Well, the month of August is here, and while I would like to say that you are going to have a great month of PC gaming, I have to be honest and state that it probably won’t be that great as there are so few titles coming out this month. I really had to struggle to put this list together.
It also does not help that we have some floaters that have not pegged down a date, like the new Telltale game, Strong Bad’s Cool Game For Attractive People. We have the review code, but there is no firm date for its release.
The good news in all of this is that we are looking at a jam-packed fourth quarter of PC gaming, so lets get past this speed bump on the way to Holiday 08 PC gamingapalooza.
July actually has a few interesting titles coming up for Xbox 360 owners.
Unreal Tournament 3 is coming out next week, but those that aren’t FPS fans have a pretty good pick with Civilization Revolution coming out, as well.
Gloriously, we’re only a few months away from football season, so get ready to jump right in by picking up NCAA Football 09 when it’s released on July 15th.
At the end of the month, I’ll definitely be picking up Soul Calibur IV. I’ve always been a huge fan of the Soul Calibur series, and the inclusion of Vader and Yoda, while gimmicky, does seem like it will be legitimately fun. On the same day, Spectral Force 3 will be released. This is one of those Japanese strategy titles that might be worth checking out if you’re into the genre.
Like our 48 windowed friend to the left, we are having a slow month for PC gaming. I had planned to put together a huge article, and then I realized it was July, and the drought of good, quality releases is in full effect. Unfortunately, conservation does not seem to help those of us looking for something new to play on the PC this month.
There are a few companies that have bucked the trend and are giving us a few things to play, but the overall outlook for the month seems to be a lot of suck with the occasional gem.
By the way, the case mod to the left is a custom case available from Cooler Master, which has had a custom paint job applied to it. The case was shown at CES this past January, and was cooler in person than it is in the photo. 48 window power, unite and bring on the game list for July!
The most noteworthy release on the PS3 for July has to be Firmware 2.40 bringing trophy support, in-game messaging, and a few other niceties like changing headsets and bluetooth settings mid-game. For actual games, though, I’m going with Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution. There’s a demo already on the Store and I know it’s a bona-fide Civ game because I’m not great at it, and I think it’s going to score very well because even I was able to follow along and understand the game using the very Sims-like advisors. Some of the nicer features include being able to join an online game in progress (also known as “What the?! I don’t want this wreck of a civilization!”) and the ability to have a player bail from the game and having the AI take over.
Fighting game fans will get a top-shelf game with Soul Calibur IV which gives the franchise online play for the first time, catching up to the Tekken game on PS3 which has been around for some time. Soul Calibur IV will sport exclusive characters by platform along with the unusual new feature of destructible clothing in case the gender of your choice wasn’t showing enough skin. On the PSN side of things this month we may see PixelJunk Eden, which should be the second game (after Super Stardust HD) to gain trophy support.
The PSP is facing a weak month with four titles that I haven’t heard of. You’d think the most unusual one of the bunch would be Code Lyoko: Quest for Infinity based on a French cartoon show, but I choose B-Boy, a dancing game that looks like it covers break dancing. If you’re really hungry for a new game, you might find Fading Shadows to be worth playing as it’s billed as a puzzle/adventure game. EA will be dropping a port of NCAA Football 09 on the handheld as well, for what it’s worth.
George got so deep into Halo 3 this month that the Covenant couldn’t even find him, so I am going to try to fill in his MJOLNIR shaped boots for the Ones to Watch on the Xbox 360 in the month of June. There is a rather large list of games coming to those that own the 360, including games for the Ninja, race car driver or spiky hair side of your personality, so get ready to get your game on. Well, I guess there is that whole achievement thing too, but who plays games just to boost their achievement score? Read the rest of this entry »
This month, PC gamers have several titles to look forward to before we start to hit a dry release patch we like to call summer. So if you want to fight with a panda, or adventure with a cool hat, or even traipse around New York to make mayhem, you will find something new to play on your gaming PC. Also, with great video cards coming out for sub $180 prices, and dual cores and quad cores dropping to the $150-200 range, there is never a better time to re-enter the PC gaming scene. Our picture this month comes from the Maximum PC guys, showing off a rather extreme case mod, with the Hulk ripping the wires out of the case.
