Week o Games, 12/6: Zelda: Spirit Tracks, Le Saboteur, Monkey Island, Silent Hill Wii

slash000

Another week, another 7 days of new game releases!

Welcome to the 93 edition of G&T's newly traditional "Weekly Games Release Thread!" - Week 12/6/09 - 12/12/09 !

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

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks





Puzzler World




Salon Superstar

PC

DiRT 2* should be out this week if you didn't see it last week




Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 5: Rise of the Pirate God




The Saboteur



East India Company: Battle of Trafalgar

Playmobil 2 Pack

Your Shape

Hello Kitty Online

PS2

nothing

PS3

The Saboteur


I'm also showing:
PixelJunk Shooter

PSP

James Cameron's Avatar: The Game

Wii

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories




Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 5: Rise of the Pirate God




Flowerworks (WiiWare)


Rec Room Games

Xbox360

The Saboteur

Not much this week either.

The big highlight this week is The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, for Nintendo DS. The sequel to the excellent Phantom Hourglass.

The other big game this week is on the HD systems/PC. The Saboteur is a game in which you play a french resistance fighter out for revenge on the Nazis by blowing up their shit and shooting many mans in an open world style mission structure.

Next I'm showing Silent Hill: Shattered Memories for Wii. Looks like it could be a pretty good reimagining of the original game on the Wii. Hope it turns out well, it looks pretty slick.

Last but not least the Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 5 is coming out for PC and WiiWare this week, it seems as well. Can't get enough o' that good stuff, eh?

edit: I'm also showing that PixelJunk Shooter might be coming to PSN this week too! Sweet deal if it is! Can anyone confirm?

That's about it for now!

-SPI-

Glad Chapter 5 of Monkey Island is finally coming out. Would have been tempted to get Spirit Tracks, but then I learned that they once again have you going back to the same dungeon a bajillion times, so I think I might pass on that.

slash000

I might be getting Silent Hill: Shattered Memories if the good reviews keep coming in. There are 2 reviews available:


So far IGN gave it and 86 percent and said it keeps some familiar gameplay elements of the original while distinguishing it with fresh new mechanics and concepts. They say the atmosphere is eerily atmospheric, chilling, and well executed. They say the presentation is great, production values are good, and voice acting/animation is well done. They say the controls are excellent and the flightlight "beam mechanic is simply the best implemented in any game I have ever played. Pointing the light here and there is extremely responsive and just as satisfying because it looks amazing."

They also really harp on the great graphics and immersive world and its attention to details. There's no load times (it's all streamed). Apparently the gameplay and the world reacts to some of your decisions. The only downsides is they say there are fewer monsters in this game than the exotic crazy ones from other SH games. They say that there's multiple paths and multiple endings, so replay is great, though they say the game is 6-ish hours long but don't specify if that's total or just 1 playthrough. I think it's 1 playthrough. They also say SH purists won't like it that much because it's a unique departure (they compare it to what Resi4 was like to prior Resi games).

The reviewer also makes a fair claim that some gamers won't "get" the fact that you can't fight the monsters outright, as you cannot grab weapons and like shoot and kill monsters - you're a regular dude and you gotta run. He says that this works within the game's design and aids the terror of the experience. Says the monsters are clever little bastards too that will crawls through various things to get to you. But you always know when the monsters are about to come when the world ices over. Says there's good variety and interactivity with environments.

In short, the IGN review states the game has great controls, fun puzzles, great atmosphere, terrifying flights from monsters; but a definite departure from the main series' typical style so purists may not be completely pleased.


The only other review is from Nintendo Power that gave it an 80% and said that "So though it may not be the unqualified success we were hoping for, Shattered memories proves an audacious and ultimately compelling experiment."

Darlan

Isn't Silent Hill coming out on PS2 as well? How I wish they hadn't gotten rid of backward compatibility.

slash000

Darlan wrote: »

Isn't Silent Hill coming out on PS2 as well? How I wish they hadn't gotten rid of backward compatibility.

Yes but not until January. Same with the PSP version. I'm guessing this was first a Wii game and is getting downported to the other platforms? Not sure. But whatever the case, the PSP and PS2 versions hit in January.

