Man alive, there are a ton of games coming out between now and the end of the quarter. Some of them look good, some of them, not so much. As I know many of you await my opinion before deciding whether or not you should even consider looking at a game, I figured I would bring the benefit of my foresight to bear on this upcoming crop of games. Truly, my benevolence knows no bounds.
Some of these games I will buy, some I will rent, some I will cast aside, their worthiness unproven to me until someone tells me I should play it and then I probably will. I know that there are games coming out that I’m not listing here, so if I have, please sound off in the comments so that all games may benefit from the exposure brought about by my gaze.
Fire Emblem Awakening – 2/4
As much as I’d love something to play on my 3DS, tactical RPGs end up getting played around these parts for all about two hours, that usually being the point where things start getting mildly difficult. I vaguely remember some Fire Emblem dudes from the Smash Brothers games, but alas, that’s not enough to draw me in. Sorry Fire Emblem dudes that I can’t remember!
Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time – 2/5
Now this is more up my alley. I played all of the first Sly Cooper and a big chunk of the second before moving on to the next shiny thing that caught my attention. Having played some of this one at E3, it looks like the usual Sly bits are present and accounted for, which should appeal to those long time fans of the series, but may turn off those looking for a total rehaul of the Sly Cooper formula. I will most likely rent this one, as the risk of a bauble stealing my attention away is high, if history is to be believed.
Dead Space 3 – 2/5
I played Dead Space 2 because Bill said it was great. To Bill’s credit, the first third of the game was great. Then it turned into a bag of poo with nothing but terrible chase missions and unforgivably dense story telling. Hey, I’m floating in space! Hey, I’m running away from immortal aliens! Hey, I’m drilling into my own eye! Wait, what now? The co-op of Dead Space 3 looks interesting, even if I’ll never find anyone to play co-op with, but only so that I have someone to ask what in the hell is going on in the desperate hopes that my co-op partner consumed the three dozen non-game related pieces of fiction necessary to fully explain this wretched story. In case you can’t tell, I’ll rent this one.
Aliens: Colonial Marines – 2/12
Sometimes, games look bad but end up being good. Sometimes games look bad and end up being bad. Sometimes games look bad and end up being completely awful. I think Gearbox is an excellent developer, but I gotta say, this game looks like option three. I can’t quite put my finger on what it is, but I don’t hold out high hopes. That being said, I plan on playing it, if only for a bit, to see if I’m proven wrong. The first time I hide behind a crate to recover from an acid burn though, I’m out.
Metal Gear Rising Revengeance – 2/19
There’s something about a game that has the audacity to make up a name right there in the title. I haven’t paid enough attention to this game to know if it’s a proper Metal Gear game, or if it’s more like DmC, with cyber ninjas instead of nephilim. If it’s the former, I won’t even rent it, as I don’t have the time or interest for that particular brand of story telling. If it’s the latter, well, sign me up so that I may slash enemies anew!
Crysis 3 – 2/19Sorry, faceless Crysis ninja-man, but I’m just not feeling it. I had no interest in Crysis 2 and adding a bow and arrow to the mix hasn’t helped any.
Naughty Bear: Double Trouble – 2/22
Hahahahaha! No.
Tomb Raider – 3/5Now we’re talking. Everything I’ve seen of this game has my pretty dang interested. Granted, I’ll miss the side-somersaulting Lara Croft of old, taking on dinosaurs with double pistols, but I’m also ready for something a little more grounded. I’m hoping that they don’t mistake turn the game into 20 hours of putting Lara through the wringer in the mistaken notion of keeping it “gritty”, so I’ll still wait for reviews before making a final purchasing decision but so far, chances are good that I’ll pick it up.
MLB 13: The Show, MLB 2K13 – 3/5
The only thing more boring than watching baseball is playing baseball, mostly because you can’t switch the channel to something that isn’t baseball.
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Mirror of Fate – 3/5
If this one ends up being well received, I’ll definitely rent it. I haven’t played a good action game on the 3DS in, uh, well, that would be never. I’m not particularly attached to the Castlevania brand, it’s more to give me something to play on the blasted thing.
