Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few months, I’m sure many people on N4G are aware that there are a ‘hell’ of a lot of AAA titles being released/that have been released this year. Now, I’m sure many are in the same predicament as me where, for the first time for this generation, I actually have to ‘choose’ one game over another because of financial constraints. Before, the amount of games which piqued my interest were always just enough to have my gaming budget be kept at a reasonable level. Now however, especially towards the end of this year, we have so many games coming out in such a small timeframe and many of them are ones I would like to purchase.
Sure you can argue that you can just leave some games for a while until you have the money/time to pick them up but the point of this blog that I am interested in is why you as a consumer are going to pick up one game over another? Below is my planned list of day one buys but I’m intrigued as to why others may not be the same. Please be aware that I only own a PC and PS3 (no 360 I’m afraid, I just don’t need one)
Day One:
Elder Scrolls Skyrim V (PC)
Need I say more? Anyone who's played the Elder Scroll's series before knows why it is so good and that mainly resides in the player being able to pretty much do want they want in a fantastical open world. Bethesda's games are always a long time in coming considering the last iteration (Oblivion) was released in 2006 and I am sure this comes down to the sheer scale and quality with they approach all of their games. This is a must-buy for me, and in my opinion will be my game of the year without question.
Battlefield 3 (PC)
Battlefield 3 see's the return of the FPS king to its rightful home, the PC. While the 'Bad Company' games were in no way bad at all (I consider Bad Company 2 to be the best FPS on the market right now), the series was always known for its large scale battles with 64 players on PC. Sure player count may not be everything, but it surely adds to the feeling of immersion and of being a small cog in a grand machine? Combine this with the power of the Frostbite 2 engine and its brilliant destruction and we are really in for a treat. Also I am of no object to the game appearing on consoles, I believe that even if I only had a PS3 DICE are skilled and experienced enough to scale everything down to cater for the 24 players, while still retaining the epic battlefield feeling. This is one game that simply cannot be missed as its going to be, in my eyes, a revolution of the FPS genre and will raise the bar for all future FPS games (i'm looking at you COD).
Infamous 2 (PS3)
For those not familiar with the game, Infamous is a game which puts you in the shoes of Cole Mcgrath; a person who for some reason some gets a hold of electrical superpowers. Sucker Punch (the developers) really nailed it with regards to the superhero feeling as you can climb over many of the objects you see in the world, can jump off of huge buildings and can utilise all of the various powers you pick up through the course of the game to pull of greater and more awesome looking electrical feats (electrical lighting storm anyone?). However the really brilliant aspect which they incorporated was the karma system, and while it may not be as deep as people would like it really makes you think about your actions and whether what you are doing would cause harm to nearby citizens.
With the sequel, everything looks to be amped up. The graphics are much more polished from the looks of things and the introduction of fire and ice powers (depending on your karma) seems like it can really mix up the gameplay even more so than what was achieved in the first outing. Everything I liked about the first game seems to have only been improved upon and made better for the sequel, so I for one cannot wait to boot this up in my PS3 this June.
Future Buys:
Portal 2 (PC)
Uncharted 3 (PS3)
Mass Effect 3 (PC)
L.A. Noire (PS3)
Batman: Arkham City (PC)
Duke Nukem Forever (PC)
Witcher 2 (PC)
So what games are you planning on picking up this year day one or after release and for what reasons?
This is my first blog post, so forgive any mistakes if you will.
Michael Kitchin writes, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants does not breathe easy outside of an arcade setting. The short campaign loses any risk when you're given plentiful lives at the start of each stage. Whilst the new areas are welcome, they don't make the package feel any more complete. In the comforts of home, every imperfection comes into stark realisation. The slim presentation, the decent but ultimately safe combat and the overall small package makes this tough to recommend."
Review: Another Crab's Treasure is a cutesy soulslike adventure set under the sea, with accessibility options making it playable by all.
"The Barcelona-based (Spain) indie games publisher JanduSoft and indie games developer Juan-Mod, are today very glad and proud to announce that their 3D arcade action-platformer "Teared", is now available for PC (via Steam) and consoles (PS5, PS4, and the Nintendo Switch) via digital stores." - Jonas Ek, TGG.
So far this year I've bought:
Mass Effect 2
LittleBigPlanet 2
Marvel vs Capcom 3
Killzone 3
Crysis 2
Im most excited about:
1.Skrim
2.Uncharted 3
3.Portal 2
This feels more like, "The year to fret over games, worry about graphics, which system they're on and how they perform than actually enjoy them" to me.