Games of October 2011

After a rather hectic month of gaming in September, October continues to pummel gamers with some highly awaited titles.

RAGE (Xbox360 PS3 PC)

Calm down dude

A post-apocalyptic shooter with a ton of vehicular action thrown in for good measure, Rage marks the return of developer id Software (Doom, Quake) after a rather long sabbatical. This is the first time id are prepping a game for consoles, but so far, the game looks stellar on every platform. Besides gorgeous visuals, players can expect a dangerous and interesting world to explore as a survivor of a meteorite impact in the not-so-distant future. Since travel conditions aren’t ideal, you’ll rely on your trusty buggy to move around the game that can also be repaired and upgraded.

Batman: Arkham City (Xbox360 PS3 PC)

You can’t stop Batman

Games based on comic books more often than not tend to suck, but developer Rocksteady stuck to their guns and invested in a true AAA Batman title. Their gamble paid off and the game was appreciated the world over not just by Batman fans, but gamers who were merely aware of the caped crusader. With Arkham City, Rocksteady have expanded upon their love for the Batman universe, injecting it into a massive, highly detailed open world game that will offer players a ton of stuff to indulge in, be it crime solving, combat or exploration.

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Forza Motorsport 4 (Xbox360)

Driving Ms Daisy

We loved Forza 2, and while its successor left us a little underwhelmed, Forza Motorsport 4 is pulling out all the stops, with a stunning new graphics engine, Kinect functionality that extends from menu navigation and the Autovista mode to head tracking during races, and an all new career mode that benefits from exclusive Top Gear content. Of course, Forza’s deep customization options return, allowing you to not only fit your car with performance upgrades, but also to design custom paint jobs.

Battlefield 3 (Xbox360 PS3 PC)

Answering the call of umm duty

The Battlefield series has been around forever on PCs, but it was only after the Bad Company games that the world stood up and took notice. With the return to the Battlefield moniker (not to be confused with the Bad Company games), DICE have upped the ante by including a fleshed out single-player campaign in addition to a co-operative mode for two players, a first for a game in this series. Besides this, players can also expect a brand new engine, as well as a reworked multiplayer component that aims to provide gamers with a more well-balanced online experience.

Serious Sam: BFE (Xbox360 PS3 PC)

Going Mental

We’re not too sure if BFE stands for ‘Before First Encounter’ or “Big F*****g Encounter’ but either way we’re glad the Serious Sam series is back. At a time when everyone’s going in for grit and realism, it’s refreshing to see a simple game that hands you large weapons and encourages you to kill over hundreds of enemies at each level. Aiding you in the genocide of Mental’s troops can be 16, yes 16 of your friends as the game now has support for co-operative play with sixteen players online. Expect new weapons, enemies and a new melee system that we’re pretty intrigued about.

UPDATE: Serious Sam: BFE has been pushed back to November.

Spider-Man Edge of Time (Xbox360 PS3 PC)

Oooh shiny

Now that Treyarch has moved on to the Call of Duty franchise, developer Beenox have taken over the Spider-Man franchise from them. Their first title, Shattered Dimensions performed quite well at sales and they’re now working on a follow-up titled Edge of Time. In it, Spider-man 2099 must travel back in time to save current day Amazing Spider-man who has been assassinated by an “evil scientist”. Now both Spider-Men must work together to save uhh Spider-Man. Playing around with the very fabric of time will obviously affect gameplay, as well, so the future would get affected depending on how certain events play out in the past.