Treit and True:

Looking Ahead After the Holidays

Published January 22, 2008

We have once again survived the traditional holiday storm of games and content, and it's time at last to take a breath and look ahead at what Xbox 360® wonders await us now that the holidays have passed.

Fast Willie rings in the new year.

For years the post-holiday landscape was sadly barren, with the early months sometimes offering no new games at all. The last couple of years though have given us a wealth of great games and outstanding content to keep even the hardcore from bemoaning the dry times. This year is no different, so let's look ahead to the games releasing in the first few months of 2008, and why they should pique your interest.

Street Reborn—NFL Tour

NFL Street and NFL Street 2 for Xbox garnered a healthy following by providing a less complex NFL experience than, say, EA's own vaunted Madden series. You may safely consider NFL Tour the spiritual successor to the Street franchise and the answer to every football fan that craves a more lighthearted, faster-paced, and less hardcore experience.

Imagine smaller teams (seven on a side instead of eleven), faster gameplay, less complicated controls, outlandish arena environments and over the top abilities, and you'll have a solid idea of what NFL Tour is unleashing on Xbox 360. That it comes with a reduced $39.99 price tag at retail is an added bonus.

Burnout At Last

Everyone's favorite crash-centric racing series Burnout is back January 22, and more destructive than ever. Beyond the upgraded crash mechanics of Burnout™ Paradise, city-based gameplay, new race types, cars, and other elements, its most revolutionary new feature may be its seamless online interface.

Get ready to bring some wreckage to Paradise.

Your time squealing rubber through the streets of Paradise is spent simultaneously offline and on Xbox LIVE® as you pick and choose in-game whether to try your hand at single-player events or online challenges. No longer will the single-player and online experiences require cumbersome menu navigation or separated game types. It's all together in Paradise City.

Equally appealing to the community at large is the new Mugshot feature. This stroke of genius uses the Xbox LIVE Vision Camera to capture and send a photo of any opponent (provided they're using the camera) you've caused to crash. Let the hilarity ensue.

Condemned Continues

Condemned: Criminal Origins™ was a landmark next-gen title for Xbox 360. Its unflinchingly brutal gameplay and nightmarish environments were built from the ground up as an exclusive console launch title, a remarkable but successful gamble for a brand new franchise. At last its sequel, Condemned 2: Bloodshot, arrives in early March. With revamped forensics-based investigative gameplay, an evolved combat system set to ratchet up the visceral thrill and terror of first-person melee combat, and a storyline designed to further unravel our hero Ethan's already fragile state of mind, Condemned 2: Bloodshot is ready to grab the new year by the throat and transport you and I into a world we won't soon forget.

Online with Circle of Doom

Kingdom Under Fire™: Circle of Doom extends the cult-favorite franchise with a fully customizable focus on the heroes you and your friends bring to the new and wholly dynamic battlefields of Circle of Doom. Kingdom under Fire braves the online frontier with a co-op action/role-playing experience that builds every level you play on the fly from scratch. Check out our preview for more gameplay specifics.

Take on the Circle of Doom online with friends.

Immortal RPG

Developer Mistwalker delivered on the first of its two mammoth RPG promises last year with the anime-inspired turn-based Blue Dragon. Now Hironobu Sakaguchi and the rest of his famed development team are ready to release their second role-playing masterpiece, Lost Odyssey, on February 12. The epic tale of the immortal Kaim and his thousand-year quest brings with it the promise of classic turn-based role-playing gameplay fused with Sakaguchi-san's unique vision of the RPG genre's future.

The Evolving Set List

While would-be rockers have been shredding, thumping, and screaming their way to high scores and success in EA's Rock Band™ since November, it's worth noting that the set list continues to expand weekly thanks to downloadable content via Xbox LIVE Marketplace. Even now there are over thirty-five additional songs available for download to help bolster the already healthy 45-song-strong set list Rock Band comes with out of the box.

The tracks just keep coming.

These downloadable songs come courtesy of a wide variety of artists including Metallica, David Bowie, Black Sabbath, The Police, Black Crowes, All-American Rejects, and more. The important point is this already hefty list of downloadable songs marks just the beginning. You can look forward to another ten months (at least) of weekly released downloadable tracks.

It may take a week or two more before dedicated gamers have really absorbed all that the holiday titles have to offer, but when that time comes, there will be no need to fret as the first few months of 2008 will feature plenty more gaming goodness.

Article by Ryan Treit