November has come once again to grace its presence upon the games industry. You can tell because every store that carries new games visibly sinks a little bit every Tuesday. So then, what jewel shall we find in this week’s pile of new games?

Remember. Release dates are quite literally made at the whims of the publisher. The following are subject to change without any warning.

Releases To Watch For This Week

Halo 4 (Xbox 360)

Tuesday November 6, 2012

So, remember Master Chief? You know. The guy you play as in Halo 3. Back in 2007! Everyone’s favorite cyborg returns in Halo 4 having been in cryosleep for five years since the end of Halo 3. He wakes up to face new enemies of old that threatens the universe and another one far closer to the chief than any of his other adversaries. Basically, the guy just can’t catch a break.

The previous Halo, Halo: Reach introduced the armor abilities, and despite the fact that Reach took place well before any of the Halo games, only now does Master Chief starts using them. He’ll have access to various armor abilities of old like Holograms along with some new ones like the one that creates a portable, forward facing shield.

In terms of new, Halo 4 introduces the Prometheans. These guys act differently than the classic enemies of the Halo universe, the Covenant. Looks like you’ll have to contend with them too in addition to Promethean units. The little flying Watchers generally don’t fight you directly, but their supporting role for the Promethean army makes them hard to ignore. They shield enemy units, call for help, or even throw grenades back at you. These guys support the Knights who not only uses cover but can also activate those aforementioned portable shields or cloak their way across the battlefield.

New enemies mean new weapons. Master Chief will still find your standard human and covenant weapons, but he’ll also have the Promethean weapon, Scattershot. This shotgun-esque weapon shoots out bullets that can reflect off of surfaces. Like all Promethean weapons, enemies killed by it will disintegrate, which might matter given the Watcher’s healing capabilities. Since five years have passed, the humans have been building bigger, better weapons of war like the Mantis. This bipedal robot comes armed with a powerful machine gun for one arm and some kind of grenade launcher in the other. If that isn’t enough, it can stomp the crap out of anything that gets too close.

Yes, it has multiplayer. Yes, it has a perk system too. It even has the killcam. Whether or not that will deter hardcore Halo lovers who might feel somewhat betrayed that their favorite series has capitulated to the trends started by Call of Duty remains to be seen. But I’m guessing they’ll care far less when they’re playing Firefight’s replacement, Spartan Ops. These episodic co-op missions actually will have a side story and has you fighting through numerous enemies. 343 Industries, the developers, plans to dole out 10 of these Spartan Ops in the coming week.

Based on the various glowing reviews that came out almost a week ago now, Halo 4 looks poised to return Master Chief back to relevance after five years of dormancy. Who knows? Maybe we’ll finally see somebody give Activision a run for its money.

Paper Mario: Sticker Star (3DS)

Sunday November 11, 2012

I hope you’ve still got room for yet another Mario game! I thought I would never say anything like that, but this being the seventh Mario related game, including the Mario sports games, in the span of one year with an eighth coming alongside the Wii U, it becomes a fair statement. On the bright side, the Paper Mario series has been dormant for a while, so in that light, Paper Mario: Sticker Star constitutes as a breath of fresh air.

Sticker Star seems to be quite a departure from its predecessors. First up, Mario always fights solo. No friendly Koopa or Gomba to help you attack. No Boo Buddy to help you hide from attacks. None of that. Instead, you come into a fight with a predetermined amount of stickers. Each one either represents one of your basic attacks like stomp or hammer or a more powerful super attack, which takes up more space in you sticker inventory. Also, Mario doesn’t level. Or at least not in a traditional, grind your way to the next level by killing a bunch of enemies level. Instead, he must find special stickers that will increase his health and power.

As always, Bowser is involved, and Mario has to search for six Royal McGuff... Stickers to stop him from yada, yada, yada. Obviously the story won’t be doing anything new, but that’s never stopped us from loving the various Paper Mario games that have come out. This one probably won’t be any different.