This is huge news for me. Persona 3 FES was a breath of fresh air in my little world of RPGs, something different than anything I’d played in the past. Persona 4 took the calendar-based time management elements of Persona 3 and the amazing character development and ramped the whole experience up to a new level with an even more compelling story and characters that grew as a necessary part of the story’s progression. It was a revelation for me, something that broke well and truly free of the Final Fantasies and Star Oceans that I’d played in the JRPG scene before.

There’s no word or even speculation yet as to when Persona 5 will arrive and no confirmation of the platform it will arrive on. It IS confirmed as a must-have for me, regardless of when and where it lands.

Rockstar has announced Max Payne 3, followup to two highly original shooters that introduced the gaming world to Matrix-style “Bullet Time” before even the Matrix games were able to do it. Slated to appear on the winter release schedule and featuring versions for the PS3, XBox 360 and PC, players will revisit the troubled life of protagonist Max Payne.

“We’re starting a new chapter of Max’s life with this game,” said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. “This is Max as we’ve never seen him before, a few years older, more world-weary and cynical than ever. We experience the downward spiral of his life after the events of Max Payne 2 and witness his last chance for salvation.”

These words from the press release ring pretty true for me. Rockstar has a fantastic history with game releases, and I loved the original two games, but I can’t help but (unfairly, I know) assign a little guilt by association that makes me think the full name should be “Max Payne 3: We’re Sorry About the Movie.”

Won’t stop me from playing it though… and it sure won’t stop me from enjoying it.

I found myself eventually using it pretty much exclusively for the space ship builder rather than actually playing the game; there was very little left to discover in the game play. It is with a mix of hope and dread that I’ve been following the news of the first full-scale expansion pack for Spore, entitled Spore Galactic Adventures.

News of what it will contain is a bit thin at the moment, but it does sound like it contains at least some of what it’s going to need to make the game really playable again. It will ship with some planet-based adventures in the box, and provide another editor that puts adventure creation in the hands of the players. Like other player-generated content, adventures will be shared online so there should be no shortage of missions your intrepid galactic explorers can take part in.

My main concern is with the potential depth of these adventures, and what news I’ve seen hasn’t given me a lot of information to make guesses about. It is pretty cool that you’ll be able to beam down on planets to explore as your creature & crew, and it sounds like outfits will have practical uses at last, but will the adventures themselves last 5 minutes? Half an hour? More? Or will it be up to the designer of the adventure?

If done well, this could be a pretty compelling reason to get back into the game. Spore itself was a pretty big letdown though, so I’m going to stay a bit cautious in my optimism, at least until a lot more is known.

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