Videogames this holiday season

I own a 360 and jesus christ it is going to be ugly on my pocketbook this fall/winter:

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FIFA 09--I have played the demo extensively and this is the year that FIFA has finally passed Winning Eleven/Pro Evolution Soccer series. I'll probably be buying this next week.

Gears of War 2: Gears 1 was my favorite game in 5 years or so, so I have to buy this one. Looks even better, though more of the same.

Resident Evil 5: RE4 was absolutely brilliant and now it is coop. It again, is not a huge change from RE4 but I loved that one so much I can't complain. I hope it has a mode after the story mode as awesome as the mercenaries mode in RE4.

Dead Space: is getting good buzz and System Shock 2 is one of my all time favorite games. This looks like a similar environment. Looks good, waiting to see what the response is from The Internets.

Fable 2: The jury is definitely out for me on this one but I am very interested. I've been burned by Molyneux's bullshit too often but I'll be watching reviews to see if he pays off everything he is saying about it. A coop open sandbox game would be welcome.

Fallout 3: Interested but I don't have a computer, I'd be playing this on the xbox. If I owned a PC this would be a must buy, as modders can repair any of the horrible decisions Bethesda makes with the game (bears leveling up with you in Oblivion, anyone?). I really enjoyed Oblivion, but this style of game is just starting to feel generic.

Left 4 Dead: We'll see. 4 player coop survival game does sounds awesome, especially since it's set up as dynamic instead of a scripted zombie generator. This could push the game over the top into the endlessly replayable classic territory.

Rock Band 2: I have Rock Band 1 and enjoy it. But all my old fun friends I played in the band with moved away so this would mostly be solo guitar/drums play. I'd enjoy that, but given the rest of the schedule here...

Prince of Persia: I'm not terribly happy about the move to cell shaded anime inspired designs at all, but my wife loves Prince of Persia and I enjoy it myself.

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I'd love to hear what you guys are looking forward to.

Wii/DS household here, with some Mac goodness over on the side there.

I keep pretty up to date, so nothing is really focused on the holidays per se. I'm looking at:

• WARIO LAND: SHAKE IT
• DISGAEA DS
• OKAMI
• BOOMBLOX
• LEGO BATMAN
• FINAL FANTASY TACTICS A2: GRIMOIRE OF THE DRIFT

There's probably other stuff, but I don't really pay attention to the stuff that's not actually out yet.

On the Mac, I'm going to have to get PEGGLE NIGHTS--PEGGLE is in my brain. I'm actually revisiting the older library on the Mac, so I've got DIABLO 2: LOD, NEVERWINTER NIGHTS, and BALDUR'S GATE 2 queued up.

I want to get an Xbox 360, but realistically when the fuck would I ever get time to play the fucking thing.
Im convinced you guys live in a parallel time dimention or something.

Maybe you're just a pussy.

I'm on the Wii/DS side of things also. Here's the games I'm looking forward to.

Wii
Dokapon Kingdom: It's Mario Party meets and old school JRPG. It's a party game and you can play with up to 4 players but instead of mini games you have old school RPG battles with monsters and other players. Conquer cities to gain more gold, go on quests for special items, send assassins and thieves to harass the other players and level up and change classes.

Spider-Man: Web of Shadows: Previews have been positive so far on this game. The Wii needs more action oriented games.

Tales of Symphonia: The Wii also needs more RPGs.

Rock Band 2 vs. Guitar Hero: World Tour: I'll have to see which gets better reviews. I already have Guitar Hero so there's one guitar.

Lego Batman

Lego Star Wars (older game)

Okami (older game)

DS
Disgaea: Never played a Disgaea game but I love SRPGs.

Castlevania: Order of Echlesia: Because Castlevania games are awesome.

Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (ok another older game)

Hmmm ... what else is coming out for DS? I haven't been paying attention since I have Zelda: Phantom Hourglass to finish and Crystal Chronicles to start.

This is going to sound dickish, but I've got to say I don't envy you wii guys this holiday season. In the past, the wii has at least been getting a few new games of its reliable franchises for the holidays but this year there isn't much at all. Unless you're into wii music or something.

