Gracious. It’s October already.
And while my life has been in upheaval lately (house buying is a surprisingly time consuming process!), things are starting to settle down as the weather cools, and my mind is on getting in some good quality sofa time in front of the Xbox with the central heating turned up to 11.
September has already been quite the month for gaming, starting with the excellent Batman: Arkham Asylum, a double whammy of rhythm games in Guitar Hero 5 and The Beatles: Rock Band, and some brilliant racing action in DiRT 2 and Need for Speed: Shift. In fact, October seems quite barren by comparison – possibly because of an eagerly anticipated and perennially popular shooting title due on the 10th of November…
Whilst I was tempted by Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising this month the slightly lukewarm reviews put me off enough to hold out for a rental of the game – so my next anticipated purchase will be Tim Schafer’s Brütal Legend, on the 16th of this month.
Brütal Legend
Schafer’s first game since 2005’s Psychonauts on the original Xbox, Brütal Legend should almost without fail be an essential purchase – if only for the magic touch of the ex-Lucasarts game designer. Tim Schafer’s résumé reads like a Top 10 Games of All Time run-down, and I have no reason to believe that Brütal Legend will be any less well constructed than his previous work.
Any fears I did have were allayed once I played the demo – showing signs of sparkling wit, solid gameplay and excellent writing and characterisation. The previews I’ve read indicate that it is to be an open world game, almost RPG-like in construction, which certainly sounds intriguing.
The reviews are starting to trickle in – and it looks good so far. Hopefully I won’t be disappointed on Friday!
Forza Motorsport 3
The reviews are coming in already, and it’s looking good.
I spent two solid months playing Forza 2 when it was released, and I can see myself spending a similar amount of time with the third incarnation or Turn 10’s simulation racer (although likely not continuous, what with Modern Warfare 2 coming just two weeks after).
I have come to the conclusion that I have a near-insatiable appetite for driving games, what with spending goodness-knows how many hours playing DiRT 2 and NFS: Shift in the last month. Forza 3 may yet be another huge timesuck, but I’m definitely looking forward to it.