Competitor.
While many PS3 owners were put on suicide watch with the announcement of Final Fantasy XIII going multiplatform, There is still another amazing exclusive title coming out just for the PS3 this November. Taking place in an alternate version of history, Valkyria Chronicles is the strategy game people like myself have always wanted. Instead of playing out like a glorified chess game, Every time you pick a soldier to move, you are given full control of that person. The game switches to a third person perspective and you are free to move about like any other third person shooter. You are limited though, each soldier has a movement meter that drains the more you walk or run. When you attack you simply hold the R2 button down and you switch to aim mode and fire with the X button almost exactly like Resident Evil 4. You can only attack once, and once you have fired you are no longer able to attack until your next turn. Unlike most strategy games, you are give a number of turns each round, rather then the ability to move each unit once. This means you can spend every turn on the same character if you so desire.
Valkyria Chronicles features a breathtaking new graphics engine dubbed the Canvas Engine. The game looks similar to the classic animated film Nausicaa. As you roam the fictitious European countryside, the game seems to brim to life with colors, while you can see pencil like sketching on the character model themselves. Valkyria Chronicles development team features a lot of former Overworks members, as such both Vyse and Aika from Skies of Arcadia are featured soldiers in the game. The game is deep with both story and character development as well as a mountain of tactical status effects on the battlefield with some being unique to each character. If you have a PS3, you owe it to yourself to pick up this gem in November.
2. Bayonetta.
Hideki Kamiya is a name that should be remembered in the game industry, He directed Resident Evil 2, Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe, and Okami. He is easily one of the industries most prominent game directors and now hes returning to the stylized action genre he and Shinji Mikami started with the first Devil May Cry. The goal of Kamiya and the rest of the team at Platinum Games is to completely blow away the competition with Bayonetta. A stylish action game featuring a witch armed to the teeth, and the stilettos, with guns and magic as she battles cyberorganic "angels". At E3 Platinum Games offered the first glimpse of the title behind closed doors and you couldn't help but be impressed.
First off, for a game announced at the end of May, and only introduced with a tiny CG teaser, this game looks done in comparrison to games out. The game seemed to have a similar location to the main town in Devil May Cry 4, but it already looks better then it. Bayonetta also has a fully rotating camera, unlike the Devil May Cry series static camera. Some of the basic moves performed where already more crazy then most of what Dante or Nero pull off. Beyond the constant, stylish firing of guns from her hands and feet, were the magic spells where the main characters hair would come out of a portal at an enormous size in the shape of a fist, foot, or in one case a giant beast that chewed a mini boss up. Bayonetta is not coming for a while, it only serves to make the game even more amazing on how far along it seems, already pushing more graphical effects then Devil May Cry 4. Xbox 360 and PS3 owners certainly have a lot to look forward to next year from Platinum Games.
3. Fable 2.
When I first took control of Fable 2, the Lionhead developer implored me to turn right at the upcoming fork in the road, I ignored him and kept running forward into the hills. This was to prove whether or not Fable 2 was really open ended, unlike the first game that was more of a glorified crash bandicoot in a fantasy setting. To my relief my character kept running and went straight up the hills and past the trees nestled on top. This caused a bit of a chuckle from the developer when I explained what my goal was. Its amazing how much the game seemed to improve from this one crucial element.
My other adventures in Albion included me kicking the crap out of a chicken which caused the nearby farmer to have his anger points significantly raised above his head. I also went diving into a river and found a rusty pistol under a bridge, no doubt disposed of after a murder the developer commented. I also played with my dog, and watched him lead me to a treasure chest under a wagon cart. I also played with the magic system which is at one point simple but at another confusing. to cast magic all you have to do is hold down a button and the longer you hold it down the more powerful it grows. Simple enough, but changing spells required you to hit the right bumper and then scroll left and right and up and down through a series of transparent menus to select a new one. I'm sure starting from the beginning of the game will alleviate the confusion as to what spell does what. Fable 2 is shaping up to be everything the first game promised to be and should have been. While I still believe the original Xbox was more then capable of delivering that game, being in bigger, brighter, HD world doesn't really hurt things either. I know what will be in my Xbox 360 this October, and hopefully it will be in yours too.
