My Top Five Anticipated Games of 2009 and 2010

I like making lists, they’re easy and fun to put together for obsessive compulsive types like myself who plan their purchasing out months or some times years in advance.

So here’s another list, this one is of my top five games coming this year and next that I have my eyes on and why.

2009

1. – Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time (ps3)

I have loved this series of games since the original, I own them all  and I cannot wait for the next installment. The RnC titles are still the funnest series of action adventure games I’ve ever played. The sense of humor, the incredible now pixar-level art style and animation.  If you’re not a jaded or emotionally shut off individual then you cant possibly not enjoy these games.  Oh and owning a PS3 will probably help too, I hear its cheaper now. :D

2. – Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (ps3)

While I still wish Naughtydog would instead make Jak 4 I cant help but be excited for this game. The first was a good solid fun experience and the sequel looks ten times better in all departments.  Alot of people are already dubbing U2 game of the year and if you saw that insane E3 demonstration you can see why. Nolan North really needs to stop playing Nathan Drake in everything else he does though, its kinda creepy.

3. – Brutal Legend (ps3)

Tim Shaefer is finally getting the recognition he deserves. The hilariously stupid legal battle between Double Fine and Activision hadsn’t slowed down this game at all and even if it turns out to be just a generic brawler with some Overlord-esc strategy components the characters, world, personality and just raw feeling of the game is enough to get me to want to play it.
I’m also a heavy metal nut, six gigabytes of my music collection is some form of metal.

4. – Need for Speed: Shift (pc)

I stopped caring for the Need for Speed franchise after Most Wanted. Carbon, Pro-Street and Undercover were all terrible games. So to discover that EA is at last giving this series the proper reboot it needed all along is preety sweet and surprising.

Shift looks amazing, not just in visuals but in design as well. I may be wrong but I think its the first racing game ever that has both arcade style and simulation style handling for the entire game. This feature coupled with a progression system that rewards your own unique play style makes it the most innovative compelling looking racing game to date.

5. – Batman: Arkam Asylum (pc)

Arkam Asylum is already out for consoles with alot of positive feedback from both press and gamers. I dont even need to see or read reviews to know I should get it (although I did do that anyway).  The demo was so fun I played it three times, unfortunately like every other pc gamer I have to wait till the end of the month for our version to release.  It will be worth it though.   

 

2010

1. – Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty (pc)

The most anticipated real time strategy sequel ever got delayed this year.  Yep same old Blizzard, multibillion dollar ‘has their own convention because they’re so awesome’ Blizzard.

Alot of a stuff has been said about Starcraft 2, non pc gamers don’t get it, the fans wont shut up about the three game split(which I think is blown way out of proportion personally) but at the end of the day we all know its going to sell millions upon millions of copies, probably get a pile of awards and like all Blizzard titles end up with a community several times larger than 90% of most other games.  

They said its so epic they had to divide the campaign in three and I believe them but then I did play the original Starcraft at least twenty times over, Warcraft 3 about ten and sank around six hundred or so dollars in to their evil eeeeeevil mmo.

2. – God of War 3 (ps3)

Funny story about my god of war experience, when I first rented gow1 I hated it because for the life of me I could not figure out the controls and was dying alot.  Months later I re-rented it and some how in that time had become capable of understanfing the input required.

Anyway the rest is history, GoW2 is still the best character action title to date and my desire to brutally rip things apart as the ghost of sparta yet again couldn’t be stronger.  Like Uncharted 2 the E3 demo absolutely sold me on the game. To quote Penny Arcade; “every other game is the joke, God of War is the punchline”.

3. – Mass Effect 2 (pc)

The best RPG I’ve ever played is getting a sequel, an awesome looking sequel with much more refined gameplay and an even larger world with even more cooler stuff to do in it.
I mean really if you dont already want to get Mass Effect 2 then nothing I can say will change that so why bother saying anything more specific?  It’s Star Wars but cooler coupled with the rpg formula, but cooler layered on top of the gears of war cover shooter gameplay with all that extra Bioware stuff that makes their games so damn amazing.

4. – Final Fantasy 13 (ps3)

The first ever japanese role playing game I have actually been excited for, that alone says alot.  Like I wrote in my previous article on jrpgs my experience with the genre has been limited at best but I always knew a day would come where one came along that would help evolve the genre in a way that I want it to and FF13 seems to be aiming to do just that based purely on what I’ve seen so far.  Semi real-time combat with a kick ass female protagonist set in a non-typical fantasy world, hell yes.  

5. – Lost Planet 2 (pc)

My Xbox 360 experience was an odd one, so odd that Lost Planet ended up being my favorite game on the system. I liked it so much that when the pc version came out I bought it too.  I guess I just really like shooting giant bugs with mechs.  I’m sure it has nothing to do with one of my all time favorite movies Starship Troopers.

Lost Planet 2 looks like more Lost Planet and thats exactly what I want and expect from it.
Except now we get far better multiplayer support, fun looking co-op modes and environments that aren’t snow, snow and more snow.  Hooray!

 

And for the hell of it here’s the other games I will probably be picking up between now and early 2010: Bioshock 2, Darksiders, Dante’s Inferno, Bayonetta, Heavy Rain, Tekken 6, Rage, Assassins Creed 2, Borderlands, Dragon Age: Origins.

Its a good time to be a gamer, now if only I weren’t so broke like everyone else.