It’s started a little later than usual for me this year, but this past Tuesday marked the official start of the “every week there will be an awesome new game released” season. (Yes, Halo Reach was released in mid-September, but there was just such a long gap between that and this week that I’m going to consider that like having dessert an hour before the buffet line opens.)
This week we had three solid retail titles come out: Fallout: New Vegas, DJ Hero 2 and Vanquish. Next week we’ll see Fable 3. The week after is the Kinect launch week as well as Call of Duty Black Ops. Then the storm really comes with Donkey Kong Country Returns, Goldeneye, Epic Mickey, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Gran Turismo 5, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, then OH MY GOD THIS IS NEVER GOING TO END.
Fallout: New Vegas
Fallout 3 was so damn riveting that I can’t imagine New Vegas disappointing content-wise. Most of the reviews are pretty much in agreeance (thanks Fred Durst) on this. If you like post-apocalyptic settings, great story, open world exploration with your 1st or 3rd person action RPG, then this is the game for you. Unfortunately, it seems as if there are some serious bugs in this game on all platforms. I’ve been reading horror stories of losing hours of gameplay due to corrupt autosaves and/or hard game lockups. Nothing frustrates me more than having to replay content due to bugs so I might wait until they can get the first patch out before I start this one. But if you have good saving habits and need an enthralling game to play, I won’t blame you for wanting to dive in right now.
DJ Hero 2
Ok so my friend at hellomoye found this DJ Hero 2 commercial really gross, but shit do I still want to play this game. I must have made the quickest turnaround from hating on last year’s DJ Hero’s plastic instrument overload existence to actually eagerly anticipating the sequel.
Seriously.
I mean have you seen the song list for DJ Hero 2? Here, take a look. (Scroll down to the product description) I’ll wait.
Right?? Major Lazer vs New Order. Snow (Yes, Informer Snow) vs Jackson 5. Lady GaGa vs Deadmau5. Music games have drifted from being about awesome contemporary music to having enough niche rock songs to try and appeal to both Dad and your weird death metal obsessed cousin. Yet DJ Hero 2 seems to have found the sweet spot of Pop nostalgia and modern dance music.
Vanquish
This one’s been a favorite of mine since I learned of its existence prior to E3 2010. I’ve already written a preview on it here so I’ll keep this short. It has the tight controls of Gears of War combined with the fluidity and badassery of a Bayonetta or Devil May Cry and the aesthetics of a modern day Virtual On. Oh, and it’s about a future Cold War between the US and Soviets in San Francisco. If that doesn’t convince you of the awesomeness of Vanquish yet, I think you might need a new hobby that doesn’t involve a gamepad.
