This month’s gameinformer cover features Link! A classic icon in the gaming world for any age gamer! Inside, there is are over 5 pages dedicated to link and his evolution over all of these years!
The first game that we have up this month is Elder scrolls V Skyrim. This game is for all three platforms and is due to be released on October 11th. As most of you know, I’m not a big story-based game player, so this game doesn’t have huge appeal to me, but what I can say, is that the graphics just might be something to rant and rave about. From what I’ve heard, the story is extremely well done and the graphics aren’t far behind. I know a lot of people are excited about Skyrim being released, so I would say that if this game looks to be of any interest to you at all, it’s fair to say you probably won’t be let down!
Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it’s fair to say that everyone enjoys a good robot shooter every once in a while, so that’s why I wanted to touch on Syndicate, which is due to be released on February 21st, 2012. From the little bit of research that I’ve done, apparently this game is based off of a sci-fi series from back in the day. So I’m sure there are still some fans lingering around that are eager and ready to give Syndicate a shot. For everyone else, we have a few months until crunch time if you want a launch day purchase, so keep researching this one to see if it seems like it’s something that might interest you!
As we continue, a lot of times PC gamers get thrown to the wayside as far as exclusives, so today we have one that really brings back some memories for me. Stronghold 3 is due to be released on October 4th and if I do say so myself, the graphics in this game look impressive! I used to play Age of Empires II constantly when I was younger, so Stronghold 3 just looks like a redone version of Age of Empires, with a lot of added features and of course, an amazing graphic presentation to boot! If you’re at all a fan of Age of Empires, or any game where you create your empire and take over the world, Stronghold 3 is going to me a must buy for you! Trust me, if my computer could handle it, I would have already purchased Stronghold 3!
Ratchet & Clank All 4 One is our PS3 exclusive this month and is due for release on October 18th, 2011. If you’ve owned a Sony console before, chances are, that you’ve played one of the previous Ratchet and Clank games. As All 4 One is due to be released, you can expect many of the same things that have been included in the past editions. While some people would take this as a bad thing, I personally take it as a very good thing. Why change anything if it’s worked so many years as it is? A few little touch ups here and there, some new environments, updated graphics, and a continuation of the storyline is basically what can be expected for this release.
Our last exclusive here this month is a big one and if you haven’t heard of it before, you just might live on an island with nothing but sand around you, because Forza Motorsport 4 is due for release on October 11th, 2011 and is an Xbox 360 exclusive. I know that in the past, I’ve said that the Gears of War series makes me sometimes wish I had an Xbox and Forza Motorsport just adds some more confirmation to that wish, because this series is well done. I’ve put some hours into Forza Motorsport 3 and from everything I played and got out of it from a casual gamers perspective, there is only one complaint that could be mentioned. That complaint is that some of the races have an absurd amount of laps compared to other racing games on the market, but on the flipside, this could be taken as a plus for many gamers as well. Everything else in this game, as far as I could tell, made it worth purchasing in my opinion, so I would add this one to your list.
Last, but not least, we have Saints Row The Third, which has a set release date of November 15th, 2011. From what I can see, this is another game that deserves a deeper look before writing this one off as a no go. It seems like a spinoff of the GTA series, which, while sometimes can be a bad thing, in this case, it seems like they might have done it right and actually managed to pull this one off. There seems to be a little bit of a push towards vehicles and vehicle combat in this rendition, so anybody who liked the concept of using vehicles in the GTA series, or just in general, Saints Row the Third is probably one that you’re going to want to pick up, or at the very least add to your Christmas wish list this year!
This just about wraps it up for this month, so check into those games that caught your eye and give them a closer look!
Can you believe it’s September? School has started and I hope you’re having fun in college, because I know I’m having fun while not in college! Either way, we have quite a few games to pick from today, so lets not waste anymore time and lets just jump in right away!
One of the first games listed in this months gameinformer issue is called tropico 4. Now, to be honest, this is the first time hearing of this game for me, but obviously this is the fourth installment in this series, so I suppose that would mean there are fans out there somewhere. From the looks of this game, it seems like it’s a replica of the sims games, except you’re on an island with a volcano on it. To me, this doesn’t seem interesting, but for those of you who are into this kind of thing, September 16th is the day to look forward to!
