9/27/2010

Vegas= The New WWII?

WWII is the most overused backdrop in all of gaming. Granted, there seems to be a refreshing amount of games not based on it this year, but that just means companies will jump all over some other hot backdrop until we are completely sick of it. That backdrop mayeasily be Vegas. Actually already featured in quite a few titles, though not to the point to be overwhelmingly obvious, the glitz, glamour and anything can happen aura of the city is probably quite the enticing setting for those lacking originality. This week sees a big send-up of it in the highly anticipated Dead Rising 2, where you can try your luck against hordes of mindless zombies. While I enjoyed the original, I kinda got bored after a few hours of mindless zombie-slaying mayhem, so not much appeal for me persoanlly. Also coming soon is Fallout: New Vegas, throwing an apocalyptic coat of paint on the home of the Rat Pack. That already seems like slight overkill to me, especially with many games at least throwing in some nod to vegas whether it be a city or particular level. I doubt it reach the ridiculous overusage of WWII, but if companies don't cut it out, people might start getting so tired of seeing Vegas everywhere they won't even want to go to the actual city.

Well now, if I remember correctly, Wednesday should be the day Nintendo finally announces the release date for the 3DS. Now, they promised it'd be out everywhere by March, but I'd put good money on it being out in November here to really capitalize on holiday sales with a hopeful $200 price tag (which recent price drops of the DSi/XL support). Now that being said, it would have to have a fairly impressive lineup for me to buy day one or even really soon after launch. No system has really had a strong launch library frankly (usually one or two awesome games surrounded by garbage) and it usually takes at least a year for quality software to really start coming out at a rate that makes owning the hardware worth it. I mean, look at the DS. Nobody understood how cool the touch screen was and everybody thought it would be pulverized by the PSP. These days the DS is the most popular system on the planet and the PSP is struggling to even be relevant to the point that it's worth wondering if there's even a point to making a PSP2.

Unfortunately that's really all I've got for today but I should have a much meatier post next time with thoughts on the pricing/release date of the 3DS, FFXIV, Superman/Batman Apocalypse and more all in my next post. Til then, here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Megatankman

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