There’ll be a lot on show this weekend, and I’m interested in seeing as much as possible, but here’s my five most anticipated titles. After the event as a little experiment I plan on writing a “Top 5 Titles I Saw at Gamefest” to see how well the event itself matches up with this list and my expectations, I'm sure there'll be a few surprises.
Gears of War 3
I suppose it’s a little needless to include this game on the list since it will be out very shortly after the event, but it’s still one of the games I am most excited to see. The Gears of War series is one of the most visually impressive, hard-hitting, blockbusting, action-packed group of games to ever be released. To this day, it can easily be argued that no other title has a better cover system than Gears, while the first game definitely took some pointers from the likes of Kill Switch and Resident Evil 4, the series has gone on to help define the third-person shooter genre in its own way and is undoubtedly a heavy contributor towards the success of the Xbox 360.
With Gears 2, Epic fully delivered on their promise to make the game bigger and more badass, featuring some of the most ridiculously intense and over-the-top boss fights and action sequences ever seen in video games. Along the way they tell a pretty darn decent story too. The competitive multiplayer is outstanding and the games have always clearly been designed with co-op in mind, since it has worked brilliantly in both of the games so far.
Gears 3 looks set to be, if it’s even possible, even bigger and yet more badass than both of the games that preceded it, and I’m supremely confident in Epic’s ability to justify the hype. If they can conclude the story in a satisfying way, finally perfect the multiplayer formula, and give us plenty of opportunities to chainsaw some Locust in half then I fully expect Gears of War 3 to be a big contender for Game of the Year.
Uncharted 3
From one of Microsoft’s biggest franchises to one of Sony’s, in a way Uncharted treads a similar path to Gears of War. Both franchises are arguably the best-looking games on their respective platforms, both involve a ton of cinematic action and breathtaking set-pieces, and both involve a healthy amount of shooting guys from behind cover. They are both wonderfully charming gentlemen, but where Marcus Fenix is a bulky hulking soldier slaughtering his way through an army of murderous monsters, Nathan Drake is a little more down-to-earth.
I’ll readily admit that the first Uncharted game did not quite live up to the hype for me, I adored the story and characters, and still played the game to completion within two days, which is really a testament to how well that game draws you in and makes you want to see the story through. Personally, the problems began to arise with the actual gameplay, specifically the gunplay, after experiencing the likes of Gears of War, the shooting in Uncharted felt somewhat mediocre, it wasn’t necessarily bad just decidedly average.
Uncharted 2 fixed that problem and so much more, the shooting felt better, the story got crazier, the set-pieces even more ridiculously outrageous, and the Nathan Drake charm-o-meter was off the charts. Uncharted 2 is, in my humble opinion, one of the greatest games ever made. Like a book you never want to stop reading, putting down the controller while playing that game was wonderfully difficult. Each new area you entered was more exciting and beautiful than the last, each new quip from Drake would make you fall in love with the characters even more.
Now Uncharted 3 is finally drawing near, and while I don’t expect as much to have changed this time around (after all, there was very little Naughty Dog could do to improve on the formula of U2), I’m hoping for yet another amazing adventure that I cannot wait to experience
Batman: Arkham City
Considering that Batman: Arkham Asylum was only developer Rocksteady’s second game, it is quite incredible how good it turned out. It was a game that strayed from the conventions of tired superhero beat ‘em ups and weak movie tie-ins. Rocksteady took an established and respected character and universe, and did something that no other developer has ever really been able to do with a superhero game, they made it work. They didn’t try to build a game around Batman, they built Batman and his world into a game.
At its core, Arkham Asylum was little more than Castlevania or Zelda-style gameplay, roaming an island, solving puzzles, beating bad guys, and collecting tools and equipment that would let you access new areas and explore further. The formula had been done countless times before and surely will continue many more times in the future, but the way Rocksteady blended this gameplay with the world of Batman in such a seamless way was truly something to behold. It made one wonder how no developer had been able to do something like this before. Arkham Island and its inhabitants were fantastically designed, staying true to the fiction whilst adding a little of Rocksteady’s own unique touches, and some of the boss battles and action sequences had me glued to the screen.
It is hardly up against much stiff competition, but Arkham Asylum is easily the best superhero game to date. That could, of course, possibly soon change with the release of Arkham City. In the traditional manner of sequels involving bigger worlds, more bad guys, and lots of new toys to play with, the sequel looks set to pose Batman with a much bigger challenge this time around. I expect great things for this game but remain slightly cautious, from the pre-release material Rocksteady have shown, it certainly looks like they’ve created a bigger world with plenty of new faces, I just hope they’ve made enough meaningful changes in order to really make the game feel like a sequel and not just a new environment.