One thing that did come about early this September is Call of Duty XP! Unfortunately, I missed it this year, but rumor has it, that there will be another next year, so make sure you get signed up for this one, because I know I sure will be!
Next up on our list today is Borderlands 2! Unfortunately I never picked up Borderlands, the first one, but whenever Borderlands 2 is set to release in 2012, you can count me in, because I will not miss this opportunity this time! Graphically, it looks like the last one did, it has a very artsy and creative feel to it, so for everyone who fell in love with that look in the first edition, you should prepare yourself for some more, because Borderlands 2 is right around the corner!
One more upcoming title that has touched the hearts of all Playstation 3 owners is Resistance 3! When the PS3 system originally launched, this was one of the only games out for it at the time, so everyone who jumped on the Sony train early on, have had their fair share of gameplay in the Resistance franchise. So for everyone who liked the previous installments, get out your pens and mark September 6th on your calendars!
As always, there are a couple sports titles being released in the near future. Now, I used to be a huge fan of the NHL games back in the day, but as time progressed, I have evolved into a first person shooter beast, so I don’t play as many sports titles anymore, but I do like to keep a couple on the shelf just encase I need to break out a party game once in a while. Other than that though, I really have no use for any sports titles, for the simple fact that I’m not really a hardcore sports fan. I don’t play fantasy football and I don’t watch any sports games religiously, so as far as sports games go, they just don’t tickle my fancy.
Last, but not least, we have Guild Wars 2. Now, if you’ve been gaming for any period of time, I’m sure that you have got your hands on some MMORPG game and if you’re anything like the rest of us, you couldn’t put it down for years. This being said, when I hear about a new MMORPG being released to the public, I get a little tingly feeling inside and just as the ring called to Froto in the Lord of the Rings, every new MMORPG game calls to me and it’s not easy to resist!
Apparently, Guild Wars 2 is focusing very heavily on their storyline, which should be super interesting to see, because I think it would be fairly difficult to fluidly work in a strong storyline into any MMORPG game, but let’s hope that Guild Wars 2 doesn’t let us down and maybe GW2 will take off and we can all play it together and live happily ever after.
This just about wraps up this fairy tale, so bring up a browser and start researching some of these games a little deeper while you wait for Octobers issue of Gameinformer to be released!
Being as it’s 2011, I decided it was about time to upgrade to an wireless optical mouse and wireless keyboard, so I ended up purchasing the Microsoft Wireless Desktop 3000 because package deals are always better!
As most of you already know, I try to avoid purchasing anything from Microsoft if I can help it, but when I went out to buy a keyboard and mouse, this looked like it was the best deal and so I figured, let me give Microsoft one last chance.
As far as the keyboard, it is a full qwerty keyboard with a number pad on the side and lots of extra shortcut buttons at the top and on the left side of the keyboard. Now, by no means is this a gaming keyboard, but for the average computer user, this has much more than they need, while at the same time, it isn’t overwhelming and it has a super easier plug-n-play setup, so anyone can use this.
Next is the mouse that came with this package deal. Now, me personally, I like having a bigger mouse, rather than a tiny little thing, so this mouse is perfect for me. I like the texture of it and with all the use I’ve had, I still haven’t had any problems of the wrong buttons being clicked by accident.
One complaint that I do have about the mouse is the scroll wheel. For some reason, in certain programs, instead of scrolling up when you scroll, it jumps up as if you had pressed the “page up” button on your keyboard. Other than that, everything else about this mouse works as it should.
As far as the complaint about the keyboard, when the batteries get low, it seems that the lower right hand corner of the keyboard “double taps” and presses multiple keys when you only pressed one. This only seems to happen when the batteries get low, so if you keep fresh batteries in it, you shouldn’t have any issues.
Overall, for the price, the Microsoft Wireless Desktop 3000 is a pretty good deal. I really don’t think that you will come across anything that’s better than this in the price range, so if you have a small budget for a new keyboard and mouse, this might be the way to go!