Gary Sax wrote:

This is going to sound dickish, but I've got to say I don't envy you wii guys this holiday season. In the past, the wii has at least been getting a few new games of its reliable franchises for the holidays but this year there isn't much at all. Unless you're into wii music or something.

You're right--there isn't much this year. Most of my real wants have appeared already--we're seeing the genres start to be populated with the classics brought over to the new control schemes.

I should add there are some WiiWare and VC content I'll likely partake of. MEGA MAN 9 and 2, the Homestar Runner/Strong Bad episodes, SIN & PUNISHMENT 2 will be SHIT HOT if it uses the WiiMote. SHIT HOT.

That LEGO STAR WARS game is awesome. I'm one episode from finishing the Story mode and I'm only 40% complete--there are hundreds of hours of extras to find in there.

I have a PS3. I thought I was going to want Force Unleashed until I started reading some of the reviews for it. It sounds like it has a good storyline but pretty shitty gameplay. Since I play games for the game and not necessarily the story, I'll rent this one.

I'm vaguely interested in the new Call of Duty that's coming out. I'm also interested in Fallout but I haven't played any of the other games in the series (Unless Wasteland counts).

Oh there's no doubt that the Wii releases for this holiday season are pretty abysmal. I guess Nintendo is just counting on selling more Wiis to new consumers and all of the old games that are already out?

Nintendo's showing at E3 this year was terrible but their announcements from their Nintendo Media Summit and news from third parties at the Tokyo Game Show look pretty good. At least for Japan ...

Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway

I've had an XBOX 360 for about 6 months and all I've played( and own) is GTA4. As a RE fan I'll have to get 5. As a zombie fan I'd like to pick up Dead Rising & Left 4 dead. I'm also eyeing the first GOW.

Since I switched jobs (from magazine hawker to graphic designer) I feel out of step with what's coming up in video games.

mikoyan wrote:

I have a PS3. I thought I was going to want Force Unleashed until I started reading some of the reviews for it. It sounds like it has a good storyline but pretty shitty gameplay. Since I play games for the game and not necessarily the story, I'll rent this one.

I'm vaguely interested in the new Call of Duty that's coming out. I'm also interested in Fallout but I haven't played any of the other games in the series (Unless Wasteland counts).

For Force Unleased, download the demo first. I was extremely unimpressed with the whole thing. The force was very difficult to use for me and it all seemed very canned. Not horrible, just unimpressive. For fallout, don't use the other games in the series to judge it by. Probably way more accurate to use Morrowind or Oblivion games.

As for the wii thing, I don't have a good perspective so I try not to say anything about it at all. The truth is I am one of those "core" or hardcore gamers. I like shooting and killing people, I like games that are challenging and sometimes an effort to get into and I am completely uninterested in pure family games. I don't begrudge wii lovers as truly an example of different strokes for different folks, but to me there is a *lot* of shovelware on the wii being buoyed by the console's sales numbers and a few really great Nintendo franchises (and once in a blue moon a 3rd party release). The only wii game I really want to play these days is Boom Blox.

Also, for the PS3, there's only one thing you need to know: Little Big Planet. Way more innovative than any game released on the wii or xbox, I think it has a chance to really change the way we think about gaming and the online part of games in particular. If you haven't heard of this game look it up. It's the game that makes me want a PS3, but it doesn't justify the expense for me and I'm pretty happy and busy with the xbox alreayd.

I think once developers realize the installation base of the Wii we'll see a lot more 'core' games (I hope). I mean it took the DS a long while to get out of its Nintendogs phase but now the system is flooded with RPGs, SRPGS and 2D action games. Granted it still gets lots of non-core stuff like Brain Age, Petz, etc., but it has a lot of hardcore games.

I'm hoping the same thing happens for the Wiil

I downloaded the demo for Force Unleashed and it was okay but yes the Force was a pain in the ass because I couldn't quite figure out how to aim so I grabbed the right thing or person.

but I heard that they make everything tougher as you progress. So what are they sending out special Jedi hunting stormtroopers or something? It should be easier to kill them.