GamePro's 2008 Fall Preview Guide!

• By GamePro Staff
• September 26, 2008 12:12 PM PST
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Fall is finally here, meaning there are a heaping ton of great games to talk about, 107 to be exact! GamePro has got you covered with our second annual Fall Preview Guide which is bursting with exiting new titles. Read on to find out what's hot in 2008 and beyond!

#107: 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand

Fall 2008: PS3, Xbox 360
In 10 words: Murderholic rapper kills the Middle East. So bad it's good?

#106: Afro Samurai

Fall 2008: PS3, Xbox 360
Much disinformation has been passed about the life of samurai, namely that they spend most of it with their feet up, delicately sipping at tea and reading the London Times literary supplement. The hack-and-slash action of Afro Samurai attempts to present a more rounded view of these misunderstood men who, in all honesty, prefer a good disemboweling to a discussion of, say, 19th century bone china. As anime hero Afro Samurai, voiced by Samuel L. Jackson, you'll set off to become the most powerful samurai in the world. The hip-hop soundtrack, produced by RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan, may be the standout feature here, but the ultra-stylized visuals and bloody Ninja Gaiden-style action are certainly appealing.

#105: The Agency

TBA 2009
Create a stylish super-spy or a brawny meat-head mercenary in Sony's upcoming massively multiplayer online shooter. The Agency emphasizes tongue-in-cheek humor and fast-paced action over suffocating realism and experience grinding. You can infiltrate enemy organizations with up to three friends, trail ne'er-do-wells in disguise, blow up strategic targets, snap photos of covert dealings, or just chill out at headquarters with a quick game of Q-bert. Play need never stop, either: you can even receive interactive e-mail or text message status updates when you're stuck in the real world.

#104: Alan Wake

2009: PC, Xbox 360
Insomniac writer Alan Wake travels to the town of Bright Falls where darkness reigns and psychological horror ensues. Wake's nightmares leap to life and the horror author must battle his demons while trying to stay within the protective radius of nearby light sources. Using a flashlight and handgun to identify and damage the otherworldly creatures, Wake must explore Bright Falls and piece together its deepest mysteries. Oft-delayed, Wake was celebrated as one of the best and most exciting games at the Electronic Entertainment Expo-in 2005. The Max Payne guys are behind this one, though, so we're willing to wait it out.

#103: Aliens: Colonial Marines

2009: PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Picking up shortly after the events of Alien 3, Colonial Marines straps you in the boots of a search-and-rescue squad hunting for the Sulaco and the missing Lt. Ellen Ripley. In this first-person shooter, you'll control one of four marines, each of who packs a different four-piece weapon set (flamethrowers, smart guns, pulse rifles, sharp sticks). You can swap marines at any time, but choose the wrong man for the mission, and the acid-bleeding xenomorphs will make you scream "Game over, man!"

POINT 1: Xeno classes. The alien xenomorphs are said to come in varied classes, such as the infamous facehugger that attaches itself to its victim's face and impregnates an embryo within the host. And that's how aliens are born, boys and girls! Full-grown aliens come in drone, warrior, scout, and Queen classes, each with their own insidious abilities.
POINT 2: Multiplayer. Drop in/out cooperative play has been confirmed for Aliens: Colonial Marines, as well as multiplayer deathmatch. No modes have been confirmed at this time, but we're hoping for a fleshed-out online mode.
POINT 3: Intelligent hunters. The aliens in Colonial Marines are much like Velociraptor dinosaurs, seldom attacking from the front, utilizing the environment and flanking maneuvers to attack you. Due to these vicious hit-and-run attacks, Colonial Marines requires more tactical shooting than traditional run-and-gun first-person shooters.

#102: Backbreaker:

2009: PS3, Xbox 360
Violent ground-acquisition games get a kick in the pants with the delightfully named Backbreaker. Here, the cutting-edge Euphoria physics engine ensures all movements in the game are rendered in real-time, which means that no two in-game tackles or dislocated knees will appear the same. Euphoria technology has seen action in Grand Theft Auto IV, where the protagonist Niko has rocketed through many a windshield and then skidded, rolled, or bounced off the concrete, and will also be seen in the Stormtrooper-tossing simulation Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

Backbreaker, for now, rides on the strength of its gimmick. But it's an admittedly good gimmick: recently released film of Backbreaker's "Tackle Alley" minigame, showed a lone runner dashing upfield past a horde of enemy defenders. It remains to be seen, too, if Backbreaker will live up to its name in terms of injuries. But it's hoped the game will include them-as well as these five football staples:

1) Some kind of draft mode. Please!

2) Online play, with the inclusion of Tackle Alley playable as either the rusher or one of the defenders.

3) A disabled list to emphasize the game's bone-crunching tackles.

4) Real-world teams...even if they have to be from the CFL.

5) Create a character mode.

