While nothing so appealing as the recent Tomb Raider HD announcement, there are a few noteworthy items in gaming today.
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood has added a free map for online multiplayer, “Rome at Dusk.” Yes, it is exactly what it sounds like: The Rome Map, at dusk. Playing at night can be a game changer. Your attire choice is much more important and it makes the rooftop strategy less obvious.
Despite the full roster being leaked on Twitter some time ago, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is still slowly releasing information via trailers just like nothing is wrong. That’s okay in my book though, because the latest announcement has two awesome additions. From the X-Men, Phoenix has arrived. Better yet, Metro City Mayor Mike Haggar, formerly of Saturday Night Slam Masters, is wrestling his way into battle with our Marvel favorites. Sorry everybody, but I just have to gush. Haggar is such an awesomely brilliant character and Final Fight sucked up way too many of my quarters at Peter Piper Pizza when I was a kid. Hopefully Galactus and Taskmaster haven’t kidnapped his daughter and he’s just fighting for the sheer joy of it.
Do you remember Bionic Commando? Not the new one that sucked, but the awesome old one from the NES-era (this might actually be the first video game I ever beat). Even if you don’t remember the original you should know about Bionic Commando: Rearmed, the downloadable HD remake from 2008. Why am I asking? Because FatShark has been developing Bionic Commando: Rearmed 2 and it just got a release date: February 1st. I’m surprised they waited this long to announce it if it’s coming so quickly. It will be $14.99 on PSN (and whatever number of points is equivalent on XBLA). Also, you can actually jump now. The retro part of my brain hates it, but the sensible part of me is overjoyed.
If you watched the VGAs and saw the announcement of SSX Deadly Descents you probably thought to yourself, “What the hell are they doing to this once awesome snowboarding franchise?” If you’re a fan, it gets worse. The game sounds pretty epic: 17 real world regions, 70 peaks, special danger conditions for each track, and drops so extreme you might actually die. Wait a minute. Die? In SSX? That’s just stupid. Actually, maybe it’s cool. No, definitely stupid. What’s my beef with what sounds like a farily cool extreme snowboarding title inspired by modern combat games? This is not SSX! It sounds awesome and I want to play it, but make it a new IP. SSX is cartoony, completely nuts, and very arcade-y. This is something else entirely, but not necessarily something bad.
Okay, so this was as much editorial babbling from me as it was gaming news. Sorry. There’s still some very cool information. Now if I can just get Capcom and EA to work together so I can play as Haggar in the not-SSX snowboarding game I’ll be forever satisfied. <==Not a true statement.