The release of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Left4Dead 2 and Assassin’s Creed 2 signified the end of major releases for 2009. There are still noteworthy ones throughout the rest of the year, but it’s more spread out and not jammed into a single week. I’m looking forward to this calm.
I still have yet to start the new Ratchet & Clank. I have NSMBWii and God of War Collection coming. And that’s without the fact that I still wish to play Modern Warfare 2 and Forza 3 regularly. That’s a lot of games and, thankfully, we’ve now got the time. The only releases which I’ve deemed noteworthy include:
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks – DS – Dec. 7, 2009
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers – Wii – Dec. 26, 2009
Three games in one week. 2009′s gaming finishes with one final push in December and then it’s onto 2010.
I don’t know if I will get Spirit Tracks since I have yet to finish Phantom Hourglass. As for the other two? I re-imagining of the original Silent Hill is very much welcomed since I’ve not gotten a chance to try the original yet. And The Saboteur looks to be visually intriguing to say the least. It’s Pandemic Studio’s last game and it looks to be pretty decent.
“What I’ve been saying to our development teams recently is that “Twilight Princess” was not a bad game, by any means. But, still, it felt like there was something missing. And while, personally, I feel like “Super Mario Galaxy” was able to do some things that were very new and were very unique, at the same time, from another perspective, certain elements of it do feel somewhat conservative in terms of how far we branched out with design. And so this is something I’ve been talking to both of those teams about.”
That’s a quote from an interview from MTV Multiplayer blog’s latest interview with Shigeru Miyamoto. I’m pleased to know that Miyamoto is still interested in pushing the Mario and Zelda franchises forward. Super Mario Galaxy was an absolute gem and I cannot imagine how an non-conservative version of that would be — mindblowingly awesome comes to mind, though.
He also goes into talk involving a bit of Spore, Portal and the upcoming installment of Punch-Out for Wii.
For the hardcore gamer demographic, Nintendo’s press conference was a bore. For those with an open mind and curious as to how Nintendo will continue to broaden the gaming market, it was something worthwhile. Sorta.
The press conference was a mixed bag and just like Microsoft’s press conference, it’s a lot more exciting to read the list. Enjoy.
Metal Gear Online is now live for everyone meaning I’ll be spending time with it – the amount of time will depend on its quality. So expect something written up about this. As for the game, I have some idea what to expect, but it’s all very vague. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if I just don’t get what MGO is all about.
Grand Theft Auto 4 is just around the corner and reviews are beginning to crop up. IGN’s review is lengthy, but I didn’t bother reading it since it’s just a lot of anecdotes which you shouldn’t be reading, but experiencing for your own. IGN gave it a 10/10. Shocking? No. As for the differences between the PS3 and XBOX 360 versions, it appears that speculation of the PS3 version being “technically superior” appears to be true:
Remember the GameTrailers Zelda Retrospective with the Zelda timeline theory? Well, AVGN has his own theory in this unreleased (on GameTrailers) video:
This reminds me that I have to play Zelda: Twilight Princess one day.
For the hardcore gamer demographic, Nintendo’s press conference was a bore. For those with an open mind and curious as to how Nintendo will continue to broaden the gaming market, it was something worthwhile. Sorta.