The Coming Storm

Just off the coast a storm of video game releases is building for the Fall of 2009. I expect to be knee deep in the tide as it rushes ashore, reporting into the studio as the satellite feed craps the bed. The first salvo will hit this month with Batman: Arkham Asylum and Shadow Complex. Both games will hit my weak points for critical damage...

Batman: Arkham Asylum
The caped crusader has a scarred history of semi-passable to awful video games, with bright spots associated with the Lego franchise. To date no one has given him the dark comic book style treatment he deserves. Arkham Asylum looks to do that with a tour of the most sadistic criminals the dark knight has ever faced a la the comic that carries the same name. The demo for this game dropped just days ago and for the most part delivered on all of the marketing push that is positioning it as the official start to the Fall gaming season.

Shadow Complex
While Epic is calling this a Metroidvania game the aesthetic very much reminds me of the Flashback series. Seeing a game like this done on a 3D engine and in a modernish setting puts a smile on my face. Seriously go watch the quick look and you will soon be asking for a glass of the Shadow Complex kool-aid I have been filling my belly with all summer.

Modern Warfare 2
While I don't need a pair of night vision goggles (ok, maybe I do), I want the next volume of the Call of Duty series more than ever. The departure in 2007 from the World War II story setting was tenuous in that it was a change to what was already a winning formula. Modern Warfare brought with it a single player story line that stood on the shoulders of its predecessors and reached higher and a multiplayer that was black tar heroin like in it's addiction. Bring on part two this Fall!

Mass Effect
Not the second one due out this spring, I recently bought the original a second time and played through it. The first time I bought Mass Effect was the day it was released in 2007. Call of Duty 4 also came out 15 days before it though, so every time I sat down to play I was drawn by the sirens call of modern warfare. Not giving it a proper shack the first time around is what I sat down to rectify this summer. I played through as a solider and skipped all of the side quest once I left the citadel. My goal was to see the main story line and skip the side quest which I had heard on numerous occasions were boring. I have done so and now await the second game with bated breath.