My objective with this post is to give a quick blurb on the majority of the big releases (the ones I’ve gotten to play) that have hit shelves over the last two months or so. Take away what you wish, but hopefully this makes your holiday return shopping a bit easier, without having to read a full review.
October 20 – Borderlands
Pros: Tons of guns, high replay value, great co-op, creative artwork.
Cons: Restrictive maps, frustrating spawns, cookie-cutter quests.
Bottom-line: Cross WoW character development, Diablo items, Crackdown art, and Quake game-play… what do you get? Borderlands.
October 27 – DJ Hero
Pros: Fantastic soundtrack, flashy visuals, innovative game-play, great peripheral.
Cons: Steep price-point, lacks depth in difficulty levels, local multiplayer prohibitive.
Bottom-line: An innovative music game that allows players to delve into the world of DJ’ing. Reminiscent of Guitar Hero with a bit of Audio Surf sprinkled in to boot.
November 2 – Dragon Age: Origins
Pros: Deep story, fully voiced over, beautiful visuals, high replay value.
Cons: Typical D&D RPG game-play, party strategy can be confusing, high difficulty.
Bottom-line: A beautiful game that combines several book’s worth of story telling, tried and true game-play, endless hours of content, and a fantastic cast of characters. Must-buy for any RPG fan.
November 10 – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Pros: Great single-player campaign, addictive multiplayer, fun co-op.
Cons: Restrictive levels, frustrating matchmaking, lack of dedicated servers (PC)
Bottom-line: A strong candidate for Game of the Year, MW2 is the king of all current games in the FPS genre. A significant improvement over its predecessor, it not only innovates, but polishes already fine-tuned game-play.
November 17 – Assassin’s Creed 2
Pros: Many new game-play additions, beautiful graphics, huge world.
Cons: Repetitive mechanics, lacks difficulty, minor control issues.
Bottom-line: A giant leap above the original, this game has a ton of new game-play additions piled on top of the old making the game that much more re-playable and enjoyable. If you liked the first, this one is a definite buy!
Links:
[1] http://www.gamingwithchildren.com