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Shop Watch January 2011

By Russ | January 5, 2011 at 9:51 pm

Last year, January gave us Mass Effect 2 and Divinity II.  One of those games was good and the other was all about busty redheads.  There were also some portable games.  This year, January brings the potential to create your own busty redhead, panty-questing penguins, some portable Square Enix stuff, and Mass Effect 2.

It’s like 2010.  Again.

I’ve been remiss in my attempts to let you know of RPGs made available online.  All Arc the Lad PSOne titles are available on the PSN store as of this writing, including Arc Arena.  Front Mission 3 is a recent release to the PSN as well.  Aphelion Episode 2 is also available in the Indie Games section of Xbox Live.  Actually, a scad of dungeon crawlers and decent Gauntlet clones have been released for the Indie Games section.

Borderlands has taken over my 360, with sessions of Valkyria Chronicles 2 thrown in when my co-op buddy is tired of playing.  Both games have solid gameplay, little story, and tons of things to do.  I’m almost done with the main quest in Borderlands and nowhere near finished with VC2.  Thankfully, Borderlands came with all the DLC and maybe I’ll stop dicking around in VC2 long enough to complete it.

Titles shipping January 11

DC Universe Online, published by Sony Online Entertainment (PC, PS3).  I used to be a big comic book nerd, so the video with the villains winning was pure delight to me.  DC Universe looks to be decent, though as an online game its impact and staying power will be known in three month’s time.  A free beta was available to those who paid $50 a year for PlayStation Plus.  I’m not one of those people, so my impression of the title ends there.  A Collector’s Edition is also available.

Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded, published by Square Enix (DS).  A port of a cell phone game with an upgraded everything, Coded solves one of those niggling little mysteries the Kingdom Hearts universe is fond of creating at the end of KH games.  I don’t remember what the mystery was, which means it probably had something to do with the GBA game.  KH Math was decent, and Birth by Sleep is supposed to be awesome, leaving some hope for this title.

Prinny 2, published by NISA (PSP).  Not an RPG, but Prinnies are awesome to me.  The titular character must search through the Disgaea universe looking for Edna’s panties.  That is far less awesome to me.  In fact, I think that’s a crime in some states.

Titles shipping January 25

Mass Effect 2, published by EA Games (PS3).  This version comes with all of the DLC currently released for the other systems.  Additionally, an interactive comic reprises the plot of the first game and allows players to make the important choices which effect ME2’s world the most.  As a heads up, if this is the same team whose work made Dead Space: Ignition possible, it may be better off to skip the comic.

Titles shipping January 25

Lord of Arcana, published by Square-Enix (PSP).  An action RPG with a focus on “brutal” combat, Lord of Arcana is another attempt by Square-Enix to meet North American gamers halfway.  The demo had gameplay a lot like a faster version of Valhalla Knights.  You can check out the demo on the PSN.

Two Worlds II, published by Southpeak Interactive (360, PC, PS3).  I’ll believe it when I see it.

Some Advice:  As usual, if you want to play DC Universe, adopt early in order to be able to play with people.  It’s hard to tell the staying power with MMOs.

Lord of Arcana might be hard to find, but I think it will take the path of Nier and Front Mission Evolved and be $20 very, very quickly.

Mass Effect 2 will probably be on sale within a couple weeks.  Likewise with KH Re:Coded.

The Future:  Lots and lots of portable and download titles.  And Dragon Age 2.

All retail games (with the exception of those marked as street-dated) will be in stores one day after their release. Release dates also tend to be shipping dates. All release dates are subject to change.  Games available for download will have varying release. The views of this column do not reflect the views of RPG Land.

Topics: Shop Watch