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Fall 2007 Games Preview September 21, 2007 |
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Summary: Jcal takes us on a run-down of the hot PC games in the fall 2007 line-up. With tons of screenshots for your eyes only, check out the games you should be installing in the next few months!
 2007 Fall Games Preview | Page:: ( 1 / 9 ) |
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If 2007 ended right now, the level of PC games released would already top the medicore heights of 2006. But the game industry really gets revved up in September as a flood of PC titles hits the marketplace and doesn't let up until sometime in early December. So which games coming out this fall are we at FiringSquad most interested in checking out? Well you happen to be in luck, my friend, because we have a handy list of our top 20 PC games we are most excited about playing this fall/holiday season (along with a few honorable mentions). Some of these games have taken literarly years to finally come to stores after their initial announcements (one game took 9 years, and we don't mean Duke Nukem Forever) and combine that with some of thes titles taking avantage of DirectX10 and we have the makings of what could be the best PC game line-up in years.
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So will this line-up of games fullfill their promises? We will find out in the coming weeks but until then here is our list of PC games currently scheduled to come out between now and the end of the year that we most want to play (as always release dates can and most likely will change for a few of these titles so make sure to check FiringSquad as we will post up news of any delays that might occur)
| This Week’s Offerings | Page:: ( 2 / 9 ) |
World In Conflict: (this week)
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Stranglehold:
It's already out for the Xbox 360 but Midway's third person action game has got us all excited to play it on the PC with the higher resolutions that platform can bring. Movie director John Woo helps Midway create a virtual sequel to his 1990's Hong Kong action picture Hard Boiled as Inspector Tequilia fires up his akimbo guns to take out the bad guys in bloody but acrobatic fashion. Using Unreal Engine 3 and a ton of interactive enviroments should make fans of games like the Max Payne series very happy
| Titles in October | Page:: ( 3 / 9 ) |
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (Oct 2):
The Orange Box (Oct 9):
Valve Software releases this collection of five games; two of them (Half-Life 2 and HL2: Episode 1) are older games that Valve is allowing owners to give the Steam keys to people who don't own the games. The other three are all new: Half-Life 2: Episode 2 continues Gordon Freeman's storyline outside of City 17 as he contines to battle the aliens. Portal is a short but unique first person action-puzzle game that has you controlling a portal gun to create rips in space-time to go through levels. The big new game is Team Fortress 2, a game that was first announced back when Half-Life 1 was released in 1998. Based on the classic Quake mod that then morphed into the HL1 mod Team Fortress Classic, TF 2 has an all new art style (think CGI Incredibles animation) and a new sense of humor while still retaining the class based gameplay of the original.
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Fury (Oct 9):
Developer Auran wants Fury to be more than the normal fantasy MMO game. The title (the first from new game publisher Gamecock Media) wants to combine the character leveling of an MMO with the action of a first person shooter in intense player vs player combat). The game, which uses the Unreal Engine 3, is launching with a unique beta event competition that will let folks win prizes while beta testing the game. Will this game's different take on the MMO genre work? We will soon see.
Tabula Rasa (Oct 19):
Or as it's officially called "Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa" since the creator of the Ultima RPG series and the first popular PC MMO Ultima Online finally gets a new game onto store shelves in several years. This NCSoft title is an action-oriented sci-fi game as you play a human who is trying to fight off hordes of alien baddies who are out to exterminate humanity. One cool thing about the game is that you can stop and create a new character in the middle of the game's quest storyline without having to start over. Neat.
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Hellgate London: (Oct 31):
The folks at Flagship Studios used to be the guys who created the massive selling Diablo series for Blizzard. Now the team is making their own first person action-RPG with this unique mix of sci-fi and fantasy as human try to stave off an interdimentional invasion of creatures in London. You can buy the game and play it in single player and in multiplayer out of the box but Flagship (along with co-publishers Electronic Arts and Namco) is also creating an optional $9.95 monthly fee that gives players even more content and the promise of regular content updates. Oh, and did we mention its support for DirectX10 graphics?
| Still in October… | Page:: ( 4 / 9 ) |
Clive Barker's Jericho:
Gods and Heroes:
Developer Perpetual Entertainment has been working on this Greek myth themed MMO for some time now and now it looks like the game is finally getting close to release. Using the deep Greek mythology, you have your pick of one of a number of characters. You can control minions that help you attack and even bring down the powers of the Greek gods to help you slay Cyclopses, Medusas and lots of other Greek myth beasties. We are anxious to see if Gods and Heroes can break away from the typical MMO with their new elements.
