Week o Games, 11/1: Dragon Age Origins, Band Hero, Lego RB, Rabbids Go Home, COP, J&D

slash000

Another week, another 7 days of new game releases!

Welcome to the 88 edition of G&T's newly traditional "Weekly Games Release Thread!" - Week 11/1/09 - 11/7/09 !

Where we discuss what we're looking forward to, what we're going to buy, and what we're just now realizing is being released this week that we had forgotten about!

NDS

C.O.P. The Recruit




Rabbids Go Home





Lego Rock Band





Band Hero





Need for Speed: Nitro





Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron





Style Savvy





Diner Dash: Flo on the Go
Chronicles of Mystery: Curse of the Ancient Temple
My Baby 1st Steps

Sushi Academy

Barbie and the Three Musketeers


Disney's A Christmas Carol
Dora the Explorer: Dora Puppy Playtime
Dream Salon
Hidden Mysteries: Titanic
Imagine: Babyz Fashion
Jewel Master: Egypt

Ni Hao, Kai-Lan: New Year's Celebration
Reader Rabbit Kindergarten
Safari Adventures Africa

Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders

PC

Dragon Age: Origins




Football Manager 2010


Zodiac Online
Playmobil 2 Pack
Chronicles of Mystery: The Tree of Life

PS2

Band Hero




Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier




Jurassic: The Hunted

PS3

Band Hero




Dragon Age: Origins




Jurassic: The Hunted




Lego Rock Band




Pro Evolution Soccer 2010




Star Wars The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition

PSP

Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier




Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron

Wii

Rabbids Go Home




Band Hero




Lego Rock Band




Need for Speed: Nitro




Jurassic: The Hunted




Food Network: Cook or Be Cooked
Jewel Quest Mysteries
Academy of Champions: Soccer
Barbie and the Three Musketeers
Dora the Explorer: Dora Saves the Crystal Kingdom
Dream Salon
Hidden Mysteries: Titanic
Hooked! Again: Real Motion Fishing
My Baby 1st Steps
Ultimate Party Challenge
We Cheer 2
Yoga for Wii
Buck Fever
We Wish You A Merry Christmas

Xbox360

Band Hero




Dragon Age: Origins




Jurassic: The Hunted




Lego Rock Band




Pro Evolution Soccer 2010




Star Wars The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition

Dragon Age: Origins, the highly anticipated "spiritual sequel" to the Baldur's Gate RPGs comes out for the HD consoles and of course the PC as well.


Nintendo DS gets the Grand Theft Auto-alike game COP: The Recruit. Generic name, but pretty good looking game and gameplay. DS also gets the two music games, Band Hero and Lego Rock Band; not sure how these will work on the system - i think band hero actually has some set of peripherals but I don't know about Lego RB. Nintendo DS gets a version of Rabbids Go Home - which is more like a standard adventure/platformer, ie not a minigame colleciton. NDS also gets the arcadey-styled Need For Speed Nitro, so that might be good for portable racing fans. Finally, the NDS gets the Starwars Battlefront Elite Squadron game.

PSP gets the Starwars Battlefront game as well.

PSP and PS2 get the newest Jak & Daxter game.

Every Platform gets Band Hero, and everything except PSP gets Lego Rock Band.

The HD consoles get Pro Evo Soccer '10..

all the home consoles get some game called Jurassic: The Hunted. Turok-alike? No idea.


In addition to all that multiplatform stuff the Wii also gets Rabbids Go Home, a traditional adventure game, a fresh change considering it's not a minigame collection. It looks quite good too. The Wii also gets Need For Speed Nitro, which is an arcadey iteration of the series styled to make better use of the Wii's hardware, and it looks to be fun.

Dehumanized

Hard week for me to skip between Dragon Age and Lego Rock Band.

But, I entered the Backlog Challenge and dammit, I'm going to try.

Xenogears of Bore

I still don't get why the Wii version of Winning Eleven comes out so much later despite being about the best soccer game ever. It's almost a soccer RTS for chrissake!

slash000

Dehumanized wrote: »

Hard week for me to skip between Dragon Age and Lego Rock Band.

