Pre-Review: Armored Core 4 (PS3/360)

Jeff’s Take:

Why fix what isn’t broken? Or at least, what’s working well enough? The Armored Core series has always been about fast and furious mech action, and while it hasn’t been amazingly reviewed in the past, it has garnered a devoted following. There have actually been far more than 4 installments of the series, but for whatever reason, this is the one they decided to make their next in the “core” series.

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Pre-Review: Mario Party 8 (Wii)

Geoff’s Take:

The Mario Party franchise is a long and storied one. It was a fresh, interesting idea when the first iteration came out around the turn of the millenium. 7 games later, the franchise’s luster has faded and the games have been scoring around the 70%-75% mark.

I suspect that the Wii version will come in similarly. MP8 has several things going for it: first, it’s the first Mario Party game to take advantage of the new Wii controls, and Nintendo has no doubt been brainstorming some interesting ways to take advantage of this setup. IGN has noted a few of these in its preview; some of the more intriguing games include a jetskiing game and a shooting gallery. MP8 also has the benefit of the board game conceit and the familiar franchise characters, which breathe a bit of freshness into the otherwise somewhat stale gameplay. Finally, it’s one of the few relatively “marquee” titles for the Wii coming out around this time.

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Pre-Review: Virtua Tennis 3 (360)

Geoff’s Take

I have fond memories of Virtua Tennis from my Dreamcast days - although never a huge tennis fan, I somehow bought the game and spent a surprising amount of time playing it with anyone who happened to be in the area. VT3 represents the latest entry into the popular series.

Sports games aren’t really the best platform for innovation: the rules don’t change very much and you don’t have much latitude for major edits. The most fruitful areas to focus on are generally improving the graphics and animation, creating a fun multi-player experience, and adding supplemental challenges. VT3 generally delivers in all of these areas.

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Pre-Review: SSX Blur (Wii)

Jeff’s Take:
When I heard that the next game in the SSX franchise was going to be a Wii exclusive, I was (pardon the pun) a wii skeptical. I just didn’t like the idea of EA trying to tack arbitrary motion controls onto the SSX Franchise. Despite my initial reservations, the game works… mostly.

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Pre-Review: Sam and Max Episode 4: Abe Lincoln Must Die (PC)

Geoff’s Take

Ok, this almost seems a bit unfair. The previous 3 additions to the Sam and Max franchise have been nothing if not consistent, and I don’t really see that changing here. I’ll go out on a limb:

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Sonic and the Secret Rings (Wii) Pre-Review

Jeff’s Take

This won’t be our “best” prediction, as this game comes out this week. Nevertheless, since no reviews have come up yet on GameRankings, I thought I’d take the opportunity to make a prediction on the game.

This one has, however, been our radar for awhile. There’s been a lot of early buzz that this will be the first “good” Sonic game in awhile. We have a bit more information about the game than we likely will for most other games that we’ll be doing this with, since some people have already played it. However, based on earlier info as well as some early play testing here and here, I think the biggest complaints will likely be (after the jump):

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