Last week, we bid an emotional farewell to 2008, a year that brought us many hours of unforgettable videogaming pleasure. But now we’re so over it. Frankly, we’re all about ’09 now. So what will the New Year bring in gaming terms? Here are eight key trends to look out for, together with masses of major new titles. We may be plummeting into a bottomless economic recession, but hey, we’re going to have fun getting there…
1. The return of the elder statesmen
Those looking for vintage brands won’t be disappointed in 2009. Street Fighter IV and Silent Hill: Homecoming kick off the action in February, the latter subject to mixed reviews in the States but still likely to scare the bejesus out of us. March promises the massively anticipated Resident Evil 5; though Capcom is unadvisedly going for a Friday 13th launch so anything could happen. We’ll certainly have to wait until winter for the double whammy of Gran Turismo 5 and Tekken 6. God of War 3 and EA’s boxing romp Fight Night Round 4 are also set to make dramatic appearances, but lord knows when.
www.streetfighter.com/
www.konami.com/games/shh/
Resident Evil 5 Trailer
www.gran-turismo.com/
www.tekken-official.jp/tk6ac/ss.html
www.us.playstation.com/PS3/Games/God_of_War_III/
http://fightnight.easports.com/splash.aspx
2. The big number twos (sorry)
While four was very much the number of 2008 (Devil May Cry 4, GTA IV, Metal Gear Solid 4…), next year will be dominated by younger ‘franchises’. The most anticipated are surely Guerilla’s looooong-awaited Killzone 2 and the follow-up to brilliant sub-aqua adventure, Bioshock. The latter is being developed by 2K Marin, the studio responsible for the original’s PS3 conversion, and is due out by Christmas. We’re also excited about the Marco Polo-themed Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Monolith’s ghostly F.E.A.R 2 and offroad racer, Colin McRae: DIRT 2, set to make spectacular use of Codemasters’ advanced EGO engine.
www.killzone2.com
www.2kgames.com/bioshock/
www.us.playstation.com/uncharted/
projectorigin.warnerbros.com/projectorigin/index.html
www.codemasters.co.uk/dirt/index2.php
3. The rise of the console MMO
The massively multiplayer online game will finally be making an impact on PS3 this year, with Sony’s own The Agency, leading the gang, flaunting globetrotting espionage action. Also looking interesting is MAG: Massive Action Game a hugely ambitious shooter from SOCOM-creator, Zipper Interactive, which promises 256-player battles in various contemporary settings. There’s also a chance we’ll catch DC Universe Online, another biggie from Sony Online Entertainment - but with a 2010 release also mentioned, don’t hold your breath – even if you have super-powered lungs.
theagency.station.sony.com/
MAG Trailer
dcuo.station.sony.com/
4. Comic book pilferers
This isn’t usually the ‘go to’ genre for amazing, imaginative game design, but 2009’s comic conversions do at least come with some solid credentials. Eidos’ Batman: Arkham Asylum features a story by experienced DC scribe, Paul Dini and has Mark Hamill voicing the Joker. Meanwhile, movie tie-in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, is being handled by veteran FPS expert Raven Studios, responsible for the classic Heretic and Hexen titles as well as the decent X-Men Legends. The dark horse of the bunch is Warner Bros’ Watchmen: The End is Nigh, an episodic adventure from Deadline Games that acts as a prequel to the film due out in March. Hmmm.
www.batmanarkhamasylum.com/
www.x-menorigins.com/
www.deadline.dk/
Make sure you come back tomorrow for key gaming trends five to eight…
Keith Stuart
How God of War 3 is an elder statesmen I don’t know. When did the franchise start? 2005? Same with Fight Night!
Comment by katamari-ball — Dec 23, 2008 @ 12:14 pm
Nice little article ThreeSpeech
Comment by Apnomis — Dec 23, 2008 @ 12:34 pm
Third
i’m not holding my breath for a full GT5 in 2009 either.
Comment by mobiletone — Dec 23, 2008 @ 1:01 pm
Does make me curious what they are actually doing with GT5 to prolong it this much?
Unless the graphical quality and vehicle handling are vastly different to Prologue…
Comment by JohnSketch — Dec 23, 2008 @ 1:24 pm
Not sure about “trends” as much as “games” to look out for.
You want an actual trend for 2009, try ‘procedural content’.
Comment by JS — Dec 23, 2008 @ 1:40 pm
@katamari-ball
Yeah, I know what you mean, but I wanted to include them and wasn’t sure where! They’re in there for being higher numeric sequels than the number twos. ; )
Comment by Keef — Dec 23, 2008 @ 2:33 pm
Nice read threespeech! MAG sounds very interesting indead.
