It’s been two weeks folks. Have you finally finished Mass Effect 3 yet? Let’s hope you have because the games industry waits for nobody.

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

Ninja Gaiden 3 (Xbox 360, PS3)

Tuesday March 20, 2012

I could’ve sworn ninjas are suppose to hide in shadows, bid their time, and strike at the opportune moment. Not charge in blaze of glory style with sword so wet in blood it might as well be a butcher’s cleaver. Given how well the actionest of action game series, Ninja Gaiden pulls it off though, I don’t think anyone cares.

Once again Ryu Hayabusa returns in Ninja Gaiden 3 with his trusty Dragon Sword ready to disembowel anyone standing in his way. This time around, he’s working for the UN for some reason and has to take on some mysterious foe who wants to... do something bad. Seriously, nobody has ever cared as to why Hayabusa goes around relieving people of their excess blood.

What people do care about has been the high level of challenge Ninja Gaiden offers to anyone who dares pick up the controller. The enemies were relentless, and even the lowliest minions can kill you within seconds if you don’t treat them seriously. Despite how it sounds, it actually managed to strike that magical balance of challenge and fairness. Those people might be a little bit disappointed by this one. Various previews have taken note of NG3’s difficulty level as a little bit lower than previous titles. Even on hard mode, they still say that it was lacking. You might have to look to other people for the challenge that you’re looking for.

For the first time in the series’ history, NG3 has a multiplayer mode. Here you are pitted against up to seven other players in a fight to see who gets to keep their internal organs internal. So far we only know of two modes: A standard Free-for All mode and 4v4 mode and really not much else beyond that. Action games generally don’t have such mode because usually the game is geared to give the player a huge advantage over the computer AI who relies on numbers to even the playing field against you. How NG3 will pull this off remains to be seen.

Some would say that toning down Ninja Gaiden’s difficulty is a mistake. The challenging, yet fair gameplay of the previous titles sets it apart from just about every game out there not named Demon’s/Dark Souls. They might have a point, but given the cutthroat, whoever sells the most wins mentality that currently pervades the industry, I don’t think NG3 has a choice in the matter. Lowering the general difficulty level should allow more people to actually play the game and therefore generate more sales. Regardless of the difficulty level, NG3 still looks pretty good and hopefully will still satisfy our bloodthirst, even if it does so in a different way.

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City (Xbox 360, PS3)

Tuesday March 20, 2012

Spin offs have always been a great way for a franchise to show itself off in a different light. That doesn’t make Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City any easier to digest though.

Despite having zombies, Hunters, Lickers, and pretty much everything else from Resident Evil 2, the entire premise of RE:ORC (let’s just stick with ORC shall we?) has you playing as a squad member of Umbrella operatives, each with their own speciality like medic, stealth, an heavy among others, on clandestine missions at Raccoon City while the whole RE2 shebang is going down. As such, ORC will actually let you interfere with the canon of RE series going as far as giving you the chance to kill off key figures like Leon Kennedy. Also did I mention you can move and shoot at the same time?

Moving and shooting has eluded the series until now. ORC plays far more like a squad based third person shooter than RE’s normal take on third person shooting where you stand stock still while you shoot. You can even take cover! Obviously you don’t take cover when you’re fighting zombies. You do it because you’re also fighting against humans with guns like the Raccoon City police and the U.S. Special Forces. Or other players.

Can you think of a shooter that doesn’t have multiplayer these days? Didn’t think so. ORC offers up four multiplayer modes: Survival (Free-for-All), Team Attack (4v4), Biohazard (Capture the Flag), and Heroes. That last one has you playing as one of the characters from the RE universe like Leon, Ada, Jill, or Claire to name a few. As long as you are one of these heroes/villains, you have more power and health. Once you die, you respawn as a regular soldier. Last team with at least one hero left on their side wins. In each of these modes, you’ll have to contend with zombies and other denizens of Raccoon City in addition to other players. Theoretically speaking they can be used to your advantage. Whether or not they cooperate with you remains to be seen.

If you’re wondering as to where in all of this does the survival aspect part kicks in, keep wondering. From the looks of most of the trailers I’ve seen, the streets tend to be jam packed with zombies, but given your firepower and some of the insane melee animations I’ve seen, those hordes shouldn’t pose much of a problem for you. As much as I would love to go into Raccoon City and mow down every zombie and monster in my way, it has to make you wonder just what part of ORC is an RE game?