Dark Souls
Demon’s Souls was very much a love/hate game, and I am very much in the former camp. There were certainly things to get annoyed with in the game, the unresponsive controls, unrelenting difficulty, and unforgiving systems made Demon’s Souls something of an acquired taste.
Frankly I didn’t find it so much difficult as it is brutal and demanding. You could fight your way through a goblin-infested poisonous swamp, using all of your wits, combat skills, and healing items to finally be within touching distance of the next level, only to mistime a sword swing or roll and wind up being eaten by a giant spider or falling off a ledge to your doom, forced to reply the entire level. The game could be so punishing, yet so rewarding at the same time. Rarely would you feel cheated, a death barely ever felt cheap or made me complain, it was nearly always my own fault and I learnt from each loss, which is exactly what the game wants you to do. It wants you to get better through practice and repetition, and understanding the harsh punishment for your mistakes. Checkpointing and hand-holding are commonplace in modern games, these days you can die countless times getting through levels, respawning in the same area you died and trying again until you get it right, and all of that really does take away from that traditional feeling of triumph one used to get from completing particularly difficult game stages, stretching all the way back to Super Mario Bros. Demon’s Souls brings that back. Of course, it does it in a very extreme and punishing manner, but that just makes the feeling of success all the greater when you finally figure out the perfect way to get through a level and execute your strategy to the letter.
Dark Souls, despite being touted as only a ‘spiritual successor’ as opposed to a direct sequel, looks incredibly similar to its ‘spiritual predecessor’, and expanding the audience by going multi-platform can only help From Software gain more followers. I hope that Dark Souls simply builds on the outstanding framework laid down before it.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Saving the best for last, Skyrim has been my most-anticipated title since its announcement at the VGA’s last year, and I am thrilled that I‘ll get a chance to see it this weekend. There are countless reasons why Oblivion is regarded as one of the greatest RPG’s of all time, and Skyrim looks set to improve on it in every imaginable aspect.
Bethesda are masters at delivering the ultimate role-playing experience, setting you loose in a vibrant, living, fantasy world and letting you do whatever you want in it, this is only one of the many ways in which their games are so exceptional. If you want to be a warrior, mage, rogue, assassin, thief, archer, gladiator, hero, villain, criminal, vigilante, or all of the above, you can. If you want to save the world and defeat the ultimate evil, or run around in your underwear punching crabs to death with your bare fists, the choice is yours. Oblivion literally let you play however you wanted, giving you as much control as possible over how you go about your own story in Cyrodiil, ensuring no two adventures would ever be alike. While the main story would always turn out the same way no matter what, the ways in which you could approach it, and the fact that at any time you could decide to abandon your quest and go climb a mountain, made the experience of Oblivion entirely unique. The countless dungeons, side quests, secrets, characters, and opportunities available to you make the world feel so rich and full and alive. I’ll be writing a little more on Oblivion soon as I’m currently playing through it yet again.
The Elder Scrolls V certainly has a big name to live up to, but, as with many of these big holiday titles, early signs suggest it will justify the hype, and personally I can’t wait to jump into a new Bethesda world and begin my own adventure in Skyrim.
And the rest...
The full list of games I want to see is growing longer by the day as more games get announced, suffice it to say that while these are my top 5, I am incredibly excited about a lot of other games this weekend and don't wish to take anything away from them, as such, here is a list, in alphabetical order no less, of other games I will be trying to check out:
Assassin's Creed: Revelations
Asura's Wrath
Battlefield 3
Dance Central 2
Dead Rising 2: Off the Record
Dragon's Dogma
FIFA 12
Forza Motorsport 4
Halo CE: Anniversary
Inversion
Kid Icarus: Uprising
Kinect Sports: Season Two
Mario Kart (3DS)
Mass Effect 3
Metal Gear Solid HD Collection
Modern Warfare 3
Motion Sports Adrenaline
Need for Speed: The Run
PES 2012
Prey 2
Prototype 2
RAGE
Rayman Origins
Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City
Rise of Nightmares
Saints Row: The Third
Silent Hill Downpour
Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure
Sonic Generations
Spider-Man: Edge of Time
Star Wars: The Old Republic
Street Fighter x Tekken
The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn
The Gunstringer
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
The Lord of the Rings: War in the North
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
WWE '12
X-Men: Destiny
Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2012
Told you there was a lot.
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