Well I'm back in warm sunny cold rainy Texas for the Decemberwe'en break, but I wouldn't let a little thing like a thousand mile journey keep the old Monotony blog from churning. Thankfully, this week has been a holiday stocking stuffed full of new trailers, thanks in no small part to the predictably chauvinistic SpikeTV Video Game Awards. Just imagine the Academy Awards as done by that frat dude who was never seen without at least two popped collars and 64oz can of Keystone Ice. Not pretty, but informative, as you will see by the slew of new gaming video goodness.
But we can't have a New Trailer Friday without a movie trailer, and while I recommend that you wait to see the following in three dimensions in front of Avatar this Friday, if you are like me a can't stand to wait for anything, check out this ridiculously exciting trailer for Iron Man 2.
Now whether you caved in and watched the Iron Man 2 trailer or not, keep on reading to check out trailers for the following highly anticipated games: Halo: Reach (!), Crackdown 2 (!!), Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 (!!!), Batman Arkham Asylum 2 (!!!!!!!!!!!).
(For the record, one "!" equals one "dustin giddy fist pump")
Is it just me or is Halo engine starting to look a little "Unreal." This is by no means a bad thing, and the engine is looking fantastic, but there's something about the level of bloom that makes me wonder... That said, I admit to feeling mixed about the release of this game. I had a blast with ODST and then immediately dropped it upon completing the campaign and never looked back. Quite frankly, I feel satiated for my Halo craving for another few years, and if developer Bungie wanted to take another year with this thing, I wouldn't be too bummed.
The original Crackdown is hands down the single best game that everyone bought to play another game instead (I'm looking at you Halo 3 multiplayer beta). Be honest, you bought this game for the beta just like I did, but after quickly tiring of headshots and plasma grenades, Crackdown turned out to be one of the most satisfying open world games ever made, and I've been pleased to see the way it has only continued to sparkle in the warm glow of retrospect. This time around, people will buy this game for the game itself, and I'm thankful Halo 3 provided the opportunity for Crackdown to sneak its way into our consoles, and then into our hearts. Agility orbs, I salute you! (sappy TV sit-com audience "Awwwww").
Lucasarts is nothing if not a brilliant creator of cinematic trailers. In fact, I am convinced a majority of the gaming community wishes that who ever has been churning out these trailers (including the brilliant cinematic trailer for The Old Republic) had also been in charge of the Star Wars prequels. That said, the trailer itself speaks little to what we can expect from actual game, other than more badass, duel wielding, lightsabre butt-kickery. I was a HUGE fan with the original, so it won't take much to force pull another $60 dollars from my pockets. That said, hopefully the team has taken the time to fine-tune the engine, weed out the bugs, and listen to the feedback from fans and critics (don't make force pulling a Star Destroyer to its doom so LAME).
I would say something campy like "the force looks strong with this one," but I'm not gonna...
There are some games for which the only response is the un-earthly tongues of blissful glee, and despite my sincerest attempts to put these intonations to words, I fear that they may only be expressed in some kind of an angelic script, a script whose stunningly brilliant characters would surely blind all who read it.
A sequel to epically awesome Arkham Asylum set in the city of Gotham itself, and possibly open world, is one of those games.
Keep your sight, use your imagination.