| Opinion | Apr. 11, 2007 | 10:33 pm |
Dealing with this summer’s gaming dry spell
By
Looking to buy some great new video games to play over the summer? Too bad. There aren’t many exciting new games coming out until… well… the eventual release of Grand Theft Auto IV and Halo 3, both slated for the end of 2007 (let‘s pretend that there won‘t be any release delays). This summer will be slow for the gaming crowd.
If, however, you must spend the bikini season indoors, pick up one of these half-decent titles:
Spider-Man 3 (multi-platform)
Yup, America’s favorite webhead is back this summer for his last cinema adventure, and so is another installment of his licensed video game. Movie-based video games don’t have the greatest track records (for a recent example, please see Ghost Rider). But Spider-Man 3 is bucking that trend by letting you play not only along the movie’s storyline, but also along several others that have been pulled from his comic book roots. Spidey’s new black duds will also allow you to use God Of War-type button sequences and killer new combos to pummel foes. And you don’t have to spend lots of time being a good samaritan by rescuing little kid’s balloons, like in Spider-Man 2: The side quests will have meaning. He does whatever a spider can…
Super Paper Mario (Wii)
Been craving a certain plumber fix since your wand-waving console came out? Super Paper Mario, which came out April 9, will cure that for you. The spiritual successor to Super Mario RPG, this game is in 2½-D. Mario’s got the power to flip his 2D perspective into a 3D view, which lets him discover new items and solve puzzles. He’s also got sidekicks to boot: new allies called Pixls, Princess Peach, Bowser and Luigi, each with their own abilities. Like the other games in the Paper Mario series, it’s got a light-hearted tone and will probably be pretty linear. But hey — it’s Mario!
Pokemon Diamond and Pearl (DS)
I know what you’re thinking — these stupid little cretins just won’t die. There’s a good reason for that: Pokemon is addicting as heck. The new iterations, Diamond and Pearl, are introducing another bevy of monsters to catch, collect and battle. The time element is being re-introduced into Pokemon, so some creatures will only appear at night or during the day. But there’s also something very distinctive about the next generation of this series: You can now play over the DS WiFi service. Finally, we can answer the age-old question of who is the World’s Greatest Pokemon Master….that is, if you still care about that kind of thing. This will be a great one for the inevitable summer road trip.
To be honest, you’d probably be better off getting some sun this summer. Or go retro and explore your old games. Just don’t count on curing your boredom with the consoles this summer.
Tommy Rousse said,
April 12, 2007 @ 2:42 am
If you prefer to PWN your noobs with a moose instead of a numbchuck or whatever, you might also want to check out Hellgate: London (Bill Roper runs this bitch! That dude is the numero uno behind Diablo) and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars for PC.
Scott Olstad said,
April 13, 2007 @ 12:52 am
While there is nothing wrong about the games you have chosen, the title of this article is completely wrong. First, of the games you listed, one of them is already out, and the other two will be out before mid-May. These are not summer games.
I can understand taking this angle for a story, but it simply isn’t relevant this year. This summer has some very decent games being released:
Blue Dragon
Mass Effect
Forza 2
Shadowrun
Tomb Raider: Anniversary (shut up, you know Legends was good)
Additionally, let’s remember who you are writing for. For Northwestern students, summer goes until the last week of September when classes actually start. September is going to be magic this year. Grand Theft Auto IV hits October 17th. You can say that date is ambitious, and I would agree with you, but Rockstar usually lives up to the release dates. Halo 3 will (presumably) arrive in November. Nobody wants their game to be released in between those two giants. Nobody wants their game to be released after those two giants. September is going to be the month to release games this year. Expect to be playing heavy hitters like Too Human, Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles, and possibly even Assassin’s Creed and Guitar Hero III before we even arrive back in Evanston for school.
I am fully anticipating that this will be one of the best summers yet for gamers.
Scott Olstad said,
April 13, 2007 @ 12:55 am
Oh, and the Half-Life 2 box set with Half-Life 2, Episodes 1 & 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2, as well as Burnout 5, will probably be September as well.
Steven Berger said,
April 13, 2007 @ 9:33 am
Yeah, the thing about that Halo 3 thing is, obviously Sony and Nintendo won’t sit there and be drowned out by Halo 3. Wii has Smash Bros and Mario Galaxy coming out in Nov/Dec…you think they’ll just sit on the shelves? Halo 3 will sell a billion copies in its first week, then nothing afterwards. You could probably safely release anything after it and still walk away ok.
Scott Olstad said,
April 13, 2007 @ 11:59 am
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but either Smash Bros. or Mario Galaxy will not be releasing this year.
I mean, seriously, do you think Nintendo would release Metroid Prime 3, Mario Galaxy AND Smash Bros. in the same quarter? Of course not. Smash Bros. will be delayed until ‘08.
As far as Halo 3 goes, I think it is just the opposite. While I’m sure Halo 3 will eventually sell more copies than Halo 2, it won’t have as large of a first day sell through. Think of all the frat boys around campus and what games they play. The most popular game is easily Halo 2. A lot of these people are still playing on original Xboxes. Halo 3 is going to be the game that sells 360s this fall. So while I think Halo 3 will definitely have a big first week, I highly doubt we’ll see the sales drop off you predict.