Please take it gentle on me, 2old2play community, as this is my first attempt at the weekly new releases on a tight deadline with a bunch of games that aren’t really my cup of tea. Through bonus insider info I did playtest one of these at the studio about a year ago. I hope it crashes less when it ships to Steam this week!!

Playstation

PS3 God of War Ascension
I never really got into the God of War series and every time I see ads for it  my first thought is they gave Quan Chi his own franchise?! This 7th title in the series is a prequel to all the other games. It’s also the first to feature multi-player.  Took them long enough, then again it is Sony so their network probably won’t stay up long enough to play anyway...




Multiplatform

Sniper:  Ghost Warrior 2
This sequel to Sniper Ghost Warrior (I think marketing could have went a little more creative on the title, perhaps an Electric Boogaloo?) hits PS3, XBox and Windows. The release date was pushed back 3 times so fingers crossed they actually hit the target on this one. Get it snipers? Targets? Sorry I’m not an FPS gal so that’s all I got...




Darkstalkers Resurrection (PSN, XBox live)
The Darkstalkers franchise has been resurrected for 2013 so clearly what characters would  you highlight? Vampires!! In fact for the Japanese release its called Vampire Resurrection. Available this week on PSN and XBOXLive it’s an HD update of Darkstalkers Revenge & Darkstalkers 3 featuring multiplayer, online sharing and unlockables.



 

Nintendo

Monster High Skultimate Roller Maze
Previously available for Wii, Monster High now in 3D or probably more like ON 3D and not taking advantage of any of the features of the 3DS. I’m not sure how I’d feel about my non-existent children being excited about this franchise but at least but at least the characters names are terrible puns (like Draculaura) and every child needs more roller derby in their life!



 

PC

Starcraft II:  Heart of the Swarm
This is the first expansion pack for Star Craft 2. This pack features over 20 new missions and continues the campaign with the Zerg race. There goes the neighborhood!  Also: YOU MUST CONSTRUCT ADDITIONAL PYLONS!

Go Home Dinosaurs & PC version of Slambot Scrapers
About a year ago I actually got a chance to head to Firehose games to play test these two titles. Woohoo free pizza and finding out either I’m terrible at them or they haven’t quite nailed down the game play yet (probably a mix of both). Go Home Dinosaurs is a brand new tower defense game involving lots of cute things. Slambot Scrapers was the studio’s first original IP released for PSN and now ported to PC.  Both will be available on Steam this week.

February has come and gone and we are March-ing into spring, my well-aged fellow gamers. Time to store that smelly, old parka in the coat closet and stock up on some AA batteries, because March is going to be a month to remember. This week features a heroic port to the Nintendo side of the gameverse, a new portable Castlevania title in 3D, a whole lot of baseball going on, some shootin’, some Simmin’, and some tomb raiding. Buckle up, amigo.

 

Nintendo

The Amazing Spider-Man
Your friendly neighborhood Spider Man is coming to a Wii-U console near you this week. This is the same game that already released on every other platform on Earth, but if you own a Wii-U then it’s new to you. A deluxe version comes with every scrap of DLC pre-loaded on the disc: bonus costumes from the movies, Stan Lee Adventure Pack, Lizard Rampage Pack, Rhino Challenge, and the Oscorp Search and Destroy Pack. Will the Wii-U Spider Man be able to stand up to his Microsoft and Sony rivals? Don’t ask questions that you already know the answers to. Nintendo console gamers can start their web-slinging careers starting March 5th, unless you live in Australia, in which case you can buy it...never.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow-Mirror of Fate
Konami plays publisher for this MercurySteam developed, portable 3D title, which already won the Sarcasmo Jones Award for Unnecessarily Long Title Length with Generously Extraneous Punctuation. I should probably shorten the title for that award. C:LOS-MOF is set 25 years after the events of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, and Trevor Belmont is pissed off at his dad, Gabriel Belmont, for killing his mom and becoming a vampire. It’s Trevor and The Brotherhood of Light against Dracula in a no-holds barred portable 3D spectacular! I’m rooting for Dracula. This one is a 3DS exclusive, and it hits store shelves on March 5th.

Sony

MLB 13: The Show
Sony is still tweaking their MLB: The Game series. 2013 adds seven new minor league parks to the game, a new beginner mode, instructional enhancements, Vita sync, and tweaks to create a true pick up and play baseball experience. In addition, in the spirit of the age-old baseball tradition of cheating, MLB 13: The Show allows players to skip that pesky baseball season and go straight to the postseason. Way to keep it real, Sony. Available March 5th on the PS3 and Vita.

