The Big 2012 Gaming Preview
A grumpy gits uninformative guide to the upcoming games of 2012.
In alphabetical order, so you’ll have to hunt through to find the highlights. Written in random order and then rearranged for extra confusion.
Alan Wake: Alright, I’m starting with one that isn’t new, but it’s going to be newly released to the PC so I’m including it. It’s two years after it was released for consoles despite being originally developed as a PC game too. Frankly, back then I was quite excited about that game, but in the intervening time I’ve lost most of my interest in it and it’s dropped down to one of those games that I might check out when it’s cheap. After all, we’ve had time for console gamers to let us know that the game is good, but also that it doesn’t quite live up to its initial promise. But perhaps it promised too much. Either way, it looks to be a very good horror game. Just one that’s two years old. Then again, looking at the rest of the games I’m going to be writing about, there doesn’t look much other horror to compete against it.
Aliens: Colonial Marines: This upcoming squad based FPS seems like it’s captured the feeling of the Aliens films pretty well, so it’s one of the few shooters coming out that doesn’t look like a bland Call of Duty clone. It involves controlling a squad of four marines in what sounds like a similar style of most squad shooters of recent years. It’s hard to properly judge the gameplay just yet. It’s being developed by Gearbox, who have some decent games to their credit but most recently they released Duke Nukem Forever. Not exactly a high point. Still, I’m going to remain hopeful for this one. On the positive side, it sounds like it’s going to be a big more tactical than your average FPS. On the negative side, they’re going to include quick time events. I hate quick time events. Everyone hates quick time events. Why do developers keep including the bloody things in their games?
The Amazing Spider-Man: The Movie: Umm…it’s a game isn’t it? What’s the film going to be called? The Amazing Spider-Man: The Novel? Anyway, it’s to tie in with the new film, the one that’s going to pointlessly repeat the origin story yet again instead of getting on with something new. Anyway, it looks like it’s going to be pretty much like the other Spider-Man games. Make of that what you will.
Amy: A zombie game. I’m really bored with zombies. But this one is worthy of mention since it sounds a little different. You play a woman escorting an 8 year old autistic girl with special abilities through a city full of infected creatures. (Yes, it’s one of those that tries to hide the fact that it’s a zombie game by claiming it’s a virus outbreak.) It’s a different take on the overused zombie genre, but the worrying part is the word “escorting” in that sentence up there. If it’s a game long escort mission then it’s in trouble. Even Half-Life 2 couldn’t manage an enjoyable escort mission.
Assassin’s Creed 3: The fifth Assassin’s Creed game, thus showing that Ubisoft haven’t mastered basic arithmetic. It looks set to features a new setting, which is a relief after the same scenery for three games. It didn’t help that the gameplay starts becoming repetitive before the end of even one game. Hopefully the new setting will be good and they’ll find a way to add some much needed variety into the gameplay.
Bioshock Infinite: A new instalment and a new setting. Gone is the now familiar underwater city of Rapture and in its place we have Columbia, a city floating in the sky. We’ve also gone even further back in time to 1912. The setting looks amazing and has the potential to be just as exciting to explore as Rapture was originally. A key difference here though is in the timing. Rapture was already past its prime on first visitation in Bioshock. For Infinite, we get there just before things go wrong. It seems we’re going to get to be part of the revolution this time around, meaning more NPCs that do more than just attack you. There’s also Elizabeth, the woman you’re there to rescue, who will eventually join you. She has various powers and some sort of ability to open tears to alternate dimensions or some such. And like the original game, this is set to deal with philosophical issues, though this time it’s more to do with exceptionalism than the original games objectivism. It looks like we’ll be dealing with some rather uncomfortably xenophobic attitudes in the game. If this is done well, this could easily be as good as the original Bioshock, and potentially even better. I can be optimistic on occasion!
Brothers in Arms: Furious 4: The Brothers in Arms series was always a bit different from most of the World War 2 shooters around. Instead of following the Medal of Honour / Call of Duty pattern of war FPS games, Brother in Arms instead cast you as a regular soldier, commanding a small group of other regular soldiers in scenarios based on real battles and situations from WW2. You had to use actual tactics, cover and flanking manoeuvres to have any chance of surviving for more than a few seconds. So what have they done with this latest version? Well, they’ve left it in the same war, but now it’s a made up story about a bunch of four macho morons charging around mowing down large armies on their own. The trailer shows the “hilarious” scene of them killing a Nazi sat on a toilet. Haha! Toilets are funny! If you’re about 3 years old. I’m always repeating myself with this, but if you want to make a completely different game then give it a completely different name. Even more so when you’re hijacking a serious series of games set in a real conflict. Though frankly, this game sounds like it would be dreadful whatever name it was released under. Why are all these games trying to be the same these days?
