New Game Releases - Finally

I thought last year was a slow year for gaming, but this year hasn't been much better. There have been just a handful of mainstream major releases. The biggest being Oblivion (others include: Just Cause, GTR2, Battlefield (yet another one) and a couple of others). However, the next week or so seems to be the best time of the year for new game releases. Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, Neverwinter Nights 2, Gothic 3, Warhammer Dawn of War Dark Crusade, Flight Simulator X, Star Wars Empire at War Forces of Corruption, and the Expansion for FEAR (Extraction Point) are all due to hit the shelves this week. Going from a drought to a flood of releases in the space of just seven days. Rather than have very little choice, gamers are going to, finally, have too much choice. Suddenly the question becomes what should I spend my money on and which game release should I devote my time to? While I can't answer these questions for you I do understand the frustration of waiting for a game release (sometimes for years) only to be disappointed when it is released.

I certainly won't be buying everyone of those titles. In fact, I only plan on picking up two (maybe 3) of them (Gothic 3 and FEAR Extration Point are the two I will definitely get, Dark Messiah is still a maybe). I enjoyed the Dark Messiah demo, however, I am not a fan of its level based structure and this is the reason why I will be picking up Gothic 3 over Dark Messiah. Gothic 3 offers an environment more like Oblivion. A large open world with the possibility of multiple endings and various ways of playing the game. Dark Messiah is more a lead-you-by-the-nose type of game. As far as I am concerned level based game play will one day be the platform games of the past. A quaint relic of limited hardware requirements of systems which demanded level based play. The sooner it is a part of gaming heritage and not the gaming future the better.

The release schedules of games are definitely not structured to suit the southern hemisphere. The major game releases are generally pushed to the end of the year (Xmas) so that they can capitalise on Xmas present buying. This also falls in line with the winter of the Northern hemisphere, however, this falls in to our summer. Summer is the time when you want to be outside doing stuff rather than inside playing games.

Finally gamers will be able to go to their local gaming shop (and I know you all support the independants and not the major franchises. Not) and be able to stand in front of the new release shelf and be struck with the amount of choice you finally have. It won't last long because in a month or two all of those games will be old hat and you will be waiting for some new games to be released.