TGR-NET

Here’re some of the releases for May I’m looking forward to most:

May 3 – Thor: God of Thunder – Looking pretty good for a movie tie-in game, but even if it bombs, bad Marvel movie tie-ins are always good for a laugh. Who didn’t enjoy laughing at Iron Man, afterall?

May 6 – Thor – Absolutely looking forward to the movie here. Looks like its going to be pretty awesome. Too bad my buy one get one free coupons will expire this week!

May 10 – Brink – I’m very interested to see how this plays out, but unless they do the right thing and give the game a third person gameplay alternative, I’ll have to pass on playing it. The mechanics however could prove quite interesting, and I look forward to seeing more of it.

Lego Pirates of the Carribean: The Video Game – The Lego games are always a riot, hopefully this one won’t disappoint. 

May 31 – Hunted: The Demon’s Forge – This is the big one for the month for me. The game looks phenominal from all of the trailers and preview footage, and I can’t wait to get my hands on this one to give it a try.

The Playstation Portable, a console that had a low install base in North America, fairly low sales accross the board, and has been criticized year after year for its poor showing and titles. Until last year – last year was a really good year for the PSP; between Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker, God of War: Ghost of Sparta, Lunar, among others. This year promises to be even better.

Just recently we saw the well-made PSP port of the PS1/Saturn/Super Famicom Classic Tactical RPG – Tactics Ogre(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tactics_Ogre:_Let_Us_Cling_Together). I love remakes, especially of such classic games. Its nice to be able to play the old games we love on new platforms – especially when the graphics and audio have been remastered.

March 15:

 Gods Eater Burst(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_Eater) – This Monster Hunter-style game is landing tomorrow. Some of the footage I’ve seen of this looks very promising and it looks like it could be a lot of fun. Very interested in picking it up – will probably be doing so on Tuesday. Look forward to a review of this fairly soon.

Also this week is the introduction of Dissidia Duodecim, entitled “Prologus” on the PSN. This is a brief story of Lightning to give an intro into how things stand at the start of Duodecim – not to mention that it gives you an unlock for Aerith as an assist character in Duodecim. For only 3 dollars, not too shabby if I say so myself.

March 22

Dissidia (012) Duodecim Final Fantasy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissidia_012_Final_Fantasy) – After sinking 200+ hours into the first Dissidia over the 1.5 years since its release, I’m definitely very excited for the prequel to that exciting Fighter RPG. Also, if you missed the first one, this game is supposed to come with the story for the first one included within it according to all sources retold using the new revised game mechanics. Seems like a good value – can’t wait to see if they’ve improved it.

March 29

Legend of Heroes – Trails in the Sky (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Heroes:_Trails_in_the_Sky) – This is a PSP remake of an old JRPG that came out originally for the PC, but then was re-released for the PSP in Japan, and is now after nearly 6 years coming to North America. I’m quite interested to give it a try as the reviews have been very good for it in Japan, and I’m always up for a new JRPG.

The 3rd Birthday(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_3rd_Birthday) – The long awaited spiritual sequel to the PS1 classic Square “Parasite Eve” series arrives this month on the PSP. I cannot tell you how excited I am to get back behind Aya and have some more 3rd person shooting action with her. The game is not a literal sequel in the text of being directly following the events, but the star is the same and its been built to be a spiritual successor to it. Once this comes out, I’ll be hard pressed to decide which to play between it and Dissidia – a situation that will be not entirely unwelcome!

April 19th

Final Fantasy IV Complete Collection – The Final Fantasy 4 PSP remake, inclusive with all of the other FF4 content they’ve made over the year, lands in about a month. Final Fantasy 4 ranks among my favourite games of all time, and I am eager to be able to play it on my PSP. And being able to play The After Years as well is just the icing on the cake.

Written by: Sean

As its the end of the month, its time to look forward at what’s caught my eye for next month.

February 15th:

Hyperdimension Neptunia – With a name like this, it could only be a JRPG, you say? Well you’d be right. But this one has such a comical premise that I’m dying to give a try. The basic premise is that you play as a series of characters who are meant to represent the various game consoles in the current generation. Yes, you read that right. I’ve been watching some of the footage of it, and it looks hilarious.

Marvel Vs Capcom 3 – Now here’s a big one. Possibly the most anticipated fighting game of the 2000′s, this one bears watching. With a staggering roster of 36 characters at retail and two more via dlc, this is a huge game that may well be the big one at tournaments the world over for the next few years.

February 22nd

Killzone 3 – The PS3 exclusive sequel to the fairly widely praised Killzone 2, the addition of Move support and 3d makes this a very interesting one to watch. The first solid FPS to allow motion control – and it will be very interesting to see how this plays out; and also one of the first big steps in Sony’s 3d movement. Definitely going to pay attention to this and to seeing how it plays out.

Bulletstorm – The very stylish FPS in development by Epic Games is also landing this day, which offers a stark contrast to most of the FPS out there in that the primary focus is style. I am very interested in seeing how this plays out in the long run. I just wish they were offering a third person perspective option for it.

Worth a brief mention is also the re-release of the amazing PS1 Tactical RPG Tactics Ogre, coming out on the 15th for the PSP. If you missed it on PS1 and like the genre(same style as Final Fantasy Tactics or Vandal Hearts), definitely going to be one you’ll want to grab.