It’s a new year and there are several upcoming XBOX 360 titles that I am eagerly anticipating. 2007 was a stellar year but 2008 is looking bright as well.

Turok
Developer: Propaganda Games
Publisher: Touchstone Studios
Platforms: XBOX 360, PS3, PC
Release Date: February 5, 2008

I have been a huge fan of the Turok series since the release of Turok: Dinosaur Hunter on the Nintendo 64 back in 1997. Turok 2 was even better and the future looked bright for the series. Unfortunately the games became progressively worse culminating with Turok: Evolution, an ironic title for series that had fallen so far. But it seems there is still hope for Turok!

The latest incarnation of Turok is based on Acclaim’s previous titles but is being handled by a different company. Like the previous Turok titles, it is a first person shooter where the enemies are both humans and dinosaurs. The game will surely feature a vast arsenal of weapons, but unfortunately it won’t include the cerebral bore, a fan favorite from Turok 2. The player will also be able to execute a series of stealth kills using Turok’s knife.

I have watched several videos that demonstrate the game in action and it looks great, however there is one thing that has me worried. The Turok games have always been violent and gory. The aforementioned cerebral bore is but one example demonstrating the games brutality. This weapon fired a small bore that drilled into the enemy’s head and then exploded, blowing them up from the inside. Compared to its predecessors the violence in the latest Turok seems toned down. Sure there is blood when you are fighting dinosaurs, but the blood is replaced with sparks when fighting humans. This makes the game resemble an arcade shooter like Virtua Cop or Time Crisis. There’s not even blood with the knife attacks. Perhaps violence against humans was too taboo for the designers or maybe the death sequences haven’t been animated; let’s hope it’s the latter.

Online gamers rejoice, Turok will also feature online multiplayer modes such as death match and capture the flag.

Lost Odyssey
Developer: Mistwalker
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Platforms: XBOX 360
Release Date: February 12, 2008

I don’t know too much about this game but I am still excited about it. It is a Japanese Role Playing Game, a niche genre that the XBOX 360 is attempting to gain a foothold in. The player will take to role of Kaim, a man who has lived for 1000 years and will focus on the many generations he has been a part of. However, the aspect of the game that has me most excited it its soundtrack, composed by the one and only Nobuo Uematsu. The developers are promising a lengthy 40-50 hours of RPG goodness.

Army of Two
Developer: EA Montreal
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Platforms: XBOX 360, PS3
Release Date: Q1 2008

Normally I am not a fan of anything Electronic Arts does, they have a reputation of releasing lame game after lame game, but Army of Two looks promising. Online play has ushered in a new era of gaming, we can now kill virtual people from all over the globe or team up and work together. Army of Two will focus on the latter. The game is being developed as a co-op experience that highlights team based tactics. The players will take on the roles of two soldiers Tyson Rios and Elliot Salem and they will have to work together as a team if they hope to survive.

Cooperative play is not just an option it’s the essence of the game. Army of Two will introduce to the Aggrometer, this is a meter that will show which of the two characters has more agro. Enemies will focus their attention on the player with the most agro thus allowing the other player to sneak around relatively unnoticed.

Army of Two will also feature a multiplayer mode where teams of two will fight and compete for objectives that will extend the game beyond the standard death match.

2008 is shaping up to be another stellar year for gaming. All of these titles are slotted for a first quarter release date, who knows what the rest of the year will bring us! Videos for all of the games I have discussed can be downloaded from the XBOX Live Marketplace for free, I advise you download them and begin drooling.