The Save Points!

Well, 2011 was pretty awesome, but I’m sure 2012 has a lot of gaming experiences coming that will be really awesome as well. I figure, why not highlight the games I’m personally hyped for? It should give a good idea of what’s coming and such. Just as a note, this is a personal list, so don’t be disappointed/unhappy/mad/a raging moron when Gears of War in Space isn’t on the list. Also, this is just an outlook from the moment it was posted, so anything not announced at the moment of posting will obviously not be in this list, and I probably won’t update it.

Hopefully this ends up being a bit more insightful than other posts I’ve seen like this… Where all that was said about most games was “The graphics look good!”… yeah, but what about the game itself? Give some detail about why you’re hyped about a game, dammit!

So let’s go! (and yes, I’m being incredibly cheap and lazy, not including any images here, w00!)

Multiplatform

Asura’s Wrath
Not a game I’m really that hyped about yet, because most of the gameplay footage I’ve seen has been QTEs, which is the laziest/lamest gameplay element ever. But it IS a Capcom action game in the DMC mold, so I’m willing to give it a chance. And there’s a demo coming tomorrow, so… yeah, we’ll see. What I’ve seen does have potential, but I hope it doesn’t overuse QTEs like it seemed to in the videos I’ve seen.

Street Fighter X Tekken
This actually looks like a very solid fighting game. There may be a bit too many systems in place here (cross arts, cross rush, switch cancel, cross assault, EX attacks, stat-modifying gems, pandora mode… and I’m probably missing some), but it does look like it’s going to be fun to play, and I’m interested in seeing how the Tekken characters will play in the SF universe. I’ll rent it first, but I think this has some very good potential.

Final Fantasy XIII-2
FFXIII gets mostly unwarranted hate from… just about everyone really. The sequel will hopefully fix some things people weren’t happy about (linearity, lack of towns, Hope, Sazh… 2 of those which are stupid complaints (hint: Hope and Sazh are the valid complaints)) such as not cramming all the side-quests and exploration in one part late in the game (which was actually very fun). Seems to be keeping mostly the same solid fighting system with some modifications which I hope won’t ruin it (see: QTEs), some cool new elements (monster taming!) and it fixes some things (now you can switch leaders in battle, and you only lose when all your human characters die, rather than just the leader). If the modifications are substantial enough (there’s a lot more that I didn’t mention), it could end up being a really good game, rather than a mildly flawed good game

Ninja Gaiden 3
The latest NG entry, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, sucked ass (basically boiling down to a God of War style button masher rather than a strategic action game like the “original” Ninja Gaiden on Xbox), but I have hope that this one will actually be good again. I do find that they’re putting too much emphasis on the blood and gore when they’re talking about it, but maybe the gameplay won’t suffer from them concentrating too much on something pointless. I’m only hyped enough to rent it due to the previous game in the series being ass, but it should be an interesting rental nonetheless.

Armored Core V
The Armored Core series isn’t one I’m terribly familiar with, but I did enjoy For Answer, and this one seems quite solid from what I’ve heard so far, with tons of robot customization options and a solid new online feature, like where one player seems to play as a “commander” of sorts. Another rental for me, but AC fans will love this for sure. It’s also one I definitely want to give a try.

Devil May Cry HD Collection
Obviously this is gonna kick ass. 2 of the best action games ever (DMC and DMC3) in one package! And their adopted brother, DMC2, is also included.The graphical update seems very minor from what I’ve seen, but maybe it’s gonna be a bit more obvious once I see it for real. I’m pretty hyped for this, and hey, I’ll be able to give DMC2 a fairer chance, maybe it’s not as bad as I remember.

Borderlands 2
FUCK YEAH! I FREAKING LOVE BORDERLANDS. Seriously, it’s so much fun. The blend of FPS and Diablo just works so well. There are a few things I hope the sequel enhances, like making more weapons really strong (in the first, it seemed like, no matter what, revolvers always ended up being better than everything else for me) and maybe a bit more quest variety. New character classes is great (how can one not want to play as a “Gunzerker”?), new weapons is also really cool (specifically the chaingun that shoots rockets… seriously!) and they’re adding weapon customization (which I was disappointed when it wasn’t included in the first) so that’s awesome. Not only that but many elements are being completely revamped, like artifacts (which were a bit bland in the original). The lists of updates I’ve seen make it look like it may feel like a completely different game from the first. I cannot fucking wait!

Anarchy Reigns
A multiplayer (or so it seems) 3D beat ‘em up made by Platinum Games… That’s enough to hype me up. I’m being a bit wary of it since some gameplay vids I watched seemed rather boring (BUUUUT those particular videos were played by gaming journalists, who are frequently not terribly competent gamers… or competent ANYTHING really). I certainly hope for a demo, but it does seem like it’s going to be a fun game (I just hope it doesn’t concentrate too much on the multiplayer aspect… you know, just in case the PSN or XBL end up getting shut down for 1+ month again ).

