Upcoming Hot Games for 2008! (PS3, 360, Wii, PC)

I know this is the console forum but I decided to include PC games so owners of all 3 platforms can decide which version of the game to get.

This is really just to remind everyone of the great releases coming out this year, feel free to suggest any other hot game for 2008 I might have missed.

If a column says 360 or PC or PS3 it means that game is available ONLY and EXCLUSIVELY for that/those platform/s. If the name of a game is bolded it means it's already out, the colored number at the end of the line is the metacritic score for that game, clicking on it will take you to the game's metacritic entry. Green means it's a good game (75-89), orange is average or mixed (60-74), red is just plain bad (59 and below) and blue (90 or higher) means it's an outstanding game.

360
Tales of Vesperia - Namco Bandai - Action RPG - August 26 (81)
Infinite Undiscovery - Square Enix - RPG - September 1 (68)
Viva Piñata 2: Trouble in Paradise - Rare - Strategy - September 2 (82)
Fable II - Lionhead Studios - RPG - October 21 (89)
Gears of War 2 - Epic - Shooter (3rd-Person) - November 7 (93)
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts - Rare - Platformer - November 14 (79)
The Last Remnant* - Square Enix - RPG - November 20 (65)
Destroy All Humans!: Path of Furon** - Sandblast - Action - December 1

*Timed exclusive, also coming for PC and PS3 in the future.
**The PS3 version was cancelled

PS3
Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice - Nippon Ichi Software - Strategy-RPG - August 26 (78)
SOCOM: Confrontation - Slant Six Games - Online Shooter (3rd-Person) - October 14 (61)
Bioshock*- 2K Marin - Shooter (1st-Person) - October 21 (95)
Eternal Sonata** - Namco Bandai - RPG - October 21 (80)
LittleBigPlanet - Sony - Platformer/Online Sandbox - October 28 (95)
Motorstorm: Pacific Rift - Evolution Studios - Racing (Off-Road) - October 28 (81)
Resistance 2 - Sony - Shooter (1st-Person) - November 4 (86)
Valkyria Chronicles - Sega - Strategy-RPG - November 4 (86)
Alone in the Dark: Inferno*** - Eden Studios - Survival Horror - November 18 (67)

*Already available on PC and 360, though the PS3 version has significant extra content.
**Already out on Xbox360 but the PS3 version has additional playable characters, more storyline events, more quests, a costume system and possibly more.
***Already available on PC and 360, though the PS3 version is supposed to address A LOT of issues reviewers complained about like car physics, the inventory system, the camera system, etc as well as add new content.

PC
STALKER: Clear Sky - GSC - Shooter-RPG (1st-Person) - September 5 (75)
Spore - Maxis - Strategy/Simulation/Online Sandbox - September 7 (84)
Crysis Warhead - CryTek - Shooter (1st-Person) - September 16 (84)
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning - Mythic Entertainment - MMORPG - September 16 (86)
The Witcher: Enhanced Edition - CDProjeckt - RPG - September 16 (86)
Civilization IV: Colonization - Firaxis (Sid Meier) - Turn-Based Strategy - September 22 (83)
Bully: Scholarship Edition* - Rockstar Games - Sandbox Action - October 24 (69)
Sacred 2: Fallen Angel** - Ascaron Entertainment - Online Action RPG - November 11 (74)
World of Warcraft Wrath of The Lich King - Blizzard - MMORPG Expansion Pack - November 13 (91)
Grand Theft Auto IV*** - Rockstar Games - Sandbox Action - December 2 (92)

*Already Available on PS2, Wii, Xbox360
**Coming in 2009 to PS3/360
***Already available on Xbox360/PS3

Wii
Line Rider 2: Unbound* - inXile entertaiinment - Puzzle - September 16 (67)
SimCity Creator - Maxis - Strategy/Simulation - September 22 (66)
de Blob - Blue Tongue - Platformer - September 22 (81)
Wario Land: Shake It! - Good Feel (Nintendo) - Platformer - September 22 (77)
Samba de Amigo - Gearbox Software - Rhythm/Music - September 23 (67)
Gravity* - Deep Silver - Puzzle - October 17
Star Wars: The Clone Wars Lightsaber Duels - Krome Studios - Action - November 11 (55)
Animal Crossing: City Folk - Nintendo - Simulation/Community - November 16 (73)
Skate It** - EA Montreal - Skating - November 17 (75)
Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World - Namco Bandai - Action RPG - November 18 (66)
Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars - Red Fly Studio - Action - December 2

*These games, while possibly great puzzle games, do not have the same value as other releases and are more akin to a WiiWare release even though they are not.
**A version of this game called Skate is already available for 360/PS3 though the Wii version will undoubtedly feature a bunch of motion control additions.