Carmageddon: Reincarnation: About time! The last Carmageddon game was in 2000 and there’s never been any other racing game quite like it. Well, the game of car bashing and cartoonish pedestrian killing is set to return. There’s little information so far, but the same developers have got hold of the license again, so it should hopefully be faithful. If it gets released in 2012, it could be one of the most fun games of the year. In case you hadn’t guessed, I loved Carmageddon.
Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller: This one almost passed me by until I noticed the credits, making me investigate further. Cognition is being made by Phoenix Online Studios, the team responsible for the long in development King’s Quest fan game, Silver Lining. That’s noteworthy, but even more impressive is the fact that Jane Jensen is apparently going to be used as a story consultant. That’s the Jane Jensen responsible for some of the greatest adventure games ever in the form of the Gabriel Knight series, and more recently for the excellent Gray Matter. It’s about a woman who investigates crimes by utilising her ability of post-cognition. For those not versed in the terminology of psychic nutters, that’s the ability to touch an object to see events that happened to that object in the past. And she’s using the powers to try to hunt down the killer of her brother. It’s an interesting concept for a game, and one that’s just shot up on my list of games to watch out for.
The Darkness 2: The original Darkness FPS game never came to PC, but we’re apparently getting the sequel. Isn’t it great to be allowed to jump into a series with the beginning missing? The original game actually sounded quite interesting, where you took on the role of a mafia hitman with special powers including summoning imps to help attack. It was based on a series of comics. The second promises more of the same story driven gameplay, with additional features such as the over-the-top sounding quad-wielding. I’m interested, but I hate starting mid-series. Why no port of the original?
Diablo 3: The Diablo games from Blizzard are probably the most highly regarded hack and slash RPGs around. They focus on combat over any sort of intricate plot or dialogue, so those of us who prefer a bit more depth might prefer to look elsewhere, but they’re very good at what they do. Diablo 3 promises more of the same. Of course, it also promises a game where you have to be permanently connected to Blizzard’s servers even to play in single player. They’ve banned any mods from being made for the game too, thus ensuring any longevity that the previous games had is removed. It’ll be a massive seller anyway, and the people who buy it despite knowing all this frankly deserve broken DRM stuffed games that they can only play for as long as the publishers decide to let them.
Dishonored: This is one of those games that is an unknown quantity. It has the potential to be amazing, but there’s also always potential for disaster. There’s certainly enough talent working on it though, including Harvey Smith of Deus Ex and Thief: Deadly Shadows fame. The game itself sounds like a sort of fantasy steampunk version of Assassin’s Creed, but hopefully a bit less repetitive and with a story that’s actually vaguely interesting. You take on the role of a bodyguard to an Empress who has been assassinated, and you’ve been framed for the crime. It’s an open world stealth game, but with a lead character with magical powers. Amongst all the usual stuff such as variations on bullet time, the most interesting of these powers is the ability to possess other creatures. And that’s any living creatures from other people down to the rats on the streets. Oh, and apparently the game can be completed without killing a single person. This is one I’m definitely going to be keeping an eye on.
F1 2012: Again, not much news about this one. It runs the danger of becoming just another one of those sports games that just gets yearly updates with new driver names and nothing much changes. F1 2011 was very good but has some significant flaws, and if they can fix those up then it may well be worth another purchase. But they really will have to fix them. Firstly, the overly strict penalty systems needs an option to allow it to be disabled for those of us who just want to drive for fun without being kicked out of the game, especially as it is often caused by faulty AI in the first place. Allowing this option doesn’t harm the game for anyone, since it doesn’t have to be used, but allows more people to enjoy it. Secondly, get rid of Games for Windows Live. It’s a dreadful service that’s never worked properly and there’s absolutely no point to it. The number of races I’ve lost simply because Live has randomly disconnected is ridiculous. And lastly, fix the bloody save game corruption bug that’s been a problem in the previous two instalments and hasn’t even been patched. Losing all your progress half way through the game is not fun.
Fables: Telltale are at work on yet another episodic adventure game series, this time based on the Fables series of comics. I’ve read some of these and enjoyed them. It’s about fairy tale characters in exile in the modern world, and the stories take on various genres. It’s quite clever and could be ideal for this sort of adventure game. Telltale’s quality has been flagging recently though, and their sometimes identikit game design method isn’t going to cut it here.
Far Cry 3: Who knows what could happen with this game? Far Cry 2 wins the award for sequel that has the least to do with the original game. Absolutely the only thing in the second game that was the same as the first was the fact that it was an FPS. Taking it as a game in its own right, Far Cry 2 never lived up to its potential. It has a fantastic game engine and lots of great game mechanics, but they apparently forgot to build an interesting game to go with it. Not much is known about Far Cry 3 yet, but it is going to go back to the tropical island setting of the original game. This time it seems he’s trapped on there with a deranged population. It’s going to use the same engine as the second game, and if it can manage to be less dull and repetitive than that game it could actually be worthwhile.