God of War: Ascension – 3/12
Having played every God of War game, including both PSP games, I will definitely play this one. The God of War games on the PS3 always overstay their welcome by a good three to four hours, so I’ll rent this one instead of buy it and consider myself happy. Plus, multiplayer holds absolutely no interest, so there’s no replay value there. Mostly, I’m in it for the yelling and the rageaholism.
LEGO City: Undercover – 3/18
If I had a Wii U, I’d be all over this one. Alas, I do not, and have no plans on picking one up at this point. LEGO city will have to fight crime without me.
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate – 3/19
See Undercover, LEGO City.
The Walking Dead: Survival Interest – 3/19
Hey, remember what I said about Aliens: Colonial Marines? Yeah, that goes like, triple for this game, quadruple even!
Gears of War: Judgement – 3/19
On the one hand, it’s Gears of War. On the other hand, it’s Gears of War. I’m somewhat torn on this one. I have enjoyed all of the Gears games in the past, but I’m getting the same feeling about this one as I had about Assassin’s Creed III and ACIII has failed to impress. I’ll probably rent this one and just see what happens.
Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon – 3/24
I am super excited to play this game, not because I’m overly attached to the Luigi’s Mansion property, but more because I still don’t believe that this game actually exists. I’m sure it will come with the usual five dollar Nintendo tax, so I’ll rent it and show that I ain’t afraid of no ghosts.
BioShock Infinite – 3/26
I also don’t believe that this game actually exists, but I will be happy to be proven wrong. Unfortunately, it’s coming out a few days before my move, so I don’t see a lot of playing at release time. As much as I’d love to explore Columbia with everyone else, insisting that I get my video game space set up before anything else is an invitation for disaster. On the plus side, being away from the internet for a week or so while I unpack should get me safely past whatever rash of complaints that will undoubtedly accompany the game’s release.
See what I said? A lot of games. I can’t remember the last time there were this many games coming out in the first quarter of the year. Truly, Q1 is the new Q4, or something.
I won’t buy any of these at full price, barring maybe MGSR- I own and won’t part with all the major MGS games. But I may just rent and wait for it to be $20. Monster Hunter is a possibility too, but I’d probably trade for it or buy it off a Gamefly rental.
Bioshock Infinite has been on the way for so long that I actually no longer really care about it. I’ll rent it and play it. But I’m sort of indifferent about it at this point. It may be great, or it may be another shooter with a better-than-usual scenario.
Tomb Raider and Castevania are definite rents. Luigi too. The Lego game might be fun for a couple of evenings.
Gears of War/God of War- I don’t think I really care about either of those franchises any more. I thought Gears 3 was alright. I’d rather play DMC again over God of War anything.
Colonial Marines, another one that’s been around for so long that I just don’t really care anymore. I want to see the Wii U version, if any, on that one.
Depressing.
My apathy with AAA game design, as exemplified by Mr. Barnes’ way accurate rant against DS3, has me very underwhelmed by what’s coming out, by and large.
Fortunately I have a giant backlog and if games aren’t planning to get any better, well, I can start devouring my purchased but not played.
I already own Fire Emblem thanks to Canada as a whole breaking street date, so that’s one of my must-haves done. These games are hard as balls and they remind me of fantasy XCOM in the way you can permanently lose your characters if you aren’t careful.
Dead Space 3, sigh. No, I don’t think I can be arsed. Monster Hunter is distinctly possible, ditto Lego Undercover (loved the trailer), and Rayman Legends. God of War I have never understood the popularity of, I have the Sly HD collection untouched.
Bioshock and Tomb Raider are the most likely buys for me. I just have no drive to play full price much any more. Same price, half the game included? No thanks. I have fifty unplayed games on Steam, I finally have a very beefy 3DS library to enjoy, and lesser console hits of the past few to look forward to.
I might get Sly, but I will really need someone to tell me it’s worth it first.
I would love to try Luigi’s Mansion but I do not have a 3ds, I’m still waiting for a new one with infinite battery life or something. I still need to play Kingdom Hearts 3D though so I may cave and buy both (I need new Kingdom Hearts like I need to breathe….seriously Versus XIII needs to be done already).
You forgot to mention Rayman Legends. Unless it was delayed, at which point I may go cry in a corner somewhere until it comes out. Rayman Origins was the best platformer I’ve played hands down (and I’ve played a lot of platformers in my time).