360-PS3-Wii
FaceBreaker - EA - Boxing - September 3 (52)
Rock Band 2 - Harmonix - Rhythm/Music - September 14 (92)
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed* - LucasArts - Action - September 16 (73)
LEGO Batman: The Videogame - Traveller Tales - Platformer/Action -September 23 (76)
Spiderman: Web of Shadows** - Shaba Games - Sandbox Action - October 21 (69)
Guitar Hero World Tour - Neversoft - Rhythm/Music - October 26 (85)


*Besides motion controls there's a significant difference in gameplay for the Wii version.
**Wii version developed by Treyarch, because of this and hardware differences the game might end up significantly or slightly different from the 360/PS3 versions.
Additionally, Web of Shadows and LEGO Batman are also available for PC

360-PS3
Golden Axe: Beast Rider - SEGA - Action (Beat 'em Up) - October 14 (45)
Saints Row 2* - Volition - Sandbox Action - October 14 (82)
Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe - Midway - Fighting - November 16 (75)
Mirror's Edge** - DICE - Platformer (1st-Person) - November 11 (79)

*Saints Row 2 is coming to PC on January, 2009.
**Mirror's Edge is coming to PC on January, 2009.

PC-360
Command & Conquer Red Alert 3* - EA - Real Time Strategy - October 28 (81)
Left 4 Dead - Valve - Survival Shooter (1st-Person) - November 17 (89)

*Xbox360 version coming out in November 11, PS3 version scheduled for 2009.

All Platforms (PC, 360, PS3)
Mercenaries 2: World In Flames - Pandemic Studios - Sandbox Shooter (3rd-Person) - August 31 (72)
Pure - Black Rock Studio - Racing (ATV) - September 16 (85)
Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway - Gearbox Sofware - Shooter (1st-Person) - September 23 (76)
Silent Hill: Homecoming - Konami - Survival Horror - September 30 (72)
Dead Space - EA - Shooter (1st-Person) - October 20 (89)
Far Cry 2 - Ubisoft - Open-Ended Shooter (1st-Person) - October 21 (85)
Fallout 3 - Bethesda - Open-Ended RPG - October 28 (93)
James Bond: Quantum of Solace - Treyarch - Shooter (1st/3rd-Person) - November 4 (65)
Legendary - Spark Unlimited - Shooter (1st-Person) - November 4 (49)
Call of Duty: World at War - Treyarch - Shooter (1st-Person) - November 11 (85)
Prince of Persia - Ubisoft - Platfomer/Action - December 2 (87)
Rise of The Argonauts - Liquid Entertainment - Action RPG - December 16

Monthly Stats

September:
Average Score: 76 (23 games)
Blue games: 1 (360/PS3/Wii: 1)
Green games: 14 (360: 5, PS3: 4, Wii: 3, PC: 9)
Orange games: 7 (360: 4, PS3: 3, Wii: 4, PC: 2)
Red games: 1 (360/PS3/Wii: 1)
Average 360: 75 (11 games)
Average PS3: 75 (9 games)
Average Wii: 72 (9 games) (Worst Reviewed)
Average PC: 80 (11 games) (Best Reviewed)
Best reviewed game: Rock Band 2 (360/PS3/Wii) (92)
Worst reviewed game: Facebreaker (360/PS3/Wii) (52)

October:
Average Score: 80 (15 games)
Blue games: 4 (360: 2, PS3: 3, PC: 1)
Green games: 6 (360: 4, PS3: 6, Wii: 1, PC: 4)
Orange games: 3 (360/Wii: 1, PC/PS3: 2)
Red games: 1 (360: 1, PS3: 1)
Average 360: 80 (8 games)
Average PS3: 80 (12 games)
Average Wii: 77 (2 games) (Worst Reviewed)
Average PC: 81 (6 games) (Best Reviewed)
Best reviewed game: LittleBigPlanet (PS3) (95)
Worst reviewed game: Golden Axe Beast Rider (360/PS3) (45)

November:
Average Score: 75 (18 games)
Blue games: 2 (360: 1, PC: 1)
Green games: 8 (360: 5, PS3: 5, Wii: 1, PC: 1)
Orange games: 6
Red games: 2 (360/PS3/PC/Wii: 1)
Average 360: 75 (9 games)
Average PS3: 74 (8 games)
Average Wii: 67 (4 games) (Worst Reviewed)
Average PC: 76 (6 games) (Best Reviewed)
Best reviewed game: Gears of War 2 (360) (93)
Worst reviewed game: Legendary (360/PS3/PC) (49)

Hopefully this will help users deciding which console to get based on exclusives and will let other people know of all the releases coming in 2008.

