Nathan Blades looks at the polarising RPG for PS3 & 360.
Jason Rose brings us a buyers' guide to smartphones available this Christmas.
Nathan Blades covers some console and industry-defining titles for the Sony PlayStation
Nathan Blades burns rubber in Mario kart 7.
Mass Effect 3 This is the tie breaker. The original Mass Effect was a wonderfully detailed and LARGE world with a good plot (read: better than most video games, which have truly awful plots) of space and planet exploration with some dodgy driving mechanics. The sequel replaced driving with drilling for mineral wealth, which makes a trip to the dentist seem exhilarating and an interactive storyline that gave you one second to make up vital decisions. The trailer to the sequel hints at an invasion of Earth, which as cliched storylines go is pretty much up there. However IF they get the gameplay right, this could swallow months of your life
Batman: Arkham City Batman: Arkham Asylum was a short fun game featuring the world's most psychopathic and fitness-orientated billionaire. It promises to expand the stealth-orientated gameplay that featured in the prison and take it to the city. Personally though I found Asylum very fulfilling, the final boss was a bit of a let down (fight Joker's thugs, punch Joker, punch more thugs, rinse and repeat). And unfortunately, there's a rumour Catwoman will turn up. Anyone who's ever had to see Batman and Robin or the awful Catwoman film will understand why that's a bad idea.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution The original Deus Ex was one of the first games to popularise multi-options gameplay, with literally dozens of possibilities to go about your way in the game. In addition, a story that couldn't be scribbled onto a postcard gave it impressive depth. One to look out for
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword We are going to hallowed ground here, Skyward Sword being a prequel to Ocarina of Time, the Nintendo 64 game more than a decade old that is still held up by gamers as the example of a perfect game. The last few Zelda games have been received with a mixed response, but Link living up in the clouds and sent landward might regenerate a bit more energy into what it is becoming a flagging franchise
The New Wii Console OK this isn't a game as such. But over the last few months rumours around the new Wii console have been reaching a fever pitch. Information about it is by no means concrete, the only salient fact being Nintendo have confirmed it is in production. However what Nintendo brings to the table could be irritating. After the failure of the Gamecube, Nintendo have sold a huge amount of Wii (insert tasteless joke here) and opened up the market to new audiences. Watch out for E3 2011.
I'd add Bioshock Infinite, Brink, Battlefield: Bad Company 3, Portal 2 and L.A Noire in there as games that could garner massive critical acclaim. Also fingers crossed that Beyond Good and Evil 2 comes out, that game deserves to be a success after the first one was essentially ignored.
I was going to put Beyond Good and Evil but it seems to be stuck in the Duke Nukem level of games development hell. I was massively underwhelmed by Bioshock 2 and never got Portal's humour but that's probably me
There won't be a Wii 2 in 2011. Look at the Wii, it was announced in 2005, didn't make release till the tail-end of 2006. Assuming Nintendo debut it at E3, I can't see it being a 2011 release. More recently, look at the 3DS (which should really be up there). Announced E3 2010, released Spring 2011. And that's just a handheld, though its power is said to be comparable to that of the Wii...
Bioshock 2 was an unnecessary sequel, but Infinite is bringing a new world, new ideas and a new engine so I think it could be a big leap forward. And no way are Nintendo gonna release Wii 2 this year, I doubt they'll even unveil it yet.
I'd go with
Crysis 2
Portal 2
Shogun 2: Total war
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Dawn of War 2: Retribution (expansion
This year is full of sequels and not much else...
You must log in to submit a comment.
Report