This was originally published at The Edge SUSU on October 19th 2015.
As the Autumn season continues, we get even more AAA releases. Chief among them is the highly anticipated Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. The ninth game in the hugely popular series, Syndicate continues the Assassin’s Creed tradition of relocating the action in a different historical period. This time the adventure takes place in Victorian London, not the stuffy Jane Austen kind mind you, but the cool, bad-ass Guy Ritche version. It even has those fight club things. New to the franchise is the ability to control two different characters, in the form of Jacob Frye and his sister Evie. Alongside this is a variety of new mechanics, including gang warfare, stagecoach driving, a rope launcher, and a retooled combat system. The game is released on PlayStation 4 & Xbox One on Friday, with a PC release set for mid-November.
Another major release this week, Guitar Hero Live hits store shelves on Friday. Rock Band 4 may have beaten it to the punch this year, but the two games offer very distinctly different things. Whilst Rock Band opted to stick to the whole band experience, Guitar Hero Live shifts the focus back onto the titular guitar playing. The gimmick here is the new presentation style, which utilizes full motion video (or live action), simulating a rock concert from the POV of a guitarist. The controller has also been revamped, making this more of a reboot than a mere re-skin of past iterations. The game is available on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.
Guitar Hero isn’t the only rhythm based series getting a new game this week, as Just Dance 2016 also boogies its way into shops on Friday. Truth be told not much has changed here. It’s the same old formula, but if it ain’t broke (and incidentally I have no idea if it ever was) don’t fix it. However those who pick up the game on eighth-generation consoles will get a new feature called “Showtime”. This allows players to record lip sync music videos to songs with themed visual effects. If that is something that you’ve inexplicably always wanted, then you must be in heaven right now. It’s a perfect party game for those of us who have friends and a fun loving attitude. I for one will be sticking to single player only games about psychological torture and unrelenting grief. Ahhh good old Silent Hill.
But the big releases don’t stop there, as a certain Nintendo mascot heads for the handheld market with The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes. The 3DS exclusive is a multiplayer-centric title, which has three different versions of series protagonist Link, team up to solve puzzles and battle against enemies. It’s won a couple of handheld gaming awards already, and should be a great way to get you hyped up for Zelda’s next gen debut on the Wii U in 2016.
On a smaller note and in celebration of Back to the Future’s 30th anniversary, Rocket League has a piece of exciting DLC coming our way on 21st. For $2, players will be able to drive a DeLorean. That kind of speaks for itself to be honest…. it’s a DeLorean… from Back to the Future. The tires fold up and everything! You can even unlock flaming tread marks as a rocket trail!
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