Man is autumn a great time to be a gaming fan. If you're not already aware, autumn is increasingly becoming the gaming equivalent of blockbuster summer movie season, and it's at this time when most of the BIG AAA titles come out, showcasing both the biggest and the best that this entertainment format has to offer. Creating a Christmas List this year will be most difficult indeed! But after this avalanche of titles to choose from, which ones come out on top? When I look at the line-up for the next three months (with one exception) of video game releases here are the Top 5 games that stick out for me (NOTE: This is based solely on Xbox 360 games):
Number 5: Battlefield 3 / Modern Warfare 3
This autumn see's two of gaming's biggest franchises go head to head for dominion of the first person shooter's category. On one side you've got Dice's engine powerhouse that is Battlefield 3 and on the other Activision's biggest money-maker Call Of Duty. Both of these will no doubt be great games but the toughest thing for me is 'Which one to get?'
So you've got Battlefield 3, which right off the bat looks astounding in terms of graphic quality. Now don't get me wrong, Call Of Duty is no slouch when it comes to the visuals department, but Battlefield 3? People have been shown screenshot's from the game mixed in with real images and couldn't tell the difference between reality and the game. Now THAT is a brilliant feat of Technology, I mean the game just looks gorgeous!
Pretty cool looking eh? Now add to that the immense visuals of the Frostbyte 2 engine, which can, and I quote:
'The new engine is capable of bringing entire skyscrapers down and is so powerful that a developer was even quoted as saying if somebody took the time to design in-game the Burj Khalifa from Dubai (the world's current tallest building at almost half a mile in height) Frostbyte 2 is absolutely capable of demolishing it in real time.'
Clearly this is a game that will take a lot to beat. Even the multiplayer, which is the bread and butter for shooters, looks to take it up a notch up in almost every way. Here you can pilot tanks, jets and any manner of war vehicles to crush your team's opponents in what is (apparently) a very Team-centric experience. In COD Multiplayer you're always in it for yourself, here you must work with your Team-mates in order to survive and I think that is a most intriguing way of tackling cooperative gameplay. But what has Activision got up their sleeves for Call Of Duty?
Well judging from that trailer, a crap ton of explosions and a global conflict on a scale that has never been seen before. The Call Of Duty franchise, one of the biggest selling franchises in video game history (for four games in a row now sales have gone past the billion dollar mark), has always prided itself for it's blockbuster set-pieces and addictive competitive multiplayer. Yes, the campaigns in Call Of Duty are short (I think that can be said for ANY first person shooter), but they're also ridiculously fun and it's clear that they throw every last possible explosion and location in there so you'll get you're money's worth. This game is set around the possibility that a Third World War could happen in our time, and will have you play many different characters in many different locales all over the world, ranging from France, Germany, England and the USA. As a franchise that has it's single player based around big, epic conflicts this game hopes to top them all in terms of scale and scope. The Multiplayer remains largely the same as all the other previous games in the franchise: it's a fast, adrenaline fuelled and extremely addicting way of playing a game. The only negative thing I can say about Modern Warfare 3 at this point is that as a franchise it hasn't really changed. Multiplayer is the same as all the previous Call Of Duty's, and the single campaign is still just a barrage of senseless explosions EXACTLY like Black Ops campaign. There's NO innovation in it whatsoever, whereas Battlefield 3 seems to be doing some really interesting things with the genre and isn't repeating the same game every year just so it can make another billion dollars. Hmmm, do I play it safe and stick with Call Of Duty (a good game, but the same GOOD game I played from last year, the formula hasn't changed) or try something new with Battlefield? I really can't make my mind up, which is why I've put both games in the number 5 spot.
