E309 Game Impressions

The Electronic Entertainment Expo has come and gone and once again, I spent way too much time watching video of unreleased games being played. Here are my shallow opinions in blurb-form.

Alan Wake - Much more of a shooter than I expected to see, but it's nice that the game actually exists and I'm sure there will still be some interesting story elements during the daytime.

Assassin's Creed 2 - They seem to have addressed all of the complaints with the original, leaving behind only an awesome open world historical assassination game.  Expanded combat looks nice.

Batman: Arkham Asylum - This looked really interesting at first until he kept fighting a gigantic mob over and over.  Something about the combat just drained my enthusiasm completely.

Battlefield 1943 - I'm a fan of the series, and some online play for my PS3 for cheap sounds like a nice proposition.

Brutal Legend - Hooray for Activision living up to the mantle of gigantic douche bag publisher in every way possible by suing to prevent this game's release. Assuming it comes out, it looks like a fun mix of metal, hack and slash, adventure stuff, Jack Black - well, a fun mix of everything.

Dark Void - A long time coming, but looks potentially very nice.  Jetpacking around and jacking UFOs is pretty sweet.

Fat Princess - This is a really fun looking RTS/deathmatch/hack and slash multiplayer game. I want to play it just to screw around with the different classes.

God of War III - Really looking forward to some more evisceration of classical monsters and gigantic puzzle-filled temples. They keep upping the ante with the gore, and it seems almost too crazy this time, but I kind of like that.

Halo 3: ODST - A slightly different take on the standard Halo shooting gameplay, different enough to look worth checking out.  Also, Nathan Fillion as your commander is cool.

Heavy Rain - It seems to expand upon the interesting aspects of its spiritual predecessor, which people forget was really good for the first two thirds, and the dynamic story stuff sounds great.

Left 4 Dead 2 - Surprising move by Valve coming out with a sequel so soon, but it looks pretty different and it sounds like they're including enough new content to make it worth a separate release.

Lost Planet 2 - I'm playing the first right now, and I haven't seen anything as remotely cool as the boss fight they showed off with four players against a giant monster. As long as they focus on that and not fighting snow pirates, it could be good.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 - Based on the insipid Civil War storyline, it basically looks like what you'd expect from a sequel.  I'd play it with a group again.

Mass Effect 2 - I still haven't played the original, but this looks to continue what it did while improving a lot of aspects.  I need to make a computer I can trust to play this series.

Modern Warfare 2 - Really nice looking sequel.  The original was great, and this looks to have more of the unique and interesting missions that make the irritating slogs against giant respawning hordes tolerable.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii - Four player fun for the whole family!

PixelJunk Shooter - I haven't played any previous games in the series, but this one looks really interesting. I like the lava/water interaction.

Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time - It's another Ratchet game. That's all I really need to know.

Red Steel 2 - Lots of 2's this year.  The new style is neat, but either the guy playing the demo was really bad or the controls still aren't near where they need to be to make a good game.

The Saboteur - The black and white/color stuff is neat, and it could be a fun take on the open world action thing.

Singularity - Possibly a unique shooter with a fun time mechanic, possibly another one for the pile that had a gimmick that just didn't try hard enough.

Splinter Cell: Conviction - I haven't played much of the series, but this looked surprisingly awesome. The increased speed and brutality of Sam's actions make it look like a Bourne game, if licensed stuff wasn't crap.

Tales of Monkey Island - Yet another interesting project from Telltale Games, in their quest to take all of my money.  I want to play some earlier games in the series before jumping on these ones, though.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - Possibly the game of the show. They really stepped up the cinematic quality of the larger gun fights, and it's supposed to keep the more exploratory elements that really rounded out the experience in the first for me.

Wet - The red bonus levels or whatever hurt my eyes.