But, I entered the Backlog Challenge and dammit, I'm going to try.

Haha, I'm trying to knock out my backlog too. Dragon Age is going to take one for the team. I bought like a zillion games from the TRU b2g1 free deal.

Xenogears of Bore wrote: »

I still don't get why the Wii version of Winning Eleven comes out so much later despite being about the best soccer game ever. It's almost a soccer RTS for chrissake!

I dunno either. It reviews well and sells well, and yet, they still only manage to get this game out like months after the other versions. I understand the first version took a while once they decided to bring the franchise to Wii, but I don't get what is taking them the time to do it now. EA managed to get Tiger Woods on Wii back in line with the other versions, not sure what Konami's hold up is.

Dehumanized

The one good thing about sacrificing Dragon Age to the backlog gods is that, as a Bioware game, it'll be just as great 6 months from now.

slash000

Dehumanized wrote: »

The one good thing about sacrificing Dragon Age to the backlog gods is that, as a Bioware game, it'll be just as great 6 months from now.

Yeah. Plus buying a Bioware game right now is probably a bad idea if you are trying to knock out a backlog.

We must persevere!


But anyway I'm looking forward to buying and playing Dragon Age Origins. But not until after I lay the smack down on about 10 games in the backlog...

cooljammer00

Seems like a sparse week. Those games that shifted to the spring should have came out this week.

Xenogears of Bore

Two more weeks until my end of year shopping spree, and then nothing until early next year.

This week is one of those "Some games I want to play but don't want to pay anything more than 15% of the game's retail value for" kind of weeks. Perfect sale fodder.

I just know that half the band games are going to be under $30 before this summer, including the special editions. They've overprinted to the max unless the holidays go way better than expected.

cooljammer00

I just found out No Doubt is playable on Band Hero, so I'll be keeping my eye on that.

slash000

What a lot of people are doing this week is this:



1. Buy Lego Rock Band. ($50)

2. Import songs into RB2 ($10)

3. Trade back in Lego Rock Band immediately (get $35 back)


It's like getting a massive expansion pack for $25.

Xenogears of Bore

Buy a used copy of band hero, download songs, return it, get something else...

False information, lies, and slander!

cooljammer00

slash000 wrote: »

cooljammer00 wrote: »

I just found out No Doubt is playable on Band Hero, so I'll be keeping my eye on that.

Well if he's going to edit his post

Oh, I don't actually own any plastic instrument based games. I just moved from Gamecube to PS3 a few weeks ago. I'm just going to keep an ear open to see how well the No Doubt bit is done.

edit: Not sure that's illegal, just shady.

slash000

cooljammer00 wrote: »

slash000 wrote: »

cooljammer00 wrote: »

I just found out No Doubt is playable on Band Hero, so I'll be keeping my eye on that.

Well if he's going to edit his post

Oh, I don't actually own any plastic instrument based games. I just moved from Gamecube to PS3 a few weeks ago. I'm just going to keep an ear open to see how well the No Doubt bit is done.

edit: Not sure that's illegal, just shady.

Thanks for fixing the quote tree. I said one thing but meant another and didn't want to be confusing.

Anyway, actually, now that you mention it, it is kind of a somewhat shady practice to do that Lego RB thing.

However it's also inevitable so hopefully MTV/HMX/EA had that in mind..

cooljammer00

Wiki says GHWT and BH are mostly compatible. So besides basically homogenizing the Hero franchise for the "MAINSTREEMZ", have they basically stopped putting fun/popular songs in Guitar Hero? Now GH is for "teh metal" and all that, and BH is for a more popular music type thing?

Xenogears of Bore

It's absolutely 100% legit.

Rockband being a platform game is a double edged sword after all, the same as giving preferred return status on used copies...

slash000

cooljammer00 wrote: »

Wiki says GHWT and BH are mostly compatible. So besides basically homogenizing the Hero franchise for the "MAINSTREEMZ", have they basically stopped putting fun/popular songs in Guitar Hero? Now GH is for "teh metal" and all that, and BH is for a more popular music type thing?

Guitar Hero 5 is going to let you import some Band Hero songs for $6 I think but I don't know the details.

