March 18^th, 2003 (12:00am) - Almost a month ago, Midway held a conference call where the company stated, in a way, that they needed to get off their asses and start making games that people actually wanted to purchase, instead of that crap they’ve lately shoving down our throat. Midway stated that the company has many games under way, and now, we can confirm some of the names of the once unnamed titles, thanks to Nintendo of America’s official website.

The most interesting of Midway’s upcoming games, is a game by the name of ESPionage, which Midway describes as being a Metal Gear Solid type game, which in other words mean, a Metal Gear Solid knock-off, but of course they would never put it that way. The capitalization of ESP suggests that the game might have to do with telepathic powers, which can actually prove for some interesting gameplay. ESPionage is schedule for a Q4 2003 release.

Of course, what would Midway be without their ‘itz’ games? Not much really. Scheduled for Q3 2003, NHL Hitz: Pro and NFL Blitz: Pro are the two newest installments in Midway’s actually enjoyable sports game line-up. Shockingly, Midway is not taking the same approach with these games as they once had with previous installments, the subtitle “Pro” signifies that Midway’s once arcade-like sports games will ditch those roots and instead go for the more realistic approach. Will it work? I can say it will, since the only reason anyone recognized these games was because of their arcade roots, but oh well, who needs Madden right? RIGHT!?

The last game revealed is a racer by the name of Highway to Hell. At the moment, nothing is known about the title, except for the fact that the game is scheduled for a release in the Fall. If the name suggests anything, then the game will take place in a very hot setting, no wait… Actually, call this a good guess, but I’m thinking this game will take a page out of Criterion’s Burnout games, but don’t quote me on that.

In all honesty, it seems that Midway really is trying to redeem last years crappy line-up, which was filled with games like Dr. Muto. With these newly revealed games, and others such as NARC, Freestyle Metal X, Freaky Flyers, and the next Mortal Kombat, it seems that Midway can become a respected name in the game business for the first time in years, if ever.