#101: Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts

November: Xbox 360
Nuts & Bolts reunites the goofy and beloved bear-and-bird combo Banjo and Kazooie on the Xbox 360 for a different kind of adventure. Unlike the duo's previous Nintendo 64 adventures, Bolts focuses not on Mario-style platforming, but rather on building wacky vehicles. Now, the sky really is the limit; Banjo may be dumber than your average bear, but with the right doo-dads, he can cobble up cars, planes, monster trucks, boats, tanks, helicopters, and jets. You can use vehicles to explore the game worlds, smite enemies (both in the game's story mode and its multiplayer challenges), and solve in-game puzzles.

#100: MotorStorm: Pacific Rift

Fall 2008: PS3
By far the arcade racer of these twin speed demons, Pacific Rift's claim to fame isn't its damage model or its realistic vehicle suspension; it's the big air you get off jumps, the destruction you rain down on opponents, and the jaw-dropping jungle circuits. Evolution Studios' MotorStorm made superb use of the PS3's graphical prowess, and in Pacific Rift, the visuals are getting a big bump with races moving out of the desert and into the lush tropics.

The in-game competition is getting diversified, too, with the usual lineup of trucks and bikes welcoming a new addition: monster trucks. Though a little slow for their size, monster trucks can handily crush the competition, punch through vegetation to uncover new race routes, and shatter track elements such as motorcycle ramps. If you're hankering for a racer with eye candy, explosives, and split-screen multiplayer, then Pacific Rift will be your new best friend.

#99: Baja

September: PS3, Xbox 360
Pacific Rift might get the big trucks, but Baja gets the real ones. Its graphics engine can't hold a candle to MotorStorm's dazzling visuals, but what it lacks in bling, it makes up for in authenticity. Its tracks are based on the raceways of the Baja 1000, a Mexican off-road endurance race that's all about rough running, big suspension, vehicle sponsorship, and hundreds of miles of adventure.

Unlike MotorStorm's high-flying acrobatics, the key to Baja's racing is staying low and close to the rocky ground. Getting air is easy enough, but not having all four wheels churning the horsepower tends to slow you. What goes up must come down, too, and with the game's incredibly realistic damage model, coming down means busting up your shocks and scraping more than a little paint off your body. With personality-driven A.I. and a physics engine based on the real thing, Baja is the off-road game for the realist racers of the world.

#98: Bionic Commando

2008: PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Another vintage NES game gets a second lease on life, new-gen style. Players control a dreadlock-sporting super-soldier equipped with a mechanical arm. His attachment projects a sticky grappling hook that can latch onto any surface within range, grab onto enemies, and enables him to perform special moves such as the zip-kick and the barrel toss. Online play is a go, too: Bionic Commando will support up to 10 players online. Best of all, according to producer Ben Judd, you'll be able to "get online and join the Swinger's Club," which includes online stats and leaderboards. Really? Because, for a second there, we thought "Swinger's Club" might mean something else.

#97: Bayonetta

2009: PS3, Xbox 360
In the history of footwear, we may point to secret agent Maxwell Smart's shoe phone as revolutionary. We can hail Disco Stu's platform shoes with the goldfish in them as inspired. And both Smart and Stu would die horribly when shot in the face with guns mounted on video game heroine Bayonetta's shoes. Bayonetta, a witch who not only possesses magical abilities and fearsome martial arts skills but also fatal footwear, will be waging war in the third-person perspective against angels aplenty next year. Hideki Kamiya, the man who created the Devil May Cry series for Capcom, serves as Bayonetta's director, so this one definitely has potential.

#96: Beyond Good & Evil 2

TBA: PS3, Xbox 360
The touching story of a plucky young photographer and her porcine pal continues with Beyond Good & Evil 2. For those who missed the first game, Beyond Good & Evil offered a sweeping conspiracy, plenty of stealth action, and some good-natured humor for what was, essentially, a feel-good adventure that a lot of people missed out on. No plot details have emerged yet, but Ubisoft president Yves Guillemot recently went on record, saying "Beyond Good & Evil was probably a little too difficult...we're going to make it more accessible for the new generation that's come into videogames."

#95: BioShock

November: PlayStation 3
Travel back to the undersea city of Rapture, where creepy little sisters will remind you, "Angels are waiting for their kisses," meaning it's time for them to stick the needle in a corpse and collect its-uh-stuff. And, rest assured, there will be plenty of twisted enemies for you to shoot, or burn, or freeze, or sting with bees from your hands. This first-person shooter was awesome on Xbox 360 and with new content surely in the works, it will be suitably titanic on PlayStation 3.

#94: Borderlands

September: PC, PS3, Xbox 360
In video games, no explorers ever visit the planet of tea and earthly delights. On the world of Pandora, colonists have found nothing but misery and famine. Borderlands, a first-person shooter with role-playing game elements, drops players on Pandora, giving them the opportunity to loot an alien archive or drop dead trying.

Borderlands offers three playable characters, and each has a special skill or talent. The psionically inclined Lilith can alter time; Soldier Roland can use his leadership abilities to augment the fighting prowess of his allies; and Mordecai can call upon a powerful alien ally. The gameplay blends first-person shooting with vehicle-based mayhem, and players will be offered lots of quests. Along the way, they'll have access to a great wealth of weapons; Here are six reasons we're excited to visit this hellhole.

