Developer: Gearbox Software
Publisher: Ubisoft
Release Date: September 23rd
Genre: First-Person Shooter
What to Expect: The Brothers in Arms games have been giving us a different perspective on the normally tired World War II genre for a while now, first introducing us to Matt Baker in Road to Hill 30 and Joe Hartsock in Earned in Blood and then slowly expanding the theatre of war to include actual historical battles. In the case of Hell's Highway, that's painting a semi-accurate picture of the events of Operation Market Garden. Hell's Highway isn't just a next-gen version of the previous games, however; significant attention has been paid to making the gulf between the games and the Band of Brothers mini-series that much smaller, with a heavier cinematic presentation and even more story details.
For those keeping track, that makes the third proper Brothers in Arms game far more movie-like than previous efforts, and this extends to just about all parts of the game, right down to finally being able to draw a bead on someone and squeeze off a shot without just making them a little freaked out. Hooray for progress!
Developer: Treyarch
Publisher: Activision
Release Date: November 11th
Genre: First-Person Shooter
What to Expect: Okay, enough about World War II games being tired (and yes, we're delightfully hypocritical considering we literally just complained about it while talking about that last game), poor Treyarch has heard it for years now, and they think they can do a different World War II game -- if only for the last time.
What's so different this time around? Plenty. For starters, the well-traveled battlefields of Europe are going to be taking something of a back seat to one of the less-told parts of The Big One: the Pacific Theatre. It's bigger than it sounds; ditching bombed-out burgs and toppled world capitals for the closer-to-home repercussions of Pearl Harbor means a change of scenery (at least partially -- you'll still be playing as the Russians), but it also means the venerable Quake 3 engine will keep on getting tweaked and enhanced. The very same core engine for Call of Duty 4 here returns for overseas duty, and with some tweaks to make it even fancier, a full online co-op campaign and offering new weapons like the flamethrower, World War II may still have a few more stories to tell just yet.
Fable II
Developer: Lionhead Studios
Publisher: Microsoft
Release Date: October 21, 2008
Genre: Role-Playing Game
What to Expect: Set 500 years after the original, Fable II mixes traditional sword and sorcery with firearms. Your new hero is more of a swashbuckler this time around, with sword in one hand, gun in the other. As with the original, combat is a big part of Fable II, though the system has changed completely. There's one button for each type of attack (melee, ranged, and magic). Everything is timing based, so how you tap or hold a button can alter the type of attack. And as you upgrade your character, new combat functionality opens up. The fluidity of slowing time, then using your sword to knock an enemy into the air, then whip out your shotgun and blast him in the face is impressive. Combat is going to be a whole mess of fun.
Of course, not all your time will be spent killing enemies. You'll have a large world to explore, properties to buy, and women to chat up. The RPG aspects focus heavily on your choice of becoming a saintly or devilish hero. And it's going to be awfully hard not to be evil this time around. We promise.
Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Release Date: October 28th
Genre: RPG
What to Expect: What's there to write about Fallout 3 that we haven't already covered extensively. We've seen the game, we've played it -- multiple times now -- and every time we come away more geeked out than before. If you thought you could resist the siren's song of Oblivion in the Wastes, think again; Fallout 3 is absolutely packed with post-apocalyptic insanity, and we couldn't be happier to be imbibing all that crazy in just a few weeks.
It's more than just a setting swap, though; Fallout 3 expands on many of the core bits of tech from Oblivion, but blows them out. In particular, the way you can approach things has been heavily influenced by the go-anywhere, do-anything feel of the original Fallout. Make no mistake, this is Bethesda's labor of love, and it's resulting in one of the most impressive revivals of a classic PC franchise we've seen in ages. Maybe it's the freedom to tackle an area when you want and how you want. Maybe it's the great writing. Maybe it's just that we've been too long without a proper post-apocalyptic adventure. Whatever the reason, it's time to get hyped.
Guitar Hero World Tour
Developer: Neversoft
Publisher: Activision
Release Date: October 26th
Genre: Music
What to Expect: Original Guitar Hero (and Amplitude/FreQuency) creators Harmonix Music Systems threw down with the original Rock Band, a heady blend of drums, vocals and guitars, most of which Harmonix had plenty of experience with. Nobody really expected former Tony Hawk creators Neversoft to answer quite so strongly -- especially after their first Guitar Hero effort. But they did, oh how they did, and the result is Guitar Hero World Tour.
Yes, it's drums, guitar and vocals, just like Rock Band. Yes, you still fly down a track and the interface is eerily similar. But Rock Band, for all it added, didn't let players make their own music. GHWT does. No vocals, mind you, but everything else is available with a near-pro-level suite of music creation software that uses the actual instruments to lay down everything. Extensive online play, a mess of downloadable tracks (and, more importantly, full albums), and more have us surprisingly psyched about what Neversoft has been working on since their inherited the franchise. Given what we've seen, it may be in good hands after all.
Information is taken from ign.com
