What's up everyone?! A new week is upon us, and damn there is FINALLY some good news for you 3DS owners out there. Today, Nintendo announced they are dropping the price of the 3DS from $250 USD to $170 USD in an attempt to boost sales before the E3 games come out this fall. Now I know most of you are thinking "hey, Eh-Rok, how is this good news for those hardcore fans who bought the 3DS already at the current price?" Well, Nintendo simultaneously announced their 'Ambassador' program for those of us who currently have a system. On September 1, those people who bought the 3DS and logged into the eStore before August 12 will get 10 FREE Gameboy Advance games and 10 FREE Nintendo virtual console games. Yeah, that's like $100 to $150 worth of games, so definitely a good deal. The only downside is most likely they will be 20 games that Nintendo chooses, but still, they're FREE!!! Anyway, on to the new releases this week.
New Releases
There were a Ton of great new releases this week across all the systems. There were 6 new releases on July 26th, including the North American release of Catherine for PS3 and 360! I can't even describe how excited I was to see Atlus's first game on the HD consoles, and it doesn't disappoint. I'll talk more about it in the next section since I did play it for a while the day it was released. Back to the Future: Episode V came out for PS3. This is the final episode for the point and click series by Telltale games. This is a great buy for anyone who was originally a fan of the movies, the voice acting is awesome. Telltale got a lot of the original voice actors, and even got Michael J. Fox to do this final episode. Dragon Age II finally got some DLC called Legacy. This gives a little well needed backstory on the Hawke family. I really enjoyed Dragon Age 2, so I'm pretty excited to finally see some DLC so I can get a little more playtime with that game. Also on the 26th, we saw the release of Pac-Man and Galaga Dimensions on 3DS, the sequel to Section 8 called Section 8: Prejudice on PS3, and Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team on PS3.
From Dust came out on July 27th. This is a very pretty looking Xbox Live Arcade title for the Summer of Arcade series. It's basically a game where you help raise up a tribe by mastering several elements.
On the 28th, Call of Duty: Black Ops Annihilation came out on PS3. Nothing I can say here that you haven't already heard about during the 360 release. Kinect Sparkler also came out on the 28th, I have nooo effing idea what this game is about, but it's on XBLA if you really want to go check it out.
Lastly, Steam had an exclusive release for PC called Chantelise: A Tale of Two Sisters. For those of you non PC gamers, Steam is a downloadable gaming service for PC. They basically sell digital versions of games for you to download, like Xbox Live or Playstation Network.
What I'm Playing
As I mentioned earlier, I did play a little Catherine on the day it came out. Holy Shit this game is weird! But it's weird in a good way, if that makes any sense. The story follows a guy named Vincent who cheats on his girlfriend Katherine with a younger girl named Catherine. The whole gameplay revolves around him fighting for his life in his nightmares, or talking about his situation with his friends in a bar. The story is VERY compelling and pushes you to complete the nightmare sections just so you can see what happens next. I will be reviewing this game when I finish it, hopefully in about 2 to 3 weeks, before I leave for Hawaii.
I also played more Infamous 2. I still haven't finished it as of writing this post, but I can tell from the cut scenes that the game is wrapping up soon. I have built up so many powers now for Cole McGrath that I don't think there's much more to actually do in the game so I hope to finish that either today or tomorrow so I can get the review up.
Last but not least, I played a little more Xevious on 3DS. For such a simple and old game I'd have to say, the gameplay holds up well now almost 21 years later. There are only 6 usable buttons in the game including the directional buttons for moving, so anybody can pick this up and play it with little to no experience. The challenge is making it past the first few levels, as the game is VERY challenging.
That's it for this week. Look for my review coming out soon under the Playstation 3 link in the 'Game Reviews' section.
August is upon us so get ready for the E3 games to start coming out in the next few months!! Now get out there and play some games!
New Releases
There were a Ton of great new releases this week across all the systems. There were 6 new releases on July 26th, including the North American release of Catherine for PS3 and 360! I can't even describe how excited I was to see Atlus's first game on the HD consoles, and it doesn't disappoint. I'll talk more about it in the next section since I did play it for a while the day it was released. Back to the Future: Episode V came out for PS3. This is the final episode for the point and click series by Telltale games. This is a great buy for anyone who was originally a fan of the movies, the voice acting is awesome. Telltale got a lot of the original voice actors, and even got Michael J. Fox to do this final episode. Dragon Age II finally got some DLC called Legacy. This gives a little well needed backstory on the Hawke family. I really enjoyed Dragon Age 2, so I'm pretty excited to finally see some DLC so I can get a little more playtime with that game. Also on the 26th, we saw the release of Pac-Man and Galaga Dimensions on 3DS, the sequel to Section 8 called Section 8: Prejudice on PS3, and Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team on PS3.
From Dust came out on July 27th. This is a very pretty looking Xbox Live Arcade title for the Summer of Arcade series. It's basically a game where you help raise up a tribe by mastering several elements.
On the 28th, Call of Duty: Black Ops Annihilation came out on PS3. Nothing I can say here that you haven't already heard about during the 360 release. Kinect Sparkler also came out on the 28th, I have nooo effing idea what this game is about, but it's on XBLA if you really want to go check it out.
Lastly, Steam had an exclusive release for PC called Chantelise: A Tale of Two Sisters. For those of you non PC gamers, Steam is a downloadable gaming service for PC. They basically sell digital versions of games for you to download, like Xbox Live or Playstation Network.
What I'm Playing
As I mentioned earlier, I did play a little Catherine on the day it came out. Holy Shit this game is weird! But it's weird in a good way, if that makes any sense. The story follows a guy named Vincent who cheats on his girlfriend Katherine with a younger girl named Catherine. The whole gameplay revolves around him fighting for his life in his nightmares, or talking about his situation with his friends in a bar. The story is VERY compelling and pushes you to complete the nightmare sections just so you can see what happens next. I will be reviewing this game when I finish it, hopefully in about 2 to 3 weeks, before I leave for Hawaii.
I also played more Infamous 2. I still haven't finished it as of writing this post, but I can tell from the cut scenes that the game is wrapping up soon. I have built up so many powers now for Cole McGrath that I don't think there's much more to actually do in the game so I hope to finish that either today or tomorrow so I can get the review up.
Last but not least, I played a little more Xevious on 3DS. For such a simple and old game I'd have to say, the gameplay holds up well now almost 21 years later. There are only 6 usable buttons in the game including the directional buttons for moving, so anybody can pick this up and play it with little to no experience. The challenge is making it past the first few levels, as the game is VERY challenging.
That's it for this week. Look for my review coming out soon under the Playstation 3 link in the 'Game Reviews' section.
August is upon us so get ready for the E3 games to start coming out in the next few months!! Now get out there and play some games!