I do know that Lego RB will let you import the entire set of songs to Rock Band 2 for $9.99 though.


As far as Guitar Hero, they've been trying to keep it mainstream as possible. GHWT had a pretty broad set list and the difficulty was toned down. I haven't tried GH5 though. They made a separate distinct Guitar Hero game specifically for the "hardcorez" crowd and that was GH Metallica.


However, in the case of Band Hero and Lego Rock Band, both are going for a younger crowd and/or a more pop-music kind of crowd with these games.

UnbreakableVow

How is it shady to return a game that you bought and don't want anymore?

UnbreakableVow

Also out of this week's games, I am getting LEGO Rock Band and Band Hero, but both have to wait until the barren wastes of December.

slash000

UnbreakableVow wrote: »

Also out of this week's games, I am getting LEGO Rock Band and Band Hero, but both have to wait until the barren wastes of December.

You're turning into a music game addict! :P

Still digging into DJ Hero? What difficulty are you playing on now?

UnbreakableVow

And for my third post in a row!

Slash, I don't know how Band Hero works exactly, but...

You might be interested in LEGO Rock Band if you were at all a fan of Frequency/Amplitude on the PS2. LEGO RB basically plays just like Rock Band Unplugged, which pretty much played like a spiritual successor to those games.

EDIT: I finished all the songs on DJ Hero on Medium at 5 stars. Moved straight to Expert, doing decent. And turning into? Please. I've spent over $1000 on Rock Band alone.

cooljammer00

It's a different game?! I figured RB was falling victim to the siren call of the tie-in/cash-in.

slash000

UnbreakableVow wrote: »

And for my third post in a row!

Slash, I don't know how Band Hero works exactly, but...

You might be interested in LEGO Rock Band if you were at all a fan of Frequency/Amplitude on the PS2. LEGO RB basically plays just like Rock Band Unplugged, which pretty much played like a spiritual successor to those games.

Oh you meant the PSP versions? I thought you meant the console versions. Lego RB is just like RB2 but with Lego People and some other random stuff.

I still haven't gotten Rock Band Unplugged yet. I will at some time. Eventually.

EDIT: I finished all the songs on DJ Hero on Medium at 5 stars. Moved straight to Expert, doing decent. And turning into? Please. I've spent over $1000 on Rock Band alone.

Haha, nice.

UnbreakableVow

cooljammer00 wrote: »

It's a different game?! I figured RB was falling victim to the siren call of the tie-in/cash-in.

I'm not sure what you're referring to here.

Consider LEGO Rock Band to be our "real" Rock Band game this year, since hey, not everyone digs The Beatles I guess. It has 45 songs, is $50, and can be played straight out of the box. The career mode and stuff sound pretty interesting, enough that I want to play through it once.

It comes with a unique code that, in conjunction with a $10 licensing fee, will export the song files to your hard drive so that all LEGO RB music can be used in RB2. This makes sure that people will be buying enough new copies and not just renting and then paying $10.

It's also worth noting that a LOT of the available Rock Band 1 and DLC songs will work in LEGO Rock Band as well. Ones that are clean, anyways...the game is rated E10+, after all. There's a list somewhere in the Rock Band thread that I'm too lazy to go find, but it's absolutely huge.

EDIT: Yeah, I meant LEGO RB on the DS.

HyperAquaBlast

Ooooh I may get the Dinosaur game since its so cheap.

I mean it has dinosaurs in it and you shoot them! Thats enough to get it on that principal alone.

slash000

UnbreakableVow wrote: »

EDIT: Yeah, I meant LEGO RB on the DS.

I thought so :P

Yeah I'll check out all of these games at some point. I enjoyed Frequency/Amplitude on PS2 enough to give Unplugged a whirl and so I'll probably get that.


Now Band Hero on the NDS I think has a set of peripherals. Like, literally a little sleeve that fits over the bottom of the NDS that creates a tiny set of 4 drum pads. And I think it ships with a guitar grip too.


edit: here it is:

Graviija

I've got virtually no interest in music games, so I suppose this isn't really surprising, but before reading this thread, I had literally never heard of 'Band Hero'. Which I'm assuming is like Rock Band? Which is what I thought the last Guitar Hero game was.