Grand Theft Auto V: It’s not certain if it’ll be out in 2012, but GTAV is certainly on its way. Discounting various expansions and hand-held games, GTAV is the seventh game in the series, thus showing that Rockstar are another of those developers who don’t know how to count. There’s not a great deal of information about this game yet; all we have is a trailer. We know it’s set in Los Santos, since Rockstar seem to be intent on rehashing the same few environments over and over. The previous game, GTAIV, had moved the series away from the sandbox crammed full of activities style of the earlier games into more of a standard mission based structure with the extras stripped out. This put it into direct competition with games such as Mafia, and the combat controls and storylines just aren’t good enough to compete in that arena. Let’s hope the new game returns to what the GTA series does best.
Haunted: A game with such a generic bland title that it’s a nightmare to hunt out anything relevant from a page of Google search results might not be such a great idea. Apparently being developed by the people responsible for the Ankh games, this looks to be a similarly cartoon-styled adventure game featuring a protagonist who can talk to ghosts. Apparently there are six companion ghosts plus a werewolf involved in the game if the reports I’ve found are correct, but finding any further information has proved difficult. Still, it’s got a good development team behind it, so I’m not ruling this out.
Hitman: Absolution: The Hitman series has been getting steadily better with each game, so there’s reason to be hopeful that this fifth instalment will be the best yet. On the other hand, there are worrying signs. A large part of the material shown so far for Absolution looks more like Splinter Cell than the usual hiding in plain sight mechanics of Hitman, but there are indications that the disguise system is still there. Whether the new stealth mechanics will work alongside the original gameplay remains to be seen, but as long as they don’t abandon the concept of the series completely it could work well. I don’t like the inclusion of a ripped off version of the Detective Mode from the Batman games though, it has no place here.
J.U.L.I.A.: You take control of an astrobiologist called Rachel Manners as she wakes from stasis on her spaceship to find the other crewmembers are dead. Yes, it’s quite a clichéd premise, but this isn’t a survival horror game or a shooter, this is an adventure game. You investigate the mystery with the help of an AI and a robot. Most adventure games these days aren’t all that great, but this has a nice sci-fi premise, so I can hope.
Kinect: Not a game in itself, Kinect is that motion detecting webcam thing for Xbox 360. It lets you dance about in front of the screen in order to control a bunch of feeble games that rely entirely on the gimmick of the controller. And it costs around £100. It’s coming to the PC now. Anyone care? Me neither. Next!
King’s Bounty: Warriors of the North: When King’s Bounty: The Legend came out in 2008, it took me by surprise. It was a RPG with turn based strategy style combat all put together with a huge dose of silliness. This should be more of the same. But when it’s this good, it’s hard to complain about that too much. But if they can throw something new and worthwhile into the mix, it would help to prevent the series growing too stale. Even the best things will get boring if repeated continuously.
Lucius: Something a bit different this time. Lucius places you in the role of a small boy who is actually the son of Satan. It’s blatantly based on the classic “evil child” horror films such as The Omen, and the gameplay involves using supernatural powers to set up apparent accidents without suspicion on yourself. Trailers do show the child on a tricycle, but there’s no news of whether you’ll be able to ram someone off a balcony. This could be interesting, but I’m sceptical of whether they actually will be able to make a playable game from the concept.
Mass Effect 3: Not much needs to be said about this one. Mass Effect 2 was an amazing game and this is the sequel. If it’s anywhere near as good as the previous game then it’ll be well worth playing. This time the scale will apparently be ramped up, and instead of recruiting just a group of companions, this time we’ll be recruiting entire armies. Let’s just hope EA don’t force us to use their Origin service with enforced spyware features like they did with Battlefield 3.
Max Payne 3: Yet another game that seems to have nothing to do with the series so far. It features a fat shaven headed version of Max taking part in what looks like Far Cry 2. It certainly doesn’t have the noir style of the earlier games. Everything looks bright and the footage so far shows no hints of being a psychological thriller, which was what made the first two games so compelling. Once again, it looks to be a completely different game simply using the name of an existing franchise to boost sales. Unless the early trailers are very misleading, Rockstar should just get back to ruining their own GTA games and leave other people’s alone.
Metro: Last Light: Post-apocalyptic survival FPS Metro 2033 had an interesting concept, but the game suffered from quite a few flaws which prevented the games success. Well, the sequel claims to have improved the original in every way. Of course, developers and publishers always make claims like that. It should feature more fighting through mutant filled subway tunnels. Though really, that does sound rather dull unless you get to leave the tunnels quite regularly.
Of Orcs and Men: An RPG that casts you as an orc fighting back against humans. It seems here, rather than the usual evil force, orcs are simply a persecuted race. Interesting idea, but there’s not much to go on yet. It’s hard to even tell if it genuinely is going to be an RPG or just a hack and slash combat game.