1) Over one million weapons. The game promises a random weapon generator with countless variations. A pistol that fires shotgun shells? Yeah, you'll find it somewhere.

2) Mad Max-style vehicular combat. In the online cooperative play mode, up to four players can hop into dune buggies and tanks to take on enemy pirates or loot alien ruins.

3) No loading screens. Borderlands streams all of its data straight from the disc, meaning you'll be free to roam as you please without interruption.

4) Mutants, aliens, and alien mutants. We saw one creature that was roughly the size of the death star, and its skin lesions were home to flocks of screeching alien pterodactyls.

#93: Blitz: The League II

October: PS3, Xbox 360
The original Blitz: The League offered strategic football action, presenting players with the opportunity to, say, defend against the zone defense by hiring hookers to wear out the opposing team's players before the big game. Blitz redefined the rules of traditional American football by ignoring them, and who could forget injured players writhing in pain as the "juice" (a needle roughly the size of Rhode Island) was applied to their knees in a cut-scene that defined the phrase "too much information"? Expect more ultraviolent, bone-breaking, adult-themed football when the League returns for its second season.

#92: BioShock 2

2009: TBA
Don't call it a sequel: BioShock 2 is in development and the most persistent rumor says the game will serve as a prequel, telling the story of a genetic war raging under the seas in crazed entrepreneur Andrew Ryan's dystopian city of Rapture. Details on the game's plot and protagonist are nonexistent at this point, but 2K Games has stated development will be done by the company's new Marin, California-based studios and that Ken Levine, the original game's director, will be returning for an as-yet-unspecified supervisory role.

#91: Brutal Legend

Fall 2008: PS3, Xbox 360
In 10 words: Dimensions cross; roadie Jack Black shreds to save the babes.

#90: Call of Duty: World at War

Fall 2008: PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PC
Call of Duty returns to the blood-soaked battlefields of World War II one last time with World at War. Instead of fancy red dot scopes and precision bombings, you'll make do with old-school M1 Garands and M2-2 Flamethrowers as your team of American troops battle the Japanese in the Pacific Theater. The core first-person shooter gameplay will feel familiar to Call of Duty veterans, but you'll now be able to swim to avoid enemy fire and torch your surroundings with the new flamethrower.

The Japanese forces fight using crafty new guerilla tactics, a major change over Call of Duty 4. Enemy soldiers will play dead or hide in treetops, waiting for you to draw close before striking. In a nod to historical accuracy, these were both real-life tactics employed by Japanese forces during World War II.

World at War's graphics technology has improved since Call of Duty 4, and it's most apparent in the use of the realistic fire and water effects. You'll see billowing flames spread around the environments, and you can even burn down patches of jungle to forge a new path.

Fire! World at War could have been titled World on Fire based on the new fire tech that enables you to set fire to your surroundings using flamethrowers and Molotov cocktails. Once it's burning away, fire is affected by factors like fuel, material, and even wind velocity.

In World at War, Japanese soldiers will set elaborate traps that jack up the brutality factor. You'll see suspended logs rigged with ropes - if triggered, the ensuing carnage can wipe out a whole squad of American troops.

#89: Castlevania Judgment

Fall 2008: Wii
The Castlevania franchise stakes its claim in the one-on-one fighting game genre. A plethora of famous 'vania villains and heroes fill the roster, and the Wii-exclusive title also promises Wi-Fi connectivity with Order of Ecclesia on the DS to unlock extra features. Rabid Castlevania fans may scream "sellout," but longtime series producer Koji "Iga" Igarashi's involvement gives us (cautious) hope.

#88: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

Fall 2008: DS
Dracula bites. Dracula sucks. He is also the Road Runner of historical/fictional monsters, with a plucky, never-say-die attitude. It's time to stake Dracula once again, this time with the female protagonist Shinoa, a woman who can combine magical glyphs to create special attacks. The glyphs come in different flavors (sword, fire, light, dark) and can be attached to Shinoa's back and arms, or combined to create a delightful symphony of destruction. The glyphs will also help her explore the game's 2D worlds, creating rings that have magnetic effects and can slingshot her about. More classic 2D Castlevania action.

#87: The Conduit

First Quarter 2009: Wii
The Wii isn't exactly a graphical powerhouse, but if The Conduit has its way, you'll be seeing visuals that are nearly on-par with the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360. In this futuristic first-person shooter, you'll play a secret agent charged with fending off an impending alien invasion by a mysterious race called "The Drudge." Conduit is set in a post-apocalyptic/alien invasion-type of world, which sounds like a mash up of FPS clich?s, but works well for gameplay purposes. You've got Killzone-esque army dudes and Resistance-style crawlies to kill with alien guns reminiscent of Halo. And like all those games, Conduit should have a robust suite of online modes. Well, robust for the Wii anyway.

#86: Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen

September: DS
One of the greatest 2D role-playing games of all-time writes a new chapter on the DS with re-imagined visuals and modernized gameplay. Dragon Quest IV retains the essence of its original release on the DS, but with welcome changes including a new Japanese-to-English translation, tweaks to bring the battle system in line with the remake of Final Fantasy III, and some bonus content. Any serious RPG fan must have this in their collection.

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