 

PC

SimCity
Providing an “unprecedented depth of simulation”, the ability to control up to 16 cities, and a brand new multiplayer mode makes SimCity, actually Will Wright’s 5th game in the series, “the most responsive and personal SimCity ever.” In other words: it’s a PC game where you build stuff, but it’s newer than the others. I use my PC as a typewriter with digital ink! Available for PCs everywhere, starting March 5th.

Multiplatform

MLB 2K13
2K’s mighty baseball juggernaut is back for another season. Featuring authentic commentary, a pain in the ass to master right analog pitching scheme, realistic environments and crowd pleasing modes like My Player, Franchise, and Postseason, MLB 2K13 is the closest thing you can get to going outside without actually doing it. This one slides into home on March 5th, for the PS3 and XBox 360.

Sniper Elite 2: Silver Star Edition
This WWII shooter was previously, and presumptuously, called Sniper Elite 2: Game of the Year Edition. The game is a bit on the dark side, combining  both stealth and sniper elements to give it a personality all its own. All 5 DLCs from Sniper Elite 2 are on the disc. I was going to feature a trailer from the Silver Star Edition but I found a much more entertaining YouTube clip from Robbaz entitled “Kill Hitler in the Ballsack” which features in-game footage and entertaining commentary from the 5th Sniper Elite 2 DLC, “Hitler Assassination.” You’re welcome. This one hits shelves on March 5th, for PS3 and Xbox 360 consoles.


Tomb Raider
Lara Croft is getting rebooted today. Young Lara’s first tomb raiding experience lies near disaster: she is shipwrecked, unseasoned, and virtually alone as her shipmates were either killed or captured by bad guy island dudes. It might sound like Far Cry 3, but Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics promised us an adventure that is pure Lara Croft, albeit a very young and inexperienced Lara Croft. Hunt animals, kill bad guy island dudes, and plunder a tomb or two...that’s the Lara we all know and love. You can buy the darling of E3 2012 for PS3 and Xbox 360, starting March 5th.

We had some great AAA releases this month, but unfortunately, February has decided to go out with a whimper. Just as well, I’m still trying to game away the stench of Aliens: Colonial Marines. The only notable release is a Japanese 3D title for the 3DS, so continue on with what you’re already playing...unless you’re into that sort of thing, weirdo.



Nintendo

The fourth installment of the Etrian Odyssey series is the first to make it to 3D. Etrian Odyssey IV: Legend of the Titan looks a lot like early Final Fantasy games, before they got all fancy and moved away from their turn based RPG roots. This game is brought to us by Japanese developer, Altus, which tells me all I need to know about the game: players will start out as a kid, bad stuff happens, kid grows up, theres a big sword around somewhere, and none of it will make sense. Doesn’t bode well for adults, but your kids are going to LOVE it! This is a 3DS exclusive, and it hits shelves on Feb. 26.

 

Well, now that we got that lovey-dovey Valentine's Day crap out of our systems we can get back to doing what we do: keeping the game industry alive one disc at a time. This week is a double shot of AAA goodness as we head to the Liberty Dome in nanosuits and chop the shit out of everything with a sword.

Multiplatform

Crysis 3

Crysis 3 is going to make every other shooter its bitch in the third installment of Crytek and EA’s Crysis saga. The story follows Alcatraz back to NYC, 24 years after the events of Crysis 2. This time the bad guys are terraforming New York City into a rain forest and it’s up to Alcatraz, some guy named Prophet and a couple of nanosuits to stop them. Expect some decent multiplayer featuring a hunter mode. Crytek has beefed up system requirements so that the high-res will “melt down PCs.” Better get a console version, just to be on the safe side. This one drops Feb 19 for PC, PS3, and XBox 360.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Platinum Games and Konami have teamed up to give the bastard child of the Metal Gear series his day in the sun. Raiden is back and he looks kind of pissed off: he's cutting helicopters out of the sky, killing bad guys through support columns, and causing all kinds of structural damage with his fancy new swords...freaking show-off cyber ninja. Do not expect Raiden to be crawling around in a cardboard box, he’s kind of a glutton for attention. The swordplay looks very promising and this title was one of the highlights of last year’s E3 so expect something special. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance releases February 19 for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.

Happy Valentine’s week everybody! I know that you romantic, smooth talking devils are taking your significant other out for a night of romance and heartburn before you trudge through three feet of snow to catch A Good Day to Die Hard at the old Cinema Cineplex, just across from the Singer Sewing Company. This is the perfect week for an unimportant and useless holiday, because only one title drops this week, but it’s a doozie! Get ready for assault rifles, acid blood, and Xenomorph hunting.