Prey 2: Another game that seems to have little in common to its predecessor. The original Prey was a decent alien abduction themed FPS with some very interesting ideas but didn’t quite reach its potential and was far too short. So the sequel is an open world game set on an alien world with you as a bounty hunter. Apparently the plot does slightly cross with the original, but it doesn’t sound all that related to it, and it will be a loss to no longer have the native American themes that were part of what made the first game interesting. Could be decent, but really I’m expecting disappointment here.
Quantum Conundrum: A first person puzzle game by the designer of Portal. That alone is enough to make this worth keeping an eye on. It places you in the role of a 12 year old boy investigating the disappearance of his mad scientist uncle using a device known as the Interdimensional Shift Device. With this, you can switch between four different dimensions in which the environment remains the same but the physics and appearance change to allow manipulation of the environment to solve the puzzles. If the puzzles are as well designed as in Portal, it could be great. The gameplay footage I’ve seen so far is very promising.
Race Driver: GRID 2: Not much news about this game other than an announcement that Codemasters are working on it. No idea if it will be out next year or not. Probably not, but I can hope. The original GRID is one of the best racing games around despite its flaws, so if they can fix it up then I’d love a sequel.
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6: Patriots: Sequel to Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 5. Oh wait, maybe not. Yes, it’s another game in the series putting you in command of the squad of anti-terrorist operatives. It’s apparently going to be about an American terrorist group in New York known as the True Patriots. The only footage available so far is prerendered stuff claiming to be what the game should look like when it’s finished. I’m not that trusting. Finish some of it and then show me.
Risen 2: Dark Waters: 2009’s Risen seemed like a decent RPG, though I’ve not (yet at least) got around to playing the full game. Well here comes a sequel, which looks set to be another entertaining open world RPG, this time seemingly with a pirate themed storyline.
Scivelation: This bizarrely named game is set in a post-Apocalyptic world. But this isn’t the usual nuclear Apocalypse, this is the Biblical sort. However when the forces of good and evil battle, rather than one side triumphing they instead wipe each other out, leaving the world in ruins. An oppressive government is set up, so of course there’s also rebellion involved. It’s a very interesting dystopian setting, but I’m a bit worried that they’ve said bugger all about the actual gameplay so far other than that it’s a third person shooter. Are they trying to hide the gameplay because they know it’s no good? I hope it can live up to its premise.
Star Trek: This is apparently set after the latest Star Trek film, the prequel one. And it’s a third person co-op shooter. Looks like a fairly bland generic one from the gameplay footage I’ve seen, but that’s about standard for a film tie-in I guess. It could be decent, who knows, it’s too early to tell. The comments from one of the game’s makers aren’t exactly hopeful though as they boast about how combat focused it is. A quote from the E3 presentation: “We’re not trying to make a Trek game.” Well you should be since you’ll have the name Star Trek slapped across the front of the box in big fucking letters.
Syndicate: Hooray! The Syndicate series is back for the first time in over 15 years! Except it’s no longer a squad based tactical combat game, it’s now yet another FPS! Really, what is it with all these sequels betraying the roots of their series. Plus, they’ve forgotten to add a number or a subtitle yet again. Syndicate came out in 1993, this is a different game. Stop trying to pretend otherwise. Anyway, they’re boasting about stuff like an ability to slow down time. Sorry, bullet time stopped being an impressive features almost a decade ago, you’re going to have to do better than that. Still, there’s still a chance it’ll stay true to the original Syndicate in some way and turn out to be a good shooter. We can but hope.
The Testament of Sherlock Holmes: The next game in the passable Frogwares Sherlock Holmes adventure game series. This time it seems Holmes himself is accused of a crime. It’s apparently using a new engine and the few scenes I’ve seen of it feature a far more believably grimy London than the previous games had. Sounds interesting and the series has been slowly but steadily improving.
Tomb Raider: The latest game in the Tomb Raider series looks set to take the series in a slightly different direction. Set before any of the other games, it’s a game of survival after being washed ashore on an island. As long as they don’t completely abandon the platforming that Tomb Raider is famous for, this looks like a good way to revitalise the series. It sounds like the traditions of the series are still being upheld, only in a new setting, and promises more complex puzzles before, just with a focus on survival using environmental features. It also claims to have improved the shoddy combat that’s always plagued the Tomb Raider game. I’m actually quite optimistic about this one, especially as it is coming from Crystal Dynamics, who did a good job reviving the dying series once before. But yet again, this shouldn’t be called just Tomb Raider. Call it Tomb Raider 9, or Tomb Raider: We’re Too Fucking Lazy to Think of a Better Subtitle Than This. But call it something other than just the same name as a 15 year old game, especially as it sounds like Tomb Raiding isn’t actually the focus this time round.
Y: The Case of John Yesterday: Pendulo Studios, makers of the highly polished Runaway games, are taking a turn towards the darker side here. Clichéd start aside (you’re playing yet another amnesiac protagonist) it looks appropriately creepy so far, though the trailer is only a teaser at the moment and no game footage is on display. You’re apparently investigating a series of homeless people who have been burned alive. Light-hearted stuff then. One that may be worth watching.
