August 22 — August 26

Section: 

I was sorely tempted to just write the words Deus Ex: Human Revolution in this space, and nothing else. Sadly, brevity is not my forte, and the thought of such a minimalist The Week Ahead without any occasionally condescending commentary was too much for me to bear. The industry, however, has no such qualms and seems to have uniformly conceded the entire week to what will hopefully be a return to form for one of my favorite video game series of all time.

Essentially you may consider this the official kick-off week for the Fall Gaming Season, and what a season it's shaping up to be. Yes, a lot of what you will be seeing this year is high profile sequels, but if you can get past that fact, there are some pretty damn good sequels to be looking forward to. Games like Skyrim, Gears 3, Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, Forza 4 and Uncharted 3 are just a sampling of the titles screaming toward release over the next 12 weeks.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm going to have to make some hard decisions over the next 3 months, and by hard decisions I specifically mean which meal I plan to phase out of my diet so I can afford those games. I think probably lunch, it's really over rated and I can never find a good place to eat anyway.

If for some reason Deus Ex isn't your bag, then while you wait for the DNA testing to return the bad news that you are an alien, you could consider World of Tanks on the PC, Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online Edition on XBLA & PSN, or Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overlocked on the 3DS. And that's it for this week, there is genuinely nothing else.

Comments

Elysium wrote:

Games like Skyrim, Gears 3, Modern Warfare 3, Arkham City, Battlefield 3, Forza 4 and Uncharted 3 are just a sampling of the titles screaming toward release over the next 12 weeks

FTFY. It deserves to be in the top 5. MW3 probably doesn't.

I'm hoping to finish Deus Ex by the time Red Orchestra 2 comes out. If not, I'll be in quite the quandary. A beautiful quandary, but a quandary nonetheless.

MisterStatic wrote:
Elysium wrote:

Games like Skyrim, Gears 3, Modern Warfare 3, Arkham City, Battlefield 3, Forza 4 and Uncharted 3 are just a sampling of the titles screaming toward release over the next 12 weeks

FTFY. It deserves to be in the top 5. MW3 probably doesn't.

Speak for yourself, good sir! I personally am really looking forward to MW3. Arkham City too. I vote Gears 3 off the top 5.

The news around Deus Ex has been really positive, I'm really excited to see if it lives up to the hype. I've been needing a good new game to sink my teeth into, I've mostly been trawling my backlogs of late.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/NyK62.png)

I can't wait for this season to officially start

(Also can't wait for the GiantBomb GOTY deliberation podcasts)

Looking forward to getting SF 3rd strike. One of the best makes of Street Fighter ever put together.

October and November are going to be brutal.

I said I would wait for the reviews. I SAID I WOULD WAIT FOR THE REVIEEEEEWWWWS!

I could not wait for the reviews.

Redwing wrote:
MisterStatic wrote:
Elysium wrote:

Games like Skyrim, Gears 3, Modern Warfare 3, Arkham City, Battlefield 3, Forza 4 and Uncharted 3 are just a sampling of the titles screaming toward release over the next 12 weeks

FTFY. It deserves to be in the top 5. MW3 probably doesn't.

Speak for yourself, good sir! I personally am really looking forward to MW3. Arkham City too. I vote Gears 3 off the top 5. :P

I too would vote Gears 3 off the top 5, and replace it with Saints Row 3. After seeing the first couple trailers, it's my most anticipated game of the year, ever since Mass Effect 3 was bumped to 2012.

Grubber788 wrote:

List of big game releases through 11/15/2011

And the one game I care the most about comes out 5 days after the end of that list and likely will get more flak from gamers for it's motion controlls than it probably deserves, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

/Nintendnerd

But Arkham City, Uncharted 3 and Battlefield 3 still are appealing to me.

Next up for me: SW:TOR beta weekends

My wife was getting antsy for Skyrim until I suggested she start playing Dragon Age.

Fortunately for me there are a few "B" list games. And by that I mean Birthday list. Games I still want but can wait for the fraternal mid-November video game gift exchange, rather than release day purchases.

Tanglebones wrote:

Next up for me: SW:TOR beta weekends

My wife was getting antsy for Skyrim until I suggested she start playing Dragon Age.

Argh - just finally kicked the WoW habit this year... SW:TOR is going to be the death of me.

I'll be pushing many Q3/Q4 titles of interest into 2012. Games that I would have purchased day one if they had been released during the slower periods. Publishers are at least wising up and launching AAA material outside of the holiday window (ME3, Bioshock 3, etc.), but I wish they'd wise up and not send some titles out to die during the holiday glut. It will be a shame to seem many deserving games wither on the vine because there's so many high-profile games releasing in such a narrow window.

Anyway, I've narrowed my holiday day one purchases down to Batman, Skyrim & Uncharted. Battlefield 3 and Saints Row 3 are on the bubble, potentially falling either way.

mrtomaytohead wrote:
Grubber788 wrote:

List of big game releases through 11/15/2011

And the one game I care the most about comes out 5 days after the end of that list and likely will get more flak from gamers for it's motion controlls than it probably deserves, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

/Nintendnerd

But Arkham City, Uncharted 3 and Battlefield 3 still are appealing to me.

Those were just a list of all the upcoming major PC releases, so you can still be an unscorned Nintendnerd.

Grubber788 wrote:

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/NyK62.png)

I can't wait for this season to officially start

(Also can't wait for the GiantBomb GOTY deliberation podcasts)

Wait wait wait . . . Skyrim and Saints Row 3 are coming out FOUR DAYS apart? FOUR DAYS?

Motherf@#$!!!!

After the unmentionable Invisible War, I need to wait for reviews before I drop the hammer on Human Revolution.

