Q1 2009 gaming report – PS3 & Xbox 360

Another three months in the books, another quarter passed. Q1 2009 has come and gone and there were some excellent games released. While we cannot talk about every game we will take a look at top games and even a few games of interest for each system.

Multi-platform – Two must-have titles highlight a solid multi system lineup. Street Fighter moves back into the fighting game limelight while Resident Evil keeps getting batter.

Resident Evil 5 – Heading to Africa for more virus busting adventures. The story and game play should not be missed by any gamer, rock solid, cheesy at times, but rock solid.

Street Fighter IV – Oozing style, SFIV goes back to what works with solid fighting game action that is still 2D based. New characters add to the roster of mostly original characters.

F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin – Besides the head bobbing this first-person shooter mixes the action of a military based FPS with the paranormal action seen in a twisted Japanese feature film.

Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection – Phantasy Star 1-4, original Sonic’s, Golden Axe and so much more. Perfect, just perfect collection.

Guitar Hero: Metallica – Metallica … it’s Metallica and Guitar Hero, this is why the franchise was created.

Afro Samurai – While there are issues to be worked out with the camera what Afro does is shows how collaboration across industries can work perfectly.

Honorable Mention – Wanted: Weapons of Fate, Wheelman, Tom Clancy's HAWX, Skate 2, The Lord of the Rings: Conquest

Playstation 3 – The meat of PS3’s lineup is in the list above but one title alone made this an outstanding time to be a PS3 owner.

Killzone 2 – This is the Halo equalizer (not killer). Killzone can stand on its own and when combined with Resistance 2 shows that the PS3 can put out shooter to step up and be taken serious.

Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 – Bears mention as expansions and updates from the PC and 360 versions are included.

MLB 09: The Show – The best baseball title this season is only on the PS3.

Xbox 360 – Halo Wars, nuff said. Like the PS3 not too many exclusives in Q1 but still some great gaming to be had.

Halo Wars – Forget the fact this game sports more story outside of Master Chief’s exploits with graphics and FMV sequences that are scary good. This is the first, very solid real-time strategy game to really work on a console. Commands and game play flow smooth, just an excellent game.

Star Ocean: The Last Hope – The beginning and end of Star Ocean. Beautiful is an understatement to this space soap opera. With a few misses in the books Square Enix nails it with this 360 exclusive.

Overall Grades – Weak quarter for exclusives, not surprising as most first party juice hits in the holiday season, but gamers can’t argue with the cross-platform titles or Killzone 2 and Halo Wars. Sadly it’s mid-grade overall, C’s, for the quarter as a few great games cannot support all the average to bad (looking at you X-Blades and Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad) games.
Next up a look at Nintendo Wii and DS followed by PS2, PSP and a few PC titles.

Source: James Fleenor