Video Game Season

Ah, September.  The time of year when I become a social recluse and soak up all the awesome new shows and games that come out.  Survivor: Samoa and Curb Your Enthusiasm both start new seasons on TV next week and more importantly, all the good video games have started to come out.  Between now and Christmas, there are roughly five billion games that will get released and there are about ten or so that I want to get my hands on.

For social gaming, The Beatles Rock Band is king in the Inoue household for the next month, unseating Wii Sports Resort as the social game to play when people come over.  I wrote a full review on it here, but the short version is that the game is awesome and if you like The Beatles, then you should definitely buy a copy.  I’d quite like to get my hands on a copy of the recently released remasters (Dr Seuss style blogging) but they’re all sold out until mid-October in Australia.

Its strange to think that in the span of a week, there’s been not one, but two video games that could make a strong claim for making the best use of a license.  The Beatles Rock Band is one such game and Batman: Arkham Asylum is the other.  I’m only a couple of hours into the game and I’m loving it so far.  I think the most important thing it gets right is the sensation of playing as a complete bad-ass.  Taking apart hapless goons #1-4 through a variety of sneaking around in the dark, using Bat-gadgets and straight up punching dudes in the face makes for an entertaining game.

I’m also playing through the puzzle game Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box on the DS at night.  Usually, me and Jen will knock over a few of the puzzles before going to sleep.  And when I say me and Jen, I mean Jen.  I am terrible at logic puzzles, the kind that you get in those Mensa books, but Jen is an absolute beast and usually solves most of them first try, in under a minute.  I really like the art style in this game a lot though.  It reminds me of the animated film The Triplets of Bellville.  Quite a fun ‘couples’ game.

Lastly, I had a chance to play the new FIFA 10 demo which just came out on Xbox Live/Playstation Network.  The AI is pretty good and I really like some of the off-the-ball animations like your team-mate frantically pointing at where he wants you to kick the ball.  It seems pretty promising and I look forward to reading some reviews of the full game when it gets released (whenever that is).  Having an A-League license is a pretty nice bonus too.

Whats everyone else been playing?