New Releases for the Week of October 28, 2012

Assassin's Creed III review

For many Halloween is signified by scares, sweets, and salacious costumes. For hardcore gamers, the event coincidences with an influx of new, must-play experiences that are filling both store shelves and download services. This year is no different, with top-tier titles like Assassin’s Creed III, Need for Speed: Most Wanted and Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask competing for your disposable income. One addendum: while LEGO Lord of the Rings is coming to 3DS, DS, PC, and PS Vita this week, console owners will have to wait until next month to beat the living studs out of Sauron.

360
Assassin’s Creed III
Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth (Kinect Required)
Need for Speed: Most Wanted
Nike+ Kinect Training
Of Orcs and Men
Pool Nation (XBLA, $10)
Sleeping Dogs: Nightmare in North Point (DLC, $10)
Toy Story Mania
WWE ’13
Zone of the Enders HD Collection

PS3
Assassin’s Creed III
Need for Speed: Most Wanted
Okami HD (PSN, $19.99)
Sleeping Dogs: Nightmare in North Point (DLC, 9.99)
Toy Story Mania
WWE ’13
Zone of the Enders HD Collection

Wii
Toy Story Mania
Transformers Prime: The Game
Wreck-It Ralph
WWE ’13

3DS
Bratz: Fashion Boutique
LEGO The Lord of the Rings
Moshi Monsters: Moshlings Theme Park
Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask
Transformers Prime: The Game
Wreck-It Ralph

DS
Lalaloopsy Carnival of Friends
LEGO The Lord of the Rings
Transformers Prime: The Game

Vita
Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation
LEGO The Lord of the Rings
Need for Speed: Most Wanted
Ragnarok Odyssey
Smart As (PSN, $29.99)

PC
007 Legends
1953: KGB Unleashed
Dungeon Gate
Guns of Icarus Online
End of Nations
LEGO The Lord of the Rings
Natural Selection 2
Sleeping Dogs: Nightmare in North Point (DLC, $9.99)

Robert’s Picks: Having to side with either Assassin’s Creed III or Need for Speed: Most Wanted might be one of the season’s more difficult dilemmas. With Ubisoft Montreal’s franchise reaching its fifth iteration and Criterion having eleven racers under the belts, both titles benefit from the evolutionary nature of games. Powered by the AnvilNext and Chameleon engines (respectively), both games are poised to deliver the type of polished experiences which only arrive at the culmination of a hardware generation.  As such, forget about the looming proposition of new consoles (launch windows are almost always disappointing) to relish in some of the best skulking and skidding experiences offered across the next few years.

Need for Speed Most Wanted

Sean’s Pick: My experience with the Zone of the Enders series begins and ends with the fantastically underrated GBA strategy game, ZOE: The Fist of Mars. I realize that the crossover between Fist of Mars and the two original titles is limited to the existence of giant robots, but nonetheless I’ve always been interested to see what the fuss was about. Worst case scenario: I’m disappointed enough to dig out my GBA cart. Win/win.

Zone of the Enders HD

Eric’s Pick: Wrestling games are my bread and butter. Always have been, always will be. That said, it’s rare that I buy a modern WWE game at or around launch. The only time I’ve done so this generation was with last year’s WWE ’12. Pre-patch glitches aside, it didn’t disappoint. WWE ’13, in addition to building on the solid gameplay foundation of its predecessor, offers up the largest roster of current and Attitude Era Superstars in WWE video game history. The new feature that I can’t wait to try out is the “Match Experience”, which balances the gameplay around the desired match length setting (short, normal, or epic). Maybe this year John Cena vs. The Rock won’t end with a clothesline in six minutes?

WWE '13

Jeremy’s Pick: It’s not often that a game gets a second chance at life, but practically unheard of for a game to get a THIRD chance. The PS3 downloadable re-remake of Capcom’s (Clover’s) Okami will undoubtedly be the best version of the game on any of the three platforms on which it has existed. Okami HD will (of course) feature high resolution watercolor-style graphics and will (of course) support the PS Move for the authentic “Celestial Brush” experience, but will also allow users to play with the standard DualShock 3, support surround sound, and include minor performance enhancements (and Trophies!). Now’s your chance to pay Okami a little more than lip service, and experience the highest quality version of a great game that deserves your attention.

