Dec 1st - 7th

Section: 

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving down in the States! Up here in Canada we continued to beaver away at building our igloos for the winter and insuring we have enough whale blubber to last us until spring. After a hype dampening demo, Deus Ex 2 is ready to slink into stores, ashamed of the first impression it made o­n thousands of gamers. Despite this, Invisible War is our pick of the litter for this week and should get plenty of attention from Xbox and PC gamers alike.

Shipping for both the PC and the Xbox this Tuesday, DX: Invisible War will retail for the usual $49.99. Was anyone so turned off by the demo that they won't touch it or do some of you still maintain hope that everything will turn out all right? Personally, I'm hopeful although a little concerned at how Warren Spector makes very clear in every interview that he isn't the lead o­n this game. Some might think it's suspicious, this distancing himself from certain design decisions.The Rest

1080: Avalanche
Platform: Gamecube
Ships: Dec 1st
Price: $49.99

The Buzz: Nintendo's snowboarding mascot has improved by leaps and bounds every time I've seen a new gameplay video of it. The question remains, will it be good enough to challenge SSX3?

Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark
Platform: PC
Ships: Dec 2nd
Price: $29.99

The Buzz: The second and quite possibly final expansion for Neverwinter Nights has six new prestige classes, four new tile sets, 16 new creatures and the ability to level up to 40.

Dance Dance Revolution: Ultramix
Platform: Xbox
Ships: Dec 2nd
Price: $39.99

The Buzz: This is the first time the Dance Dance series has landed o­n the Xbox and you can download new songs, moves and more over Live.

Armed & Dangerous
Platform: PC, Xbox
Ships: Dec 2nd
Price: $39.99 (PC), $49.99 (Xbox)

The Buzz: Possibly the most anticipated game around here this week aside from Deus Ex 2, the makers of Giants are back with a more action-orientated release with the humor injection we expect from a Planet Moon title.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Platform: PC
Ships: Dec 2nd
Price: $39.99

The Buzz: Last version out of the gate! Higher resolution, lower price and the same excellent gameplay make this a must-have for the PC if you don't mind a ten hour game.

Beyond Good and Evil
Platform: Gamecube, Xbox
Ships: Dec 2nd
Price: $49.99

The Buzz: Already receiving good reviews for being a solid platformer although it's a little short. This is o­ne to watch out for.

I-Ninja
Platform: Gamecube, Xbox
Ships: Dec 4th
Price: $49.99

The Buzz: Released o­n the PS2 last week for ten bucks cheaper, so far the reviews have been around 80%.

DVDs 

• 1 Love
• Alias: The Complete Second Season
• Hud
• The Jamie Kennedy Experiment: Complete 1st Season
• The Pirates Of The Caribbean
• Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Complete 7th Season
• To Live And Die In L.A. 

The rest of the DVDs.

- Certis

Comments

Honestly, Armed and Dangerous is my pick of the week. A disappointing demo and some 'meh' first impressions leaves me cold on Deus Ex 2: Consoled To Death. On the other hand, awesome weapons, an inventive and creative team, and trademark humor places Armed and Dangerous much higher on my anticipation meter.

If Deus Ex is so "consoled out," maybe it'll be good on a console - my console. We'll have to wait and see, I suppose.

Yes, the demo was so bad I will not get DX:IW. I am appreciative about them releasing the demo since it saved me $50.

I've started playing Giants again just to get the controls down for Armed and Dangerous. I've been looking forward to this sucker for a while.... Now if my wife will just let me buy it.

I'm not giving up hope on DX:IW, but I'm gonna wait quite a while and see how what the consensus is after the hype/outrage dies down.

I guess i'll be plaing wait & see game with DX2. I'm still hopping...

If anyone picks up BG&E I'd be interested to hear what you think. It looks pretty good.

Either way...I'm picking up DX2...

If it sells like crap and gets panned then they'll refocus on DX3 and we can all pretend that DX2 never happened.

DX2 for me...I just can't say no to free things...

DX2 for me...I just can't say no to free things...

Who did you sleep with??

No no, I didn't get the game free. There were perks, however.

"makers of Giants are back with a more action-orientated release"

I hate to be a bastard, but 'orientated' is not a word, and it makes me and Baby Jebus cry.

Your pal,
a.

Dry your tears, atom, it appears to be a word. However, I would agree that it probably isn't the right word for the way they were using it.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=orientated

It's Canadian slang.

Canadian for "shut up, Sway", no doubt.

Just noticed the avatar Sway, glad to see you used it

How could I not? It was custom-made for me! It fits like a dream, too.

Aww, shucks... I'm so glad you've taken to it. I suffer for my art.

Horizons is released on the 5th in Europe.

I, too, was completely turned off by the DX:IW demo. I want to thank all the developers at Ion for releasing it, you saved me $50 I can better spend on something worth the money.

I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, I believe if there are problems with the PC version they will be patched up. Might be worth waiting for a few weeks before picking it up.

Has anybody seen the XBox commercial for DX: IW?

"In the Future War on Terror ... blah blah, Invisible War! a Deus Ex game"

What? I think thier marketing department needs a good ass kicking. That tagline is annoying enough without downplaying the fact that it's Deus Ex 2.

I'm still baffled by the whole Xbox decision in the first place..

Most of their sucess has been on the PC.. so most of their existing market would be on the PC..

There wasnt even an Xbox port of the original... I wonder exactly how many extra copies they'll even sell on the Xbox.

Though with them gettting it out before Xmas I suspect they may actually get some decent sales on the Xbox..

I for one hope that the Xbox 2 is radically different platform from the PC...thus hopefully more dev's won't take the easy route out..

or it blows up and they stop producing for the PC..

You still have not done the DVDs !! No matter, I already have Pirates of the C in hand

Flux, you must be insane or something, they've been there the whole time.

Pyro, please fetch Flux his meds.

Nice edit job