Hit or Miss for December 8th, 2009

Hey GamingBolt!  This is Ross here with the third edition of Hit or Miss.  Here is the recap written by Chris followed by this week’s hit or miss by me!

-Mx vs. ATV: Reflex-

Mx vs. ATV: Reflex did fairly well with critics and fans; however it didn’t do well enough to deserve the Big Hit predicted. While initially it looked as though the game was going to be a smash hit it fell short in a few categories for some of the larger sites which brought down the scores a bit. Fan reception has been good for the most part but it didn’t take off as quickly as we thought.

Metacritic: 79

Gamerankings: 80.53%

Gaming Bolt: Pending

Prediction: Big Hit

Final Verdict: Hit

–Rogue Warrior–

Well I guess we were a bit too generous with this one. Rogue Warrior’s scores were worse than its language. Sales were depressingly low and you have to wonder, why would Bethesda pick this game up? They are associated with a much higher class of games than Rogue Warrior. It pretty much goes without saying, don’t pick this one up.

Metacritic: 36

Gamerankings: 36.00%

Gaming Bolt: Pending (But really, do you need another review to tell you the game is bad?)

Prediction: Miss

Final Verdict: Big Miss

–Avatar–

Avatar released to average scores and a decent reception, mostly by those interested in the movie hitting on the 18^th. While the world looks beautiful the story is not and involves a few too many fetch quests. If you really want a new game in December this could end up being one of the better choices when all is said and done. If you still have games from early in 2009 you have yet to finish then there is no reason to pick up Avatar.

Metacritic: 63

Gamerankings: 64.47%

Gaming Bolt: Review in Progress

Prediction: Anywhere in between

Final Verdict: Decent (Not quite a hit but not quite a miss)

-The Saboteur–

Overview: Saboteur is Pandemic Studios’ final game and has an open-world setting much like their Mercenaries games.  This takes place in Nazi occupied France and you play as an Irishman Sean who is looking for revenge.

What to look forward to: The Saboteur incorporates elements of urban exploration and travel from Assassin’s Creed 2 (albeit with choppier animations) along with third-person gunplay.  While the premise of a revenge story is not exactly the most original story in the world, the way it is executed in The Saboteur is interesting.  Parts of the city that are under Nazi control are in black and white.  As Sean liberates parts of Paris, color is restored.

Suspicions: After seeing gameplay footage, some of the animations are choppy.  With this being the final game that Pandemic Studios made, it could be possible that it might have been rushed towards the end.

Overall: The premise of The Saboteur is interesting and gamers know Pandemic’s work from the Battlefront and Mercenaries series.

Prediction: Hit

-Silent Hill: Shattered Memories-

Overview: Silent Hill Shattered Memories is a re-imagining of the first game on the Wii.  While it will have a similar story to the first game, new gameplay elements have been introduced to make this iteration unique.

What to look forward to: Look forward to the same creepy atmosphere that always comes with Silent Hill games.  A difference will be that there are no weapons to fight off the zombies with.  This is a game about fleeing from zombies through doors and over fences.

Suspicions: Gamers usually aren’t fond of running away from stuff when they usually are stabbing, slicing, bludgeoning, or shooting any given enemy in the face.  Silent Hill has always been a franchise about its atmosphere and maybe it can get by on that.

Overall: Silent Hill: Shattered Memories looks ok and will most likely be embraced by the hardcore gamers of the Wii community, but probably won’t convince many people with all three consoles to quit playing Call of Duty or Uncharted 2.

Prediction: Miss

-The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks-

Overview: Another Zelda game on DS that takes place after Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass.  This version will introduce instead of a boat, trains to travel around around the world.  The player will control both Link and Zelda.

What to look forward to: If you liked Phantom Hourglass you will probably like this.  If you like Link and The Legend of Zelda you will almost certainly get this game.  Same cool looking cel-shaded graphics, more dual-screen action, and more stylus.

Suspicions: The main criticism of the first game was that it was too easy.  Who can say if this version will be too easy or not?

Overall: The Legend of Zelda is such a popular name out there that the ridiculous number of people with DSs will go out and buy it.

Prediction: Big Hit

So here is this week’s Hit or Miss.   Come back next week to see how horribly right (or wrong) we were this week.  Until next week Gaming Bolt!

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