Red Dead Redemption
Platforms: Xbox 360, Playstation 3
Developer: Rockstar San Diego
Traditional oaters never seem to die – whatever the context, the giant expanses of desert, the dusty saloon brawls and quick draws in the street are veritable goldmines for pop culture. Gaming has been slow on the uptake, but this generation’s GUN and Call of Juarez have proven the genre relevant.
As for Red Dead – taking the open world, compelling story and strong characterisation from Grand Theft Auto IV and dropping them into the unforgiving world of the old West seems like a recipe for success. Much enjoyment will come simply from seeing the Western equivalents of GTA tropes and mechanics – cars are swapped for (Euphoria physics driven) horses, subway cars are replaced with steam trains and extracurricular activities are about hunting food, rather than scoring dope.
Mafia II
Platforms: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC
Developer: 2K Czech
2K Czech‘s 1940s crime drama looks to pick up where Grand Theft Auto IV left off with even more attention to detail, more vitality to the streets and a more authentic world to corrupt. Still, the European developer is carefully balancing between realism and fun – cars will handle better, be easier to break into, and won’t run out of fuel so quickly.
It’s an era and a lifestyle that is ripe for action set-pieces, city monopolising and character dramas, 2K’s pulled from years of Mafia pop-culture with obvious spoofs and references to organised-crime movies in promotional trailers.
The Reason: Both Mafia and Redemption were pushed into 2010 in a single motion, with Take-Two explaining that the move will “allow additional development time for the titles and to maximize their full potential in terms of the quality of the player experience and market performance.”
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While I’m really unhappy to see so many title slip from 2009 to Q2/Q1 2010 I fully understand that most publisher want to avoid the “Christmas rush”. Last year the excellent Dead Space got that treatment and didn’t reach decent sales numbers…
But if all publishers move to eary 2010 than they only “move” the problem and don’t avoid it…?
Good news for some of us at least! I still haven’t played the original Bioshock and I’d love to experience it before the second one reaches our shores.
You gotta get on that Michelle – seeing as its on PC, 360 and PS3, and its cheap as hell now, you don’t have any more excuses!
I’m actually now finding the christmas release schedule a little thin this year. I think there are only 6-8 titles i intend to buy in the entire rest of the year.
I would happily buy double that if the right titles were on the market.
Early 2010 however is looking pretty crammed, especially if games like Gran Turismo 5 and Alan Wake turn up then as well as those mentioned.
Waiting for those games isn’t a problem, they just have to make sure that once they release it, the game should be flawless and likable. I was actually a bit disappointed with SCII especially the no lan issue but still I’m looking forward for it, for sure they know what they’re doing and at the end will satisfy us all. What’s good about this, is they finally dropped the prices of the consoles and some game titles, so it’s our chance to take advantage. Me, I’m thinking of buying PS3 and subscribing to Aion online ; D -
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