Multiplatform
Aliens: Colonial Marines

I know that every single game based on the Aliens film franchise sucked major ass. In fact, only the first two movies were any good, after that Ripley shaved her head, died, and was cloned...I call BS! Randy Pitchford and his merry band of Alien lovers at Gearbox promised us a true Aliens experience and, if the trailers are any indication of their sincerity, we are in for a real treat. Set as a sequel to the second movie, directed by James Cameron, Aliens: Colonial Marines features authentic space marine gear like the pulse rifle, the motion tracker and Ripley’s flamethrower. Some of the in-movie sets were recreated to give players that claustrophobic Aliens feel. I watched the trailers with headphones on and it even sounds like an Aliens movie.
 

Game modes include a single player campaign, 4-player drop in/out co-op, a 6 vs 6 player deathmatch, a 4 marines vs 4 Xenomorphs Escape mode, a gauntlet mode, and several objective-based multiplayer modes. Sealing doors, utilization of motion trackers, turret placement, face-huggers, and use of the loader from the Aliens climax are all part of the game....and I saw a Xenomorph Queen in one of the trailers! The LCE includes characters from the game, like Hudson and Hicks...but no Ripley. If Gearbox pulls this off, we could have an early GOTY contender on our hands. Aliens: Colonial Marines hits shelves on February 12, for PC, PS3, and XBox 360.

So, you finally blew through all the games that Granny got you for Christmas and you’re back in the mood to spend some of your own cash on your habit. January saw very few releases, so I took a month off to play some Far Cry 3 with a little Doom on the side...not a bad way to spend a month. However, I’m ready for the latest and greatest in electronic entertainment and not a moment too soon: developers are about to drop some AAA goodness atop our grateful noggins. Aliens: Colonial Marines, Tomb Raider, Metal Gear Rising Revengeance, Crysis 3, and Bioshock Infinite will release in the not too distant future. This week, a space engineer kills a third wave of necromorphs and Sly Cooper stars in a Time Bandits remake.

Sony

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time

Someone has stolen the Thevius Raccoonis, a book chronicling Sly’s family bloodline and exploits, forcing Sly and the gang to travel time and retrieve this priceless book. Sanzaru Games played developer for the fourth installment in this popular platforming purloiner. Sly still possesses his skills from previous games, and gains a new wardrobe in this installment. Costumes, each providing Sly with a unique ability, are scattered throughout the game, and are necessary to clean up on all the loot on every level, all of which can be revisited. Solve the mystery, read a book, meet Sly’s ancestors, and give them rabies. Available on the PS3 and PS Vita starting February 5. Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time is part of Sony’s Cross Buy initiative, which means if you buy the PS3 version you are entitled to download the Vita version for free. I just checked the prices on this one and Game Stop has the PS3 version selling at $39.99, and $29.99 for the Vita.

Multiplatform

Dead Space 3

Isaac Clarke has had a rough couple of games. He has had to battle necromorphs almost single-handedly on both The Sprawl and USS Ishimura, his girlfriend got herself killed, religious zealots want to kill him, he suffers from near-fatal hallucinations, and got a needle driven into his eye. In the third installment of the space shooter horror survival franchise, Clarke teams up with Han Solo and travels to the ice planet Hoth. I mean Clarke teams up with John Carver and travels to an ice planet that is not Hoth, in order to destroy the final marker and put an end to the necromorph menace once and for all. Developer, Visceral Games, has deepened the Kinect experience with Dead Space 3, adding co-op and allowing players to heal each other, reload, share ammo, etc utilizing Kinect’s voice command feature. Another new feature allows players to roll into cover or out of the way...where the hell was that feature in the last 2 games? Keep cool, Jones, it’s here now and that’s all that matters. Dead Space 3 drops on February 5th, for XBox 360 and PS3 players, cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in Clarke’s eye.

Survival horror has a new name and it isn’t Resident Evil... it’s “Depends.” A package of Depends should come with each copy of Dead Space 3! You will be sharting every time a necromorph jumps out at you when you least expect it. For those of you doing Pilates, Yoga, Crossfit or other types of core physical workouts, you should be fine as your abs of steel hold your sphincter tightly closed while playing through this game.

THQ had a tough year financially which seemed to generate weekly bad press throughout most of 2012. Recently, a bankruptcy judge ruled that THQ had to sell off its assets either as a whole or in pieces. The auction for THQ's assets took place last week.