Bartholamue

Looks like the only thing I want this week is the new Zelda game.

Graviija

All aboard the Zelda train, motherfuckers! I mean that in the most amiable way possible.

Bartholamue

It seems like they were a bit early on the ads on TV. By the commercials I thought it was out already.

slash000

Bartholamue wrote: »

It seems like they were a bit early on the ads on TV. By the commercials I thought it was out already.

No kiddin. It comes out monday.

I feel like I've seen the online ads for it a million times already. Dunno about the TV ads though as I haven't been able to watch TV for a week or two.

Dr Mario Kart

Initial impressions from GAFers who picked up Silent Hill today are really positive.

slash000

Well I pretty much decided to put Silent Hill on my X-mas list. It sounds like a great change of pace from the typical kind of games I've been playing lately, and it sounds like it's pretty well executed for what it's going for.

Spoit

So what have the reviews been saying about saboteur anyway? The concept looks interesting, but if it got the studio canned....And mercs 2 was a bit disapointing too

plufim

-SPI- wrote: »

Glad Chapter 5 of Monkey Island is finally coming out. Would have been tempted to get Spirit Tracks, but then I learned that they once again have you going back to the same dungeon a bajillion times, so I think I might pass on that.

You go back to the temple, but you never have to replay the same areas unless you want to. Every time you go back a new floor is added to the top of the tower, and you can go directly to it.


So you don't have to pass now :P

-SPI-

Hmm, more interested.

Does the temple involve heavy use of psuedo stealth to avoid one hit kill invincible enemies?

Shadowfire

plufim wrote: »

-SPI- wrote: »

Glad Chapter 5 of Monkey Island is finally coming out. Would have been tempted to get Spirit Tracks, but then I learned that they once again have you going back to the same dungeon a bajillion times, so I think I might pass on that.

You go back to the temple, but you never have to replay the same areas unless you want to. Every time you go back a new floor is added to the top of the tower, and you can go directly to it.


So you don't have to pass now :P

And there's no time limit.

Opium

Spoit wrote: »

So what have the reviews been saying about saboteur anyway? The concept looks interesting, but if it got the studio canned....

SIGH.

corin7

Spoit wrote: »

So what have the reviews been saying about saboteur anyway? The concept looks interesting, but if it got the studio canned....And mercs 2 was a bit disapointing too

Studio getting shutdown was more due to their last couple of games under performing than any statement of quality concerning The Saboteur. Also it is apparrently very expensive to make games in cali and EA wants to outsource more shit to sweat shops. Early reviews say the game is fun but like all Pandemic games suffers from some bugs and iffy controls. The concept, style etc all look great to me, pretty sure I will be picking it up this week.

slash000

The Saboteur reviews are generally positive. They seem to say that it's a fun, fairly competent game, but not exactly superb or great or anything.

Pureauthor

Might get Spirit Tracks.

Might.

plufim

-SPI- wrote: »

Hmm, more interested.

Does the temple involve heavy use of psuedo stealth to avoid one hit kill invincible enemies?

Here's what 1up says

Chen wrote: »

http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3177194&p=39

Even more impressively, Spirit Tracks turns Phantom Hourglass' most widely decried element -- the repetitive Temple of the Ocean King -- into its biggest strength. Players will find themselves returning repeatedly to the seemingly similar Tower of Spirits, a single dungeon full of invincible Phantoms, but once inside you realize the stealth and redundancy that made the Ocean King's home so tedious are cast aside. The tower is massive -- more than two dozen floors high -- and once you've cleared a five- or six-floor block, you need never return to that section again. The tower effectively doubles the amount of dungeon-crawling in the game, and each segment of the tower employs new and unique puzzle elements.

And they're great puzzles. The Tower of Spirits features some of the trickiest level design ever to grace the series. While the "main" dungeons are fairly standard stuff -- find a weapon, use that weapon to acquire the boss key, kill the boss by exposing its weakness with your new acquisition -- the tower has less emphasis on formulaic gimmicks and centers around pure, brain-bending puzzles. It's fantastic stuff, challenging and satisfying, and it elevates the game well above being merely "Phantom Hourglass on a train."

