Dishing the DiRT on Dragon’s Dogma

We’re certainly not short on RPGs at the moment. If you’ve finished The Witcher 2 and Diablo 3 and don’t like the look of either Risen 2 or The Game of Thrones, then Capcom’s Dragon’s Dogma could very well be your next addiction. Capcom have claimed that they hope to sell 10 million copies, and although that does seem like a rather ambitious figure, the fact that it comes with a playable Resident Evil 6 demo should at least ensure it a high chart position next week.

Review scores have been mixed. The first review to appear was in 360 magazine who handed out an 8. They said that there are lots of brilliant moments but it could have done with longer in the oven. gamesTM also gave it an 8 while EDGE and Eurogamer both gave it a 7. Play magazine didn’t really take to it at all however and gave it a mere 48%. There’s a demo available for you to make your own mind up. It allows you to make a couple of characters and then fight a winged-griffin with a few AI controlled cohorts. Pro tip: burn its wings to a crisp.

There are a couple of PlayStation 3 RPGs out this week too – Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland from Tecmo Koei and Rune Factory Oceans from Rising Star. Rune Factory Oceans – also known as Rune Factory: Tides of Darkness – has been available in the US for quite some time. Reviews were middling upon release. It does have PS Move support though which is… something. Atelier Meruru meanwhile is the 13th game in the little-known Atelier series. US gamers are only getting it this week too, and as such there aren’t many reviews around.

Men in Black: Alien Crisis is a game we really don’t hold out much hope for. At all. The fact that it’s an on-rails shooter suggests that it has been made on a very short schedule. It’s out on PS3, Xbox 360, Wii and 3DS.

The 3DS is also receiving Mario Tennis Open. Although it’s great to see another Mario game on 3DS, reviews haven’t been glowing. Both EDGE and Eurogamer gave it a 7. gamesTM meanwhile though it was worth a 6. Good but not quite a classic it would seem.

Eurogamer also gave Sorcery for PS Move a 7. It’s one of the better games for the device, then.

All of these titles and we haven’t even yet mentioned DiRT Showdown and Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. The latter has been getting a steady string of 8s from the likes of Eurogamer and EDGE, while the former hasn’t been reviewed yet. We very much doubt that it’s going to be anything less than great though.

Lastly we have Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock, which is being published by Sony. It’s available on PSN and at retail on PlayStation 3, while the PS Vita version is arriving on PSN only next month. The budget price tag is a little worrying but we still have some confidence that it’ll be good – developers Supermassive are a PlayStation-exclusive studio and have worked on some of the more successful PS Move titles as well as add-on packs for LittleBigPlanet 2.

Next week: Resistance: Burning Skies (PS Vita), SBK Generations (PS3, 360, PC), Summer Stars (PS3, 360, Wii), Worms Compilation (PS3, 360), Azada (3DS) and Max Payne 3 (PC).

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