You have to laugh – Capcom are charging £14.99 for downloads of their old Resident Evil titles, yet online retailers are asking a mere £17.99 for retail release Dead Rising: Off The Record. It’s not an entirely new game, but there’s a good 15 hours of play at hand along with a new theme park area and the chance to play as photographer Frank West. Xbox World magazine gave it an 8.0, claiming it to be a good place for Dead Rising newcomers to start. They said that the long loading times have been fixed and there are now more zombies on screen then ever before. Eurogamer weren’t that keen on it though, giving it a 6.
Whereas FIFA 12 has been getting 9s almost across the board, Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 has been getting a steady string of 8s. A decent alternative to EA’s offering it would seem, but not quite as polished. You’ll easily be able to tell which of your friends owns a copy – one new feature for this year is Facebook stat tracking. Joy.
Likewise to Dark Souls, early purchasers of Namco’s Ace Combat: Assault Horizon get a upgrade to first class for free. Or rather, they get the limited edition set for the same price as the standard. This limited edition pack sounds different to most – it comes with a notebook signed by the developers, along with a music CD and an extra craft to download. Review scores have mostly been 8/10s and there’s a demo now available so you can try before buying.
Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure is a curious one. It’s yet another reboot for the purple dragon, but this is the most ambitious yet – it comes with action figures and a device that’s used to scan extra characters into the game. The character design meanwhile has been handled by a designer from the Shrek movies, with Spyro himself looking more psychotic than usual. It’s out on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii and 3DS. The 3DS version could have potentially used AR cards for the scanning of extra characters, but we assume Activision are able to make more money off the back of the additional action figures. Activision are also unleashing Spider-Man: Edge of Time on all formats this week. It can’t be any worse than X-Men Destiny.
Microsoft are publishing two Xbox 360 titles – Kinectimals: Now with Bears and Forza Motorsport 4. Kinectimals isn’t a new game; if you own the original you can get the new critters as DLC. Oddly, the original suggested that it was canines to be on the agenda next. Forza 4 scored a 9 on Eurogamer. They didn’t think much of the AI and said that the Top Gear track is a little misappropriate but they still went on to say that “Forza has always been a series to admire, but now it’s a little easier to fall in love with it too.”
Contrary to popular beliefs, the Just Dance series is far from awful – Just Dance 2 has a Metacritic of 74%. Just Dance 3 – for Wii and Kinect – doesn’t appear to be any worse, or indeed better, with reviews including a 7/10 from GamesRadar. Dance Central 2 is out next week though, so it might be an idea to hold on for that. If singing is more of your thing, X-Factor also hits PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii this week.
This leaves us with Michael Phelps: Push the Limit from 505 Games. It’s another for Kinect, and one that could be a good way to shift those bingo wings, featuring both local and online multi-player modes. There’s a video here if you’re curious about splashing the cash.
Next week: Batman: Arkham City (PS3, 360, PC), Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Impact (PSP), The Adventures of TinTin: The Secret of the Unicorn (PS3, 360, Wii, 3DS), Captain America: Super Soldier (3DS), Dance Central 2 (360) and Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One (PS3).