This is confusing.

Sterica

I'd do the backlog challenge, but that's really more for post-holiday season.

And I've tried to get excited about Dragon Age, but I can't. The setting just feels too generic or something. I'm weird.

Rabbids came out of nowhere. Haven't seen a thread or anything. So good thing slash makes this thread.

UnbreakableVow

Band Hero is, by all accounts, the worst named game since, well, New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

Just consider it Pop Hero. It is a Hero game consisting of pop.

They couldn't figure out that they should call it Pop Hero.

Xenogears of Bore

Graviija wrote: »

I've got virtually no interest in music games, so I suppose this isn't really surprising, but before reading this thread, I had literally never heard of 'Band Hero'. Which I'm assuming is like Rock Band? Which is what I thought the last Guitar Hero game was.

This is confusing.

It's more about RB trying to be more like GH. It's sad in a way.

Shit I reversed it. It's funnier this way, I guess.

3 major releases from one and 2 major releases from the other in 4 months though is still ridiculous and eventually something is bound to break.

Sterica

Graviija wrote: »

I've got virtually no interest in music games, so I suppose this isn't really surprising, but before reading this thread, I had literally never heard of 'Band Hero'. Which I'm assuming is like Rock Band? Which is what I thought the last Guitar Hero game was.

This is confusing.

Rock Band and Guitar Hero are two separate franchises. Band Hero is part of Guitar Hero and is basically a pop music version of the game. It seems to be catering to more casual players. It's troublesome when a trailer features no gameplay video and just people banging on their plastic instruments.

Rock Band is doing something similar this week, only it's better since it has 100% more Legos and 100% less Taylor Swift.

UnbreakableVow

Rorus Raz wrote: »

And I've tried to get excited about Dragon Age, but I can't. The setting just feels too generic or something. I'm weird.

Glad I'm not the only feeling this.

It's Bioware, so I'm sure it'll be good, but I see screenshots and video and all I can muster is a resounding "meh."

slash000

Graviija wrote: »

I've got virtually no interest in music games, so I suppose this isn't really surprising, but before reading this thread, I had literally never heard of 'Band Hero'. Which I'm assuming is like Rock Band? Which is what I thought the last Guitar Hero game was.

This is confusing.

It is confusing.

Band Hero is just Guitar Hero 5 but with a very mainstream pop-centric track list. Taylor Swift, for example, will be an in-game character.

UnbreakableVow

Also, the DS version of Band Hero features "Girlfriend" by Avril Lavigne, making it the Handheld Game of the Year 2009.

Xenogears of Bore

UnbreakableVow wrote: »

Also, the DS version of Band Hero features "Girlfriend" by Avril Lavigne, making it the Handheld Game of the Year 2009.

Oh shit, instabuy.

Am I kidding or not is the real question.

slash000

Rorus Raz wrote: »

Rabbids came out of nowhere. Haven't seen a thread or anything. So good thing slash makes this thread.

You should definitely check into Rabbids Go Home for the Wii. It looks like a potentially good game.

Graviija

So the "Band" moniker is essentially meaningless. What the fuck.

You're right, Unbreakable. That is just an awful, misleading name.

UnbreakableVow

Their defense for it is that the songs will challenge the whole band, rather than Guitar Hero songs which, while having a full band available to play, still cater to very guitar-centric music.

But after looking over the soundtrack, fantastic though it may be, I wonder how challenging they really think this game is going to be.

Protip: It won't be very challenging at all.

Brainiac 8

Buy Rabbids go home guys. It's like Katamari only with more DAAAAHHHHH!!!!!

Band Hero = Pop Hero = Guitar Hero: Jailbait Edition = 42?!?

UnbreakableVow

The Rabbids were pretty appealing back when the Wii first hit, but they've gotten old fast.

The breaking point was when they were in a TMNT game.

Brainiac 8

What are you talking about?

The Turtles were obviously in a Rabbid fighting game. My only beef is that they put so many turtles character in a game in which they didn't belong. I demand more Rabbids in the sequel.

Capt Howdy

If anyone gets the Dinosaur game, post your impressions. Might pick it up for my son if it is any fun.