August 6 – August 10

Section: 

I've been thinking a bit about what an odd year it has been for my gameplaying style. After spending the past week dropping umpteen hours into Orcs Must Die 2, which, by the way, is a phenomenal game, I realized that while I have played a relatively low number of games this year, I have played those games a hell of a lot.

This year I've put fifty-some hours into Mass Effect 3, probably a fairly low forty hours or so into World of WarCraft, forty or so into SWTOR, another thirty-plus hours into Civilzation V since the expansion release and, oh yeah, one-hundred-and-seventy-five hours into Diablo 3. Without delving too deeply into the question of what corners of my life I am stealing that precious time from, the last few years by comparison usually saw me play game X for four or five hours and then move on, having only one or two games -- last year it was Skyrim and WoW: Cataclysm -- that I invest heavily into.

With the coming release of games like Guild Wars 2, WoW: Mists of Pandaria, XCOM Enemy Unknown and Torchlight 2, there's not much reason to think anything is likely to change.

This week, however, I am in little danger of finding a new obsession, which is fine because I still have a healthy backlog or Orcs to kill. However, that may not be true for a couple of sizable and too often marginalized populations of TWA readers, who are probably pretty excited about Persona 4 Arena. P4A is a -- hang on, let me just look this up -- fighting game? Ok.

To be honest I just tried to read the wiki on the plot of this game. It did not go well. Have fun, guys!

PC
- Legends of Pegasus
- Hero Academy (download)
- Symphony (download)
- Unmechanical (download)
- The Amazing Spider-Man (download)

Xbox 360
- Persona 4 Arena
- Hybrid (XBLA)

PS3
- Persona 4 Arena
- Sound Shapes (PSN)

3DS
-Touch Battle Tank 3D (eShop)

Vita
- Sound Shapes (PSN)

PSP
- Farm Frenzy 3 (mini)

DS
- Commando: Steel Disaster (DSiWare)

Comments

Had Legends of Pegasus on Steam wishlist for a while. 4x space game with 40 hour campaign, and 8 player multiplayer (coop?). I'm still not too sure on the details, but if I can pew pew space lasers with my friends, I'm probably in.

Thanks for throwing us a bone, Elysium.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

:lol: Thanks for throwing us a bone, Elysium.

Funny thing is that I thought for a minute it was momgamer doing the writeup.

A shame there's more than a week until the Last Story, he could almost go for a hat trick.

Not I, said the duck.

I was going to just chime in with a "Don't worry, Elysium, we will." But then I saw your posts.

But good Lord, we're in a serious doldrums here in the release schedule. Even I would have been hard put to find something good to say about the rest of this list.

momgamer wrote:

Even I would have been hard put to find something good to say about the rest of this list.

Then you must have accidentally skipped over Sound Shapes I hope it lives up to the hype.

Dyni wrote:
momgamer wrote:

Even I would have been hard put to find something good to say about the rest of this list.

Then you must have accidentally skipped over Sound Shapes I hope it lives up to the hype.

I did. Apparently I have some reading to do.

Just wait until next week. Straw Dogs, Darksiders 2 and The Last Story on one day, and then Transformers a week later.

Excellent choice! P4 Arena is the GWJ Fight Night game for this month.

Soundshapes on the Vita looks especially interesting to me: http://www.ign.com/videos/2012/08/01/sound-shapes-level-creator-developer-walkthrough

Stele wrote:

Legends of Pegasus ... 4x space game

Are you sure? The title suggests winged ponies.

The kicker was 175 hours in Diablo III.

175 hours italics.

Long, long low old existential summer Sands?

disobedientlib wrote:

Soundshapes on the Vita looks especially interesting to me: http://www.ign.com/videos/2012/08/01/sound-shapes-level-creator-developer-walkthrough

Yeah, Sound Shapes looks really cool. Best part is that if you want it for the PS3 and (possibly) the Vita down the road you only have to buy it once. I love this.

BishopRS wrote:

Excellent choice! P4 Arena is the GWJ Fight Night game for this month.

Wait, this really is a fighting game?

TheCounselor wrote:
BishopRS wrote:

Excellent choice! P4 Arena is the GWJ Fight Night game for this month.

Wait, this really is a fighting game?

Yup. Their next game is going to be an FPS - Persona: Call of Teddie 4

TheCounselor wrote:
BishopRS wrote:

Excellent choice! P4 Arena is the GWJ Fight Night game for this month.

Wait, this really is a fighting game?

From Arc System Works, the developers of the BlazBlue and Guilty Gear series. I'm also a little confused by how you go from a JRPG to a fighting game, but why not? Mario went from a platformer to a fighting game (to a kart racer to a boardgame to an RPG to a...)

ClockworkHouse wrote:
TheCounselor wrote:
BishopRS wrote:

Excellent choice! P4 Arena is the GWJ Fight Night game for this month.

Wait, this really is a fighting game?

From Arc System Works, the developers of the BlazBlue and Guilty Gear series. I'm also a little confused by how you go from a JRPG to a fighting game, but why not? Mario went from a platformer to a fighting game (to a kart racer to a boardgame to an RPG to a...)

Persona Kart!

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Mario went from a platformer to refereeing the best boxing game ever (to sports games, to a match-4 puzzle game, to a kart racer, to a painting game, to an RPG, to a boardgame, to a fighting game ...)

FTFY just because I felt like thinking up the games off the top of my head while typing I can remember him in, and what order.

mrtomaytohead wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

Mario went from a platformer to refereeing the best boxing game ever (to sports games, to a match-4 puzzle game, to a kart racer, to a painting game, to an RPG, to a boardgame, to a fighting game ...)

FTFY just because I felt like thinking up the games off the top of my head while typing I can remember him in, and what order.

IMAGE(http://stupidgamer.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/lou_albano.jpg)

Swing. Your. Hips.

wordsmythe wrote:

Swing. Your. Hips.

It's time to do the Diablo?