While writing the Lego Batman 2 review, I was struck with how many Lego-branded games actually exist. It made me think: “At what point does a series cross over to its own genre?” There have been 12 Lego games in the franchise including Batman, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Harry Potter, and although they have been making strides lately with Lego Batman 2, for the most part these games all follow the same formula. It’s hard to call these games simple brawlers anymore; when you say “It’s a lego game”, it’s a pretty strong indication of what that game is.

It’s weird how things like this work. For example, I don’t really consider Final Fantasy to be its own genre; it is merely the prime example of a JRPG. The number of games in the Final Fantasy series is up to somewhere in the mid-twenties, and they all follow the same formula. For the record, I have played about the same number of Lego games as I have Final Fantasy, that being two each (10 and 13 for Final Fantasy, and Batman 2 and Star Wars Original Trilogy for Lego). Defining the genres is the reason FF isn’t its own genre. I’m just waiting for the day we get a non-Lego game that uses the same formula, and we say: “It’s a Lego game.”

We’re already starting to do this with Ubisoft games, as the company undergoes a kind of “Assassin's Creeding”. Splinter Cell, Assassin’s Creed, and the rumoured Prince of Persia reboot are all beginning to look the same. In five years, are people going to start referring to games as being an "Assassin's" game? It's a really weird thought for me. Games outside of Ubisoft (namely the Bethesda title Dishonoured) look like they could fit under an "Assassin" genre.

When I was a kid, one of my favorite games for the N64 was Fighting Force 64. Fighting Force 64 is a beat em up and if memory serves me right, you’d go from place to place fighting dudes (and ladies), then choosing a path and moving on from there. The plot, if you can call it such, has 4 people (Hawk, Smasher, Mace, and Alana) going after Dr. Zeng because, he’s evil and stuff. I really don’t remember much as far as the plot goes, but it had you bouncing from place to place (you fight in a mall, an office building, and eventually at an Island Headquarters.)

The biggest memory I have from this game is playing it co-operatively with friends. I’ve probably beaten this game more times than I can count, and I still remember the sections where you could semi-break the game by collecting far more money than you should be able to. Gaining more money meant absolutely nothing, except for the ability to brag to your friends more often. Not to toot my own horn, but let’s just say that young Patrick was quite the accomplished Fighting Force Player in his day.

The fall release window for video games is about to be upon us. Much like the travelling of the salmon, once every year nearly every video game publisher decides to put out their games. All at the same time. The reasoning behind this splattering of releases is to grab some off those all-important Christmas time sales. I can’t blame this school of thought, even if my bank account is screaming for mercy by mid-November. With that in mind, let’s take a look a few games that I’m looking forward to this fall, shall we?

BORDERLANDS 2

I’ll be honest here, I didn’t enjoy the first Borderlands all that much. I enjoyed the loot and the gameplay, but the whole experience fell flat when you didn’t have anyone to play with. Thankfully, I know have multiple people to play co-op games with (much of this has to do with me not living in the middle of nowhere anymore), so I won’t encounter the loneliness inherent to playing a co-op game alone. Based on what has been shown, Borderlands 2 has me interested enough to give the franchise another shot.