If you heard Podcast Beyond #41, you heard David Hayter growl out a little bit of wonderful Solid Snake voice work — albeit over a telephone connection to the show — and take the time to rather generously answer some questions while entirely avoiding spoilers about what’s coming this month in Metal Gear Solid 4. MGS4’s release also brings Metal Gear Online to the masses on June 12th and it’s strongly hinted that this is the end of Solid Snake’s story. It’s sure to be quite a ride if the more emotional scenes from Metal Gear Solid 3 are any indication, but don’t count out the power of prequels. The Metal Gear Solid universe has many untold stories and Konami, even if Hideo Kojima decides to distance himself from the franchise, could be giving us tours of its convoluted plots for years to come on a variety of platforms if the successful implementation of Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (a game I still need to finish) is any indication.
Is this the time for you to buy a PS3 now that MGS4 is out and you’re thinking Blu-ray movies would look awfully nice on your TV? If it is and you don’t have any qualms about shopping at Wal-Mart you can nab yourself a cool $100 gift card if you buy a 40GB PS3 from them right now. If you need some incentive to look the other way just remember that hardware margins for retailers are nearly zero. Feel better? Take a look here.
Battlefield: Bad Company rolls in on the PS3 on the 23rd along with Guitar Hero: Aerosmith on the 29th. GRID also lands on the 3rd this month after a well-received demo.
While LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Trilogy hits everything but a pocket calculator on the 3rd not even the Xbox 360 gets online play this time around. Reviews are still quite good, in the high 7’s into the mid 8’s so you’ll probably have no complaints from the LEGO gamer in your life.
The PSP gets Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee 2 featuring online play for the first time on June 3rd at a nice $30 price as well as Secret Agent Clank on the 17th. The golf game has already earned a mid-8, very positive review from IGN, making this game an easy one to jump on. I like Clank as a character quite a bit more than Ratchet, even though Ratchet did get his sarcasm toned down nicely in R&C: Tools of Destruction, but I didn’t like the controls in R&C: Size Matters, so I don’t know when I’ll get around to playing this one.
Data from the IGN and Gamespy release lists, image from IGN.
I’m just a few days late with my heads-up on big titles coming to PS3 and PSP this month but it really doesn’t make a difference. How is it I can be so nonchalant? Because very few titles are showing up on the PS3 and PSP this month. The decks have been cleared for a game landing very close to the end of the month on the PS3 and Xbox 360 and in case you’ve been living under a rock I’ll tell you that it’s Grand Theft Auto IV.
With lots of positive buzz from preview builds seen by the folks on some podcasts like 1Up Yours — including positive buzz on the PS3 version running just as well as the 360 version — and unconfirmed rumors of a wide variety of online multiplayer modes, and even hints in the May 2008 Official PlayStation Magazine that it will have voice support, it looks like GTA IV will be a huge seller.
I feel bad for anyone hoping to release anything in May or June because it’s looking like I won’t be alone spending late into the night immersed fully in another compelling and morally gray story and chasing down my friends online in Liberty City.
![]()
This is a great month for 360 owners!
MLB 2k8 comes out on the 3rd for all you baseball nuts.
Army of Two is released on the 4th, so we can finally see if the game will live up to the hype. I personally hope it ends up being a great game, that way I’ll have something good to say about EA.
Condemned 2 ships on 3/11, promising to make you crap your pants some more.
The 18th sees the release of Rainbow Six Vegas 2, which I’m sure Ubisoft is hoping can dethrone Call of Duty 4 as the current king of modern combat shooters.
The month finishes up with the release of Dark Sector on the 25th. Yes, it looks like Gears of War, and has a cover system very similar to Gears, but it could end up being a great game in its own right.
So there ya go, the titles you should watch for this month.
Well, after an extra day of February, we have finally reached March, which still holds a fair amount of gaming for those playing on the PC. I actually heard PC Gamer, coin this first quarter of 2008, Q5 2007, because a lot of these games were holiday 2007 releases that got delayed into 2008. We have Orcs, Humans, a Dinosaur killer that sports a mohawk, World War II, and some guy who goes by the name Kane. So sit back and get the lowdown on the great games coming to the PC in February.