To anyone decrying the tower in Phantom Hourglass. In Spirit Tracks, it's a misnomer, apparently.

So somehow they made the tower the best part of the game.

RainbowDespair

My second XBox Live Indie Game - Molly the Were-Zompire - is halfway through peer review so it could be coming out this week. Like the first game (Epiphany in Spaaace!), it's a comical text-based interactive novel. Molly the Were-Zompire is a tad bigger than Epiphany, has a few pictures scattered throughout, and is a lot funnier so everybody buy it, okay? It's only 80 MS point ($1 USD).

RainbowDespair

Johnny Platform Saves Christmas is fantastic. Take an already great Indie platformer, improve the graphics, double the levels, add a speed attack mode with a second character, add a couple new moves, and you've got JPSC.

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802585503a4

Bartholamue

I got Zelda, so I might be playing that real soon.

slash000

RainbowDespair wrote: »

My second XBox Live Indie Game - Molly the Were-Zompire - is halfway through peer review so it could be coming out this week. Like the first game (Epiphany in Spaaace!), it's a comical text-based interactive novel. Molly the Were-Zompire is a tad bigger than Epiphany, has a few pictures scattered throughout, and is a lot funnier so everybody buy it, okay? It's only 80 MS point ($1 USD).

So will it be out this week or next?

RainbowDespair

slash000 wrote: »

RainbowDespair wrote: »

My second XBox Live Indie Game - Molly the Were-Zompire - is halfway through peer review so it could be coming out this week. Like the first game (Epiphany in Spaaace!), it's a comical text-based interactive novel. Molly the Were-Zompire is a tad bigger than Epiphany, has a few pictures scattered throughout, and is a lot funnier so everybody buy it, okay? It's only 80 MS point ($1 USD).

So will it be out this week or next?

Right now, the progress bar on peer review for the game is almost full so I'm guessing I only need 1-2 more peer reviews and then it will be out on XBox Live Marketplace. So basically, it could go up any minute now or it could take another week or two if reviews dry up. The anticipation is driving me a little crazy.

I'm really hoping that it goes up today or tomorrow because that means I'll be up just in time for the weekend and the weekends almost always result in a nice boost in sales.

slash000

You ever thought about releasing these games of yours on the PC in some way shape or form? I'm not sure how you could go about doing it, but I'd gladly pay the same price for a PC version as you're asking for on XBLAIG.

Bartholamue

Yeah, I would like that too, because I have a 360 but am damned if I'll ever put it back online again.

RainbowDespair

Molly the Were-Zompire is up! Here's the official press release:

---

“Molly the Were-Zompire is the best game on the XBox Live Marketplace that stars me.” – Molly the Were-Zompire

Molly the Were-Zompire is now available for your downloading pleasure. Experience life as a werewolf-zombie-vampire-girl hybrid firsthand! Eat brains! Don’t eat brains! Choose what kinds of brains to eat! The choices are endless! Top-notch hand drawn art that looks like it was drawn by an 8-year old! Text! More text! All this and more can be yours for a mere 80 MS points!

---

Here's the link: http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802585503ab/?bt=0&sb=1&mt=32&gu=66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802585503ab&p=1&of=0

I've thought about doing a PC release, but between the extra work to port it, the lack of easy distribution system, and the high rate of piracy on PCs, I ended up deciding against it.

Vyolynce

I've been wanting SH:SM ever since Nintendo Power's article about it (way back in May). I asked one of my Gamestops about it last weekend (the last release date I had heard was 12/1) and they said it was pushed back to mid-January... Has anyone actually picked it up this week -- or even seen it on the shelves?

slash000

Vyolynce wrote: »

I've been wanting SH:SM ever since Nintendo Power's article about it (way back in May). I asked one of my Gamestops about it last weekend (the last release date I had heard was 12/1) and they said it was pushed back to mid-January... Has anyone actually picked it up this week -- or even seen it on the shelves?

That gamestop employee might be an idiot or simply didn't listen to you.

The PSP and PS2 versions were pushed back to January.

The Wii version is out and I've seen it at a few places.

Vyolynce

I'd be willing to accept the former explanation.

Bartholamue

I've seen the wii version of Silent Hill at my local Best Buy, so it is indeed out.