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A little late, but here’s what I managed to get through in 2012:
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
Borderlands
Catherine
Crysis
The Darkness 2
Darksiders
Flower
Ico
Journey
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
LittleBigPlanet Vita
Lollipop Chainsaw
Lord of the Rings: War in the North
Mass Effect 3
Metal Gear Solid 2
Papo & Yo
Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale
Rage
Resistance 2
Rochard
Saints Row: The Third
Singularity
Sly 2
Twisted Metal
I’m currently playing Borderlands 2 and XCOM: Enemy Unknown, both of which are fantastic. You want my game of the year? Toss up between XCOM and Mass Effect 3, staying strictly in games that were released in 2012. Mass Effect gave me that feeling you get when you finished Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings, and XCOM has managed to pull me into a genre I never thought I’d enjoy and get me thoroughly hooked. It’s fantastic. You’ll see reviews for it coming, and you’ll notice a couple on here I haven’t written up yet. They’re coming.
A little disclaimer – I still haven’t played Far Cry 3, Hitman: Absolution or Max Payne 3, not that I’m optimistic of those besting either of the two titles I mentioned earlier.
Looking onward, 2013 promises to be packed full of stuff. Despite the fact that the next generation of consoles could be here next holiday, we’re seeing lots of new IP crop up. So what am I most excited about?
Let’s get the little guy out of the way – my Vita has been getting plenty of playtime as I catch up on the notedly few titles out there for it, and fortunately for me, looks like there will be plenty of time to catch up. Ignoring Sony’s cross-buy titles, Media Molecule’s Tearaway is the only title really catching my eye, and in a really good way. This is one of my most anticipated of the year as a whole.
Onto the home console – what aren’t I excited for? The spring is full of stuff that got bumped out of last year. Next week is the new Devil May Cry reboot, something I wasn’t particularly interested in until I got a hold of the demo, and it looks like it’s going to be fantastic. My only qualm is Ninja Theory producing on the narrative end. DmC has always been known for its combat, and I immediately fell in love, but if they try stretching this thing out over 14 hours, there better be a good reason.
Next on my list is Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch. I saw Spirited Away for the first time this year and I was surprised just how much I loved it, so it’ll be cool to have Studio Ghibli’s narrative chops behind a video game. This is another one that had a demo selling me – I’ve never played much of a true RPG a la Final Fantasy, so this will be my first adventure. Agh, here’s a gameplay trailer, too. Look for this January 22nd.
Man I wish Rayman Legends was coming to other consoles. It doesn’t justify me buying a WiiU. I loved Rayman Origins, and Legends looks to be even more of the same.
March kicks off with Tomb Raider on the 5th. I’ll be the first to admit I have limited experience with the old Lara Croft, but this new title is dripping with pretty. Sure, it’s taken some blatant inspiration from the Uncharted series, but no one is complaining. Some survival aspects should keep it sufficiently different from the infallible Nathan Drake, not to mention the grittiness the trailer is oozing.
In like a lion, out like an…eagle? Bioshock Infinite has all my attention. Ken Levine is my kind of guy – an English major designing video games based on political philosophy. Doesn’t it make your spine tingle? I love that this entry will maintain the spirit of Bioshock, but still be a completely different game. Barring any more delays, I expect everyone to be knee-deep in Columbia come March 22nd.
We get April to calm down, but then back in the fray come May with The Last of Us. Naughty Dog has been turning heads with Uncharted for a long time, and truth be told, I don’t think The Last of Us will be much of a departure. We’ll see what happens. If nothing else, Naughty Dog is putting together an absolutely beautiful game unlike anything we’ve seen thus far.
Into the stuff without release dates. Quantic Dream really won me over with Heavy Rain, and so I can’t wait to see what they do with Beyond: Two Souls. David Cage is another guy in the business I have a lot of respect for. Very cool to see an actual actress completely immersed in the game, and I love Ellen Page.
I don’t know a lot about Puppeteer, but it looks like it’ll be doing some different stuff, and I’ve always loved different. It’s easy to get burnt out on those action/adventure titles.
Remember Me is the first game from developer Dontnod. It’s a new IP that promises a lot of ingenuity. Not only is the story promising something a little more personal than a bad guy taking on the world with all this memory mixing, but the personalized combat system also has my attention.
Next up, South Park: The Stick of Truth. I’ve never been a huge fan of South Park, so I’m certainly a bit tentative here, but it’s cool to see Matt and Trey actually behind the scenes on a South Park game and the rippy-bits art style faithfully represented. With Obsidian at the helm, I think we’re in for a strange and exciting, if not a little buggy, adventure.
Finally, there’s Watch Dogs. There’s not a lot of information out there on this either, but it looks like it’ll be exploring some possible conspiracy theories surrounding modern technology and the dangers of connectivity. Another new IP with lots of promise. Oh, here’s an actual gameplay trailer.
From there, I’ll be waiting it out for the inevitable PlayStation 4.
But certainly there’s more than that coming out next year! Yeah, so let’s talk about those real quick. If it’s not on here, I’m pretty “meh” on it, and there are a few I’ll talk about specifically.
Dead Space 3 – looks like Lost Planet (the third entry also coming out this year). I don’t need a big monster shooter and I don’t need a co-op partner. I play Dead Space for small corridors and being scared out of my mind. EA promises it’ll still be scary, but…you know…EA.
The new Sly Cooper will be good, I’m sure, but I need to play the third before I decide whether or not I care.
Crysis 3 has a big focus on multiplayer, so I’m curious to see what happens from a single-player standpoint. I’m also a little sore about this budget not going to a TimeSplitters project…so there’s that.
Metal Gear Rising looks nothing like Metal Gear Solid. I’m sure I’ll play it at some point, but I’m not itching to get at this button-masher, especially until I know if it’s going to do anything for the Metal Gear canon.
I’m all God of War’d out, and I haven’t even played the Origins collection, so the last thing I need is another one with Ascension – especially one with a new-fangled multiplayer that will get played for a month after release before everyone goes back to whatever they were familiar with before.
I’ve never liked Grand Theft Auto. Sorry.
Oh, and if The Last Guardian even gets a trailer this year, you know, that’d be awesome, too (this trailer is from 3 YEARS AGO!)