In alphabetical order, so you’ll have to hunt through to find the highlights. Written in random order and then rearranged for extra confusion.
Alan Wake: Alright, I’m starting with one that isn’t new, but it’s going to be newly released to the PC so I’m including it. It’s two years after it was released for consoles despite being originally developed as a PC game too. Frankly, back then I was quite excited about that game, but in the intervening time I’ve lost most of my interest in it and it’s dropped down to one of those games that I might check out when it’s cheap. After all, we’ve had time for console gamers to let us know that the game is good, but also that it doesn’t quite live up to its initial promise. But perhaps it promised too much. Either way, it looks to be a very good horror game. Just one that’s two years old. Then again, looking at the rest of the games I’m going to be writing about, there doesn’t look much other horror to compete against it.
Aliens: Colonial Marines: This upcoming squad based FPS seems like it’s captured the feeling of the Aliens films pretty well, so it’s one of the few shooters coming out that doesn’t look like a bland Call of Duty clone. It involves controlling a squad of four marines in what sounds like a similar style of most squad shooters of recent years. It’s hard to properly judge the gameplay just yet. It’s being developed by Gearbox, who have some decent games to their credit but most recently they released Duke Nukem Forever. Not exactly a high point. Still, I’m going to remain hopeful for this one. On the positive side, it sounds like it’s going to be a big more tactical than your average FPS. On the negative side, they’re going to include quick time events. I hate quick time events. Everyone hates quick time events. Why do developers keep including the bloody things in their games?
The Amazing Spider-Man: The Movie: Umm…it’s a game isn’t it? What’s the film going to be called? The Amazing Spider-Man: The Novel? Anyway, it’s to tie in with the new film, the one that’s going to pointlessly repeat the origin story yet again instead of getting on with something new. Anyway, it looks like it’s going to be pretty much like the other Spider-Man games. Make of that what you will.
Amy: A zombie game. I’m really bored with zombies. But this one is worthy of mention since it sounds a little different. You play a woman escorting an 8 year old autistic girl with special abilities through a city full of infected creatures. (Yes, it’s one of those that tries to hide the fact that it’s a zombie game by claiming it’s a virus outbreak.) It’s a different take on the overused zombie genre, but the worrying part is the word “escorting” in that sentence up there. If it’s a game long escort mission then it’s in trouble. Even Half-Life 2 couldn’t manage an enjoyable escort mission.
Assassin’s Creed 3: The fifth Assassin’s Creed game, thus showing that Ubisoft haven’t mastered basic arithmetic. It looks set to features a new setting, which is a relief after the same scenery for three games. It didn’t help that the gameplay starts becoming repetitive before the end of even one game. Hopefully the new setting will be good and they’ll find a way to add some much needed variety into the gameplay.
Bioshock Infinite: A new instalment and a new setting. Gone is the now familiar underwater city of Rapture and in its place we have Columbia, a city floating in the sky. We’ve also gone even further back in time to 1912. The setting looks amazing and has the potential to be just as exciting to explore as Rapture was originally. A key difference here though is in the timing. Rapture was already past its prime on first visitation in Bioshock. For Infinite, we get there just before things go wrong. It seems we’re going to get to be part of the revolution this time around, meaning more NPCs that do more than just attack you. There’s also Elizabeth, the woman you’re there to rescue, who will eventually join you. She has various powers and some sort of ability to open tears to alternate dimensions or some such. And like the original game, this is set to deal with philosophical issues, though this time it’s more to do with exceptionalism than the original games objectivism. It looks like we’ll be dealing with some rather uncomfortably xenophobic attitudes in the game. If this is done well, this could easily be as good as the original Bioshock, and potentially even better. I can be optimistic on occasion!
Brothers in Arms: Furious 4: The Brothers in Arms series was always a bit different from most of the World War 2 shooters around. Instead of following the Medal of Honour / Call of Duty pattern of war FPS games, Brother in Arms instead cast you as a regular soldier, commanding a small group of other regular soldiers in scenarios based on real battles and situations from WW2. You had to use actual tactics, cover and flanking manoeuvres to have any chance of surviving for more than a few seconds. So what have they done with this latest version? Well, they’ve left it in the same war, but now it’s a made up story about a bunch of four macho morons charging around mowing down large armies on their own. The trailer shows the “hilarious” scene of them killing a Nazi sat on a toilet. Haha! Toilets are funny! If you’re about 3 years old. I’m always repeating myself with this, but if you want to make a completely different game then give it a completely different name. Even more so when you’re hijacking a serious series of games set in a real conflict. Though frankly, this game sounds like it would be dreadful whatever name it was released under. Why are all these games trying to be the same these days?
Carmageddon: Reincarnation: About time! The last Carmageddon game was in 2000 and there’s never been any other racing game quite like it. Well, the game of car bashing and cartoonish pedestrian killing is set to return. There’s little information so far, but the same developers have got hold of the license again, so it should hopefully be faithful. If it gets released in 2012, it could be one of the most fun games of the year. In case you hadn’t guessed, I loved Carmageddon.
Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller: This one almost passed me by until I noticed the credits, making me investigate further. Cognition is being made by Phoenix Online Studios, the team responsible for the long in development King’s Quest fan game, Silver Lining. That’s noteworthy, but even more impressive is the fact that Jane Jensen is apparently going to be used as a story consultant. That’s the Jane Jensen responsible for some of the greatest adventure games ever in the form of the Gabriel Knight series, and more recently for the excellent Gray Matter. It’s about a woman who investigates crimes by utilising her ability of post-cognition. For those not versed in the terminology of psychic nutters, that’s the ability to touch an object to see events that happened to that object in the past. And she’s using the powers to try to hunt down the killer of her brother. It’s an interesting concept for a game, and one that’s just shot up on my list of games to watch out for.
The Darkness 2: The original Darkness FPS game never came to PC, but we’re apparently getting the sequel. Isn’t it great to be allowed to jump into a series with the beginning missing? The original game actually sounded quite interesting, where you took on the role of a mafia hitman with special powers including summoning imps to help attack. It was based on a series of comics. The second promises more of the same story driven gameplay, with additional features such as the over-the-top sounding quad-wielding. I’m interested, but I hate starting mid-series. Why no port of the original?
Diablo 3: The Diablo games from Blizzard are probably the most highly regarded hack and slash RPGs around. They focus on combat over any sort of intricate plot or dialogue, so those of us who prefer a bit more depth might prefer to look elsewhere, but they’re very good at what they do. Diablo 3 promises more of the same. Of course, it also promises a game where you have to be permanently connected to Blizzard’s servers even to play in single player. They’ve banned any mods from being made for the game too, thus ensuring any longevity that the previous games had is removed. It’ll be a massive seller anyway, and the people who buy it despite knowing all this frankly deserve broken DRM stuffed games that they can only play for as long as the publishers decide to let them.
Dishonored: This is one of those games that is an unknown quantity. It has the potential to be amazing, but there’s also always potential for disaster. There’s certainly enough talent working on it though, including Harvey Smith of Deus Ex and Thief: Deadly Shadows fame. The game itself sounds like a sort of fantasy steampunk version of Assassin’s Creed, but hopefully a bit less repetitive and with a story that’s actually vaguely interesting. You take on the role of a bodyguard to an Empress who has been assassinated, and you’ve been framed for the crime. It’s an open world stealth game, but with a lead character with magical powers. Amongst all the usual stuff such as variations on bullet time, the most interesting of these powers is the ability to possess other creatures. And that’s any living creatures from other people down to the rats on the streets. Oh, and apparently the game can be completed without killing a single person. This is one I’m definitely going to be keeping an eye on.
F1 2012: Again, not much news about this one. It runs the danger of becoming just another one of those sports games that just gets yearly updates with new driver names and nothing much changes. F1 2011 was very good but has some significant flaws, and if they can fix those up then it may well be worth another purchase. But they really will have to fix them. Firstly, the overly strict penalty systems needs an option to allow it to be disabled for those of us who just want to drive for fun without being kicked out of the game, especially as it is often caused by faulty AI in the first place. Allowing this option doesn’t harm the game for anyone, since it doesn’t have to be used, but allows more people to enjoy it. Secondly, get rid of Games for Windows Live. It’s a dreadful service that’s never worked properly and there’s absolutely no point to it. The number of races I’ve lost simply because Live has randomly disconnected is ridiculous. And lastly, fix the bloody save game corruption bug that’s been a problem in the previous two instalments and hasn’t even been patched. Losing all your progress half way through the game is not fun.
Fables: Telltale are at work on yet another episodic adventure game series, this time based on the Fables series of comics. I’ve read some of these and enjoyed them. It’s about fairy tale characters in exile in the modern world, and the stories take on various genres. It’s quite clever and could be ideal for this sort of adventure game. Telltale’s quality has been flagging recently though, and their sometimes identikit game design method isn’t going to cut it here.
Far Cry 3: Who knows what could happen with this game? Far Cry 2 wins the award for sequel that has the least to do with the original game. Absolutely the only thing in the second game that was the same as the first was the fact that it was an FPS. Taking it as a game in its own right, Far Cry 2 never lived up to its potential. It has a fantastic game engine and lots of great game mechanics, but they apparently forgot to build an interesting game to go with it. Not much is known about Far Cry 3 yet, but it is going to go back to the tropical island setting of the original game. This time it seems he’s trapped on there with a deranged population. It’s going to use the same engine as the second game, and if it can manage to be less dull and repetitive than that game it could actually be worthwhile.
