Monday 9 May 2011

The Radar

Right so originally I was going to review Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable for the PSP but I have somewhat underestimated the length of it and overestimated the amount of time I’ve had. With this in mind rather than review the bits I have played, which are quite enjoyable, I’ve decided to give a ‘What I’m looking forward to’ for the coming months.
            First on the radar is the interesting looking L.A Noire from Rockstar. Now I’ve never really enjoyed Rockstar’s games, with the exception of Red Dead: Redemption which was brilliant, but this offering looks very solid. Taking a step back from the over-rated GTA series and throwing us back in time to the late 40’s you take the role of a police investigator. What the game claims is that they have used revolutionary face recognition technology to accurately map actors faces. This, if it works, will enable the player to carefully watch the people to whom you are asking the questions and spot if they’re hiding something or lying to you. As long as the game keeps a suitably film noire feeling and the rest of the investigations are as up to scratch as the interrogations are promised to be this could easily be incredibly good indeed.
            Duke Nukem: Forever is next up after 14 years of development, cancelling, being re-picked up, put on hold and just about everything else that could possibly go wrong in a games pre-release life. Now I have high doubts as to this game actually being good but I will be extremely shocked if it’s not stupidly entertaining. I’m not big on FPS but every now and again you want to blow stuff up with really big guns and that is very much what the Duke will be offering us. So probably not going to be a keeper but surely worth renting or picking up and trading in after what is probably not going to be the longest campaign.
            The follow up to the best superhero game ever to be released, Batman Arkham City, is out in October and if you’re not excited you clearly haven’t seen the trailer. If this is the case there will be a link at the bottom of this for any trailers so there’s no excuse. I won’t say much about this one only that it’s going to be phenomenal if it’s even half as good as it looks or Batman Arkham Asylum was.
            Dead Island is one I’ve had my eye on for some time and although I’m looking forward to it recent screenshots have put a degree of worry in with the excitement. I am speaking of what looks like a huge, straight jacketed ‘tank’ enemy that looks for all the world like a ‘dodge out the way so it runs into a wall and reveals a huge weak point on it’s back’ sort of thing. As long as this is kept to a minimum and the game doesn’t give you enough ammo to supply a military detachment (I’m looking at YOU Resident Evil 5) this could be a stunning survival horror. It’s more likely to be Left 4 Dead Tropical Edition but I live in hope that it can be the game it should, surviving zombie hordes whilst trying to escape a tropical island without sinking into a slaughterfest, as enjoyable as those are we’ve got plenty and this could be such a good survival horror! On a side not the trailer for this is incredible but does contain images that people may find upsetting.
             I realise now that there are an awful lot of games I’m looking forward to this year so I’m going to wrap this up with the one I’m dying to play more than any other. Deus Ex 3: Human Revolution looks eye meltingly awesome. The first game is one of the best games ever made and this instalment looks like it’s going to pick up the torch from Invisible War, the first sequel that was less than stellar, and do its Grandfather proud. Fusing RPG and FPS is difficult to do to keep fans of both happy and Deus Ex, along with Fallout, does it incredibly well. Using a combination of firearms and body modifications, including a plethora of attachments for your robotic arms, you will undoubtedly fight, stealth and explore your way through a complex conspiracy. The game doesn’t force you down one path and there are almost always multiple ways of getting around the obstacles or approaching the situation in cunning, or indeed not so cunning, ways. Of everything else that will be released this year Human Revolution is the only one which stands a chance of taking ‘Game of the Year’ awards away from Portal 2, strong words indeed given the strength of the line-up we have to look forward to this year.




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