Syndicate's revival on consoles and the hard-to-nail-down Asura's Wrath lead the major platform releases in this, the real-deal roll out of the PS Vita in the U.S., with several titles making their debuts on the handheld, while Alan Wake: American Nightmare arrives on XBLA.
Title: Syndicate
Platform(s): PS3, PC, Xbox 360
We can be certain of one thing: the future will be full of science guns. Guns that shoot science. Or something. And nanobots.
This is, at least, what EA and developer Starbreeze (The Chronicles of Riddick, The Darkness) are pitching with this week's revamp of the classic PC/SNES/Genesis title, shifting the focus from your trenchcoated mob of techno assassins to a lone, massively upgradeable gunman. What's the Venn diagram look like of people who are nostalgic for classic Syndicate and people are who are intrigued by what EA has on display with Syndicate 2012? I'm always down for a new shooter, especially one that's willing to go weird with the arsenal, so consider me curious.
Title: Alan Wake's American Nightmare
Platform(s): Xbox 360
I'll gleefully tell anyone who'll listen that I'm into more Alan Wake. While Remedy's 2010 game was by no means perfect, there were so many successful elements in the overall story and the world that it created, that I hoped the developer would get a second swing at it. The sales weren't quite there at the time though (versus the years the game spent in development, marketing, and so on), so the chance of a sequel seemed slim.
And yet, here we are in 2012 with the not-quite-a-sequel American Nightmare, expanding somewhat on the main game while ratcheting up the action. So, I'm a little conflicted but that doesn't mean I won't be playing the game sometime this week, if only just to get another shot at the world Remedy and writer Sam Lake have designed.
Title: Asura's Wrath
Platform(s): Xbox 360, PS3
I know when it comes time to review Capcom's "game," I'm going to have a little trouble articulating the full experience. By the way, those aren't scare quotes around game—I'm just not sure how to quantify what I've been doing in my first hour or so with Asura's Wrath. The demo represents a good chunk of the experience so far, which is to say that it creates bafflement in terms of what Capcom's aims were with the game.
No, "bafflement" implies some kind of dissatisfaction. I've been pleased with Asura's Wrath—tickled even—but I'm really curious how it'll go over with John Q. Gamer.
Title: Army Corps of Hell
Platform(s): PS Vita
While Jason has been heroically knocking out so much of our Vita coverage in the last week, I'm still sitting no reviews of this and several other launch titles for the handheld. If I had to say one thing about the lineup overall, it's that it's decent to strong (but nothing has grabbed me yet as a system seller, we'll see). Then there's Square Enix's Army Corps of Hell, this metal-infused Pikmin-like title has some really interesting ideas and execution, but man, does it front load its first few chapters with repetition. But that soundtrack: if you are the kind of person who is into metal, this might be a game of the year candidate for you, since it seems like the entire vision of Army Corps of Hell was to evoke the feel of a brutal album cover and the sounds of the record within.
Look for a formal review later this week.
Title: Touch My Katamari
Platform(s): PS Vita
Look for Jason's review of this later this week. Katamari Damacy has become the oddball essential title for any new Sony release platform—if you can play a game on it, you can play a Katamari game on it. Based on the title, expect lots of use of the PS Vita's rear touchpad to play the game.
Title: Metal Gear Solid 3D
Platform(s): 3DS
Finally, the first of a pair of remakes of classic Konami titles (with the Silent Hill HD Collection dropping in March). I'm curious about why MGS: Snakeater and not the first or second games in the series is getting the 3D treatment and port to Nintendo's handheld. I suspect the first should be do at some point in the near future for a full remake (mark my words, we will have an MGS reboot in a couple of years) while the second got re-released on consoles in HD along with Snakeater.
Anyway, Konami and Kojima Productions want to remind you that these series exist while they're busy plugging away at the next couple of Metal Gear things for the current crop of consoles.
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