August is almost over and summer has faded away. School is starting up and everyone’s heading out to college, and of course, we all know what that means! Hot freshmen chicks and booze! Err, uhh, I mean, the Holiday season of 2011 is closing in and this is what you have to look forward to this year! So get out your list and start scribbling down some notes, because there are some HUGE titles on the way!
Since I’m back in New York now for a while, I decided to renew my Gameinformer subscription and let you guys know what exactly is in this holy grail of a magazine if you haven’t subscribed to it.
To start out, I’m definitely going to start off and talk about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Now, to be completely honest, if I didn’t start making commentaries, I most likely wouldn’t have even ordered this game. Call of Duty has outstayed it’s welcome in my Playstation 3 and I’m just getting bored of this series, but hopefully Modern Warfare 3 really gives me the wow factor and surprises me, because everyone likes a good surprise now and again!
The next big title that is being released to compete with MW3 is Battlefield 3! Now, BF3 is due to be released on November 2nd, 2011 and after hearing that it’s been built on a different platform and watching the trailer for it, I literally can’t wait for this one to be released! I would highly recommend you to even go ahead and pre-order this title, especially because if you pre-order it from your local Gamestop, they upgrade you to the limited edition for FREE! So don’t forget about this one!
Released on July 19th, 2011 was the new addition to the Call of Juarez series, which was named, Call of Juarez: The Cartel. It came out on the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC and although the series does look fun, it’s just not on my must buy list. I would suggest, that if you’re into the series and have enjoyed the previous releases, go ahead and pick this one up!
For all of you who are Assassins Creed fans, November 15th is a pretty big day for you, because this is the release of the next game in the Assassins Creed series and it is also the last game to feature Ezio Auditore and Altair. Now, in the past, I’ve said that the Assassins Creed series tends to bore me after some hours of gameplay and I think this will still stand true for Assassins Creed Revelations as well. Even though the graphical design in these games is literally jawdropping, we all know that graphics alone don’t make a great game, so I’m going to have to put this on my maybe list.
At this point, most of you know that I really despise Microsoft and do all that I can to stay away from their products, but every time another Gears of War title is released, it makes me reconsider that choice for just a split second. On September 20th, 2011, Gears of War 3 is due to be released exclusively to those of you who own a crapbox, or, I mean Xbox 360. If I did own a 360, I would probably have this one on my launch day list, so those of you who are taking notes, you should write this one down and make sure you pick this one up ASAP.
Now onto the bad ideas part of this overview, now don’t worry, Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo are all coming up with crappy ideas at the same time, so nobody will be left out on ways to waste their money on their favorite companies trash.
First up, we’ll start with Sony and go over the Playstation Vita. Now what exactly is the reasoning behind releasing, yet another hand held console that does the same things as all the previous ones? Well, because they finally implemented the dual joysticks idea that we have been custom modding into our PSP phat models since day 1. Now, it’s awesome when companies listen to their consumers, but after 4 years, it’s a little late to implement something that their consumers have been shouting for since before time began.
Next up in the stupid ideas club is the Wii U. To be completely honest about this one, I really have no idea what the reasoning behind this is. I mean $60 for a controller is bad enough, but when the controller costs nearly as much as the game system itself does? If that doesn’t make you stop and think about what’s wrong with this picture, then you should just go back to playing Wii Bowling or something.
Not to completely bash on the Wii U, I think this is a cool concept, but I just don’t see it being practical. I really don’t see the need to have another screen built into your controller that’s the size of Mt. Everest. I think the only way to save this new device is for developers to really work hard on some creative ideas on how to make this work, because otherwise, I’m calling it now, the Wii U is going to flop.
Last, but not least, let’s end on a good note and talk about Batman: Arkham City, which is due to be released on October 18th, 2011 in the United States. In my humble opinion, this is going to be one that I would most definitely recommend you to buy. I will most likely not be purchasing this on launch day, but I do plan on picking this one up eventually, because I think they just got this series right. They have the perfect amount of everything, for every type of player and it really doesn’t get boring very quickly.
Other than that, there are a few more games that we will have to keep up with, but check out next months Gameinformer Overview for the updates on those!
