The first hard-hitting month of the year is upon us! March will be putting my time-management skills to the test, as I try go through marathon gameplay sessions while still making enough public appearances to satisfy everyone in my social circle that happens to have a birthday right about now. And, trust me, I know a lot of people whose parents were apparently feeling extra frisky around June. Click past the break to find out which games I consider most noteworthy, for this, March 2011!
4th: Fight Night: Champion (Multiplatform)
11th: Dragon Age II (Multiplatform)
25th: Total War: Shogun 2 (PC)
Three titles might not look like much, but Dragon Age and Total War aren’t your typical kind of franchise: Their flagship releases aren’t your average type of game, where you spend a couple of bombastic afternoons and are done with it, unless you stick around for the multiplayer. They are games that, whether you like ‘em or not, you will spend whole days getting through their main gameplay modes.
Much like Civilization and Football Manager, both of which, as luck would have it, are getting free patches this month! Civ V also gets a new playable civilization and a scenario as DLC, but the big news is definitely the fresh round of balance tweaking: Amongst other things, I’ll need to see if my civilization can stand the test of time without relying on the, once-ludicrously-overpowered-but-now-seemingly nerfed, City-State alliances.
In FM 2011 we get some bug-squashing and, most importantly, the February roster update. Once you realize that each subsequent entry from SI hasn’t been much more than a roster update since CM4 (oh, I went there), it makes sense that this has me about as excited as a new FM release. I’m not terribly excited, mind, but even a simple play-through takes at least three days of gameplay.
I’ve said it before, and I will say it again: I wish that games like FM, Fifa and NBA 2K only released DLC a couple of times per year and a full, “retail-version”, title every three years or so; or however long it takes them to implement a brand-new engine.
Which is why I’m looking forward to Fight Night: Champion. EA took a breather from milking that franchise, leaving the development team some space to try a few new things. It’s a decision that’s certainly been guided by the fact that EA has no real competition for its boxing games, but it’s a decision I applaud nevertheless. Even if the game doesn’t end up being revolutionary, or any good for that matter, their mentality has taken a step towards the right direction. Much like they cancelled NBA Elite 2011 for being too balls, I hope they’ll one day start cancelling any sports game that feels to samey.
Speaking of things that feel samey, we have another Total War coming up! This is a series that started out strong and peaked quickly, around Rome: Total War, so a lot of people have turned against it. When game after game has the same exact qualities, the good things start losing their impact and the bad things start becoming unbearable.
Total War: Shogun 2 will likely be more of the same: A very pretty, quite massive, slow-paced war game, with barely-there AI and egregious load-times, but I am willing to give it a try. If it is indeed the same, I’ll still have some fun, even if I’ll tire of it quickly since it’ll be the same kind of fun I’ve been having since 2004. If it surprises me, all the better!
Well, not all better, since there are some other games that will feel neglected if spent too much time Total Warring. We’ll talk about those after I’ve been elected president of the UN, Civ V just finished patching.
