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You can forget about Assassin’s Creed 3, Halo 4 and Black Ops 2, the game of the forever is Grand Theft Auto 5. Not only is it sure to sell enough copies to keep publisher Take-Two in business for the next millennium, but Rockstar says the game is so massive it’s bigger than GTA 4, San Andreas, Red Dead Redemption, and Downton Abbey combined.
We’re still waiting on that second trailer – coming on November 14 – but this week did see a flurry of information drop thanks to a mammoth cover story inside Game Informer. We now know GTA 5 will feature three playable protagonists and there’s loads more to be garnered from the magazine’s pages. Expect the trailer to spark lots more discussion as we all race to pan each and every frame for smallest gold nugget.
With GTA 5 all up in our grill it’s been very difficult focussing on anything else, but a world does exist outside of Rockstar’s skilfully managed intravenous drip. The week began with Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed 3 storming to the top of the UK video games chart smashing Ubisoft’s opening week record in the process. Worldwide the game has sold an estimated 3.5 million copies and will surely be a strong seller in the weeks running up to Christmas. Halo 4 will surely take the No.1 spot on Monday, having launched earlier this week, but Microsoft’s Halo rebirth only has a week in the sun before Activision unleashes Black Ops 2. Retailers are falling over themselves to support the Blops 2 launch, with GAME opening 319 stores at midnight and Blockbuster setting a new company record with over 450 stores set to welcome midnight buyers. Whilst most will be able to pick up Black Ops 2 on November 13, those holding out for the Wii U edition on November 30 will be pleased to here that this version should be supported with DLC, although this is yet to be confirmed by Activision.
Wii U is now just weeks away in the UK, and Microsoft may not be far off revealing its next system. This week it was reported that an Xbox version of its new Surface tablet is in development, but how this relates to the firm’s next generation plans isn’t clear. And just in case people weren’t aware that MS was working on the Xbox successor, the platform holder only went and mentioned a future Xbox platform again.
Elsewhere this week new Sonic games were confirmed for release in 2013, although what SEGA has planned for its mascot’s next boxed release remains a guess. Fellow publisher THQ looks to be in serious trouble, with its share value plummeting following poor financials and the delayed release of some of its major releases. It hasn’t helped that Darksiders 2 failed to live up to sales expectations.
The sorry state of Silicon Knights reached a new low this week when it was revealed the developer has been ordered to destroy all source code and unsold games which made use of the Unreal Engine, which includes Too Human and X-Men Destiny. We can’t imagine there’d be too many copies of either game to recall though, as both games were a big success for the studio… right?
This week’s one and only review was LittleBigPlanet Karting which scored a seven out of ten, but look out for our verdict on Black Ops 2 next week.
And that’s it for another week. Be sure to listen to our latest VideoGamer.com Podcast and to watch the new edition of Disc Lickers which features Halo 4, Curiosity and XCOM.
I’m off to troll internet forums by making outlandish claims that the three GTA 5 protagonists are in fact CJ, Tommy Vercetti and Claude. FACT.
