Things To Come...
-David, webmaster DVGI

It's nearly that time, that magical time when the video game industry that gives us purpose begins to show signs of what we will be playing when the holidays roll around.  Traditionally August is when this changing of the guards begins, usually lead off by high profile football titles, but then the rest of the starts of the season begin to take shape and it becomes apparent which games will be pushed back to early January.  The previous holiday season, simply put, belonged to the GameCube with titles like F-Zero GX and the only arcade perfect port of Soul Calibur II.. not to mention Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike.  (they really gotta work on shortening those names)  However this year, even with the Halo 2 juggernaut, the PlayStation 2 seems to be the console of choice.

Why you ask?  Well, I guess I am a bit biased - Gran Turismo 4, Ace Combat 5 The Unsung War, and Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater - all just a few months away.  The season of sequels remains upon us it seems.  However all one needs do is pick up the September issue of Official PlayStation Magazine to see where the driving excitement will be.  Driving games just control better with the DualShock2 or the GT Force Feedback wheel.  I've seen the GT4 wheels show up already, but I'm going to hold off until the game comes out and I can read some reviews of the GT4 wheel actually used with GT4.  But GT4 is just the start, Konami has an interesting looking racer on the way and let's not forget Burnout 3.  Long time readers of DVGI know that the first Burnout, and then the second, were some of my all time favorite games during their release - they were a breath of fresh air to the game industry arcade racing genre that was growing stale.  I still like the Burnout games more then the NFS Underground title since I don't want to trick out my car (I'll play Tokyo Xtreme Racer Zero for that) in an arcade racing game, I just want to have blinding speed and excitement like in the old days of OutRun and Rad Racer.

I suppose what I'm getting around to is NOW is the time to pick your pony when it comes to games to keep an eye on.  Nothing sucks more than these high profile holiday releases missing the mark, learn all you can now and you will find you'll usually be able to decide what's worth checking out during release.  That's not to say that there aren't high profile games coming out right now.  NHL 2005 is on the way and Astro Boy hits the PS2 in a couple weeks and it's looking fairly decent - reminds me a lot of Mega Man Legends which I still say was underrated.  The Astro Boy game on the way for the GBA freaking rocks, I've been playing the import version quite a bit and it's an amazingly colorful and animated action platformer.

Strangely though I still find myself playing lots of Gran Turismo 3, I simply haven't found a game yet with its level of replay value and entertainment.  This is multiplied ten fold with use of a GT Force Feedback wheel.  What will the next four months of the video game industry hold?  I'm not sure, but it's going to be great, hopefully I'll be employed again soon so I won't miss it.
 

Written on 08-18-04 by David, insanedavid@classicplastic.net


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