Saturday, October 4, 2008

Odds and Ends for the Weekend

I have to work both today and tomorrow, so there may not be any posts of epic length this weekend. I plan on starting up those lists of favorite games as early as Monday though, and I also plan on putting together a list of games I can't wait to get my hands on from this fall and winter. For now, here's some bits of what I've been thinking about:
  • I picked up the Bluetongue developed and THQ published de Blob for Wii on the day it came out, and I managed to finish up yesterday morning before work. Anyone on the fence about whether or not they need to pick up this game should stop thinking and get to purchasing, as it's some of the best fun I've had on Wii during the almost two years I've owned one. That isn't to say that I haven't found many quality games for the system--I'm one of those people who argues that those who complain about the lack of games haven't been looking hard enough--but it still manages to shine through as one of the top efforts on the system. I'll have a full review of the game up at Blast Magazine later this month, but I can tell you in advance that it's going to be a positive one.
  • My Gamefly Queue is full of a few games I missed during the last generation as well as a few newer titles that I hoped to get my hands on, but with Lock's Quest failing to be listed as anything but in "Low" quantities since it's come out, I caved and picked up the game on my way to work yesterday. This game is another THQ effort--that's two games in a row, and off the top of my head I can think of just a pair of THQ games I own other than those two--and it's still early, but I think I'm going to be pleased I bought rather than rented this one. It's a tower defense game in an isometric view that utilizes build-time in between waves of enemy attacks; it's also neat that your builder can learn combos and repair your defenses on the fly, and it gives the game a neat spin to work with. I'll be playing this on the subway, but given the game came out during the beginning of last month, I probably won't bother to review it anywhere, especially with the slew of new titles coming out in the near future.
  • It's going to be a few weeks before I pick up any other new releases for my consoles, as Dokapon Kingdom, a multi-player party board game RPG from Atlus (I know, my head is spinning too) is coming out in the middle of the month, and the heavy-hitting combination of LittleBigPlanet, Eternal Sonata and BioShock are not coming to PS3 until the 21st. I haven't decided how much of a rush I am in to play BioShock yet; I know I'm going to love it when I play it, but I'm in the mood for cute and/or JRPGs right now, and that fits under neither of those categories. I've almost bought an XBox 360 multiple times with the intention of playing Eternal Sonata as well, so I'm guessing that's where my freetime will go once it's out.
  • Speaking of the 360, videos and screenshots for Square-Enix's Last Remnant continue to pop up all over, and are helping to convince me that I need to purchase a system soon. I won't be hurting for Namc0-Bandai's Tales series due to being a Wii owner--there's a sequel releasing to Tales of Symphonia in November and a "mothership" title coming in 2009 for the system--but that doesn't mean I want Tales of Vesperia to skip over me, either. Those two (remember, Eternal Sonata is coming to PS3 soon) are big reasons for me to want to snag a 360, though I have next to no interest in Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, the two Mistwalker titles that were hyped to death before their release and then handed mostly average scores. I find it odd that I love companies full of former Square employees--Brownie Brown and Skip, for example--but haven't dug any of the output from a company headed up by the creator of the Final Fantasy series.
  • A new DS? A storage solution? New IP? Loads of games? Re-releases of Gamecube games at discount prices? Punch-Out!!? A Sin and Punishment 2 sequel? Nintendo, I wasn't as upset as others about E3 due to the info that came out afterward (A new Pikmin, for example) and the fact that E3 is a dead zone these days anyways, but this is an overabundance of great news for fans. When I get a chance, I'll replay the original Sin and Punishment on Virtual Console; it's easily one of my favorite games ever, and I can't wait for a sequel.

1 comment:

Ari Collins said...

Hey Mark! Found your site through your BP chat. I just got a Wii and the only game I have is Zelda. (Which is awesome.) de Blob is next on my list though I think. Looks ridiculously fun.

Like what you're doing here.

Later,
Ari