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Timeshift:
In development since 2004, Timeshift's had a rocky development road but Saber Interactive and Sierra Games look to finally get this game on store shelves in the fall. What would you do if you had a suit that could stop, slow or reverse time? Would you go back in time and change history or would you fight someone who already had that idea? The combo of first person weapons and time powers (in single and multiplayer) is something that makes this game unique even with its long gestation period.
The Witcher:
We've seen this game at more than one E3 but developer CD Projek and publisher Atari look to finally get this fantasy RPG out in stores this year. Using a heavily modified Aurora engine from Neverwinter Night developer BioWare, The Witcher himself is a person who is bred to kill monsters for cash. You will have the chance to take out a bunch of them in the game's deep storyline which will have more than one ending to discover.
| November titles | Page:: ( 5 / 9 ) |
BlackSite: Area 51:
Universe at War: Earth Assault:
It's yet another invasion of Earth game but this time we get stomped on early and Petroglyph's sci-fi RTS game devotes the rest of the title to the three very different alien factions, each of which wants Earth for its own. The game aims to bring back the diversity of games like the original Starcraft to RTS titles. It's also the first third party game that will support Games for Windows Live (the Xbox 360 version, due in early 2008, will be able to have cross-platform multiplayer against PC players)
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Call of Duty 4:
Developer Infinity Ward and publisher Activision take this hugely popular shooter series out of World War II and into modern times in a topical storyline that involves a Middle Eastern terrorist trying to stip up trouble and a planned coup of the Russian governement. You play as both US and British special forces members to stop the plot in the usual fast paced Call of Duty way. Multiplayer is shaping up to be unique with unlocks to get more weapons, items and even increased abilities.
Unreal Tournament 3:
Epic Games finally returns to the Unreal universe with this latest entry in its massively popular shooter series. Not only will the game have all the cool multiplayer gameplay of the original (including the new Warfare mode) UT 3 is also set to have a solid single player experience for the first time. There's also some cool vehicle play (including some weird looking alien Necris rides) and a single player storyline for the first time.
| The rest in November | Page:: ( 6 / 9 ) |
Gears of War PC:
Empire Earth III:
The long running centuries spanning RTS series gets a new installment from developer Mad Doc Software and publisher Sierra Games. This time the development team decided to streamline the game with few epochs, races and resources but adds a new element; a turn based strategy portion where in Risk like fashion you have a map of the world which you can dominate through war or diplomatic means.
Kane and Lynch: Dead Men:
The folks behind the Hitman series, Io Interactive, create an all new series for its publisher Eidos with this third person action game featuring two rather nasty hit men who take on jobs all over the world. The game will have a single player mode where you control Kane and Lynch is an AI player but there's plans for two player co-op modes that will have the second player control Lynch, and that playing his character is a different kind of experience than Kane.
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Crysis:
Every time we see this game we get excited and now we are just a couple of months away from the release of this sci-fi shooter from developer Crytek and oublisher Electronic Arts. The storyline of an alien ship crash landing in a tropical setting is just the start of what promises to be a quantum leap from the developers of Far Cry. Crytek is promising not only some impressive single player and multiplayer modes but their Cryengine 2 technology is already generating buzz for its visual that are as close to photo realistic as games have ever gotten.
| Honorable Mentions: | Page:: ( 7 / 9 ) |
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In terms of notable stand alone games this fall, Blue Byte and UbiSoft will release the latest game in the strategy-sim series Settlers: Rise of an Empire (September). Mindware and Dreamcatcher will release the first person shooter Painkiller: Overdose (October). Tilted Mill and EA will release the unusual city sim game SimCity Societies (November)
There are question marks on two games; EA's co-op action shooter Army of Two and UbiSoft's third person action game Assassin's Creed are both due out for PS3 and Xbox 360 in November but it's still not clear if the promised PC versions of each game will also be released this year.
Conclusion
As you can see the schedule is chock full of PC games that would seem to be worth your time. The big question? Will all these games be great and if so will you be able to afford them all? No matter what happens its pretty clear that PC gamers, for the first time in a long time, have a wealth of new titles to look forward to playing and/or giving as holiday gifts. Get ready to say good-bye to your credit line.
| Gallery 1 | Page:: ( 8 / 9 ) |
| Gallery 2 | Page:: ( 9 / 9 ) |