Bioshock Infinite
I didn’t really like Bioshock. Not that it’s bad at all, I can certainly see why people loved it and I appreciate what it was going for, but it didn’t really strike a chord with me. Bioshock 2 was trash though… Bioshock Infinite, however, looks very good. There seems to be a lot of high-on-action moments, especially using those weird rail things you can travel on, and the use of a partner with supernatural powers to change the world around does have a lot of potential which I really hope will be exploited properly on a gameplay standpoint and not just in cinematics/story moments. I think this is a rental for me though, since FPS games that I’m hyped for have a tendency to be terrible. I hope not, but I’m not taking chances.

DmC: Devil May Cry (lol)
Yeah, I’m convinced this game will be bad, but I still want to play it… probably due to me being a DMC fan. It’s not that hard to figure out that it’s really likely to suck… it’s made by Ninja Theory, who have yet to make anything even close to decent, and it looks really bad in gameplay videos if you compare it to any other DMC game. The action just looks so slow, clunky and sluggish, not helped by the low framerate… it just doesn’t feel like I’m watching DMC gameplay at all (not to mention the “alternate reality” thing where Dante isn’t really Dante at all and the setting is very… not DMC-ish). So I’m pretty sure this will end up sucking, but, for the most part, I’ll be renting it just to confirm that. And, if it does end up being good somehow, I’ll just have another DMC game to buy.

Lollipop Chainsaw
I’m getting tired of zombies. Everyone is. But one thing I’m most definitely NOT tired of is cheerleaders going around killing zombies (or anything reallly) with a huge chainsaw, making them spray rainbow blood. Oh, and it’s being made by Suda51 so… I’m getting it for the crazyness factor really… As if the awesome title wasn’t enough to make me want to get it.

Metal Gear Rising Revengeance
Not really sure about that one yet since we haven’t seen much of the secretly-cancelled-and-then-secretly-taken-over-by-Platinum-Games game after Platinum Games took over (remaking the whole gameplay engine)… but the fact that Platinum Games took over at all is very interesting. I can’t wait to see/hear more about this particular project. It looks like it could be really fun, the little gameplay we’ve seen looks really solid.

Skullgirls
A fun little project by a few random gamers (and getting published by Konami). It’s a fighting game that uses anime-style graphics to display a bunch of really strange female characters, all with their own quirks either visually or gameplay-wise (like Ms. Fortune who can take off her head and control it individually from her body). This looks like it could be a really fun game, and there’s a lot of really cool systems in place to make it easy to play and as balanced as possible (for example, if someone is doing an infinite, the game recognizes that and the infinite can get ended with a single button press by the “victim”). And it’s developed by a solid competitive fighting game player, Mike Z (whom I know for having a badass Tager in BlazBlue), so I think the fighting engine will be very solid.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2
Episode 1 was fantastic. It doesn’t have the same great level design and overall polish as Sonic Generations, but it was still a very well-made game. Here they’re fixing the “not actually broken if you play the game normally but people stupidly complained about it anyways” physics from the first episode (seriously, ALL the complaints about the physics in Episode 1 are 100% impossible to find in normal gameplay, you HAVE to be looking for it),and to top it off Tails is gonna be here and Metal Sonic makes a comeback. This seems like it should be great. Yeah, probably gonna be the third good Sonic game this generation (3 great Sonic games in 1 post-Genesis generation? That’s pretty amazing ).

Zone of the Enders HD Collection
Kojima, stop making Metal Gear games already, and work on Zone of the Enders 3! Seriously, what’s the hold-up? ZOE3 has been talked about since before the PS3 came out, there’s no reason for it not to be in the works by now. Anyways… This includes the 2 PS2 ZOE games, redone in HD. I haven’t seen much about these versions, but whatever. The first game, from what I recall, probably didn’t age too well but was really fun at the time and it still has nostalgia value (as much nostalgia value as a PS2 game can have I guess). The sequel, however, made the controls a lot better, added a lot of movement/attack options and gameplay elements and should still be really fun now. This should be well worth picking up… and maybe if enough people buy it Kojima will finally drop Metal Gear get to work on ZOE3!

3DS

Kid Icarus: Uprising
This is the reason I bought the 3DS so early, since I was expecting it to come sooner (due to it being the first game announced for the system). But now it’s actually coming fairly soon. After seeing various gameplay videos, and a 3D trailer on the 3DS, I can’t wait to play this. It looks fun and fast-paced. Sure, it’s a different gameplay style from the original, but I don’t think the original’s gameplay would fare very well in modern days. Both the flying levels and the action hack n’ slash levels seem like they’re gonna be really fun.