I used to care about God of War, I’ve played all but the second PSP one. I feel like that is a series that has overstayed it’s welcome. I mean really, Hades can not be that incompetent all the time. I understand escaping hell once maybe twice, but come on already!
I’ve been waiting for a new Bioshock for so long now that I think I have completely lost interest. This is why you do not announce a game years in advance.
Metal Gear is tempting, since well Metal Gear + Platinum = nothing but great things, but I have been a little overwhelmed by violent games lately and this one looks like it will be excessively so, so I will likely pass.
We will add Tomb Raider onto the, maybe once I’ve detoxed from gritty violent games for a while list.
South Park was supposed to come out in March but I’m guessing that will be pushed back to who knows when, which is a shame because it looked like it was shaking out to be a great game.
Oh yes, Rayman Legends. I’ll probably buy that off a Gamefly rental (usually $45- insider tip).
Platinum does do not great things. Check out Anarchy Reigns.
Brandon, Q1 has been better than Q4 for me for the last couple of years. I don’t even want to try to list them, but just last year there was Kingdoms of Amalur, FFXIII-2, and ME3 in Q1. Then in 2011…okay, there wasn’t anything of interest in 2011 until the second half of the year (unless you owned a PC that could run Witcher 2). But then in 2010 there was Bayonetta, Mass Effect 2, Star Ocean: The Last Hope (which was really bad, but still totally counts), Dante’s Inferno (okay, I kind of regretted that purchase), Heavy Rain, FFXIII, God of War 3, Metro 2033, and Resonance of Fate.
So, I cheated and checked back on Wikipedia for 2010. Anyways, now that everyone has to move out of the way for teh Haloes and CoDs, Q1 is almost always better than Q4. Although, now that I have DmC and Ni No Kuni, the only Q1 game I’m still waiting on is Tomb Raider, for which I’ll be reading at least a couple reviews, since I’m not sure whether I trust that they know what they’re doing.
Sorry, Brandon. All I read was this:
Not Dark Souls II Awakening – 2/4
As much as I’d love something to play on my 3DS, Dark Souls II won’t be on the 3DS.
Not Dark Souls II: Thieves in Time – 2/5
Now this is more up my alley. I played all of the first Not Dark Souls II and a big chunk of the second before moving on to the next shiny Dark Souls II that caught my attention.
Not Dark Souls II in Space 3 – 2/5
I played Not Dark Souls II in Space 2 because Bill said it was great. To Bill’s credit, the first third of the game was great. Then it turned into a bag of poo with nothing but not being Dark Souls II.
Not Dark Souls II: Colonial Marines – 2/12
Sometimes, games look bad but end up being good. Sometimes games look bad and end up being bad. Sometimes games look bad and end up being completely not Dark Souls II. I think Gearbox is an excellent developer, but I gotta say, this game looks like option three.
Not Dark Souls II Revengeance – 2/19
There’s something about a game that has the audacity to make up a name right there in the title. I haven’t paid enough attention to this game to know if it’s not Dark Souls II.
Not Dark Souls II-sis 3 – 2/19
Sorry, faceless Not Dark Souls II ninja-man, but I’m just not feeling it.
Not Dark Souls II: Double Trouble – 2/22
Hahahahaha! No.
And so on, ad nauseam. I’m pretty sure that’s what every upcoming games list is going to look like to me for the next year or so.
I dub this the +4 Post of Righteousness.
I’ll be buying MGSR (providing reviews are not terrible) and wishing that I had a 3DS so I could play the new Fire Emblem. I’ve always wanted to try a Monster Hunter game, but I don’t have a WiiU so I guess that won’t be happening. Other than that, nothing on that list excites me. But, DmC and Ni No Kuni are already out so I’ll have plenty to play.
The only one I’m mildly interested in from that list is Tomb Raider. Bioshock MAY creep in if it is well received, but Bioshock 2 was lamesauce so I’m hesitant.
My worries with Tomb Raider is that it will be too much on rails and too dependent on QTE crap instead of solving puzzles. Survival as a puzzle is just fine as long as it takes some brain power for me to figure it out.