Well, September’s here. After 6 weeks of waiting the dreaded month has arrived. With it comes school and the horrifying feeling of ‘do I have enough shirts’ and ‘what happened to my pencil case?’ However, it’s not all doom and gloom, at least not for the gaming community. So, without further ado, I present to you some of the most promising games of September 2013.
Release date: 26th September
From the creators of Hard Reset and the producers of Hotline Miami comes a reboot of an old title by the name of yep, you guessed it, Shadow Warrior. Just like Hotline Miami, the game’s comical side is evident as is its gore factor, another nod to the fast paced action game. Players take on the role of Lo Wang. Previews have described it as ‘Bulletstorm-esque’ in its combat, complete with a score counter for the kills you get. However, unlike Bulletstorm there seems to be a very strong emphasis on melee combat, with the katana seemingly being an actual weapon in its own right, rather than being mapped to the quick tap of a key for an insta-kill. But don’t think that’s all for the weapons of the game. So far we’ve seen signs of huge laser blasters, gigantic sized grenade launchers and LMGs with rates of fire so big they’d rival a chain gun.
Does Diablo 3 really need an intro? Yes? I thought so. This PC RPG game first came out in May 15th of 2012. So, you may ask, what’s it doing here in a September 2013 piece? Well, the answer to that is because it’s coming to consoles. That’s right the PC game that sold over 3.5 million copies in 24 hours, a new world record, and caused worldwide uproar when its servers went down is coming to PS3 and XBox. The game itself is an MMO, set in the mythical world of Sanctuary, the setting of all of the Diablo games so far, where a dark star destroys a cathedral and creates a crater, whereupon an innocent bystander falls in. From then on, it’s up to you, the player to figure out what’s going on and how to stop it. Gameplay is much like any other PC game, however certain changes will have to be made to accommodate the controllers that new players will be using. Already, gamers are howling for the release of this one, and they won’t have to wait long either.
Created by Guerilla Games there have been four Killzone titles so far, the three main games and a separate handheld version. This time, players will begin the game shortly after the events of the original Killzone title. Stepping into the shoes of ex-UCA soldier Arran Danner, a mercenary who has no qualms taking jobs from both the ISA and the Helghast, players will have to fight through familiar settings as they fight to rescue the son of the Ambassador, a boy who could hold the fate of the war in his hands. Along from the main plot also comes with secondary contracts as well, where, for the first time, the player will fight alongside both ISA special forces units and the usual enemy, the Helghast, where the player can customise their loadouts and make important decisions that could win or lose them extra cash. Being exclusively on the Vita, gameplay will also make use of the Vita’s unique front and rear touchpad functionalities to make the game feel less of an appetiser and more of a fully functional individual game.
So, you love Battlefield 3. You look at Battlefield 4 and you know, you know that it’s the most realistic FPS game of this generation. Well think again. Arma 2 was one of the biggest online PC games of its time, even hosting one of the best mods ever created, Day Z. And it’s next title doesn’t look ready to disappoint. The campaign is set in the near-future, 2030 during the fictional Operation Magnitude. Players will take on the role of British Special Forces Captain Scott Miller. The player will take on all kinds of missions from one man infiltrations to commanding massive armoured battles. Interestingly enough, the game boasts an open world gameplay, being situated on and around two islands, the main one Altis with a surface area of 270km2 and the smaller Stratis being 20km2. And while the singleplayer may sound great, it’s multiplayer where its real strength lies. Boasting huge scale battles the attention to detail is immense. I mean for crying out loud there are nine different lean positions. Nine. All this combined with the previously mentioned 290km2 of land to traverse and blow each other up on, this game certainly sounds like a strong contender for the most realistic shooter.
This is it. The big one. Grand Theft Auto is one of the biggest, greatest and most well known franchises in all of gaming. And why shouldn’t they be with the brilliant people at Rockstar games at the helm, creators of amazing games such as Max Payne 3 and Red Dead Redemption. Players will take on the role of not one, two, but three separate characters, each with their own unique characteristics, looks and preferences. Franklin, the streetwise tough kid, who knows he can do better, Michael an ex-mobster turned failing family man and Trevor, the ultraviolent red neck daredevil. At any time, players can swap which character they play us, while ground-breaking AI picks up where the player left off. This allows for amazing possibilities, such as plotting an ambush where the player can station Michael at the front ready to open fire, Trevor on a roof to give covering fire and Franklin behind the target to get the enemies blindspot.
While previous games have boasted large open worlds, this truly is the biggest, bigger even than Red Dead and GTA IV’s maps combined. Players will be able to rob banks, while choosing their team and plotting how they’re going to do it. They can hunt, play tennis or go for a casual sky-dive. And you think that’s it? Along with this comes GTA Online, an amazing experience that is pretty much a game within itself. Characters can follow their own storylines to get rewards as well as create or join ‘Crews’ to compete with or against friends. Alongside basic game mods such as Deathmatch there is also a free roaming online mode as well, where players can rob liquor stores with their friends, or as me and my friend will do, ram jets into each other in some extreme version of ‘Chicken.’ Shooting looks almost exactly the same as Max Payne 3, a game entirely based on shooting people and melee combat is said to rival even Rocksteady’s beautifully crafted Arkham games. And with all that, could this be the game that knocks Naughty Dog’s ‘The Last of Us’ from its GOTY throne of glory? I think it could.
Click here for more information on GTA V.