First up is a game that I have been looking forward to since before it was even announced, Brutal Legend. The company behind Brutal Legend, Double Fine, has a tremendous pedigree in gaming. Besides the upcoming release of Brutal Legend Double Fine has only released one other game, Psychonauts. However, the sheer amount of talent at that company is enough to make most people clamor for any title they announce. Tim Schafer is a name that has become synonymous with great writing in video games. His games have always had the uncanny ability to provide a sense of humor that actually causes laughter instead of smirks and snickers. Brutal Legend, Schafer's recognition of a long love of heavy metal, is the story of roadie Eddie Riggs who is voiced by Jack Black. Riggs, after what appears to be a life ending situation, finds himself in a world of rock and roll unlike anything he could dream of. From there the player takes control of Riggs in what appears to be a button mashing frenzy of melee and ranged combat.
Riggs is ready to rock.
There appears to be a clever story tied into the game, as there always is with Schafer, along with some interesting multiplayer aspects as well. The multiplayer focuses around building up armies to decimate your competition in a real time strategy manor. With the great looking visuals, humorous dialog, unique story, and interesting multiplayer Brutal Legend looks like it could be a much loved game. As with most of Schafer's projects the fan base appears to be the biggest worry. Although his games are often entertaining and unique compared to the competition people seem to rarely pick up games without a title that is immediately apparent to them. Do yourself a favor and at least give the demo a shot on PSN or Xbox Live. Brutal Legend is out now, check it out.
Game number two on the list is one that has had me on the fence for a long time. Borderlands comes to us from the brilliant minds of Randy Pitchford and Gearbox Software. The biggest draw for this game? 17,750,000 guns! That is not an exaggeration, in fact it might be less than the actual number as that count was given from Pitchford months ago. Borderlands is a first person shooter with RPG elements to create a sort of Diablo meets Halo hybrid. The core gameplay revolves around shooting baddies square in the face and collecting massive amounts of loot from theirdead bodies.
The amount of guns in this game is thanks to an amazing weapons generator created by Gearbox that takes different elements and ammunition type and rearranges them to create new and interesting weapons. There is no doubt in my mind that some of these guns will be similar save for the fact that one shoots bullets while the other shoots acid coated rounds, but come on 17,750,000 guns! There are four playable characters, each with there own special abilities including turrets, melee combat, a phase walk, and a combat pet. Vehicles are a slightly less touted form of combat in the game but there are certainly a good number of vehicles to create all sorts of havoc on the battlefield. The game is quest based and relies on players finishing quests in order to move on to the next kill spot. There will certainly be plenty of hours of gameplay here with multiple characters, an amount of guns that is unheard of, and four player co-op to boot. Borderlands' only drawback for some might be the repetitive shoot, kill, and loot mechanic.
However, if people could play Diablo for hours on end I can't see why Borderlands would be any different. Look for it on shelves for the PS3 and 360 on October 20th and the PC on October 26th.
The third game in this list is one that all of the masochists out there will be sure to love. Demon's Souls comes to us from From Software. Demon's Souls is an open-ended dungeon crawler with some interesting multiplayer mechanics and a gut wrenching difficulty. The things that make this game hard however are mechanics that were normal and accepted back in the 90's. Things like mana and health that don't regenerate, enemies being able to destroy you in a few hits if you aren't wary, and the complete loss of valuable objects (in this case souls) when you die.
My, what a big sword you have!
Death in Demon's Souls causes you to lose souls which are basically a form of currency in the game; in order to reclaim those souls you must run back to your body and touch the bloodstain that was left by your death. However, if you die a second time you without reclaiming those souls you lose them forever. The gameplay is action packed and thrilling when you know that any battle can result in a serious problem later on, but that is what the game's online is for. It is a somewhat persistent world that allows players to jump in and out of co-op with one another. Players can help each other with quests, or if you are feeling a bit angry you can jump into a players game and go after the player themselves. Demon's Souls is a PS3 exclusive that seems to be getting a lot of attention for its interesting fantasy setting and highly loved gameplay style. There will always be a group of hardcore RPG fans and this game certainly fills their niche. But I never considered myself a huge RPG player and I still found my short time with Demon's Souls to be thrilling, almost like playing a survival horror game with swords. Demon's Souls is out now for the PS3 so if you are up for a real challenge go check this one out.
The fourth game is one that is striving to garner even more attention to the rhythm game genre. That game is DJ Hero. Created by FreeStlyeGames and published by Activision DJ Hero is yet another try to include the many people who just couldn't get into the rock culture of Guitar Hero. DJ Hero centers mainly around hip hop and features an impressive set list of 94 songs in all. With artists like; 2Pac, Beck, Daft Punk, DJ Shadow, Grandmaster Flash, Jay-Z, Kid Cudi, Little Richard, and even Queen DJ Hero is shaping up to be an interesting title.
The game comes with a turntable style controller that has been said to be easy to pick up for those who are intimidated by its professional appearance. Players use the controller much like the guitar in guitar hero to preform scratches and crossfades in order to score points on each song. As the difficulty ramps up players will need to use the crossfader quickly and scratch in certain directions if they do not wish to fail. With seven multiplayer modes, including face-off and co-op, DJ Hero looks to wrangle in those casual players who couldn't get into Guitar Hero. Look for DJ Hero to be in stores on October 27th bundled with the controller for about $120.
Game number five is my personal favorite of the list and one that I have been looking forward to since I beat Baldur's Gate 2. Dragon Age: Origins is the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate and is created by BioWare. BioWare's impressive list of games includes Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate 2, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, and their latest title Mass Effect. BioWare is responsible for some of the greatest RPGs in all of gaming. What makes their RPGs so fantastic is the fact that the majority of people can jump into them and play through their 40 hour campaigns without needing to read a 400 page manual or already be aware of the game's history and fiction. Dragon Age: Origins seems to be a bit less forgiving in the jump in and play aspect but the game itself seems more than worth the time it will take to learn how to play. Dragon Age: Origins plays as a third person RPG with turn based yet real time combat. There is an ability to pause the game and select which moves you want your party to cast, making the gameplay more manageable in heavy situations.
That is not a good defense...
Dragon Age: Origins appears to be just like the majority of BioWare games, it contains a heavy narrative with meaningful characters and realistic situations. Dragon Age takes place in a fantasy setting that is being considered Dark Fantasy for its immense amounts of gore and violence and the occasional sexual act. BioWare's dynamic conversation system appears to be present in this game and that always makes for a more immersive and dynamic storytelling. There are six characters to play as so far and each one has their own unique origin story to start with, leaving the replayability factor very high. On top of your starting character you will gain party members over time who you can control in combat and make use of for solving problems. One of the most interesting dynamics I've seen in Dragon Age is spell interaction. For instance, if the floor in front of you is aflame and your party is suffering from it simply cast a water or ice spell to cancel out the flame and then heal up your party. There is a much deeper level of thinking required for some battles in Dragon Age: Origins and each battle feels like a mini war in and of itself. That being said beating a simple group of Darkspawn, the game's main enemy, feels like an accomplishment each time. Dragon Age: Origins promises near 40 hours of gameplay for the average player, calculate that into the six different starting characters and the ability to play as different classes knights, rogues, mages etc and you are looking at a game that could easily top 100 hours of gameplay. There is some seriously excellent looking content here for those who don't mind sitting down for a bit to indulge in this game's fantastic fiction. Dragon Age: Origins comes out for the 360 and PC on November 3rd and for the PS3 on November 17th, do yourself a favor and give it a try.
Play it...
(All pictures are from giantbomb.com...except for the horse, that was on Bing.)
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