Upcoming Games of 2008: Part IV

Bully: Scholarship Edition

Platform: Xbox360, Wii
Release Date: March 2008
All those who never got to try out Rockstar’s high school sim on the PS2 will now get a shot at the game when it hits the Xbox360 and Wii this March. Besides a visual facelift, both versions are expected to have bonus content – like new missions, newer classes, a fancier wardrobe, and much more.

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic Elements

Platform: Xbox360
Release Date: January/February 2008
Just like Rockstar’s Bully: Scholarship Edition, DMoMM Elements isn’t a new game; it’s a port of the Source-powered action RPG that hit PCs in 2006. As expected, the game will ship with a bit of extra content in the form of three new single player levels and new multiplayer maps. Not too impressive to those who’ve played it on the PC.

Tomb Raider Underworld

Platform: Xbox360, PS3, PC
Release Date: TBA 2008
While the name may sound a bit similar to the werewolves VS vampires flick of the same name, the next iteration of Tomb Raider will not feature any of the above mentioned oddities and will take place after the events of Tomb Raider Legend. A brand new engine is being developed for the game by Crystal Dynamics that’ll boast of some mad, ultra realistic lighting and weather effects.

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Saint’s Row 2

Platform: Xbox360, PS3
Release Date: TBA 2008
Even though Saint’s Row was a worthy competitor to the GTA series, it was bogged down by a few issues, the most noticeable being the game’s horrifying frame rates. Developer Volition are hoping to rectify this in their sequel that’s all set to transport players to the city of Stilwater once again. Not much about the game is known at this moment but we do know that the city has now been expanded in size, and newer vehicles like bikes, planes, and boats will now be available. As far as gameplay mechanics go players will also be able to dual wield weapons and take NPCs or other characters as hostages. Perhaps the icing on this cake will be the fact that the entire game will be playable in co-op – this is something free-roaming games have required for some time now.

Mercenaries 2 World in Flames

Platform: Xbox360, PS3, PC, PS2
Release Date: April 2008
Mercenaries for hire, Jennifer Mui, Mattias Nilsson, and Chris Jacobs are back and this time they’re hellbent on blowing the crap out of Venezuela amidst tons of political conspiracies and an oil crisis. As expected, the game still follows the “destroy absolutely anything” ideology and when you combine that with the power of next-gen consoles you have the recipe for one explosive (pun intended) third person shooter.

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The Club

Platform: Xbox360, PS3, PC
Release Date: February 2008
After tearing up the race tracks with the Project Gotham Racing series, British developer Bizarre Creations have now turned their sights on the shooter genre with their very first third person shooter called The Club. As a member of this elite (not to mention illegal) club, players will face off against each other in a Deathmatch of sorts till there’s one man left standing at the end. Think of it as a very real tournament (wink wink).

Legendary: The Box

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Platform: Xbox360, PS3, PC
Release Date: June 2008**
After stealing the legendary box of Pandora, art thief Charles Deckard unwittingly opens it to unleash crazy amounts of evil on New York City in the form of mythological beasts like minotaurs, werewolves, gryphons etc. Using a plethora of firepower and a certain amount of “special abilities” inherited from Pandora’s Box itself, it’s now his duty to send these beasts back to the very same hole or rather box they crawled out from.

Splinter Cell Conviction

Platform: Xbox360, PC
Release Date: April-June 2008
Look at that would ya? Initially announced for a 2007 release, Splinter Cell Conviction was pushed back to January-March 2008. Then in November 2007, Ubisoft announced another delay, pushing the game further to April-June. If you’re interested in knowing more about an aging Sam Fisher, head on over to our preview here .

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Fracture

Platform: Xbox360, PS3
Release Date: July 2008
Developed by Day 1 Studios – the very same guys who are in charge of porting F.E.A.R. to the Xbox360 and the PS3 – comes Fracture, a third person shooter set in the near future. In Fracture players will get state-of-the-art weapons that’ll allow them to alter the terrain as they seem fit. This means the entire battlefield is yours to tinker with, so if you feel like razing the ground you’ll be able to do so. If creating a huge crater is on your agenda, go ahead by all means.

Assassin’s Creed

Platform: PC
Release Date: January/February 2008
Why yes, this is the very same game that has you “Parkouring” (yeah, that’s not a real word) all over the Holy Land during the Third Crusade as the medieval assassin, Altair; only this time you’ll be doing it on your PC. While the game definitely doesn’t come close to the awesomeness of a San Andreas or the upcoming GTA IV, it’s still enjoyable if played in short bursts.