Playstation All Stars Battle Royale boxart

November 19 – November 25

Section: 

It's me again. I got tangled up in a game of Twilight Imperium this weekend and geeked out so hard I'm still leaving damp, nerdy footprints behind me on my way to the coffee machine. It's kind of hard to start thinking about bits and bytes again after that.

This week's list doesn't help as much as one would hope. It's the trough behind the WiiU launch-list tsunami from last week, and it shows.

I notice a distinct lack of much in the way of a new, overwrought Japanese RPG to give the Game of the Week to, but I think I can find some way to make do. For one thing, if you have somehow managed to miss out on the Persona series, Persona 4 Golden isn't just a port. On top of all the new story, they've added an ability to crowd-source all the myriad details and decisions you have to make by allowing the player to see what others have chosen to do at certain points in the game. It looks intriguing to me, and is eroding my heretofore staunch refusal to buy a Vita.

Assassin's Creed 3 hitting PC is going to be interesting, in that I hope to hear from some of the keyboard aficionados how the controls work.

I have gotten about half an hour of Hitman: Absolution (if I told you how I'd have to kill you), and overall I wasn't impressed. I never got to the nuns, so that's not the issue. It felt like it was collapsing under the weight of it's own megaflops and general hubris. It reminded me of the way I ended up feeling about Max Payne 3 — all that stuff flying around is pretty and all, but in the end you're sort of standing there in the rubble and wondering why you went through all that. It just didn't grab me like some of the previous installments did.

I'm going to give this week's nod to Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale. I saw it at PAX, and was pleasantly surprised. Yes, it looks and pretty much plays exactly like Brawl, but I don't understand why people keep saying that like it's a bad thing.

PC

-- Assassin's Creed 3
-- Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse
-- Hitman: Absolution
-- PlanetSide 2 (free-to-play)
-- RaiderZ (free-to-play)
-- Scribblenauts Unlimited

Xbox 360
-- Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse
-- Hitman: Absolution
-- Kinect Sports Gems: 3 Point Contest (XLBA - $3)
-- Kinect Sports Gems: Darts vs. Zombies (XLBA - $3)
-- Kinect Sports Gems: Ski Race (XLBA - $3)

PlayStation 3
-- Clan of Champions (PSN)
-- Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse
-- Hitman: Absolution
-- PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale
-- Rise of the Guardians: The Video Game
-- Sine Mora (PSN)

Wii
-- Rise of the Guardians: The Video Game

Vita
-- Jet Set Radio (PSN - $10)
-- Persona 4 Golden
-- PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale
-- Sine Mora (PSN)

Nintendo 3DS
-- 3D MahJongg (eShop - $5)
-- Crashmo (eShop)
-- Rise of the Guardians: The Video Game

PSP
-- JetPack Joyride (mini)

Nintendo DS
-- Rise of the Guardians: The Video Game
-- Spirit Hunters Inc (DSiWare - $8)

Comments

I still feel like PSASBR has too long of a title.

But I'm sort of intrigued. If it has any of the depth of Smash Bros it could be fun.

PSP
-- JetPack Joyride (mini)

That is long overdue for getting onto a proper console. Good for Halfbrick!

Persona 4 Golden: System Seller.

That's what it should've been called.

If I were to be purchasing anything this week it would be All-Stars Battle Royale. Alas, it is cursed to be on my wishlist and only purchased after it has reduced in price.

Stele wrote:

I still feel like PSASBR has too long of a title.

But I'm sort of intrigued. If it has any of the depth of Smash Bros it could be fun.

I only played a bit of the beta, but I don't think it does. As someone that has spent an unreasonable amount of time playing SSB, it seemed very shallow in comparison. The focus on specials makes it all out offense all of the time. If you aren't attacking a guy, you're wasting time. I can understand them not wanting to copy SSB blow for blow, but the percentages and ring-out mechanics are still popular for a reason.

It looks like it could be fun for a few weeks, maybe a few months, but I can't see the mechanics staying interesting for long.

I can't believe that Allstars rated higher than Persona 4 Golden. P4G's sitting at 94% on metacritic with tons of 100% reviews (including the extremely rare 5/5 rating from RPGamer that isn't counted yet.)

I've heard mostly mixed things about Allstars, and less than a day before release the reviews are apparently still embargoed...

kazriko wrote:

(including the extremely rare 5/5 rating from RPGamer that isn't counted yet.)

If they didn't give that a 5/5 I would've been very very surprised (doubly so because Adriaan ranked the original release fairly highly as well). Lots of love for Atlus (and SMT in particular) over there these days.

Yes, it looks and pretty much plays exactly like Brawl, but I don't understand why people keep saying that like it's a bad thing.

Exactly, I tell my friends that I'm gonna pick it up and they ask why because its just brawl, but I don't have brawl and a huge friends list on the go.

If Golden had come out for the PS3, I would have festooned it from the homepage. Confetti would have been involved. Putting it out Vita-exclusive limited it way too much. I'd just as soon play my regular PS2 disk copy on my PS3 (I have a backward compatible PS3).

On the other hand, for households who are about to have a long weekend with houseapes underfoot who might not be up to the latest schmup, this is something new and cool on a system that doesn't have much AAA for them.

Maybe I should have put that in the text instead of all the smart-alec?

Could someone tell me what Persona 4 is and why someone who has little patience for Japanese games might like it? I feel like owning a Vita might be fun, especially if there were a good RPG to look forward to.

Uhhh... I don't think there's any way to do that, Grubber. This thing is about as Japanese as it gets. I'm just one of those who considers that a feature (and it's fun to make Elysium turn colors ).

Ok, maybe I'll just play the polar opposite of Persona then. Like... STALKER: Clear Sky

The Walking Dead Episode 5 is released this week! I know I'm picking that up for sure.

I'm on the fence about PS All Stars. I do have 3 controllers and a Vita, so this would be a game where my children could all beat me up. However, online does not have much appeal for me - it seems too chaotic and at the same time too remote when you are not in the same room.

Aristophan wrote:

The Walking Dead Episode 5 is released this week! I know I'm picking that up for sure.

Oh crap, that's this week? Do you know what the release on PSN will be? Same day?

Normally The Walking Dead releases a bit earlier on PC, then XBLA/PSN, and then quite a bit later on iOS.

Kinect games on XBLA, huh? What tiny fraction of Kinect players know how to use XBLA and want to find new games there? I hope they didn't spend more than a few days to develo those--and I'm confident they didn't, anyway.

The Walking Dead released on PSN today. Bought it. Downloaded it. Played it. Finished it.

Damn.