September 2, 2011 Upcoming XBox360 Video Games

I have been playing video games for a long, long time. Starting with the Atari 2600 through the Xbox360, I have owned almost every major platform. I love the challenge of the puzzles, putting the pieces together, figuring out the solutions. I have said before that this is a lost art in games now. As the holiday season approaches I can say there are a few games that I cannot wait to play. This summer I have put down the controller and I have not been playing much at all, L.A. Noire soured my taste after a while. Instead I have focused on health, reading, and doing other things. But there are few blockbusters I will be participating in to play for the story and experience rather than just playing a game.

For along time I played primarily what everyone did, First Person Shooters (FPS). Halo, Modern Warfare, Call of Duty, and any other one that was out there. They are all the same, blind run and gun, little strategy and almost no critical puzzle thinking. So you play to waste away time. Add to the utter frustrations and anger you get by hearing 12 year olds throw out horrific racial and offensive language online for a game they shouldn't be playing in the first place, I swore off all FPS games. 

Today I saw the latest trailer for the multiplayer of the new Modern Warfare 3 and the temptation is so strong to get back into it... but I won't. Check out the trailer.

In the next few months there are so far only two games I will be getting on Day 1. The first one is Batman: Arkham City, the sequel to Batman: Arkham Asylum and the other is Saints Row The Third, the 3rd game of the Saints Row series.

Batman: Arkham Asylum, the first game, in my opinion was the best Xbox 360 game made. It was the perfect blend of action, puzzles, and story to keep you hooked to the end. Others will disagree with me but a recent study showed most people never play the games all the way through. Batman was a game you wanted to play through because it was like a movie, you wanted to advance the story to see how it ended. Watching the teaser trailers that have been released for Arkham City shows that the story is the core of the game, but just running around as Batman beating people up. That's what games have lost, most games anyway, the story. The living, interactive movie or book where you are at the controls.

The second game I am looking forward to is Saints Row The Third. This game is purely guilty pleasure. I love this series because of the cooperative game play mechanics. Saints Row 2 was cool, but it was great when you played cooperatively with a friend. That has been enhanced and made more important in SR3. The game itself is a mix of third person view and free world style like Grand Theft Auto except add in sick, twisted, way over the top humor and action. The game markets itself as completely off map and nuts.

Check out their game play trailers. This shows the humor style of the game and the people behind making it.

I am sure there are other game that will be blockbusters and over sell these two by leaps and bounds, but games are not about doing what everyone else is doing. Maybe for you it is, I play for mental exercise and entertainment. No cheats, no walkthroughs, no books, just me figuring it out and enjoying the ride.

End of Line.
@binaryblogger

Posted in: Video Games