Modern Warfare 2 sets it sights on pummelling any sort of competition it might have had in the FPS genre and apparently does so by selling multiple millions in it's first day, but I won't be playing that because war themed FPSs are for chumps. I want a new Time Splitters dammit.
This month I will satiate my gaming urges with Dragon Age: Origins, Assassin's Creed 2, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and the God of War Collection. If not for God of War, all of these games deserve your money, because they're all awesome.
I will say a bit on each:
Dragon Age: Origins isn't nearly as long as reviewers and other members of the gaming press are claiming. It is not an 80-90 hour game, it's a 30-40 and sometimes a 50 hour game. It only becomes an 80-90 hour game if you're an achievement/trophy whore.
Assassin's Creed 2 is everything that was loveable about the the first and more, with most of the structural wrinkles ironed-out.
New Super Mario Bros. Wii is as classic and -ugh- "hardcore" a game as they come. Precise platforming is the name of the game, and if you think you can just breeze through just because it's a Mario game, you're quite wrong.
The God of War Collection is God of War 1 and 2 in 720p.
Bonus:
God of War 3 Demo Overview:
I had concerns about the art direction of God of War 3 (hereafter referred to as GoW3) when I saw the first trailer about a year or so ago. Mostly because the trailer was poorly cut, and the textures were murky...well basically it looked like they gave the trailer duties to the 'C' team. Not long after, the full length version of the same trailer is released, and with it comes better textures, better cinematography and Kratos going apeshit like well all want him to.
But there's a problem.
There's a disturbing amount of black everywhere. Everything is shaded in black. Every artist, even those not worth their salt, learns that you never use pure black...ever. There's a good reason for this, it's because it often leads to scenes and characters looking -muddy- and it obscures details from the viewer. There are exceptions of course, like if you want to purposely hide details from the viewer, sure, like say, you peer into a cave, it's pitch black, but suddenly a monster jumps out at you. But in this case, the GoW3 trailer, it was everywhere. I chalked it up to the fact that it was a dark, stormy weather-like scene.
The demo is this and more.
It's easy to understand why they've done this, it gives the game a very striking look. All that black I'm complaining about is offset by extremely bright direct lighting that pretty much outlines everything. But what, may I ask, happened to the fantastic palette from God of War 2, which had fantastic lighting and brilliant colour? Maybe it's just the area in the demo, but I've got a feeling it's like this for the whole game.
None of this, of course, effects the awesome gameplay, which is still 100% intact. It still looks like it's going to be a badass finale to what is arguably one of the most satisfying action adventure games, it's just going to look kinda ugly.