Grand Theft Auto V: It’s not certain if it’ll be out in 2012, but GTAV is certainly on its way. Discounting various expansions and hand-held games, GTAV is the seventh game in the series, thus showing that Rockstar are another of those developers who don’t know how to count. There’s not a great deal of information about this game yet; all we have is a trailer. We know it’s set in Los Santos, since Rockstar seem to be intent on rehashing the same few environments over and over. The previous game, GTAIV, had moved the series away from the sandbox crammed full of activities style of the earlier games into more of a standard mission based structure with the extras stripped out. This put it into direct competition with games such as Mafia, and the combat controls and storylines just aren’t good enough to compete in that arena. Let’s hope the new game returns to what the GTA series does best.
Haunted: A game with such a generic bland title that it’s a nightmare to hunt out anything relevant from a page of Google search results might not be such a great idea. Apparently being developed by the people responsible for the Ankh games, this looks to be a similarly cartoon-styled adventure game featuring a protagonist who can talk to ghosts. Apparently there are six companion ghosts plus a werewolf involved in the game if the reports I’ve found are correct, but finding any further information has proved difficult. Still, it’s got a good development team behind it, so I’m not ruling this out.
Hitman: Absolution: The Hitman series has been getting steadily better with each game, so there’s reason to be hopeful that this fifth instalment will be the best yet. On the other hand, there are worrying signs. A large part of the material shown so far for Absolution looks more like Splinter Cell than the usual hiding in plain sight mechanics of Hitman, but there are indications that the disguise system is still there. Whether the new stealth mechanics will work alongside the original gameplay remains to be seen, but as long as they don’t abandon the concept of the series completely it could work well. I don’t like the inclusion of a ripped off version of the Detective Mode from the Batman games though, it has no place here.
J.U.L.I.A.: You take control of an astrobiologist called Rachel Manners as she wakes from stasis on her spaceship to find the other crewmembers are dead. Yes, it’s quite a clichéd premise, but this isn’t a survival horror game or a shooter, this is an adventure game. You investigate the mystery with the help of an AI and a robot. Most adventure games these days aren’t all that great, but this has a nice sci-fi premise, so I can hope.
Kinect: Not a game in itself, Kinect is that motion detecting webcam thing for Xbox 360. It lets you dance about in front of the screen in order to control a bunch of feeble games that rely entirely on the gimmick of the controller. And it costs around £100. It’s coming to the PC now. Anyone care? Me neither. Next!
King’s Bounty: Warriors of the North: When King’s Bounty: The Legend came out in 2008, it took me by surprise. It was a RPG with turn based strategy style combat all put together with a huge dose of silliness. This should be more of the same. But when it’s this good, it’s hard to complain about that too much. But if they can throw something new and worthwhile into the mix, it would help to prevent the series growing too stale. Even the best things will get boring if repeated continuously.
Lucius: Something a bit different this time. Lucius places you in the role of a small boy who is actually the son of Satan. It’s blatantly based on the classic “evil child” horror films such as The Omen, and the gameplay involves using supernatural powers to set up apparent accidents without suspicion on yourself. Trailers do show the child on a tricycle, but there’s no news of whether you’ll be able to ram someone off a balcony. This could be interesting, but I’m sceptical of whether they actually will be able to make a playable game from the concept.
Mass Effect 3: Not much needs to be said about this one. Mass Effect 2 was an amazing game and this is the sequel. If it’s anywhere near as good as the previous game then it’ll be well worth playing. This time the scale will apparently be ramped up, and instead of recruiting just a group of companions, this time we’ll be recruiting entire armies. Let’s just hope EA don’t force us to use their Origin service with enforced spyware features like they did with Battlefield 3.
Max Payne 3: Yet another game that seems to have nothing to do with the series so far. It features a fat shaven headed version of Max taking part in what looks like Far Cry 2. It certainly doesn’t have the noir style of the earlier games. Everything looks bright and the footage so far shows no hints of being a psychological thriller, which was what made the first two games so compelling. Once again, it looks to be a completely different game simply using the name of an existing franchise to boost sales. Unless the early trailers are very misleading, Rockstar should just get back to ruining their own GTA games and leave other people’s alone.
Metro: Last Light: Post-apocalyptic survival FPS Metro 2033 had an interesting concept, but the game suffered from quite a few flaws which prevented the games success. Well, the sequel claims to have improved the original in every way. Of course, developers and publishers always make claims like that. It should feature more fighting through mutant filled subway tunnels. Though really, that does sound rather dull unless you get to leave the tunnels quite regularly.
Of Orcs and Men: An RPG that casts you as an orc fighting back against humans. It seems here, rather than the usual evil force, orcs are simply a persecuted race. Interesting idea, but there’s not much to go on yet. It’s hard to even tell if it genuinely is going to be an RPG or just a hack and slash combat game.
Prey 2: Another game that seems to have little in common to its predecessor. The original Prey was a decent alien abduction themed FPS with some very interesting ideas but didn’t quite reach its potential and was far too short. So the sequel is an open world game set on an alien world with you as a bounty hunter. Apparently the plot does slightly cross with the original, but it doesn’t sound all that related to it, and it will be a loss to no longer have the native American themes that were part of what made the first game interesting. Could be decent, but really I’m expecting disappointment here.