Well I added the Wii but I'm sure I missed some games (I also put some that might not end up that great like Gravity, Line Rider 2, Mushroom Men and Lightsaber Duels) , I haven't been following the Wii too closely. I might remove some games because I truly only want to include games of general interest (this is why I didn't include PES 2009 or Madden or anything like that, some people don't like those sports and hence the games no matter how good they are) and games that are truly AAA titles.

I also added a few like Tales of Vesperia, SOCOM (), Sacred 2, LEGO Batman and Spiderman Web of Shadows. I'm holding out on Sonic Unleashed because the last Sonic game sucked and Quantum of Solace is a movie game but it uses the CoD4 engine and is handled by decent developers so that might be a possibility. Also MRU, Project Origin has been delayed to Q1 2009, Alan Wake is vaporware and Pure, MK vs DC, Destroy All Humans were already on the list I'll check out those other games you suggested.

BTW, Lego Batman and Spidrman are also coming for PC but I didn't think those two games warranted me creating a whole other column so I just put a clarification at the bottom. (one for games coming out on PC, 360, PS3, Wii)

Feel free to correct anything.

Also, I'll be adding Metacritic scores and bolding games as they are released, I added Tales of Vesperia's score but it's not coming out until tomorrow so I'll be bolding it then.

P.D: I know the 360-PS3-PC column still says all platform but the Wii is really different and even if the same game is coming for it it'll be very different with the exception of maybe Lego Batman.

small update: Silent Hill Homecoming is also coming to the PC through a steam-exclusive distribution, scheduled for September 20 for NA and a a little later for Europe.

Also added the scores for Disgaea and the IGN score for Infinite Undiscovery, the color code is the same as Metacritic's, green means favorable reviews, orange (yellow is too light for the forum) means mixed or average reviews. For games scoring 90 or higher, I'll use another color for truly outstanding. I doubt we'll get reds but if they do that means it's just a bad game.

Oh also, clicking on the score will take you to the game's metacritic entry.

Added scores for FaceBreaker and Mercenaries 2, both are disappointing (FaceBreaker especially but I also expected a slightly higher score for Mercs 2, it still looks good though).

Also, Spore is close to release (already out in Australia) and has already received a 9.2 from IGN AU so it doesn't look like it will dissapoint. Maybe this will be the first blue game in the list

sikkinixx said:

its been getting low 70's for European print mags though.


but damn man, wave one starts this week... Spore, Crysis Warhead and Yakuza 2.... oh no my wallet...*sob*

Click to expand...

You know to be honest, I'm not that psyched about Spore, it looks like the gameplay is mediocre (it's a mash-up of genres and not one looks developed enough) and the only fun part is the creative aspect of it all, it doesn't look nearly as ambitious or cool as it looked back in 2007. The art style is too "cute" and generic, all creatures end up having the same vibe, Maxis should have given us a little more artistic freedom, some users have managed to create Alien-like (from the movie "Alien") creatures that break the mold but it seems like you need to invest a lot of time to even come close to creating something unique.

Crysis Warhead ought to be awesome, have you tried some of the custom maps for Crysis? There's one called Physis III that's more like a little physics funbox than an actual level but it's really awesome.

Well Spore has launched with disappointing reviews, the scores are fine (and may be a little too high for what the review actually says) but reviewers say it's not that great a game, the actual gameplay is poor, the graphics are dull, the artistic design is limited and the only saving grace is the creative part of the game, at least it does seem unique enough to give it a go still. Anyways, it has an 88 on Metacritic, the highest review is 100 and the lowest is 79 to give you an idea.

It sounds a little disappointing, Clear Sky as well, I couldn't get into the first STALKER so I was hoping Clear Sky would give me a chance to jump into the STALKER world but alas, it has gotten disappointing reviews as well (78 metacritic).

List updated with new scores, also, Facebreaker now has a 56 score, Metacritic says that's average or mixed but screw Metacritic, 56 is just abysmal so it gets the red treatment.

Added the Viva Pinata Trouble in Paradise score, 85 is pretty great, hope this game comes out on PC sometime like the first game.