Alan Wake returns from the dead...

Remedy's Alan Wake looks like it will never come out being delayed countless times, but a new trailer has finally shown up. The folks that brought you Max Payne takes a different step into the survival horror/adventure field with Alan Wake (This is a Microsoft exclusive since they are publishing it). It also seems like it will come out next year after all.

On the Fence: Midnight Club LA

After trading in Madden 09 Collector's and Soul Calibur IV to pay off my Gears 2 LE pre-order as well as stocking up on MS points, I'm ready for November, but the December stash of gaming will likely begin with Midnight Club LA (along with Fallout 3). I'm a fan of the series since the second game on PS2 and while it feels like good old fashion Midnight Club on the current generation (PS3 and 360), I just want to play a different racing game again (I still have Burnout Paradise for the new island DLC coming soon). I feel like MC LA is going to be the racing game of the season compared to Need for Speed Undercover because of the franchise continuing to deliver with fast racing and customization options. From what I read so far, this new MC is as hard as the second game (Yeah that game got frustratingly hard in the end at Tokyo and I used cheats to beat it) which I don't mind, but if the difficulty goes to that level, then yeah. I felt the difficulty in DUB Edition felt right being a little easier than II, but you still need to earn those wins especially at the end using shortcuts and wisely nitrous.

If I buy this (likely in December), expect my own review on Midnight Club LA around that time.

Off-topic: So E3 is actually returning next year now allowing the public to come on two days. It does sound tempting to go pending on the games there next year, but we'll see about that (I did go to the 1st E for All Expo last year and it was okay, so E3 should be way better if the right games are there).

On the Fence: Tetris Party and Portal: Still Alive

Despite the crazy amount of big games out this week (I haven't bought any games this month yet, which is good considering how tempted I am to do so during this crowded fall season) like Fable II, Far Cry 2, and Midnight Club LA (I would so buy this), the downloadable services are also getting good big titles as well. First off for WiiWare this week is Tetris Party for 12 bucks (1200 Wii Points) and I do love Tetris (enough to buy Tetris Evolution and Tetris Splash on XBLA even though Splash was disappointing), but Party is almost like the second coming of Tetris DS in terms of new modes to mess around with Tetriminos. The video above is some new Race mode where you have to guide some piece through some obstacle course (Reminds of me that stick challenge in Unbeatable Basuke where you have to hold that stick in the air) where spins are a matter of success or failure. There are other new modes like a Shadow Puzzle mode of using Tetris pieces to make some shapes (a smiley face as an example) and another mode that requires the Balance Board. From what I read, only the default Marathon mode is the only online mode against other players and the Mii support is everywhere too. After beating Mega Man 9, my Wii is back to collecting dust, but Tetris Party looks like a great WiiWare game to get even though my fringe is starting to get full soon too (I'm passing on World of Goo despite how amazing it is).



On Live Arcade this week is Portal: Still Alive, which is my favorite thing of last year's The Orange Box plus some new content for 15 bucks (1200 MS Points). Sure, Portal is still amazing, but I don't know if the new content is enough for me to beat it again. Kind of like BioShock, I feel that Portal is an one time thing, meaning you see the awesome ending and that same feeling that cannot happen after multiple times. Plus, it is about a 600 MB download which is the largest XBLA game in terms of taking HDD space, but for those who never played Portal skipping The Orange Box last year, they should buy this game as soon as possible. I need to buy Points anyway to prepare myself for the next month of DLC and XBLA games (Buying Nevermind without the hits on Rock Band 2 on Tuesday plus other games like Super SFII Turbo HD Remix, Vigilante 8 Arcade, and Marvel vs. Capcom 2 if Capcom confirms a surprise release on XBLA).

So yeah, I'm saving those big retail games for December during my Winter Break (my backlog list is in a previous post) as I'll let Gears 2, Banjo N&B, and XBLA be my fall gaming during this crazy and crowded stretch of greatness.

BioShock 2 gets teased...

The PS3 version of BioShock is out next week, still an amazing FPS for this generation of consoles, but a special teaser has showed up in the menus for the sequel, now called Sea of Dreams. This quick tease is nothing much other than maybe Rapture not being an underwater city anymore, but its still coming out next year.

Skate 2 allows bigger and more painful bails...

This new trailer for Skate 2 demonstrates the new Hall of Meat bail system allowing for more control when you want to beef it whether by flipping like a madman, letting go of the board, and more. If the best bails of Skate 1 are crazy enough, imagine how crazy the bails will be on Skate.TV on the sequel.

The second coming of MvC2 is upon us...

Pardon the language of the pic above (taken from NeoGAF), but Microsoft's PartnerNET service has a mysterious game I have been waiting for to be on Xbox Live Arcade (also ESRB rated for PSN as well) which is Marvel vs. Capcom 2. With the ESRB rating in place and this pic as proof that it exists, it is only a matter of time when do you go crazy with Hailstorms and Magnetic Tempests now that MvC2 will be out on Live Arcade and PSN soon (hopefully online and other stuff in). Even though a HD Remix-like version would have been cooler (then again, it will take forever because of new art like SSF2T HD Remix), at least it is still coming. Who knows when Capcom themselves will officially announce it, but as many have said, if out in a month or two, this could steal SSF2T HD Remix's thunder a bit. A possible scenario is Microsoft putting this to the Xbox Originals lineup, which means it will have the backwards compatibility issues that the Xbox version when it runs on 360. Another good thing is that Marvel wants a second coming of this game to happen too, so maybe those 2 companies finally made it happen and now in good terms that the dream MvC3 could happen someday (If Street Fighter IV can happen, this can happen too).

As a reminder why Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is awesome, here's one of many infamous videos to prove that.

Guitar Hero World Tour Blowout Part IV

This fourth part of the GH World Tour Blowout features "Beat It" by Michael Jackson (Yeah, that song and surprisingly fun too), "Re-Education Through Labor" by Rise Against, and "Assassin" by Muse.