Journal RogueyWon's Journal: 2011 - the five games I'm really waiting for
We're now a few days into the new year and the games release schedule, dormant for the last couple of weeks, will soon start to pick up again. Following my "games of the year" post, I thought I'd do a quick scan ahead and highlight the five games, currently scheduled for release in 2011, that I'm really looking forward to.
5 - The Last Guardian (PS3) - Small confession here - I played through Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, butI found them easier games to admire than to like. The artistry was undeniable, but I always had a feeling that the gameplay was desperately trying to keep up and not quite succeeding. Ico's combat and escort mechanics could get frustrating, while SotC had well-documented control problems. However, I have high hopes for The Last Guardian. Technology and gameplay standards have moved on far enough now that there is no excuse for repeating the (forgivable) flaws of the earlier games. Moreover, I'm pleased to note that the game includes elements that develop on the player's horse in SotC; that remains the best implementation of an animal that I've ever seen in a game.
4 - Dead Space 2 (Xbox 360, PS3 and PC) - The original Dead Space wasn't everybody's cup of tea, but I found it pretty exhilerating. It had a good mix of action and scares, some really creative creature design and novel combat mechanics. I particularly liked the way in which the game forced you to "un-learn" the habit of aiming for headshots that other third and first person shooters teach you. Better still, the game had a great sense of "place". Rather than simply having you walk down a corridor through a succession of locations like many other games, Dead Space featured quite a bit of backtracking through previous areas, some of which may have changed since you were last there. You came to feel like the Ishimura was a real location, with areas that you knew like the back of your hand - making it all the more frightening when an area you thought to be safe changed its character dramatically. I'm hoping that Dead Space 2 can build on this. I'm also excited about the fact that the PS3 special edition includes a Move-compatible port of the sadly neglected Dead Space: Extraction. It will be nice to see this game (which is one of the few genuine third party treasures on the Wii) running on a system that can do its visuals justice.
3 - Dragon Age 2 (Xbox 360, PS3 and PC) - The original Dragon Age: Origins felt like a bit of a flawed masterpiece. There was some awesome stuff in the game; a funky combat system, a plot which genuinely responded to the player's actions and some interesting background fiction. Unfortunately, I came away from it with a slight feeling that the whole was somewhat less than the sum of its parts; things just didn't quite hang together right. I'm glad that Bioware have got a second chance at getting it right. I'm not at all bothered by the loss of the "origin stories" system from the original; this always felt like something that could only possibly be relevant to the first game in a series.
2 - Mass Effect 3 (Xbox 360, PS3 and PC) - I loved the first two Mass Effect games (despite taking a while to warm up to the second) and the trailer for Mass Effect 3 looks absolutely amazing. The Mass Effect series is stunningly ambitious, with decisions made early in the first game apparently having consequences in the third game. I'm also pleased that it looks as though part of the game will be set in London; as a Londoner, I generally feel that my home city doesn't get enough attention from games developers.
1 - Duke Nukem Forever (Xbox 360, PS3 and PC) - This was the only possible choice for the top slot. When Duke Nukem Forever went into development, I was still at University. The original Gran Turismo had just been released. Mobile phone owners were still in the minority. The Spice Girls were still in the charts. After years where Duke Nukem Forever was nothing but a running joke, it's pretty incredible to think that the release is now - probably - just a few months away. Even if the game looked dreadful, I'd still be excited about it. Fortunately, the trailers and gameplay footage we've seen so far look anything but dreadful. That said, I'm still not going to believe that this is really coming out until I have the game in my hands (or more likely, on my Steam games list). No, scratch that. I'm not going to believe it's really coming out until I've played it for an hour without getting a "Thanks for playing the demo, the full game will be coming out when it's finished" screen.
5 - The Last Guardian (PS3) - Small confession here - I played through Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, butI found them easier games to admire than to like. The artistry was undeniable, but I always had a feeling that the gameplay was desperately trying to keep up and not quite succeeding. Ico's combat and escort mechanics could get frustrating, while SotC had well-documented control problems. However, I have high hopes for The Last Guardian. Technology and gameplay standards have moved on far enough now that there is no excuse for repeating the (forgivable) flaws of the earlier games. Moreover, I'm pleased to note that the game includes elements that develop on the player's horse in SotC; that remains the best implementation of an animal that I've ever seen in a game.
4 - Dead Space 2 (Xbox 360, PS3 and PC) - The original Dead Space wasn't everybody's cup of tea, but I found it pretty exhilerating. It had a good mix of action and scares, some really creative creature design and novel combat mechanics. I particularly liked the way in which the game forced you to "un-learn" the habit of aiming for headshots that other third and first person shooters teach you. Better still, the game had a great sense of "place". Rather than simply having you walk down a corridor through a succession of locations like many other games, Dead Space featured quite a bit of backtracking through previous areas, some of which may have changed since you were last there. You came to feel like the Ishimura was a real location, with areas that you knew like the back of your hand - making it all the more frightening when an area you thought to be safe changed its character dramatically. I'm hoping that Dead Space 2 can build on this. I'm also excited about the fact that the PS3 special edition includes a Move-compatible port of the sadly neglected Dead Space: Extraction. It will be nice to see this game (which is one of the few genuine third party treasures on the Wii) running on a system that can do its visuals justice.
3 - Dragon Age 2 (Xbox 360, PS3 and PC) - The original Dragon Age: Origins felt like a bit of a flawed masterpiece. There was some awesome stuff in the game; a funky combat system, a plot which genuinely responded to the player's actions and some interesting background fiction. Unfortunately, I came away from it with a slight feeling that the whole was somewhat less than the sum of its parts; things just didn't quite hang together right. I'm glad that Bioware have got a second chance at getting it right. I'm not at all bothered by the loss of the "origin stories" system from the original; this always felt like something that could only possibly be relevant to the first game in a series.
2 - Mass Effect 3 (Xbox 360, PS3 and PC) - I loved the first two Mass Effect games (despite taking a while to warm up to the second) and the trailer for Mass Effect 3 looks absolutely amazing. The Mass Effect series is stunningly ambitious, with decisions made early in the first game apparently having consequences in the third game. I'm also pleased that it looks as though part of the game will be set in London; as a Londoner, I generally feel that my home city doesn't get enough attention from games developers.
1 - Duke Nukem Forever (Xbox 360, PS3 and PC) - This was the only possible choice for the top slot. When Duke Nukem Forever went into development, I was still at University. The original Gran Turismo had just been released. Mobile phone owners were still in the minority. The Spice Girls were still in the charts. After years where Duke Nukem Forever was nothing but a running joke, it's pretty incredible to think that the release is now - probably - just a few months away. Even if the game looked dreadful, I'd still be excited about it. Fortunately, the trailers and gameplay footage we've seen so far look anything but dreadful. That said, I'm still not going to believe that this is really coming out until I have the game in my hands (or more likely, on my Steam games list). No, scratch that. I'm not going to believe it's really coming out until I've played it for an hour without getting a "Thanks for playing the demo, the full game will be coming out when it's finished" screen.
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2011 - the five games I'm really waiting for
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