Path of Exile is an action role playing looter in the same genre as Torchlight and Diablo except with a big key difference, IT’S TOTALLY FREE ! GrindingGearGames announced that Path of Exile emerges from closed beta and is open to anyone and everyone on January 23rd.

 

At the launch of the public beta, Path of Exile will feature three acts, some PvE content, special events and some endgame content-all to be added and improved as the beta continues. The length of the public beta hasn’t yet been determined. The closed beta ran for almost 18 months and the game has been in development for six years.

For the uninitiated, here are some of the features of Path of Exile:

• Six different characters to choose from based on three primary attributes: strength, dexterity and intelligence.
   
• Skills are Gems in Path of Exile. You can socket gems into almost anything and they will give you specific new attacks or effects. There are secondary gems that add modifiers to the primary ones that can all be linked together to mutate powers in new and interesting ways.
   
• As you level up you earn Passive Skill Tree points to spend to develop your character. The Passive Skill Tree is very   deep and very large, even with the maximum number of points possible assigned to the tree, you would only use 10% of it.  Character building is a core feature of ‘Exile.
   
• Everything is randomly generated-environments, monsters and item drops-so the game varies each time you play it.
• Item drops can be combined to make more powerful items, reroll weapon or gem stats, and used for trade. There is no gold in Path of Exile; items are the currency.
   
• Tons of endgame and lategame content like no other role playing looter has ever achieved.  
   
• Play solo, party up with up to 8 players or meet random people to trade with in towns.
   
• Microtransaction items are cosmetic only-nothing you can buy gives you any type of advantage over the environment or other players.

 

It’s been awhile since we’ve seen a roll playing looter offer the kind of depth and the character mastery Path of Exile offers. It also has a more casual normal difficulty that will forgive character development mistakes and be more accessible to casual players. As you advance in difficulty though, the science behind your character build becomes extremely important.

For a detailed look at the game, check out Gamespot’s hour long interview with Lead Designer Chris Wilson. Wilson answers questions and shows off the various elements of the game and some of the new third act content. Skip ahead to 5:30 to get to the good stuff!

Official Public Beta Trailer

Path of Exile Website

This summer, Disney is looking at taking on Activision and their Skylanders brand with a toy/video game line of their own called Disney Infinity.

At the heart of the game are the collectable figures with an internal memory that records their progress.  Disney plans on tapping many of its franchises for characters of which Pirates of the Caribbean, Cars, Incredibles, Toy Story, Monsters Inc, Nightmare Before Christmas and Wreck It Ralph were all shown in the launch trailer.

Starter Pack

Disney plans on having 30 characters available for launch this June, including a starter pack, individual characters and character bundles.   The Starter Pack is said to include Pirate Jack, Mr. Incredible and Sully also a platform that can accommodate three characters and power discs.  The power discs stack under the character on the platform and give them a unique in-game power. They will be sold individually or with characters that don't come with playsets and add another layer of collectability to Infinity.

Pirates of the Caribbean Play Set

Where Infinity differs from Skylanders is that it's a non-linear experience.  You can go anywhere in that characters 'Playset' and do what you want or do missions, solve puzzles, find collectibles and complete challenges.  Each Playset is tied to a specific universe, so Incredibles exist in the Incredibles campaign Playset, Pirates characters would exist in the Pirates of the Caribbean campaign playset etc.  What isn't answered is what happens when you add more character from the same universe, do they re-play the same campaign content or are new elements added.

The Toybox

The biggest departure from Skylanders is Infinity's 'Toybox' mode.  In this mode, gamers can unleash their Disney fanboy and 'what if' scenarios.  You can mix and match characters from different playsets in Toybox mode.  Want to race Incredibles Dash against Cars Lightning McQueen to see who's the fastest? You can do that.   Want to put Buzz Lightyear's jetpack on Woody?  You can do that too.  You can also build, if you wanted to make a virtual replica of Disneyland, you can do that.  Toybox mode will come with some pre-defined models to get you started like Cinderellas Castle.  Another feature to play with are logic switches and other drop in gameplay mechanics like we've seen in games such as Little Big Planet so you can create your own interactive games inside the Toybox.   Don't think you have to go it alone either, 4 player online co-op or 2 player couch co-op will be supported so your friends can join in the fun.

While Skylanders is the king of the toy/game scene right now, Disney Infinity will have immediately recognizable characters and established worlds to play in.  It doesn't take much to imagine this is going to take off like a wildfire.  Disney also owns Marvel and Star Wars. If Infinity does well at retail, it's also not hard to imagine those franchises being added on later.

Announcement Trailer