Aramation Games

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (PC)
Online tactical shooter set in the world of Quake pits the human forces against the Covenant Strogg in a fight to save Earth from certain doom. Set to deliver an experience unlike the venerable Battlefield series, this game will let you play as infantry, vehicle or airplanes.

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)
Zelda comes to Nintendo DS in a direct sequel to Wind Waker. Featuring innovative control scheme and great use of DS’ functionality, this proves to be an epic adventure perfect for gaming on the go.

Other games:

• Crash of the Titans (X360, PS2, Wii, DS) 
• FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage (X360)
• Loki: Heroes of Mythology (PC) 
• MLB Power Pros (Wii, PS2)
• NBA 2k8 (X360, PS3, PS2)
• NBA Live 08 (X360, PS3, PS2, Wii, PSP)
• Ninjabread Man (Wii)
• Project Gotham Racing 4 (X360)
• Race 07 - the WTCC Game (PC)
• Spider-Man: Friend or Foe (X360, PC, PS2, Wii, PSP, DS)
• Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow (PSP)

 

Guitar Hero-killer Rock Band is finally approaching release on November 23, 2007 a.k.a. Black Friday. Pricing is in line with what was anticipated and slightly cheaper than some retailers pegged it at. Instead of $199, it will be $169 for Xbox 360 & PS3, and $159 for PS2. With just $10 premium over the last gen offering, it pays to get it for the next gen consoles.

In this week of Halo 3 event, all I am excited about is a pair of maracas… Samba de Amigo, an arcade and Dreamcast game featuring a pair of maracas, is finally coming to Nintendo Wii as announced by Nintendo Power magazine. When Nintendo announced that the wiimote and nunchuck could be shaken, I immediately thought of this game which was clearly ahead of its time. Hopefully the new developer Gearbox Software can retain the original look and feel of the game while expanding on songs and features.

Halo 3 (X360)
It’s finally here… the end of Halo trilogy will bring the fight between the Covenant and humans to Earth. Master Chief is rumored to die in what promises to be the biggest videogame of all time.

Other releases:

• Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts (PC) 
• CSI: Hard Evidence (X360, PC) 
• Dewy’s Adventure (Wii) 
• Dragon Blade: Wrath of Fire (Wii)
• Hour of Victory (PC)
• Jackass: The Game (PS2)
• Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights (PS3, PSP)
• Loki: Heroes of Mythology (PC)
• NBA 08 (PS3, PS2, PSP)
• Skate (PS3)
• The Settlers: Rise of an Empire (PC)
• Stranglehold (PS3)

DualShock 3 announced
Everybody knew this was coming, and Sony has not released juicy information such as price. But we know the SIXAXIS controller with rumble will be called DualShock 3 and will be released in Spring 2008. Sony has always maintained that the reason rumble was axed from SIXAXIS controller was its interference with motion control. Apparently all they had to do to solve the problem was licence Immersion’s technology…

PlayStation Store on PC
Now you can use the PlayStation Store from your PC provided you live in Japan. One of the most notable feature is the ability to download PS1 games to be played on PSP without using a PS3.

Home delayed until 2008
Sony’s massively-multiplayer social thing has been delayed to Spring 2008. This Second Life clone was originally slated for release this year but beta testing has revealed its development is a lot slower than expected. Home could be Sony’s answer to Microsoft’s Xbox Live catering mostly to hardcore players… but it remains to see if people will invest enough time and effort to this endeavour instead of, well, playing games on the PS3.

Here’s how to screw early adopters: release a console, then a few months later lower the price, eliminate a SKU and now release an upgraded controller that should have been in the first place.

EA has accidently revealed that rumble is coming back to PS3 with its demo of Burnout: Paradise. It is one of the first games to feature rumble technology. Look for an official announcement soon as the Tokyo Game Show is on the way. I really hope they announce some kind of replacement for all those gimped SIXAXIS controllers they defrauded the consumers into believing that they were the “real” PS3 controllers and rumble was passé.

Ok, people really have to stop playing games non-stop… The latest victim is a Chinese man who died after a 3-day MMORPG session. We don’t know who was this man apart from his age (30) or what game he was so addicted to…

The web-user, estimated to be 30 years old, suddenly collapsed in front of his computer terminal in Guangdong province, and emergency personnel were unable to revive him, the Beijing News reported.

“According to preliminary findings, the length of time this man spent online might have triggered heart problems,” the paper quoted a local hospital emergency medic in the city of Zhongshan as saying.

