Posts tagged Max Payne

While summer can often be a difficult season for gamers as most of the big releases wait for the holiday season to make their way to store shelves, there’s usually still a few gems in there to help alleviate the pain of the seasonal gaming drought.  The following are a few of my most anticipated summer 2012 releases:

Max Payne 3:  The titular character makes his return in this Rockstar-developed sequel to the franchise Remedy Entertainment birthed.  Remedy, however, is not directly involved in the development of this sequel as they sold the rights to Max Payne and have been focusing on developing their Alan Wake franchise.  The lack of Remedy’s involvement with this title has caused some concern in the fan base; however, Rockstar has a solid track record and rarely ever disappoints.  This bullet-time infused, noir-inspired action game will be released for Xbox 360 and PS3 on May 15 and May 29 on PC.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II:  It has been a year and a half since Sonic 4’s first episode became available for download and the second installment is finally almost here.  The development team has listened to fan complaints regarding the first episode and have revamped the physics and are utilizing new game and graphics engines—likely the engines used in Sonic Generations, so expect a similar feel to the 2D segments in that game.  As an added bonus to loyal Sonic fans, if you own Episode I on the same platform as Episode II, you unlock the exclusive Episode Metal which gives players control of Metal Sonic in four additional levels.  Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II releases for download on the PlayStation Network (PSN) and PC on May 15 and a day later on XBLA.

Lollipop Chainsaw:  Sure to be controversial after its release, Lollipop Chainsaw is Goichi Suda’s (Suda51) new over-the-top action game starring Tara Strong as Juliet Starling, a zombie hunting cheerleader who keeps her boyfriend’s living-but-severed head on her person.  The script for Lollipop Chainsaw was penned by James Gunn, who wrote Zack Snyder’s 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead,and takes several cues from Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer series.  Suda51’s latest action/horror/comedy is set to be released on June 12^thfor the Xbox 360 and PS3.

The Last Story:  The release of Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi’s latest epic, The Last Story, marks the first home console release from Mistwalker since 2008’s Lost Odyssey.  The Last Story has received a great deal of praise in Japan (where it has been available for over a year) and Europe (which saw its release in February of this year) and is one of my most anticipated games of 2012 due to Sakaguchi’s involvement.  The videogame industry veteran’s studio boasts several staff who worked on past installments of the Final Fantasy franchise including composer Nobuo Uematsu.  The work of the talented folks at Mistwalker is some of the finest in the industry with each game packing memorable characters, excellent plotting, and beautiful soundtracks.  The Last Story will finally make it stateside on June 19^th exclusively for the Nintendo Wii.

Sleeping Dogs:  Sleeping Dogs began its life as True Crime: Hong Kong, a proposed reboot of the True Crime franchise, but was canceled some time after Activision revealed the game; Square Enix stepped in as publisher after this cancelation and revived the project—they did not, however, purchase the True Crime IP, hence the name change.  Sleeping Dogs sets players loose as police officer Wei Shen in an open world environment as he goes undercover to infiltrate a Triad organization.  Sleeping Dogs unleashes its special brand of Justice on August 14^th on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.