Number 4: Saints Row: The Third
Ladies and gentlemen I present you 'Saint's Row The Third', one of the most ridiculous, over-the-top and simply bat-sh*t insane games to have come out over the past year. This a Sand-box game that basically gives players the option to do whatever ridiculously awful things they want, which range from grabbing a simple passer-by's head and smashing it into the ground (complete with hilarious 'KER-SPLAT!' sound effect), rampaging around the city in a giant tank and even beating an old grandma's head open with a giant dildo. Yes, this demented game GOES there. You can also get into a jet and just blow up half the city from the air by launching targeted laser missiles if that's to your liking. The gaming-world is your oyster as far as this game is concerned. It's ludicrously silly fun, and to me resembles like Grand Theft Auto on crack. I really don't see any cons to this game so far apart from the fact that there aren't any dragons in it. Oh wait, that's for the next game on my list.
And yes, my generation does consider this stuff 'fun'.
Number 3: Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
Woot! Finally a massively detailed open-world fantasy game with Dragons! It's like all my dreams have come true! Skyrim is basically like Saints Row 3 just minus all the ridiculous weapons and granny trampling. In Skyrim, you can get on your horse and just ride off into the beautiful landscape and never come back, so think of it as a much more sophisticated game rather than some silly affair. The hero you portray is a Dragon-born (of any race, you can select which species you want to be, which range from Vampires to Cats to Humans!) and is tasked with reclaiming order to a land ravaged by Dragons. Or at least I think that's the plot...story isn't a heavily touted feature of this game, it's more about exploration and finding hidden the many hidden dungeons (all 300 of them) scattered around the world that unlock different ability's. One of the great things I've heard about this franchise is the fact that you can follow a simple trader from one village to next and see him sell his goods and go to bed each night.
The World will feel so alive and detailed, and you know that the person you just passed on the road will be having an adventure all on his own even if you're not watching him at the time. A lot of these events are unscripted by the way, so if you see a Dragon pick up a giant and fling him off a cliff you won't see it happen again. In fact alot of the time the developers (the guys who make the game) see behaviours that they hadn't yet observed with the game's characters WHILE they were playing the game! So not even the developers know what's going to happen 100% of the time, which is simply amazing. The game supposedly takes 300 hours to complete, so if you can believe that then this game should set you back several months of your life. Well I hate to brake this to you, real life, but I'll be playing Skyrim.
Number 2: Batman: Arkham City
'In Batman: Arkham Asylum, we really focused our effort on creating an intense, pressure-cooker atmosphere by locking Batman in the madhouse and allowing The Joker to turn up the heat.
“In Arkham City, we want to take that attitude to the next level, so we created an experience in which gamers will have a huge amount of navigational freedom, but they will also feel the extreme pressure of the challenges that they face.' Sefton Hill, Rocksteady
After Batman: Arkham Asylum was touted as being one of the best super-hero games of all time (and rightly so) it's sequel looks like it's going to take the last game and amp it up to maximum overdrive. In Arkham City, new major Quincy Sharp has sectioned off an entire area of Gotham and dumped anyone that misbehaved into it. So all the criminals and super villains are basically locked up in this giant playground of mayhem and disaster. Add to that several turf wars by the many villains and an overarching scheme that has something to do with Doctor Hugo Strange (the guy who controls this sector) and you've got one heck of a game. One of the best things about Arkham Asylum was the fact that you really did feel like Batman, every-time you crushed someone's skull in it felt every like every punch had impact and as a result you felt extremely badass. The Sequel? Apparentely it amps the combat up to 100mph, you now have a massive arsenal of gadgets at your disposal which range from smoke pellets to remote controlled batarangs. Not to mention you have this huge area to glide around in and all of a sudden come crashing down on some of the Joker's thugs. If Arkham Asylum made you feel like Batman, then Arkham City will make you become Batman.
Now even if you take away the immensely satisfying gameplay what have you got left? Well for starters you've got the villains. Batman has one of the best line-ups a rogues gallery could offer, and as far as I can tell, it seems like most of the really good ones have made it into this game. Every time Mark Hamill's (Mark Hamill as in THE Mark Hamill, you know, the guy who played Luke in those old Star Wars films?) portrayal of the Joker pops up on screen the game automatically becomes 10/10 for me. He even mocks you when you're dead, it's almost like the game is humiliating you for dying and I love it:
The Penguin also make a return, except this time with a cockney British accent. You're laughing at first, but then he blows a guy's head off...
