March 22 - March 26

I never spent much time in the sandbox, or rather as a child of the Southern Gulf Coast, on the beach. All that sand just lying there on a great expanse, where others saw towering castles rising from the ground with parapets and moats, I just saw a big blanket of dirt. Call it lack of imagination or fundamentally broken spatial skills, I am not nor have I ever been one to build my own fun from an open and unstructured landscape.

Maybe that's why I don't much care for most sandbox games. With the exception of Saint's Row 2 and Crackdown -- what is the common thread with those two? -- I usually just grow tired of the directionless nature of the environments offered. How I long for a dude with an exclamation point over his head.

So, even though I am tagging Just Cause 2 as game of the week, I do so with a great deal of personal skepticism. After playing the thirty minute demo, in which I base jumped into a small equatorial village where I caused random destruction before grappling onto and hijacking an attack helicopter for my escape, I am left wondering how long I would revel in the wanton destruction before growing listless and bored. My fear is that it would be only slightly more than a half hour.

With God of War 3, Final Fantasy XIII and Metro 2033 still dominating my gaming time, it's hard to imagine picking up much of anything this week, but hey, I've been the victim of impulse buys more than once.

Also of note this week: Red Steel 2 on the Wii, and Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey and Dawn of Heroes both look like the sort of DS game a number of you are going to get pretty excited about.

PC
- Just Cause 2
- The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom (Beware UbiSoft's DRM)
- Zhu Zhu Pets

Xbox 360
- How to Train Your Dragon
- Just Cause 2
- MotoGP 09/10

PS3
- How to Train Your Dragon
- Just Cause 2
- MotoGP 09/10

Wii
- Build-A-Bear Workshop: Friendship Valley
- How to Train Your Dragon
- Pizza Delivery Boy
- Red Steel 2
- Rooms: The Main Building

DS
- Bakugan Battle Trainer
- Build-A-Bear Workshop: Welcome to Hugsville
- Cheer We Go
- Dawn of Heroes
- Disney Stitch Jam
- How to Train Your Dragon
- Imagine: Gymnast
- Rooms: The Main Building
- Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey
- Squishy Tank
- Zhu Zhu Pets

Coming Soon -
- Splinter Cell: Conviction : April 13
- Red Dead Redemption PS3 / Xbox 360 : May 18
- Lost Planet 2 PS3 / Xbox 360 : May 18
- Alan Wake: May 18
- Super Mario Galaxy 2 : May 23

Comments

I'm curious to see how Red Steel 2 is received.

UbiSoft went on record saying they wanted to take the platform seriously with this title so I'm wondering if it panned out.

EDIT:

I'm also a tad skeptical about Just Cause 2. Not because it looks bad or anything (in fact, it looks quite awesome), but more to the point that I too wonder how quickly I'd get bored.

I think I'm a bit burned out on the sandbox genre at the moment, but it can't explain my seething anticipation for Red Dead Redemption. Maybe it's because the Wild West is so underrepresented in gaming, but watching some of the latest previews for RDR over at GameSpot this weekend put it solidly in the forefront of my most anticipated short-term releases.

Cave Story Wii. Cave Story Wii. Cave Story Wii. Cave Story Wii. Cave Story Wii.

Maybe that's why I don't much care for most sandbox games. With the exception of Saint's Row 2 and Crackdown -- what is the common thread with those two?

Fun.

Aaron D. wrote:

I'm curious to see how Red Steel 2 is received.

UbiSoft went on record saying they wanted to take the platform seriously with this title so I'm wondering if it panned out.

...

I think I'm a bit burned out on the sandbox genre at the moment, but it can't explain my seething anticipation for Red Dead Redemption. Maybe it's because the Wild West is so underrepresented in gaming....

Well, Red Steel 2 has the Wild West thing going for it, too. I've heard of a couple European reviews and the Official Nintendo Magazine reviews so far. ONM gave it a 93% (Gave the original 91%) and the Europeans were split between a quite positive and a passable but with great controls review.

I still think the cel-shaded look they're using is quite nice. Of course, how many cel-shaded games have we seen that have become a big success, or even a mild success (outside of Legend of Zelda)?

grobstein wrote:

Cave Story Wii. Cave Story Wii. Cave Story Wii. Cave Story Wii. Cave Story Wii.

