section by: Justin
Clark and SCOTT!
METROID: OTHER M
Team Ninja/Nintendo
Wii
MSRP: $49.99
CLICK TO BUY FROM AMAZON!
Man, what I would give if every long-running game series was as well-handled and adaptable as Metroid. There hasn’t been a bad game in this series since Metroid 2, and Other M doesn’t seem to be the combo breaker in that regard. Team Ninja wouldn’t have been my first choice to carry this series’ torch, but they know action, and when they set their minds to it, they know atmosphere. Not that any of you saw it (addendum: you fucking pussies), but I have to imagine the same sick genius mind over there who came up with the gothic cathedral made of flesh and bone near the end of Ninja Gaiden II had a field day designing for this game. Unfortunately, their grasp on story lies somewhere between Michael Bay and a chimp with the Downs, and there’s more of a cinematic focus on that than there has been in games past. Thankfully, most of this seems to be sequestered off in cutscenes so, long as you have a sandwich and, depending on how bad it gets, a gun with a single bullet on hand, you’ll be fine.
OOOHHHH: ON THE DLC TIP
BIOSHOCK 2: MINERVA’S DEN
2K Marin
XBox Live, Playstation Network
8/31
$9.99/800 MS pts
As if Bioshock 2 didnt already have a problem trying to follow up one of the greatest FPSes of all time, now theyve got new single-player DLC coming out on the heels of Ken Levine’s Bioshock Infinite reveal. It’s the 2010 of video games. It’s not a bad game, but if this wasn’t coming out, I’d have forgotten this game actually happened. And it was only 6 months ago. Which is sad, because there’s actually a surprising amount of content being thrown in here, including a new protagonist, a new brand of Big Daddy, and an entirely self-contained story involving a sort of undersea UNIVAC controlling Rapture behind the scenes.
DEAD RISING: CASE ZERO
Capcom
XBox Live
8/31
400 MS pts
Case Zero is meant to not only serve as the bridge between Dead Risings 1 and 2, but as DR2‘s demo. I hate that its going to cost me money to find out if the multitude of things that punched balls about Dead Rising 1 got fixed or not almost as much as I hate the fact that game developers have almost single-handedly made me goddamned tired of zombies over the course of the last year and a half or so, but the idea is sound.
ROCK BAND TUESDAY
Country Pack 04 ($14.99/1200 MS pts)
- Dierks Bentley— What Was I Thinkin’
- Eric Church – Hell on the Heart
- Jamey Johnson – Women
- Josh Turner – Would You Go With Me +
- Keith Urban – Days Go By +
- Lady Antebellum – Lookin’ For a Good Time
- Laura Bell Bundy – Rebound
- Reba McEntire – Fancy +
- Sugarland – It Happens +
$1.99 per track
+=Available for Lego Rock Band
Except for Fancy (screw you, Reba McEntire’s great), his whole pack reads like the soundtrack to Dante’s descent into the inferno to me, but the country stuff has sold well, and the lily must occasionally be gilded with suck so that stuff like that Ministry pack from a while ago can happen. So, enjoy, whoever you are with genuine interest in this. Your love of twangy pop music is but a means to an end.
In a perfect world, that end involves more Neko Case.