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Far Cry 3 And The Stranger In A Strange Land This list of mega-releases in November is completely CRAZY. No, seriously, I really wonder at the long-term business strategy in the games industry, still focused on the Christmas window as though gamers only get new games as Christmas presents.
Anyway. Here’s a sampler of the big names landing next month, and most of them all the space of a single week! I might have a few of these wrong, but at a quick glance I see: EndWar; Gears of War 2; Call of Duty: World at War; Rock Band; Guitar Hero World Tour; LittleBigPlanet; Mirror’s Edge; Wrath of the Lich King; LotRO: Mines of Moria; Left 4 Dead; Motorstorm Pacific Rift; Wii Music… And this is all the front half of the month…
AND all before we’ve finished digesting this month’s bumper crop! So what are you buying? What are you leaving until they hit the sale shelves early next year? And what are you ignoring?
Many readers heard this via retail channels, and shared in the comments, but we have just received official word from Sony Computer Entertainment that they are “working toward achieving” a November 7 launch for LittleBigPlanet in Australia and New Zealand. That statement leaves some wiggle room (that is, it doesn’t say “confirmed”) should something stall the re-mastery process and local re-distribution, but it’s good we know a date to hang out for. Save your pennies, people, because Nov 7 – 14 may now be one of the toughest weeks at retail I’ve ever seen gamers have to contend with.
Sure it hits the streets tomorrow, but we got this pic on Tuesday. Looks like at least one happy PS3 camper could have already finished it by now. At least the rest of you only have to wait until tomorrow.
Midway has announced that Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe will be available to buy in North America on November 16th. Euro gamers will have to wait until Nov 21st to get their fix of Superman’s ‘Brutality’.
Capcom’s upcoming real-time strategy game makes a booty call on Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network next month as Capcom announces the release dates for Age of Booty. The XBLA version will be available for download on the 15th of October, with the PSN version arriving a day later. They’ll also be releasing the game on PC via Direct2Drive, Digital River, Metaboli, Impulse, Steam, and others shortly thereafter. Prices are $10 across the board, which of course equals 800 Microsoft Points once translated into Xbox 360 inconvenience currency.
Demos for all three versions will be available on the day of release. I’d throw in some pirate jargon here, but I need to rest up a month or two after Talk Like A Pirate Day. Wait, think I got something – Avast. There, happy?
Get Ready to Answer the Call of Booty [Capcom Unity]
While it might be old news to some of you, last we’d heard the long-awaited and greatly enhanced PlayStation 3 version of Eternal Sonata was scheduled for a release sometime in the fall. Well while we weren’t looking, sometime in the fall became sometime in October, which then got narrowed down even further to October 21st. While it’s only been a year or so since I played the original, the improvements made between that version and this one – new characters, extra cutscenes, new outfits, etc. – might just be enough for me to pick it up again. Besides, it will be novel to play a relatively high quality Japanese RPG on the PS3 for once.
European gamers who fancied some 1940′s stealth gaming in Velvet Assassin will have to wait until the new year.
Replay has pushed back the game’s European release to early 2009.
This is ostensibly to bring the launch in line with the US release but will of course have the handy side-effect of extending the development time by a couple of months and avoiding the Christmas rush.
Velvet Assassin slips into early 2009 [Eurogamer]