Steam claims that I've played 11 hours of the Just Cause 2 demo already. That sounds about right. 11 hours and I'm still sitting here fretting that it hasn't become available for preload yet. Normally, I get bored of sandbox games (I never even finished GTA IV), and I'm generally not one for random destructiveness. However, the amount of times I find myself cackling gleefully at my monitor regarding whatever ridiculous thing I've just managed to do in this game hasn't been matched in years, if ever. There are just so many ways to take out your enemies, get from point to point, cause chaos, and well... have fun... that I still find new things to do every time I play the demo. And that's with a severely limited map, no cities, and no boats. GTA never let me free fall for a couple of minutes after jumping out of my helicopter, pop my parachute, float into an enemy base, and use my grappling hook to yank a guard out of his tower before I hit the ground, and then watch my chopper crash into the fuel tanks in front of me. I can't wait to find out what other craziness awaits. Sure, it's a sandbox game. But at the moment, anyway, it appears to be just so much more.

Elysium wrote:

I never spent much time in the sandbox, or rather as a child of the Southern Gulf Coast, on the beach. All that sand just lying there on a great expanse, where others saw towering castles rising from the ground with parapets and moats, I just saw a big blanket of dirt. Call it lack of imagination or fundamentally broken spatial skills, I am not nor have I ever been one to build my own fun from an open and unstructured landscape.

For a second I thought this was an attempt to come on to Natalie Portman. You know, with all the sand hatred.

If Just Cause 2 were only about going to random places and blowing stuff up, it could get old pretty fast for some. But there are also the story-based missions which throw some variety in there (I enjoyed the one in the demo). Plus there's the huge, varied world. Having seen most of the demo desert, I can't wait to see the other environments. For me, this is a day one purchase, no questions asked. Like r013nt0, I've played the demo over and over and it is FUN -- something a lot of game developers have forgotten about.

Finally, in Canada, the game is coming out at $40 (instead of $60/$70) on opening day in some stores. For a 360 game, that's quite a deal.

Just Cause looks like a blast (no pun intended). But with the cornucopia of games this winter, and since it's a single player-only game, this one will wait until there's a price drop.

Rat Boy wrote:

For a second I thought this was an attempt to come on to Hayden Christensen. You know, with all the sand hatred.

Fixed that for you.

Man I hated Saints Row 2 (PC)

After watching the giant bomb quick look, Strange Journey looks right up my alley, though I doubt it will reach the UK any time soon...

are DS games still region free, or did the Dsi put a stop to all that? I can't remember.

stevenmack wrote:

After watching the giant bomb quick look, Strange Journey looks right up my alley, though I doubt it will reach the UK any time soon...

are DS games still region free, or did the Dsi put a stop to all that? I can't remember.

Games are region free, the DSes aren't. If you have a phat or Lite, they're region free.

Didn't care for the Just Cause 2 demo at all. It didn't even touch the last Red Faction game for fun in blowing stuff up. It just felt really, really boring and pointless.

So what's this about Nintendo releasing a porn game for the Wii?

Rooms looks a lot like recent indie favorite Continuity. It could be interesting.

Just Cause 2 for me. The amount of ridiculous fun you can have with the tools they give you is worth the price tag to me. Now I just have to finish GoW3, Bioshock 2, Metro 2033 before getting to this one. Stupid pile! You mock me relentlessly!

I'm curious to see what other environments Just Cause 2 puts you in. A city would be fantastic amounts of fun to hook around in.

Faceless Joe wrote:

I'm curious to see what other environments Just Cause 2 puts you in. A city would be fantastic amounts of fun to hook around in.

Cities are in, as are snowy mountains, beaches, lots of water, jungles, and of course desert from what I've seen in trailers / played before work this morning.

Elysium doesn't like sandboxes because you can't win at playing in a sandbox.

Also, Just Cause 2 is $45 this week at KMart

And $39.99 in Canadian Wal-Marts.

Aaron D. wrote:

I'm curious to see how Red Steel 2 is received.

UbiSoft went on record saying they wanted to take the platform seriously with this title so I'm wondering if it panned out.

I watched the Giant Bomb quick look, and let me tell you, I'm not usually a first-person-games-make-me-motion-sick guy, but watching this game made me a bit queasy. Something about the way the camera jerks around during finishing moves. Maybe it's better when you're playing as opposed to just watching, I dunno.

The cel-shaded look is pretty appealing, though. Reminded me a lot of Borderlands.

I played the sh*t out of the Just Cause 2 demo. There's something about it that really reminds me of Red Faction: Guerilla (though there's quite a bit less structural deforming going on), which was one of my more enjoyed games last year.

The upgrade system is pretty handy, and a nice little carrot on a stick to get people to explore. The radio alert when near one of those upgrade chests is also a godsend.

I don't think this is a purchase title for me, but I'm bound to rent it. It's just the right amount of fun and freedom for me to fiddle with.