Year of the Ox? Nope. 2009 is the Year of the Delay. Stop sobbing and get pumped for the scorchers awaiting in 2010...
BIOSHOCK 2
A suspiciously quiet one, the chances of Bioshock 2 making its planned October 2009 release were as slim as Jeremy Kyle's chances of making it into heaven. The official line from Take Two goes something like "we felt it was essential to invest additional time to ensure this title will deliver what its fans expect and deserve", but the Xbox World translation goes "There's a recession on and we'd never get the game finished for October even if we smashed open all the piggybanks in the world." ETA: March 2010
SPLINTER CELL CONVICTION
The one most likely, Splinter Cell Conviction is delayed yet again, pushed back to the usual March Clancy spot for 'polishing'. It's been on the cards for a while - when publishers are set to roll out the latest instalments of their biggest franchises we expect more public chest-beating and grunting but Conviction has been shown to the games press only once in a hands-on fashion. Ubi's sole demo is the very same segment their team presented on Microsoft's stage and even that brief snippet needed so much polish even Mr Sheen's bi-plane would have been outgunned. ETA: March 2010
BAYONETTA
The most curious delay of the whole bunch, Bayonetta is still bang on track for a late October release in Japan but has been delayed until January over here in the West. It's a smart move - Bayonetta is a corker which will have the month of January and hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of Granny-gifted Christmas money all to itself. Sometimes great games can slip through the cracks and January is a far safer bet than being the meat in an ODST/Modern Warfare 2 sarnie, even when the meat is this tasty. Wait, that sounds awfully sexist. Er, we... (snip - Ed.) ETA: 29 January
RED DEAD REDEMPTION
Take Two's Gay Tony dollars will keep food on the table but the three big delays will make for a leaner Christmas than they were planning. A less crowded yule gives Borderlands some wiggle room, and Rockstar's western was never likely to be Christmas number one anyway. Still, their 1880 GTA-alike is a rock-solid game which will do far better in the new year so long as it's released at the right time. They promise to get it out by March but while a March release worked for GTA, Red Harlow is no Niko Bellic and no match for an all-new Sam Fisher. ETA: March/April 2010
MAFIA 2
Like Red Dead Redemption, Mafia 2 has been bumped back to the end of the financial year. Take Two's bosses now have the game lined up for the first few months of 2010, but don't be surprised if it's all flexing and posturing and the game slips beyond March. It was Take Two who proved you can have a colossal summer hit with Bioshock's August release back in 2007, so here's hoping the money men keep their nerve and get this on shelves in the summer where it'll actually stand out. ETA: Summer 2010
ALIENS: COLONIAL MARINES
Whether it's too many projects taken on by a developer spread too thin, general mismanagement, the recent departure of a number of Gearbox staff, or just overly-optimistic release plans, Gearbox are the masters of the extended delay - and between Hell's Highway, Borderlands, and Aliens: Colonial Marines, they're becoming something of an industry in-joke. Colonial Marines looks brilliant but surprised and girlishly excited if that TBA turns out to be a date before next autumn. At the earliest. ETA: God Knows
DARK VOID
Originally scheduled for release on the very same day as ODST, Dark Void hasn't been shifted because it 'needs polish' but because Capcom wanted to "get the game out of the crowded fall season" according to Capcom's Chris Kramer. Unfortunately, Kramer's explanation came after every other game on this list slipped back to early 2010, so he's making little sense. Autumn is barer than Mother Hubbard's cupboard, but never have February and March been so rife with quality. And jetpacks. ETA: 28 February
Some games have 'delayed' written all over them...
I AM ALIVE Ubisoft kicked the original dev team off the project back in March and their Shanghai studio are currently in the salvage business, but we'll be surprised if the terminally troubled I Am Alive makes it onto shelves before March 2011.
DEAD RISING 2 It's all fun and games when you're handing long-dead franchises like Bionic Commando to any old chancers but it's a different matter when it's Dead Rising. Blue Castle have to get it extremely right, so we'll be lucky to see it before next autumn.
FINAL FANTASY XIII A simultaneous PS3/360 launch is a matter of pride but it's a boat anchor around the studio's ankle. The only release Square have planned for spring 2010 is a press release announcing that Final Fantasy XIII has been delayed until autumn.
GHOST RECON 3 The next dollop of Recon was on track for the traditional March release, but Conviction's slip introduces a new springtime competitor and Clancy-vs-Clancy is a battle which would end with the same result as Dr Strangelove. Strategic delay incoming.
DUKE NUKEM FOREVER Publishers Take Two launched a lawsuit over 3D Realms' failure to deliver Duke Nukem Forever, but the team claim work is still proceeding in spite of 'downsizing' the entire Duke dev team all at once. See you in 2019 then, Duke. Maybe. What a farce.
APB Realtime Worlds' rob-'em-up will miss its March 2010 PC release, so a 360 version is miles off... if it ever arrives at all. EA say sooner, Realtime say later, EA say 'to-may-toe', Realtime say 'to-mah-toe'. Will they call the whole thing off? We hope not.
ARMA 2 ARMA is a PC game to its dark-hearted core. A thousand monkeys on a thousand typewriters might eventually produce the works of Shakespeare but a thousand coders would struggle to port a game so heavily dependent upon the mouse and keyboard.
CASTLEVANIA It looks pretty sweet, but combine the team behind Clive Barker's leather and lipstick fetish-fest Jericho with ultra-perfectionist fruitcake Hideo Kojima and you're looking at a delay lengthier than England's wait for a World Cup trophy.
ALAN WAKE Alan Wake has a history as chequered as the average pimp's and Microsoft are staying whisper quiet for a game supposedly less than five months away. It's either delayed or launching with all the drama and spectacle of a primary school nativity play.
I'd have loved to have played Mafia 2 this Christmas. Other than that, I can wait patiently for the others as I am not overly hyped about any of them.
The 'others' around that time-frame like Heavy Rain and God of War III are far more appealing to me. Not to mention the fact that a lot of 360 gamers will probably be more keen on Mass Effect 2.
I can see a lot of decent titles being cruelly ignored, next year.
From the list I'm only impatient for Mafia 2 and Aliens. Dead Rising 2 might prove to be fun. Alan Wake for the PC would be nice - I won't hold my breath for it though.
The ones on that list I'm interested in are (in order of preference) Mafia 2, Aliens:CM and Alan Wake. Starting to think Wake may turn out to be a disappointment after all this wait.
Dead Rising 2 is creeping onto my list, as long as it's more about the zombie massacre and less about completing tasks within a maddeningly strict time limit. I Am Alive interests me, even though actual info is a bit spbottom.
Im to not to fussed about Dark Void apart from the golden jet pack pre order bonus and I know Dead Rising 2 will be good but where does this leave lost planet 2???
I know there is a film planned so are we looking at summer blockbuster tie in release??? I dont wanna wait that long....
The ones on that list I'm interested in are (in order of preference) Mafia 2, Aliens:CM and Alan Wake. Starting to think Wake may turn out to be a disappointment after all this wait.
I dunno, I wasn't overly interested in AW until I saw the gameplay trailer a few months back. I thought it looked pretty promising to be honest.
On all the delays,I think we all may get used to it as it'll most probably happen every two years from now on to coincide with future sequels to Modern Warfare.
Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, UK BA1 2BW England and Wales company registration number 2008885
!
!