Quantum Conundrum: A first person puzzle game by the designer of Portal. That alone is enough to make this worth keeping an eye on. It places you in the role of a 12 year old boy investigating the disappearance of his mad scientist uncle using a device known as the Interdimensional Shift Device. With this, you can switch between four different dimensions in which the environment remains the same but the physics and appearance change to allow manipulation of the environment to solve the puzzles. If the puzzles are as well designed as in Portal, it could be great. The gameplay footage I’ve seen so far is very promising.
Race Driver: GRID 2: Not much news about this game other than an announcement that Codemasters are working on it. No idea if it will be out next year or not. Probably not, but I can hope. The original GRID is one of the best racing games around despite its flaws, so if they can fix it up then I’d love a sequel.
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6: Patriots: Sequel to Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 5. Oh wait, maybe not. Yes, it’s another game in the series putting you in command of the squad of anti-terrorist operatives. It’s apparently going to be about an American terrorist group in New York known as the True Patriots. The only footage available so far is prerendered stuff claiming to be what the game should look like when it’s finished. I’m not that trusting. Finish some of it and then show me.
Risen 2: Dark Waters: 2009’s Risen seemed like a decent RPG, though I’ve not (yet at least) got around to playing the full game. Well here comes a sequel, which looks set to be another entertaining open world RPG, this time seemingly with a pirate themed storyline.
Scivelation: This bizarrely named game is set in a post-Apocalyptic world. But this isn’t the usual nuclear Apocalypse, this is the Biblical sort. However when the forces of good and evil battle, rather than one side triumphing they instead wipe each other out, leaving the world in ruins. An oppressive government is set up, so of course there’s also rebellion involved. It’s a very interesting dystopian setting, but I’m a bit worried that they’ve said bugger all about the actual gameplay so far other than that it’s a third person shooter. Are they trying to hide the gameplay because they know it’s no good? I hope it can live up to its premise.
Star Trek: This is apparently set after the latest Star Trek film, the prequel one. And it’s a third person co-op shooter. Looks like a fairly bland generic one from the gameplay footage I’ve seen, but that’s about standard for a film tie-in I guess. It could be decent, who knows, it’s too early to tell. The comments from one of the game’s makers aren’t exactly hopeful though as they boast about how combat focused it is. A quote from the E3 presentation: “We’re not trying to make a Trek game.” Well you should be since you’ll have the name Star Trek slapped across the front of the box in big fucking letters.
Syndicate: Hooray! The Syndicate series is back for the first time in over 15 years! Except it’s no longer a squad based tactical combat game, it’s now yet another FPS! Really, what is it with all these sequels betraying the roots of their series. Plus, they’ve forgotten to add a number or a subtitle yet again. Syndicate came out in 1993, this is a different game. Stop trying to pretend otherwise. Anyway, they’re boasting about stuff like an ability to slow down time. Sorry, bullet time stopped being an impressive features almost a decade ago, you’re going to have to do better than that. Still, there’s still a chance it’ll stay true to the original Syndicate in some way and turn out to be a good shooter. We can but hope.
The Testament of Sherlock Holmes: The next game in the passable Frogwares Sherlock Holmes adventure game series. This time it seems Holmes himself is accused of a crime. It’s apparently using a new engine and the few scenes I’ve seen of it feature a far more believably grimy London than the previous games had. Sounds interesting and the series has been slowly but steadily improving.
Tomb Raider: The latest game in the Tomb Raider series looks set to take the series in a slightly different direction. Set before any of the other games, it’s a game of survival after being washed ashore on an island. As long as they don’t completely abandon the platforming that Tomb Raider is famous for, this looks like a good way to revitalise the series. It sounds like the traditions of the series are still being upheld, only in a new setting, and promises more complex puzzles before, just with a focus on survival using environmental features. It also claims to have improved the shoddy combat that’s always plagued the Tomb Raider game. I’m actually quite optimistic about this one, especially as it is coming from Crystal Dynamics, who did a good job reviving the dying series once before. But yet again, this shouldn’t be called just Tomb Raider. Call it Tomb Raider 9, or Tomb Raider: We’re Too Fucking Lazy to Think of a Better Subtitle Than This. But call it something other than just the same name as a 15 year old game, especially as it sounds like Tomb Raiding isn’t actually the focus this time round.
Y: The Case of John Yesterday: Pendulo Studios, makers of the highly polished Runaway games, are taking a turn towards the darker side here. Clichéd start aside (you’re playing yet another amnesiac protagonist) it looks appropriately creepy so far, though the trailer is only a teaser at the moment and no game footage is on display. You’re apparently investigating a series of homeless people who have been burned alive. Light-hearted stuff then. One that may be worth watching.