Welcome to the October edition of Team Picks!
Team Picks is Press-Start Australia’s monthly feature where members of the team get together to tell you about their most anticipated games of the upcoming month.
Why not join in? Let us know what you’re most looking forward to in the comments, or better yet, what you plan on picking up from this busy month….
Halo 5: Guardians – And so it begins. The holiday season has finally come, bringing with it an avalanche of games!
Looking at the substantial line up for October, several stand out, but the one I’m most curious in is Halo 5: Guardians. My hope is that 343 Industries come out swinging, proving that Halo 4 was not just beginners luck and that the Halo universe truly is in save hands.
Furthermore – and perhaps rather controversially – I get the impression the multiplayer has undergone some much needed changes, continuing to dramatically alter the traditional arena shooter approach and keep up with the rapidly evolving competitive shooter scene. Obviously, it better be stable.
Hopefully this, along with Tomb Raider, will be enough to convince me to buy and Xbox One this Christmas.
The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes – My love for The Legend of Zelda knows no bounds and this game looks to stretch the bounds of the series foundation by adding a more multiplayer aspect than seen before and incorporating new outfits that grant certain buffs for the multiplayer shenanigans. I for one cannot wait to jump into this new exciting entry into one of my most beloved series.
Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection – I’ve been having an internal battle whether to get this or not! Not because I’m cautious about gameplay or style, but because I’m wondering whether or not I’ll have enough time spend in this game world before the gaming heavens open and November drops its glory on us.
I’m really interested though in playing this collection. I have not played any of the Uncharted games before and all I keep hearing from friends and Ewan is that it’s awesome and needs to be played. So what better opportunity (and better price for that matter) than this collection to delve into the world and story of Nathan Drake. I love that action/adventure genre and what I’ve seen of previous game trailers and the soon to be release Uncharted 4 trailer, I feel it is a game I would quite enjoy!
Life Is Strange: Episode 5 – Polarised – Life Is Strange has been a huge surprise for me this year and I’ve been enjoying each episode as it released throughout the year. The developers and more importantly, the wrtiers, have crafted a world of whimsy and intrigue in a combination that hasn’t been seen like this before. The thriller and mystery elements are amazing and suspenseful and even if some twists may be ho-hum or predictable, they are always entertaining to arrive at.
Polarised will be the final episode in Life Is Strange and with so many questions appearing after the finale of the fourth episode I am more hyped than ever. Who is behind everything at the academy? How will all these choices come together to end the series? Will there even be a setup for a sequel series of some sort? Life Is Strange has been a fantastic journey thus far, and honestly, if it is disappointing, I’m sure I’ll still love everything I did to get to the end regardless. Hopefully DONTNOD fail to disappoint.
Halo 5: Guardians – What’s there to say? Halo is the franchise that attracted me to Xbox in the first place. I was always primarily a PlayStation gamer, but Halo 3 was he game that made me buy a 360 in the first place. Thanks to the Master Chief collection I was finally able to do a full walk through the franchise and my hype for a new Halo game has never been stronger.
Despite some of the issues with the fourth game I found it to be an excellent direction for the franchise both gameplay-wise and story-wise. Even after the issues with the Master Chief Collection, I have put my full trust in 343i to deliver an epic and worthy addition to the franchise.
Tales of Zestiria – I’ve been lacking a good Japanese Role Playing game lately, especially with the recent reports of Persona 5, Star Ocean V and Final Fantasy XV all arriving sometime next year.
With Japanese animation-inspired character models, a proper action role-playing game combat system, and vast open worlds in a lush colourful environment only capable by the graphical capabilities of the PlayStation 4 hardware, – a first for the Tales series – Zestiria may be the first Tales game to break the mainstream market and re-popularise the genre to the west. Plus, the opening song reminds me of the all the shounen anime I watched as a child.
Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water – About time we got a localised version (only a year behind Japan), I’m dead excited to see a new iteration of Fatal Frame. I expect solid scares, an intriguing story rooted in supernatural horror and clever uses of the Wii U Gamepad.Dragon Ball Z: Extreme Butoden – Being on the go consistently has made me realise the real value in handhelds, and sometimes there are days where not even Super Smash Bros can satisfy the urge for a fighting game. Harking back to games that originated back on the SNES, Extreme Butoden looks like it will be a whole lot of fun, coupling vibrant animation with fast-paced Dragon Ball Z action.
With a large array of playable characters and an even bigger collection of support characters, the game is providing major fan service while not alienating new players. With an excess of combinations and ways to play, Extreme Butoden will hopefully fill that last handheld gap before the the chaos that is the pre-Christmas November release window.Halo 5: Guardians – Halo 5: Guardians is Halo’s biggest leap forward as a franchise. It is the first entry into the series to feature such new additions as squad-based gameplay, aiming down sights, and new movement options that allow Halo to be played faster than ever before.
But it is also developer 343 Industries’ chance to prove to gamers that they are worthy of being the series’ steward; after the disastrous launch of Halo: The Master Chief Collection, which saw save data-erasing bugs cripple single-player, online connection issues ruin multiplayer, and a whole host of other problems sour the package as a whole, many gamers are understandably wary of Halo 5 and the state of its release.
Standing purely on the strength of what has been shown, however, Halo 5 appears to be a return to form for Halo, exciting me in ways that the franchise has been unable to since Halo: Combat Evolved. Halo 5 will undoubtedly eat into my time like no other upcoming game will, so this is why it earns my most anticipated pick.
Halo 5: Guardians – Having gotten the chance to try out the game this past weekend, I can say for certain that the game shows a lot of potential. While I haven’t been hugely invested in the franchise for a while, the marketing campaign has definitely got me hyped up about what’s happened to the Master Chief, which could be a huge shift in the overall story.Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate – Assassin’s Creed is a franchise that i’ve taken a short break from. I wanted to get into Assassin’s Creed Unity but by the time was patched, I was already onto other games. Assassin’s Creed Syndicate seems to rectify the issues that plagued Unity’s launch and is set within an interesting enough period to get me excited.