version when the board game costs so much less?
*World in Conflict: Soviet Assault* Platform: PC Developer: *Massive Entertainment* / *Swordfish Studios* Publisher: *Ubisoft* RRP: $AU29.95 (also available in Complete Edition with original game for $AU49.95) *World in Conflict* was one of the most celebrated real-time strategy games in recent times, and Massive Entertainment intends to breathe new life into it this week with the *Soviet Assault* expansion. The expansion adds a new Soviet campaign, new units and a selection of new multiplayer maps, which will actually be free to download for all players. Players who didn’t pick up the original *World in Conflict* can learn what all the fuss is about with the Complete Edition, which includes the original game and expansion.

Next week is a bit of a doozy, with 24 new releases at this stage including the Broken Sword remake, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, Resistance Retribution, Silent Hill Homecoming, WWE Legends of Wrestlemania, the second expansion for Fallout 3, the musical stylings of Queen in the latest SingStar release, along with a bunch of shovelware nobody really cares about.