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The Other 25:
The
OTHER Games I’m Looking Forward to...
Written
By:
J. Michael Neal
Part Five
Well, we’re finally
at the end. The alphabet has run its course. We’re at the final
five. We’ve seen some pretty promising titles along the way. We’ve
had some sequels to games no one played, a spattering of
intellectual properties, even a licensed game of all things, and
they all look to be pretty noteworthy, even on a small scale. Will
you pawn your copy of The Sims 2 or Jade Empire or
Counter-Strike: Source or Smackdown vs. Raw to get any of
them? Probably not. Heck, even I wouldn’t, but yeah, you might put
in a little over-time at the In-n-Out Burger or go without a few
text books this semester, if you know what I mean. Out of the 25
games on this list, I can guarantee that at least half of them
you’ll want staring back at you from your library after the final
tally is made and we’ve all put away our PS2s and Xboxs and
GameCubes for the next crop of consoles to be had. So take note,
listen up, and keep an eye out for these releases, because a sleeper
hit is a terrible thing to waste.
Second
Sight
Why I’m Excited: This game
looks wicked! It’s the first third person title we’ve seen from Free
Radical, but that doesn’t mean the people behind GoldenEye
and TimeSplitters stumbled in their transition from the 1st
to the 3rd person. Second Sight seems to have all
the markings of a great action/adventure title – excellent story,
cool puzzles, lots of action, and of course, kick-ass psychic
powers! It looks like it’s going to be a blast tossing around
enemies like rag dolls and possessing people at will. Heck, look how
much fun you can have in a game like Psi-Ops doing that kind
of stuff and think what Free Radical can do with it!
Why It May Go Unnoticed:
Second Sight is being released at the beginning of one of the
busiest 4th Quarters in recent memory. It will no doubt
drown, being sandwiched in between sure-fire hits like Silent
Hill 4, WWE Day of Reckoning, Call of Duty: United
Offensive, The Sims 2, Def Jam Fight for NY,
Star Wars Battlefront, Rome: Total War, Dead or Alive
Ultimate, and of course, Fable. I expect this one to hit
the bargain bins pretty hard. And for the record, Psi-Ops
gets absolutely no respect either.
Systems: Xbox, PS2, GC.
TimeSplitters: Future Perfect
Why I’m Excited:
TimeSplitters 2 rocked. I personally got more out of that game
than I did out of Halo. No, really. Halo was a good
game, don’t get me wrong, but all the time I’ve put into that game
is solely due to the fact that as soon as anyone enters my home and
see that I have an Xbox, they ask to play Halo. While Halo
2 will no doubt own us all, Future Perfect looks good
enough to earn some attention in its own right now that EA has
picked up the franchise. Expect the TimeSplitters franchise
to get the same kind of make-over EA gave Burnout, i.e.
higher production values, better visuals, and more of everything
that made it great in the first place. If I were you, I’d save room
on my FPS plate for this little underdog.
Why It May Go Unnoticed:
Although the TimeSplitters franchise has always been a solid
seller, it’s never quit gotten the respect it deserves, and with the
stiff competition from other FPS it will receive when it’s released
(Doom 3, Halo 2, Half-Life 2, and Unreal
Championship 2, just to name a few) I doubt Free Radical’s
little-shooter-that-could will emerge victorious. At least not in
the long run…
Systems: Xbox, PS2, GC.
Under the Skin
Why I’m Excited: If I’ve
said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times – any game coming out of
Capcom’s Production Studio 4 will have my immediate attention until
it proves to me that it sucks. Under the Skin (formerly “Panic
Maker”) looks like some sort of wacky… I-don’t-know-what. Its
bizarreness defies description. It looks insane, and goofy, and
complicated, and terribly Japanese – how could you not want to play
it? Whether it’s fun or not is a whole ‘nother thing, but for now, I
can’t wait to get my hands on a copy.
Why It May Go Unnoticed: It
looks insane, and goofy, and complicated, and terribly Japanese –
how many games like that have broken into the mainstream? Not many,
I can tell you that. I expect people to just scratch their heads and
walk on by no matter how this game turns out.
System: PS2.
Viewtiful Joe 2
Why I’m Excited: It’s
Viewtiful Joe 2!!! Few games have rocked my socks off as hard as
Viewtiful Joe. It was the stiffest gust of fresh air
the gaming industry has seen in a very, very long time. It breathed
new life into a genre that was pretty much dead as dead and gave
GameCube owners one more reason to be grateful they bought that
little purple (or black, or silver, or whatever) box. In all
honesty, if VJ2 was just the original game, with like 8 new
levels thrown in, I’d still pay $40 bucks for it! Joe
was just that good! Anything new this game has to offer (and it does
have a few tricks up its sleeve), I’ll lap up like a hungry dog and
beg for more.
Why It May Go Unnoticed:
Let’s face it, quirkiness and 2-Demonsiality aside, Viewtiful Joe
was flat-out too difficult for most prospective buyers. That game is
a ball-breaker, and I doubt its sequel will be any more forgiving.
This alone will put off most people. Add to that the fact that
it’s so righteously over-the-top, add to that the fact that it’s a
side-scroller, add to that the fact that it’s on a system that gets
zero respect, and add to that the fact that the first one didn’t
sell anywhere near what it should have, in my opinion, and you have
yet another soon-to-be-forgotten modern day classic. Poor,
poor Capcom…
System: GC.
WWX
Rumble Roses
Why I’m Excited: Shameless
hormones aside, this game actually looks very cool. In short, it’s a
scaled down Smackdown with hot babes and more exaggerated,
acrobatic maneuvers. I’m sure it will be fun, given how amazingly
Yuke’s wrestling engine lends itself to multiplayer mayhem, and, you
know, the mud wrestling’s kind of interesting. As a big fan of the
Smackdown series I am looking forward to this one, if for no
other reason than it’s always cooler to see two hot, greased up,
half-naked women fight than two buff, greased up, half-naked men. At
least for us guys… straight guys…
Why It May Go Unnoticed: If
you can only buy one wrestling game this year… make it Smackdown
vs. Raw. But if you can buy two… I’d consider saving $50
bucks for this one. The problem is, how many people are in the
neighborhood for two wrestling games, especially when THQ’s
Smackdown vs. Raw indulges nearly every squared-circle fanatic’s
geekiest desire? I doubt this game can compete with SvR when
it comes to online, and create-a-player, and create-a-ppv, and match
types, and multiplayer, and so on and so on. It could, sure, I’d
love it if it could, but I will sure as heck be surprised. This game
would certainly serve as a nice appetizer for the main course
though, but curiously, this game is being released by the same
developer, from different publishers, within the same week, with no
possible hope of stepping out from under the shadow of THQ’s monster
of a franchise. I don’t get it. It would be like releasing NFL
Blitz and Madden on the same day. Oh well. My advice? Get
this one done by early October and we’ll all be the better for it.
Systems: PS2.
<-- Part Four
Posted:
9-8-04 |
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