Nevin73 wrote:

After the unmentionable Invisible War, I need to wait for reviews before I drop the hammer on Human Revolution.

I thought the same until just recently. To show you how easily convinced I am, and how desperate I am for this to be great, here's the part of the manual that convinced me to give them my money.

Deus Ex PC Manual wrote:

Here you can view your Augmentation Tree.
The Tree is divided into 7 categories: Cranium, Eye, Arms, Legs, Skin, Torso, and Back.

7 categories! 7!

Nevin73 wrote:

After the unmentionable Invisible War, I need to wait for reviews before I drop the hammer on Human Revolution.

Embargo up is on Deus Ex and everything is looking good so far.

imbiginjapan wrote:

I said I would wait for the reviews. I SAID I WOULD WAIT FOR THE REVIEEEEEWWWWS!

I could not wait for the reviews.

Same here. I pre-ordered Deus Ex three on Steam days before release to save 5 dollars on the purchase price. I did that because early reviews are positive and because I regret not pre-ordering Fear 3, which I hear is also good.

After seeing the big list of games on the way, and seeing 10 games that have been sitting in my Steam wish list for several months (can a brother get a Black Ops price drop?), I fear this may be the gaming season that ruins the marriage. (It's been a good run, darling.)

The madness begins...

I'm trying to only get Battlefield 3, Skyward Sword and Skyrim this holiday. Man, it's going to hard to stick to just those three games with all the quality titles coming out.

Do any of the 3DS heavy hitters (Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7, Kid Icarus) have release dates yet? The weird thing about all of those titles is Nintendo is a "it's done when it's done" kind of developer and this may be the first time they rush titles out to make a release window.

So, according to consensus, the most looked-for games this holiday season are:

The Elder Scrolls 5, Gears 3, Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, Forza 4, Uncharted 3, Saint's Row 3, Deus Ex 3, Assassin's Creed 4, and The Legend of Zelda 29.

[clutches copy of Catherine tightly]

After the demo, Warhammer 40k: Space Marine is my most anticipated game.

Yup, looks like outside of Deus Ex I need to focus on the MP titles so I can ride that GWJ wave. Let's not talk about how my kids are getting socks for Christmas because Forza 4 is going to tear my wallet a new one. Luckily my 6 year old loves driving games.

Back during E3, there was a sale at Futureshop (Best Buy) for Pre-orders of upcoming games. You'd get 20$ off of each if you pre-ordered 3. I ended up with these 6 games: Batman Arkham City, Deus Ex HR, Gears 3, NHL 12, Battlefield 3, Uncharted 3.

I probably could have pre-ordered 9 or 12. This year is crazy good. A lot of sequels though, but still crazy good.

imbiginjapan wrote:

I said I would wait for the reviews. I SAID I WOULD WAIT FOR THE REVIEEEEEWWWWS!

I could not wait for the reviews.

Same here... I cracked under desire last night and bought it.

Elysium wrote:

...Forza 4...

I can't believe Forza 4 is due out so soon...I'm not even done with Forza 3 yet (which yes, I did buy on release).

I'm pretty comfortable now saying that DXHR is going to be the best game to come out for the rest of the year. I'm not sure they could have nailed it any better than they did.

Oh, I'll buy more games. But DXHR is already feeling like I will still be talking about it in 10 years like I did with the original.

imbiginjapan wrote:
Nevin73 wrote:

After the unmentionable Invisible War, I need to wait for reviews before I drop the hammer on Human Revolution.

I thought the same until just recently. To show you how easily convinced I am, and how desperate I am for this to be great, here's the part of the manual that convinced me to give them my money.

Deus Ex PC Manual wrote:

Here you can view your Augmentation Tree.
The Tree is divided into 7 categories: Cranium, Eye, Arms, Legs, Skin, Torso, and Back.

7 categories! 7!

The first moment today, when I picked up a praxis and realized it was time to upgrade, it just all came rushing back to me. I must have spent 15-20 minutes going over all the possibilities for each of the seven categories. I'm weighing what I might need vs. what I love to do.

I can't wait to fil up my inventory and start having to move stuff around and sacrifice weapons or tools I want to keep. I'm so happy they brought the grid back. Losing that and the unified ammo were the main things that turned me off of IW.

I got my copy of DXhr yesterday (never played the original) and after what I felt was a little bit of a slow start I was completely hooked. Finding the multiple paths through the first quested environment was really a lot of fun.

I've spent today daydreaming about getting to play some more.

I posted this here for the folks on the fence. I'm avoiding the catch-all because people finish games waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay faster than I do and I don't want to regret subscribing to the thread.

Minarchist wrote:

So, according to consensus, the most looked-for games this holiday season are:

The Elder Scrolls 5, Gears 3, Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, Forza 4, Uncharted 3, Saint's Row 3, Deus Ex 3, Assassin's Creed 4, and The Legend of Zelda 29.

[clutches copy of Catherine tightly]

I'm not sure if this is a comment on sequels or subject matter. If it's sequels, at least acknowledge that you'd be clutching your copy of Persona 5 just as tightly if that were out this year.

Heh, fair enough. I do wish original IP got more interest from the gaming crowd, though.

Minarchist wrote:

Heh, fair enough. I do wish original IP got more interest from the gaming crowd, though.

I think the gaming crowd is more willing to embrace new IP than they're given credit for. Gears of War, Assassin's Creed, and Uncharted were new IP just a few years ago, likewise other big hitters from this year and last, like Mass Effect, Bioshock, Dead Space, and Portal, are all relatively young IPs. Rage is also getting a lot of attention, and it's a brand new IP.

We're certainly seeing a glut of sequels this year, and especially this time of year, but I don't think it's fair to suggest that the gaming crowd is uninterested in new IP.