I guess dying for playing video games too much is no longer just a South Korean thing…

Xtreme Party for PSP is a very puzzling game: it is supposed to be a fun collection of 30 minigames, but it locks out almost all of them except 4. The whole premise is you unlock more games by purchasing them. You earn money to purchase those games by doing well in unlocked games and placing in the leaderboard. This artificial limit definitely prevents this game from, well, being a good party game.

It’s not even that the unlocked games are new and exciting. First there is “Puck Off!” which is just a spin on air hockey. You control a hovercraft and try to put the parrot (instead of puck) on the other side’s field. Second is “Zombie Shoot” which is as simple as it gets: you shoot zombies as they rise from the Earth and prevent them from hitting you or the damsel in distress. Third is “A. Probe” where you control an alien craft intent on kidnapping as many people as possible. Fourth is “Home Run” where you must hit ugly dudes and avoid nice babes (not my words). Finally there’s “Trash Radio” where you have 4 characters on screen and you must pick which one is saying something naughty represented by drawings. It could be boobs, drugs, angry smiley face or even guns!

Who knows, maybe the other 26 games are so outstanding and amazing that’ll make the game worth playing through. Although it doesn’t look like I’ll ever find out since I don’t have enough in-game money to unlock even 1 additional game! Each game you play, you earn a minimum of 100 X$ and each game you purchase requres 10,000 X$. Doing quick math will tell you that, if you don’t place in the leaderboard, you need to play the same 4 games 100 times to purchase an additional game.

Overall, it is a nice premise gone wrong. What good is 3D characters, somewhat nice visuals and promise of ad-hoc multiplayer if you can only play same 4 games over and over again? Definitely a must avoid title. If you’re deprived of minigames, there are alternatives (such as Ape Academy) that’s miles ahead.

Rating: 10%

Eternal Sonata (X360)
Set in the dream world of Chopin on his death bed, this Japanese RPG features great crisp anime visuals and semi real-time battle system.

World in Conflict (PC)
This real-time strategy game takes you to a world where Soviet Union still exists and Cold War never ended. This visceral experience is more action-oriented than typical RTS games.

Other releases:

• Blazing Angels 2: Secret Missions of WWII (X360, PC) 
• Campus (PC) 
• Coded Arms: Contagion (PSP) 
• Cosmic Family (Wii) 
• Death to Spies (PC)
• Digimon World Data Squad (PS2)
• Digimon World: Dawn (DS)
• Fantasy Wars (PC)
• Fishing Master (Wii)
• Growlanser: Heritage of War (PS2)
• Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights (X360, PS2, DS)
• Mercury Meltdown Revolution (Wii) 
• MySims (DS, Wii) 
• Namco Museum DS (DS) 
• Singstar 80’s (PS2) 
• Singstar Amped (PS2)
• Sonic Rush Adventure (DS)
• Stranglehold (PS3, PC)
• Stuntman Ignition (PS3)
• Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror (PS2)
• Warriors Orochi (X360, PS2)

Nintendo Wii continues to dominate other consoles, and Nintendo DS shows no sign of slowing down. Soon, every man and child will possess a DS at this rate! One sad fact is Sony’s entertainment system game console PS3 was outsold by everybody… even the elderly PS2 and the problematic PSP. It is clear that a $100 pricecut isn’t enough to give PS3 the edge over Nintendo and Microsoft. Maybe it’s time to try $200? It worked with Apple’s iPhone…

Hardware:

1. Nintendo Wii: 403k
2. Nintendo DS: 383k
3. Microsoft Xbox 360: 277k
4. Sony PS2: 202k
5. Sony PSP: 151k
6. Sony PS3: 131k

On the software side, the expected happened: Madden NFL 08 dominated all others. A positive news for Microsoft is its Xbox 360 was the platform of choise for those wanted a bit of football. Potentially it’s 60 frames per second versus PS3 version’s meager 30 frames per second. It is great to see Bioshock do so well as I hope its engrossing universe could definitely use an expansion disk or even a full-fledged sequel.

Software:

1. Madden NFL 08 (X360)
2. Madden NFL 08 (PS2)
3. BioShock (X360)
4. Madden NFL 08 (PS3)
5. Wii Play (Wii)
6. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii)
7. Mario Strikers: Charged (Wii)
8. Guitar Hero 2 bundle (PS2)
9. Mario Party 8 (Wii)
10. Guitar Hero Encore (PS2)