The Riddler in Arkham Asylum was a mere annoyance, he would give you a few clues and you'd find the hidden trophy pretty easily. Here? You better damn well solve those riddles, because he's captured people and put them in Saw-like death traps, each one harder than the last and all of them having you face a ticking clock.
Two-Face, the once prestigious Harvey Dent is now a multi-personality psychopath who likes to drop people into vats of acid. What's not to love?
And nothing can compare to Doctor Strange, who is so masterful in the art of brain deciphering that he even figured out the identity of the caped crusader himself, Batman.
There is something so gratifying about seeing all these villains come together as a whole in the first game and I hope that this continued sense of escalation and dread you felt will also appear in it's sequel. From where I'm standing though, it looks f*cking amazing.
Seriously, I'm at breaking point. I look at my School calender every day knowing that the game is ONE day closer to being released. I keep refreshing bloody internet pages just to see if there's any new news on the game, heck even a promotional photo is enough to get me exicted! PLEASE DON'T SUCK! PLEASE BE THE BEST GAME EVER! I NEED ARKHAM CITY NOOOOOW! *ROCKS UP AND DOWN*
Number 1: Mass Effect 3
I made this list just so I could include Mass Effect 3 if I'm honest. For those of you that don't know, Mass Effect 2 is my favourite game of all time and Mass Effect 3 as a result is my most anticipated game of all time, which will make the wait for March 26th 2012 all the more painful. NEVER have I wanted a game (or anything apart from Doctor Who) so badly, the Mass Effect Series is one of the most personal, richly detailed and mind-numbingly epic franchises out there, and it all comes to a head in Mass Effect 3 when the entire galaxy is at risk from the Reapers and only you can stop it.
This is it. All the choices you've made over the past two games in the franchise will effect the outcome in some way, shape or form. All your Squad mates from the previous game will return (along with all their individual plot arcs and character progression which YOU helped define), granted they lived at the end of the last one of course. Your love interest from Mass Effect 1 could damn well meet your girlfriend from Mass Effect 2 and duke it out with each other. Or, they could get along fine together. OR, you didn't get romantic in Mass Effect 1 or 2 and everything will be fine. See? All these choices you made over the course of the last two games will impact this one in some way, and that's what so exciting: this is the grand finale to a trilogy of video games that center on how your actions affect the world around you, with a deep mythology and quite frankly some of the best characters any entertainment format has seen. At the end of Mass Effect 2, you actually give a sh*t about everyone (even if they are a robot or a green skinned lizard dude) and shed a tear when (or if) they die. In Mass Effect 3, you will feel their loss because it can effect the other characters, or even make new ones who replace the guy who died! You feel deeply attached to this universe and it's characters as a result, so when an invading armada of giant sentient beings arrive to f*ck things up, things get PERSONAL. It also helps that the combat has been refined, so now you're playing the game to have fun shooting the buggers AND enjoy the story at the same time, which is a real plus. Blowing up organic robot's the size of skyscrapers have never been this fun, and the impending sense of doom SHOULD heighten your adrenaline.
Interesting decisions lie ahead indeed, and the dialogue tree is there at every step of the adventure to run this into the ground. So will the Quarians finally reclaim their homeworld from the Geth? Will the Krogan finally overcome the Genophage? Can Garrus refrain from letting the dark side overcome him? Will we see Tali's face? Just WHO is the Illusive Man working for? I have to wait another five months to find out, great.
So that's my Top 5, hope you enjoyed reading my favourite upcoming games. The gaming industry is reaching an all time high now with so many awesome games hitting the shelves currently, and this list was extremely hard to make. And yes, the games technically haven't come out yet, and I suppose Mass Effect 3 could completely suck balls, but judging from all the hype and promotion surrounding this game it's almost impossible to think that it could all turn out sour. Well let's just wait and see I suppose...
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