After a week mostly off (thanks, Nat for picking up the slack) I’m back with another week of Power Rankings.
1. (7) Halo Reach – In a move that makes little sense to me, Microsoft made Halo: Reach available to reviewers through a download from Xbox Live. Hackers found it and figured out how to download the game for themselves. Hilarity did not ensue. Spoilers did. I’m doing my best to ignore them.
2. (-) Monday Night Combat – No specific link on this one, I’ve just heard from multiple trusted sources that this game is FUN.
3. (-) Dragon Age 2 – I petered out earlier this year playing Dragon Age but I still recognize that BioWare crafted a pretty great game and the trailer for Dragon Age 2 has me thoroughly impressed.
4. (-) Final Fantasy XIV – I really want to see an MMO on the 360. I think it’s the future for the genre, on consoles. So when I heard FF XIV was not coming to the 360, I was bummed. Turns out that may not be entirely the case — It appears that development of the 360 version is only “on pause.”
5. (-) Age of Empires Online – No sooner had the announcement of Age of Empires Online hit the wire then more details started coming out concerning their freemium model. I just signed up for the beta and I’m really looking forward to this one.
6. (-) Torchlight – There was the announcement of Torchlight 2 and now the word that it will “hopefully” be available on XBLA/PSN by the holidays. Which got me thinking — if this Diablo-esque hack-and-slasher is successful, how awesome would Diablo 3 on the console be? Awesomer than most PC gamers would like to admit.
7. (3) Starcraft 2 – I can safely say that this would hover at the top a lot longer if I was actually playing it but the other sites I read and the podcasts I listen to can’t stop talking about it.
I’ll be honest. Halo: Reach is reaching out to me–if only in the single-player campaign. I am a sucker for failure epics a la 300 and The Alamo
Monday Night Combat—I had a lot of pressure form friends to get this. However, most people on my friends list are not playing it anymore. I think I survived.
Dragon Age 2—I couldn’t get into the first (on the PS3), but I was told to hold out for it on the PC. It plays better. Maybe, it’ll make me excited for this. Until then, yawn.
Final Fantasy—The numbering of this game “series” is getting a little long in the tooth. Also, MMOs on consoles? They’ve got a tough set of hills to climb.
Age of Empires—Stoked. Very stoked. Please don’t micro-transaction me. Also, I have more fun playing these games against AI instead of monkey-humans.
Torchlight—I would have ranked this at the top. I’m glad they put the MMO idea on hold to cash-in with co-op. (Which I though would have worked as a DLC pack instead of a whole new game, but if the same sales are any indication, It’ll be deep-discounted on Steam soon after release.)
Starcraft 2—I wish I had time to complete this game and get into the multi-player. I really like it, but cannot invest due to real-life commitments.
Nat – how much of a system hog is SC2? Could I run it on my 1+ year old Macbook?
I have a 3 year old macbook as of this week and it won’t run on it due to graphic requirements.
That’s where it hurts. I have an Intel 950 in mine I believe.
Well mine is a little more than a year old but I’m not sure what graphics chip I have. I’m going to look into that and hope.
I don’t think the outlook is too good.