The end of another summer is fast approaching and although I hate to see the sunshine start to fade, this lackluster gaming season cannot leave town soon enough. AAA titles have been few and far between with the exception of Red Dead Redemption back in June. Other then that fantastic trip to the Wild West, I haven’t experienced near enough hours of quality gaming since Mass Effect 2 and God of War 3 released in the first 3 months of the year.
Publisher prefer to save their best for the fall and holiday season when more buyers are willing to part with their hard earned cash in the name of gift giving. But with Crysis 2 and FEAR 3 recently jumping ship to 2011, what titles are left to sate gamers’ appetites? Here’s the first part of our preview guide of what Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 games to keep an eye out for through the rest of the year.
Strap on your skates for the hard hitting action of NHL 11 or take to the skies in HAWX 2 as both of these anticipated titles hit store shelves September 7. EA’s NHL 11 (PS3, Xbox 360 is powered by an all-new Real-Time Physics Engine and lets players create highlight reel moments as you experience adrenaline-pumping hockey action with bigger hits, broken sticks and faster dangles. HAWX 2 (Xbox 360, PS3) offers air combat realism and bumps the action quotient set in the original.
If sports or high flying jets are not your forte then swing into action with Activision’s Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions (Xbox 360, PS3), also on September 7. Explore four dramatically different parallel universes, each with its own unique Spider-Man armed with varying strengths and abilities. Each universe has its own unique design, mood and game play elements. Past Spidey experiences tended to be fun but repetitive; Shattered Dimensions could buck the trend and give us our best web slinging experience yet.
On September 17, the first of the new motion peripherals is released with the Playstation MOVE (PS3). After what many consider a lackluster showing at this year’s E3, gamers will finally get a chance to use the device and judge for themselves. It’s more expensive then you may think once you gather all the components but it could deliver a very precise and accurate experience that changes how we play. As with any new console release, quality software “Moves” hardware, so we’ll see soon enough.
September is capped off with more zombie mayhem in Dead Rising 2 (Xbox 360, PS3) on September 28, allowing players to combine objects to create an endless list of unique ways to bring down your undead foes. The action and zombie counts promise to be off the chart, but let’s hope the story doesn’t remain as paper thin as the original.
Other notable September releases include The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest (PS3) on September 28, F1 2010 (Xbox 360, PS3) on September 21, FIFA 11 (Xbox 360, PS3) on September 28, and more of the same with Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock (Xbox 360, PS3) on September 28.
The most anticipated of September and perhaps of 2010 is the mother of all franchises Halo: Reach (Xbox 360). Armed with a decade of experience crafting Halo games, Bungie is raising the campaign and multiplayer bar to unparalleled heights, plunging players into the cataclysmic finale of their definitive Halo title. Warfare on Reach is waged on an epic scale, the Covenant war machine is at the height of its power, and humanity’s ultimate survival hangs in the balance. Boosting an almost totally new graphics engine along side a darker grittier story, there’s no telling how big Reach’s launch day will be. A bounty of new features and game play modes combined with Halo’s well known monstrous online offerings will having people lining up at midnight on September 14.
Stay tuned as our Fall preview continues because if September didn’t cripple your bank account, October and November will surely finish the job.
– Jason Krahn
