August 15, 2007

The Fall Rush Begins Early
By: Steven Hopper

Game launches heat up while summer winds down.

As the extreme heat of the dog days of summer begins to cool down and ready the way for fall, the video games industry is preparing for the onslaught of what will surely be one of, if not the biggest holiday season ever. However, the season is actually beginning a little early this year, with some true high-profile launches hitting from now until the end of the month. Yes, August will be a very busy month for the gamers, and many out there are no doubt wondering what they should get with their summer job dough. There are some great games hitting shelves in the next couple of weeks that should be worthy investments.

Certainly one of the bigger titles to hit later this month, BioShock (PC and 360) from 2KGames has been gaining momentum since it was announced a few years ago. As a spiritual successor (or perhaps “predecessor”) to the beloved System Shock series of games on the PC, BioShock is a smart FPS that puts players in an extremely detailed world filled with smart enemies and some truly terrifying moments. The game is set in a self-contained underwater paradise gone awry, and allows gamers to utilize genetic enhancements as well as conventional weapons like tommy guns and revolvers. These plasmids are not only great special abilities for taking down enemies, but also require a little bit of brain work to use to their maximum potential. For example, when a group of enemies are in a puddle or a pool of water, then the lightning plasmid will let you electrify the water and take them all out, or if there’s oil around, you can use the fire plasmid to light it up. The game is smart, frightening and will be a worthy purchased when it releases later this month. Don’t take my word for it, download the demo on Xbox Live and try it out for yourselves.

BioShock's terrifying gameplay and gorgeous graphics make it a must-have title this August.

Next up is Blue Dragon, releasing exclusively on the Xbox 360 on August 28. Developed by Mist Walker, a veritable who’s who of big-name Japanese RPG creators like Hironobu Sakaguchi, Nobuo Uematsu, and Akira Toriyama (who last all worked together on Chrono Trigger for the SNES), Blue Dragon is a very important title for the Xbox 360, being the title that could finally allow Microsoft to break into the coveted Japanese RPG genre. The game exudes a certain old-school charm that has eluded many would-be Final Fantasy killers, and very traditional gameplay that will appeal to long-time fans of the genre. Plus, clocking in at three DVDs, the certainly won’t be short on content for RPG gamers.

The long-awaited Blue Dragon offers old-school gameplay that should appeal to traditional RPG fans.

For Wii gamers, the Metroid series will finally be hitting Nintendo’s latest system. Strangely, Nintendo has been very quiet on Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, and many Wii gamers that I’ve asked were even unaware that Nintendo was working on a third “Prime” entry to their loved Metroid franchise, let alone that it was releasing at the end of this month. However, early reports have stated that the game makes great use of the system’s unique capabilities, making a truly unique FPS experience on the Wii (and one that other FPS entries on the Wii, like Red Steel and Call of Duty 3, have yet been unable to produce).

The biggest summer title from Nintendo has received very little fanfare from the publisher.

However, this August has not been without heartbreak. PS3 gamers have undoubtedly noticed that the long-awaited Lair has been pushed back from its mid-August release date to September. While this may have angered many, having seen the game in progress a few months back, it did need a lot of work to tighten the controls and the targeting scheme. Hopefully, this slight delay will allow the developers to clean things up a bit and give PS3 gamers that have stuck through the weak launch and slow months after the game that they truly deserve.

Lair has been pushed back for a September release, much to the chagrin of many PS3 gamers.

Yes, it seems that PS3 gamers will unfortunately be left in the dark this month when compared to the high-profile exclusives that the other two competing consoles will get. Luckily, September should be a time of redemption with some great exclusives like Heavenly Sword hitting the console, hopefully allowing PS3 gamers some solace in what will surely be the month of Halo 3.

While the true retail slugfest this year won’t be waged for a couple of months, it can definitely be said that this will be one of the biggest Augusts for video games in a good long while, and certainly sets the stage for what promises to be an exciting holiday season.

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