What I’m Excited About for the Rest of the Year
Matt posted in Games, Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii on July 13th, 2006

August
Ninety Nine Nights – I wrote a long post about how great I think Ninety Nine Nights will be, so instead of reiterating that here, check it out.

Rule of the Rose – This game is promising to not only be scary, but also some sort of psychological thriller. Regardless of how the game turns out, it seems worth playing just for something refreshingly different. Something that worries me is that Gamasutra mentions the game’s “prepubescent erotic undertones” (although they don’t go into specifics), but the trailers look like a cross between a David Lynch movie and “City of the Lost Children”, so I’m excited regardless. It definitely seems genuinely creepy instead of ghosts popping out and saying “boo!”. One thing that I have to wonder is are Japanese people afraid of children? I’ve seen the Japanese versions of The Ring, the Grudge, and Dark Water (all of which have been remade in America) and I’m beginning to think that Japanese people (at least the ones that make horror movies/games) are afraid of children.

Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus – I had to look up what a “Dirge” is, and I have no idea what Cerberus’s has to do with Final Fantasy VII, but I love RPGs and action games and this seems like a good combination of the two. I played it for a while at E3, and it seemed to preserve all the good aspects of the Final Fantasy games (items, lots of weapon customizations, pre-rendered cutscenes) with a pretty solid action shooter. On one hand, I really feel like Final Fantasy VII was a closed story and there’s really nothing more interesting to say about it, but on the other hand, I certainly loved Final Fantasy VII, and I want more because I loved the characters so much.

October
Final Fantasy XII – Although I’m not sure why the lead character looks so effeminate, and I’m frightened that the character Fran was added to cater to furries, but other than that, the art looks absolutely amazing in FF XII. The world seems completely unlike any other game I’ve played, which is definitely a good thing. I believe the team said they were using middle eastern style architecture or something, but whatever it is they are doing, it certainly looks unique. and GOREGEOUS. As far as gameplay, I played this game quite a bit at E3 2004 and was very disappointed. Combat wasn’t any fun at all. When the demo disc came out with Dragon’s Quest VIII, it was clear that this is a completely different (and better) game. I haven’t heard anything but praise for the final game and it’s new take on the traditional Final Fantasy mechanics. 

Forza Motorsport 2 – Although I’m horrible at racing sim games, and I’ve barely found time to play PGR3, I’m really excited about Forza Motorsport 2. I’ll tell you the reason. It’s being designed to use the Microsoft Wireless Racing Wheel. Although there’s really no reason it has to be wireless, it has force feedback (when you use it with the AC adapter). I have the second version of the Microsoft Force Feedback PC steering wheel, and it is ABSOLUTELY amazing! I’d play a bus driving simulation game if I got to use that force feedback. I can only imagine how great of an experience it will be with a real racing sim and an amazing force feedback steering wheel. With PC games, there are many different force feedback wheels and they all behave differently. When Microsoft releases the official steering wheel, all racing games will have one steering wheel to use in order to calibrate gameplay (and force feedback effects). I imagine developers can query whether it is a steering wheel or a gamepad, so they can tune gameplay to the steering wheel, rather than the steering wheel manufactures trying to appropriately map the steering wheel’s function to the analog joystick. So, I can’t wait for a really good steering force feedback steering wheel and the flagship title that showing it off.

Gears of War – I went into the Microsoft E3 theater not really expecting anything. I figured it’d be another lame video showing how Xbox 360 brings people together or something like that. I was way wrong. CliffyB was there actually explaining what was cool about the game and what he was trying to accomplish. Now, I think it’s cool that CliffyB was giving the demo not because he’s a “name” in the video game industry, but more because he’s the lead designer, so he should know the game better than anyone. It’s too often that you have someone who doesn’t understand the spirit of the game demoing it. For example, some of my friends recounted a story about how someone demoing Viva Pinata beat a pinata to death because it was in the way of the two pinatas that were supposed to mate. This completely violates the spirit of the game, and is a bad thing to show. For example, I can’t imagine Shigaru Miyamoto beating his Nintendog to death for a demo because it didn’t smile at him when he turned on the DS. Viva Pinata is all about growing and taking care of the pinatas on your island, and beating one to death because it was in the way, certainly doesn’t convey that. At any rate, Gears of War is trying to create a whole new style of action game based on cover. Sure, maybe that doesn’t sound appealing to you, but that’s what was so great about the demo. Gears of War may not be impressive on paper, but when you see the fluid movements that the player character can do, you’ll understand why I’m so excited about it. CliffyB showed that you could duck behind cover,  then shoot from either side or the top,  and go from either side or jump over it to get to the next cover point. He also explained his main design goal  - to make the controls simple. I wasn’t playing the game, so I don’t know how simple the controls are, but it really seemed like a lot of amazing moves happened because of the context sensitivity of the A button. I wrote in an earlier blog post about how this idea of simplified control scheme will make games more accessible to non-gamers. Anyway, this is defiintely a game to look out for.

Super Paper Mario – There hasn’t been a GameCube title I’ve been excited about for a while. I loved all the old Mario platformers, so I’m really excited about a new one. On one hand, I’d say that Nintendo isn’t really innovating gameplay by releasing another platformer similar to their NES releases, but on the other hand, those games were really fun, so I’d be happy to play a game like that again. It does sound like there’s some cool new things in this game, so we’ll see how good it is. At least it’s better than a rerelease, which Nintendo has a habit of doing.

November
Warhawk – This was the Playstation 3 game at E3 that I enjoyed the most. I thought the motion sensing worked better in this game than it did in any of the Wii games. The gameplay didn’t seem all that innovative, but the aircraft handled really well, and it was fun to fly with the tilt sensing. Sure, apparently you could play the original Warhawk with a motion sensitive controller, but I have a feeling the new Warhawk works a lot better.

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess – I’m feeling quite torn about this game. Firstly, I didn’t really enjoy Windwaker all that much. It seemed like Ocarina of Time only with cell shading and sailing, and I liked the cell shading, but the sailing was really annoying. I’m worried Twilight Princess will have the same gameplay only better graphics and a few Wii minigames. But, despite my worries, I’m hoping this will be a title that really proves that the Wii input can be fun.

Sonic the Hedgehog – I love Sonic. Sonic Adventure is what sold me on the Dreamcast. That game was unlike anything out at the time. In the Mayan level, I was so amazed when Sonic was sprinting unimaginably fast through winding passageways. Sonic Adventure 2 was also amazing, and Sonic Heroes was okay. I will not speak of the abomination that is Shadow the Hedgehog. With the 15th  anniversary of Sonic, Sega is trying to return to his roots. I was super excited to play it at E3, and it was a real let down. The controls were very wonky. The newest Hedgehog, Silver, had very wonky telekinesis powers, and was difficult to platform with. That’s understandable because he’s a new character. The unforgivable sin was Sonic was also very difficult to control. Sonic has always been a bit hard to control since he goes very very fast. As much as I love the original Genesis games, I have to admit that oftentimes you run at full speed until you hit an enemy that you never could have seen. You have to collect your rings and then keep running. The main problem is the autotargeting for the jump attack is really bad. They had a section where you had to land on a small rope, and then it would spring you up, and then you had to land on the next small rope and so on. Unfortunately, the jump attack auto targeting didn’t find these ropes, so either you had to land on a narrow rope positioned in threespace, which is quite tricky, or you could hope that your jump attack would take you to it, but the several times I tried it, it took me straight into the bottomless pit. So, although the E3 demo was disappointing, I still have a lot of hope.