A Look Back at What Was and A Look Forward to What Will Be
» The video game season is starting to slow down now that the Wii U has launched, but there are still a couple of games to come that you should keep your eye out for. First, let’s see what happened with this past week’s releases.
Released November 13th
Last week had a surprise release of Mass Effect 2 for the PC – the surprise being that the discs were actually supposed to be the supplementary content discs for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. Hearing about the mix-up, Bioware made a surprise offer: those affected could take a picture of themselves with the disc and they would receive the full Mass Effect Trilogy. You can read about the offer over on Bioware’s blog: http://blog.bioware.com/2012/11/13/were-answering-the-call/ . This only seemed to affect PC users, so those looking to get the console version should know this shouldn’t be an issue for them. If that wasn’t bad enough for Activision, some PS3 players are also experiencing issues with freezing and after several patches it seems that the issue may still be unresolved: http://support.activision.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/In-game-connectivity-issues-with-Black-Ops-II-on-PS3
But to think that this was the only game with a manufacturing mistake to come out last, you’d be wrong; Warner Bros’ Lego Lord of the Rings for Xbox 360 also suffered from a manufacturing mistake – some discs were mislabeled as being Demo Discs, but actually contained the full game. Game Informer has the full story here: http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/11/13/lego-the-lord-of-the-rings-recalled.aspx.
Released November 18th
The Wii U, like its predecessor, has sold out almost immediately after launch. However, picking up a Wii U has so far been the least turbulent part of the process with people reporting a 5GB update required for any online access which eats a big chunk of the basic version’s 8GB storage space; additionally, since this is a large update and many people are trying to download it, there have also been reports of problems if connection is lost during the process causing a complete inoperability of the newly purchased consoles. Also, one user was even able to access a debug version of some parts of Miiverse. The full details can be found over at The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/nov/19/wii-u-launch-us-problems
If you’re looking for reviews of Wii U games, check out our review of Zombi U here and come back often as we get our chance to play with more of the release games.
Released November 19th
Hulu has a new site up for gamers to check out previews of video games which you can check out at http://www.hulu.com/videogames
Released November 20th
Today marks the launch of Hitman: Absolution which is receiving a wide range of reviews which you can check out here: http://www.joystiq.com/2012/11/19/metareview-hitman-absolution/
Also out today:
- Jet Set Radio for PS Vita
- Assassin’s Creed III for PC
- Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale for PS3 and PS Vita
- Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse for Xbox 360 and PS3
Things to Come
Normally I’d put a date to things, but this is a Humble Bundle for something that doesn’t really exist yet. Tim Schafer and Double Fine have an annual internal idea generation event (often called Jams) called the Amnesia Fortnight. This time, the team has decided to let YOU choose what games actually get time spent on building them, and which just disappear into irrelevance. To vote, simply select the games you think should be made and then give a contribution in typical Humble Bundle fashion. Voting and prototypes can be found here: http://www.humblebundle.com/double-fine.
Next week has the release of Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault for PS3, however, the PS Vita edition is said to be delayed: http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/11/19/ratchet-clank-full-frontal-assault-coming-to-ps-vita-in-january/#utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PSBlog+%28PlayStation.Blog%29
So, if you still have money in your wallet and don’t know what to buy, now would be a perfect time to look back over the games released in the last couple of weeks and see which ones have proven to be worth their money and which games will leaving you feeling unsatisfied. As always, Sean has a stack of games and little to no time to play, so expect his reviews of many of the latest titles soon. Don’t forget to check back next week where we’ll bring you up to date with what happened and what’s happening.
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