Advance Look - August 2006
By: Andrew Hayward |
Sunday July 30, 2006 |
| Football, zombies, and robots are the makings of great August game releases -- details inside. |
| Well, it's August; it may be sweltering outside, but the game release schedule is still looking a bit chilly. While there are certainly a handful of potentially great titles, there's only one guaranteed blockbuster among them. Still, August should mark the end of the summer drought. Come September, there should be more games than you'll know what to do with. But hey, it's still August - let's make the most of it. After looking up and down the release lists, here are the five top games I think will be worth looking out for.
Madden NFL 07 August 22nd (Xbox 360, PS2, Xbox, GC, PC, PSP, DS, GBA) Look above - that's no joke. Madden NFL 07 is being released on eight distinct platforms (nine if you include Mobile). Madden NFL is the biggest gaming franchise in America, making it the hands-down pick for August almost every year. Whether it is worth buying every year depends on your level of fandom; what cannot be debated is the consistent level of overall quality the series has shown in the last few years. Of course, now that EA Sports has the exclusive rights to games based on the National Football League, there is no direct competition to keep them in check. I suspect that their massive investment will keep them focused. Anyway, as usual, the big one to look out for here is the Xbox 360 version, especially since the rushed port of Madden NFL 06 failed to live up to expectations. Instead of a skimpy, visually upgraded package, the Xbox 360 version will actually have bonus features tailor-made for the console. Now you experience mini-camp and challenge any play in glorious high-definition. Additions made to the other versions include lead blocker control and the all-new highlight stick. If you're one of the millions that count down the days until Madden, I highly recommend reserving a copy now. Dead Rising August 8th (Xbox 360) Ever wanted to cut a zombie in half with giant hedge clippers? What about striking down ten of them with a bowling ball? Or maybe you just want to shred one with a snow blower? Whatever your wildest zombie-killing dream is, you can probably make it a reality with Dead Rising. The game is part Resident Evil, and part "Dawn of the Dead." Frank West is a photojournalist stuck in a mall full of zombies. How many zombies? The game can supposedly display up to 800 on screen at a time, so... a lot of zombies. As West, you have a major choice to make: either bust out of the mall quickly and save yourself, or stick around and try to get the big story. With some 250 items with which to annihilate the living dead, I have a feeling that being a mallrat is the best-case scenario here. I can't wait to take down a horde of 'em with a plasma TV. Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII August 15th (PlayStation 2) After nearly a decade of release, Final Fantasy VII is finally being milked for all it is worth via a slew of spin-offs and pseudo-sequels. The CG animated film "Advent Children" hit DVD earlier this year, and the PSP prequel Crisis Core will see release at some point in the future. In August, we will see Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, an action/shooter starring Vincent Valentine, a lesser character from the original epic. The Japanese version was largely met with indifference by critics, but several changes are being made for the American release. Vincent is now a faster character, and has been given an additional dash move. An additional difficulty has also been slapped on, with several unlockable bonuses. Disappointingly, the online multiplayer mode was removed, largely because of the failure of the PS2 HDD unit in the States. Oh well. As a fan of the original game, I'm sure I will end up picking this up. After all, I bought "Advent Children." And Ehrgeiz. Star Fox Command August 28th (Nintendo DS) It has been a few rough years for the Star Fox crew. After the excellent Star Fox 64 in 1997, the series reappeared on the Nintendo GameCube with Star Fox Adventures in 2002. Unlike previous entries, the title found Fox McCloud and co. taking it to the streets with on-foot combat. It arrived to decent reviews, but definitely underwhelmed the old-school fans. The 2005 release of Star Fox: Assault was supposed to right the ship, but received so-so reviews and made even less of a blip on the retail radar. Star Fox Command for the Nintendo DS marks the latest attempt to revitalize the franchise. It comes to us courtesy of Q-Games, a company formed by Dylan Cuthbert, a designer on the original Star Fox. The game will feature over thirty missions, and make use of some of the discarded content from the cancelled Star Fox 2 (Super Nintendo). The touch screen will be used both to map routes and control some aspects of flight. It's about time that Nintendo delivers another awesome Star Fox title - here's hoping that Command is the one. Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation August 8th (Game Boy Advance) I'll acknowledge that this is an odd pick, and certainly there are higher-profile RPG games slated for release in the month of August (Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories, Xenosaga Episode III). However, this release is notable for (at least) two reasons: it is a new RPG for the Game Boy Advance (which is near death in the States), and it is the first American appearance of the series after fifteen years of wild success in Japan. About forty versions of the Super Robot Taisen games have been released over there since 1991, hitting every platform from the NES to the PSP. The series is hugely successful (and tough to bring to the States) because of its use of characters from several anime series ("Gundam," "Evangelion," "RahXephon"). Atlus U.S.A. found the easy way around this issue: license the games in the series that only use original characters. So while Original Generation might be one of the lesser titles in the series, it finally gives us a chance to experience the series that has vexed our Japanese counterparts for a decade and a half. Perhaps this strategy RPG will make some waves at retail, leading to the release of future Super Robot Taisen titles in the states. |
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