Nathan Blades looks at the polarising RPG for PS3 & 360.
Jason Rose brings us a buyers' guide to smartphones available this Christmas.
Nathan Blades covers some console and industry-defining titles for the Sony PlayStation
Nathan Blades burns rubber in Mario kart 7.
With Modern Warfare 2 released yesterday, we decided to take a look at some of the games we should have seen in shops before Christmas, but instead have to wait until next year for. The developers/publishers had plenty of reasons for these delays, some more believable than others, but lets face it... nobody wants to compete with the sequel to the best selling action game of all time. Here's 10 games we wish we had already.
10: Dark Void
Dark Void has been floating around for a while now, which is ironic since you play as a guy who wears a pretty awesome looking jetpack. The game boasts interesting vertical combat and non-linear combat options, yet Capcom obviously thought this wouldn’t be enough to beat off the competition of Halo 3: ODST and Modern Warfare 2, pushing the game back yet again from September to early 2010.
9: Blur
From the people behind the brilliant Project Gotham Racing series comes Blur, a game where racing is half the story, the other half is flinging electricity based power-ups at rival drivers. Moved back to 2010 so Bizarre Creations could “improve the multiplayer aspect of the game”, it is yet another game that conveniently misses out on the Modern Warfare 2 rush.
8: Singularity
Singularity is an FPS with a twist. In addition to standard weapons, players have access to a Time Manipulation Device which they can use to move an object through time. This means they can age obstacles until they decay, revert enemies to a prehistoric organism, or freeze things in time. Activision was upfront that the reason for this game being delayed was the competition, but it does help that they also publish Modern Warfare 2. We’ll find out early next year whether this actually changes the FPS genre where others have failed, or turns out to be just another gimmick.
7: Red Steel 2
The first Red Steel was pretty good, despite some of the motion controlled sword mechanics not working properly. Originally scheduled for November, Red Steel 2 is a sequel in name only, in that everything has been reworked; the graphical style has been given a shiny cel-shaded look, you play a ninja come cowboy in a Wild West setting instead of a regular guy in modern day Tokyo, and of course the biggest change – the game will feature true one to one sword and gun movement since it has been designed with the Wii MotionPlus in mind.
6: Heavy Rain
A game based predominantly around quick time events might not seem like the most exciting game out there, but Heavy Rain looks awesome, really awesome. A great deal of care and attention has gone into the characters, meaning that if one of the main characters dies during your story, you will probably be grieving the loss for weeks. And the fact that every time you play the game the story can pan out in vastly different directions will give the game plenty of replay value.
5: Alpha Protocol
Sega were at least up front about delaying spy RPG Alpha Protocol, admitting that since the game was a brand new title the competition from established series would be too great over the Christmas period, and therefore pushing the game back would increase the number of potential buyers.
4: Red Dead Redemption
This is the latest addition to the far-from-overcrowded Wild West genre of games. The follow-up to Red Dead Revolver is like GTA (yes, again) but with horses and six-shooters. We get to play as John Marston, outlaw-turned-lawbringer free-roaming around 1908 America. Having being delayed to allow extra development time, expect to see Red Dead Redemption in Q1 2010.
3: BioShock 2
The sequel to the critically acclaimed BioShock sees the player running – or slowly lumbering – around Rapture as a rogue Big Daddy, capturing Little Sisters from the other Big Daddies in the underwater dystopia. In addition to the single player campaign, BioShock 2 will include several multiplayer modes. Originally expected to be released this month, we will see BioShock 2 on shelves in February.
2: APB (All Points Bulletin)
This is essentially an MMO version of GTA. Need I say more? OK I will... A hundred players (on each server) will fight for control of a persistent fictional modern day city for one of two factions – “Enforcement” and “Criminals” – with an arsenal of weapons and vehicles at their disposal. I personally have been looking forward to this game since it was announced back in 2005, but now we have to wait until March next year for the PC version and who knows when for the console versions.
1: Splinter Cell: Conviction
The latest of Sam Fisher’s adventures, Conviction will reinvent the hugely popular Splinter Cell series. Having left Third Echelon to track down his daughter’s killers, the once invisible agent steps out of the shadows and fights in a more gritty, brutal way. Don’t worry though, the night vision goggles will still make an appearance for at least some of the game! Having been in development since 2006 and originally scheduled for release in late 2007, fans will have to wait until February next year to see how the new gameplay works out.
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