Oakmi HD

About Robert Allen

Since being a toddler, Robert Allen has been immersed in video games, anime, and tokusatsu. Currently, his days are spent teaching at two southern California colleges. But his evenings and weekends are filled with STGs, RPGs, and action titles and well at writing for Tech-Gaming since 2007.

36 comments

  1. If Wreck-It Ralph includes movie money, I’d buy the 3DS version for sure.

  2. What no Ragnarok Odyssey pick?

    Otaku cred revoked!

    Ok, I’m waiting on reviews before I commit.

  3. Caption contest:

    “Guys, I think it’s time to bury the hatchet…In your soft little skulls.”

  4. I want to crash through Peter Moore’s face! Is there a billboard of his tattoo pic?

  5. Assassin’s Creed III AND Need for Speed: Most Wanted courtesy of Target.

    This week they have a buy 2 get 1 free sale.

  6. I have always heard so many good things about Okami. I might need to take the plunge this week and see what Ive been missing.

  7. Assassin’s Creed III is the game I’ve been waiting all year for.

    Bring it, Conner.

  8. Assassin’s Creed III is a must play. Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth seems like a must avoid. Why did they have to make it Kinect game?

  9. I hope there’s a deal for a PS3/PS Vita Need for Speed: Most Wanted bundle.

  10. AC3 for me.

    Happy Halloween, guys!

  11. Zone of the Enders, it’s been a long, long time.

  12. Only one pick this week?

  13. I’m checking out AC3, Okami and plus-sized halloween costume for girls.

  14. I’m with Jeremy. Pick up Okami. It’s beautiful, long, fun, and something everyone should experience.

  15. I picked up WWE ’13. It’s riddled with glitches. My list of glitches, so far:

    1. A chain grapple twisted and bent The Rock and John Cena in physically impossible ways before warping them to a different section of the ring.

    2. The steel chair impact sound effect is non-existent.

    3. Brodus Clay’s entrance hanged for a few seconds between the intro dialog and the music (longer than it should, the entrance became out of sync with the music).

    4. The crumpled up character model of Eve Torres phased through the ring during Bordus’ in-ring entrance dancing.

    5. Zack Ryder got stuck in an unstoppable running loop after having the running Rough Ryder countered. Buttons became unresponsive aside from the start button.

    6. The big one, the A.I. difficulty somehow glitched. Even though the difficulty was set on “legend” and the A.I. countering was set to almost full meters in the options, the CPU wasn’t countering nearly as frequently as it should have. I was getting in way too much uncountered offense in. Once I went back to the Xbox 360’s dashboard and re-launched the game, the problem was resolved.

    The good news is that the issues I’ve had should be able to be fixed with a patch. If anybody has a question about ’13, ask away and I’ll do my best to answer them.

    • Shit, does anyone do testing anymore?

      How’s the online matches?

      Is the V2 Predator control system really any better?

      • Did they adding anything to SP?

        Can you jump into someone else’s created WWE Campaign?

        • The main single player mode is the Attitude Era mode where you try to recreate classic moments from the original matches. You’ll have a basic goals that you complete to move on and historic goals that you complete to unlock hidden content. The Universe mode now has some cutscenes where you can choose one of three paths that affect the story.

          You can download user-created stories from the online portion of the game. Multiplayer in the Universe mode is limited to on-the-couch opponents, I believe.

      • Haven’t played any matches online (my Live Gold ran out), but the word-of-mouth has been favorable.

        The game controls almost exactly like it did in WWE ’12. Predator 2.0 is really fluid and looks great in-motion. The “catch moves” are awesome. I attempted to hit a double ax handle of the top rope on Undertaker as Shawn Michaels, but Taker caught me and transitioned straight into the Tombstone.

  16. If I already own WWE ’12 is it worth $60 or can I wait, and get it for $30 once the patch comes out?

    • I’ll offer up a different option; rent it from Redbox using one of the free rental promo codes and see if the glitches bother you enough to wait and potentially miss out on “Iron” Mike Tyson.

      Make no mistake about it, this isn’t the second coming of Showdown: Legends of Wrestling. WWE ’13 is a great game that needs a good patch or two iron out some issues. You might say it’s the Skyrim of wrestling games.

  17. I expect podcast impressions, blue!