Comment by E-ROLE — Dec 23, 2008 @ 2:50 pm
@JohnSketch. Polyphony have been tweaking the vehicle models to make them even more realistic than Prologue and iron out any little glitches in the modelling that you can see in Prologue too. Each car takes 180 days in man hours to complete and GT5 is reportedly going to have 900 cars. That’s nearly 623 years of man hours (assuming a five day week). And you wonder what’s prolonging it???
Comment by Root Ginger — Dec 23, 2008 @ 2:58 pm
@ginger
So basically it should be called instead:
GT5:Prolonged
Comment by JohnSketch — Dec 23, 2008 @ 3:37 pm
@Root Ginger : Prologue will have 900 cars, or will have 90 cars with 10 models each? Probably the majority of this models only change in color.
I just hope this is taking so long because they are adding crash damage to the cars.
Comment by Torpedo — Dec 23, 2008 @ 3:42 pm
yes 5-8,
5) Psncards for the eu
6) correct pricing scheme
7)no more delayes on the psn-network between regions
8)old movies&series store in the EU
Comment by t3rr0rt!m3 — Dec 23, 2008 @ 3:54 pm
and the final 1
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/940/940564p1.html
Comparing Home Around The World
While Home is still growing by the day and with each user, it’s a bit disconcerting that the three regions have such vast discrepancies.
on which as always the scee is giving the smallest for the biggest region.
another epic fa!l
Comment by t3rr0rt!m3 — Dec 23, 2008 @ 4:03 pm
Nice read. Personally Heavy Rain is going to make me buy new pants.
Comment by darkos87 — Dec 23, 2008 @ 6:30 pm
and again, no mention of Skate 2. Only one month now…
Comment by john — Dec 23, 2008 @ 6:31 pm
Given up on GT5, I thought Grid was honestly better than Prologue. The hype has dried up now.
Comment by Terry G — Dec 23, 2008 @ 7:59 pm
Nice article, but why isn’t Uncharted 2 mentioned with Killzone 2 etc?
Comment by SinsToJudge — Dec 23, 2008 @ 9:03 pm
@sins2Judge
Err it is? Unless the post has changed since you commented
Comment by Mr.Monkey — Dec 23, 2008 @ 11:37 pm
“The Punisher: No Mercy” [PlayStation Network downloadable title] is missing from “4. Comic book pilferers”.
[ http://www.punishernomercy.com ]
BFN,
fp.
Comment by fanpages — Dec 24, 2008 @ 1:08 am
Another trend: people who come here every day to whine and moan and complain about how terribly awful and downright crap Sony are. 100% guaranteed.
Comment by Jay — Dec 24, 2008 @ 3:13 am
Don’t want to sound like one of those moaners, and I’m usually fairly patient but HOW ON EARTH did SCEE mess up and not release the LBP MGS pack yesterday as promised???? The US store has it, I want it!!!!!!
Comment by Robothamster — Dec 24, 2008 @ 8:55 am
I am hoping that GT5 comes with damage - they were indicating earlier in the year that it could happen as early as end of 2008 via a patch for GT5:P, but I’m guessing that isn’t happening.
As for the time it’s taking? Well, in fairness - think about how anal they all are about getting things *just* right. Crash damage has so much randomness, I think it will more than likely be giving them major headaches, as they won’t want it to just be a case of ‘hood pops, springs fly everywhere’.
As for the article - nice.
I’m really looking forward to Killzone 2 and Uncharted 2. Besides which, we may even see the Resistance trilogy come to a conclusion in the remnants of 2009.
…But who knows. I really REALLY hope that SCEE gets its finger out and sorts out DLC and the PSN in general - I was gutted when I found out that the LBP MGS pack wasn’t available yesterday.
Merry Christmas, everyone at ThreeSpeech and in the comments - here’s to a great 2009.
Comment by Phreaky — Dec 24, 2008 @ 8:59 am
@robothamster
Glad I wasn’t the only one that was peeved by that whole mess!
Comment by Phreaky — Dec 24, 2008 @ 9:10 am
At least the LBP MGS pack is available now, just a day late. Could have been mch worse I guess.
Agree with you there Phreaky, I’d like to see this damage patch for GT5p too.
Comment by Robothamster — Dec 24, 2008 @ 10:28 am
I couldn’t find anything on the Bioshock link about Bioshock 2
Comment by Randomcowburner — Jan 7, 2009 @ 10:23 am
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