Luigi’s Mansion 2
That was the unexpected announcement of E3 2011. Luigi’s Mansion is a very under-appreciated gamecube game, and, with the low amount of people who actually liked the original, it’s quite surprising that a sequel was announced… but it makes me and other fans of the original very happy to see Nintendo revisiting the idea, and they seem to be expanding on the original’s gameplay with more mansions, different types of ghosts to capture, revamped gameplay and a more puzzle-oriented design. Seems like a very high-potential game.

Paper Mario
A new Paper Mario! And, looking at the 3D video on the 3DS, it looks to use 3D insanely well, and the gameplay looks solid. Seems great! Not much more to say here.

PC

Diablo 3
This. Fucking. Game. It’s been in development way too long, and Blizzard has been teasing us with this for quite a while, constantly saying it would come out soon, eventually going for the DNF approved “it’s gonna come out when it’s done”. Finally it seems it will come out this year, and I can’t wait. Diablo 2 has always been a favorite within my group of friends, and it’s tremendously fun. This seems to add better graphics, a bunch of new character classes, as well as a completely different leveling philosophy than the previous game, new items, that auction house thing… The many videos I’ve seen over the years have been quite solid.

Fortune Summoners
A japanese indie game made by the dudes who made Chantelise and Recettear, and localized by the same guys who localized those 2 games (Carpe Fulgur). This game is a fast-paced side-scrolling party-based action RPG, with combo-based combat (using Street fighter-like moves), with multiple playable characters that you can switch between on-the-fly. Should be worth checking out, look for it on Steam… this month! It has a high price point for an indie game at 25$, but the game will take over 20 hours to complete (some have said around 27) and the gameplay is solid so… it should be worth it. You can check the overly cutesy demo here: DEMO! (keep in mind the demo takes over an hour to complete)

Torchlight 2
The main/only competition to Diablo 3! A lot of people who played both games at events actually preferred Torchlight 2, but this is from short bursts of gameplay, so it’s currently impossible to know if either of them will have more or less lasting power. Torchlight 2 does make a good case for itself with the modding tools being made available to everyone and easy to distribute (within the game itself, sort of like custom-made maps in Starcraft). Torchlight was fairly solid, but I found it to be way too easy, so hopefully this one fixes that. It’s one I’m very hyped to play.

Wii

Xenoblade Chronicles
A late surprise last year/month, with NOA announcing the American release of this game after months of saying they wouldn’t. Finally, through a deal with Gamestop/EBgames (I’m only assuming here, but it IS only being sold at Gamestop/EBgames, as well as Nintendo’s own website) the game is being made available and is doing quite well preorder-wise. It seems like a solid RPG with a few unique systems for battle (and otherwise… you can build/rebuild towns, go on quests and more) and a cool setting (the game takes place on a mountain-like titan giant… thing). And hey, if this does well, maybe Nintendo of America will probably be more willing to release Pandora’s Tower and The Last Story.

Rhythm Heaven Fever
Rhythm Heaven was a solid DS title, one that had fairly simple gameplay/controls but it was super fun. This is purely a rental for me tough, as I don’t know if the fun gameplay on the DS will translate well to the Wii’s motion controls, but I’m fairly convinced it’s gonna be worth trying out.

PS3

Twisted Metal
It’s been a while since a new Twisted Metal, and this seems fairly solid. There’s a variety of vehicles to choose from, and some have multiple functions (your driver can go out of a car to snipe people, for example)… and some of them seem to be transformers! Add to that classic Twisted Metal gameplay and cool boss battles… The game looks quite fun, and David Jaffe seems to know what he’s doing (I’ve been visiting his blog from time to time lately, I really like his attitude in regards to games and gaming).

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time
Sly Cooper… I’m still playing through the second one (very slowly… I need to actually go at it seriously again), but I actually really liked the original and what I’ve played of the second. This seems to follow the basic gameplay formula of the other games, which is fairly classic 3D platformer style with unique stealth missions and fun boss battles… Sony’s ONLY announcement for PS3 last E3 seems like it will be one of the really good exclusives on it this year.

Vita

Gravity Rush (or whatever the fuck it’s called… seriously, the game has, like, 4 working titles)
One of the only Vita games that seems… interesting to me. The controls sound a bit weird from what I’ve heard (though that’s probably just a matter of getting used to the back touch pad… I hope), but it looks really interesting, where you have to alter gravity to travel through the environment. It just looks like there’s so much potential for cool platforming segments and boss fights. One of the only games on the Vita making me think about getting it at launch. But I may need a bit more to decide that.

Ruin
The other Vita release that’s not a port that I want to check out. It’s a Diablo-like game with, from what I understand, player-customized dungeons to fight through which are generated from your base setup or something like that, which is a very nifty idea (that and the game being saved on the “cloud” being able to be played on the PS3). Well, from what I’ve seen it looks great. I have some good expectations for this.

jobocan Games