Most Wanted List

I never pretend to be one of these 'professional' type gamers who spend most of their waking hours immersed in some virtual world somewhere. I am purely the hobbyist, spending a few hours on the weekend getting my kicks by shooting some 12 year olds on Battlefield or causing wanton free-roaming destruction. But like anyone remotely interested in gaming, I have a checklist of all the upcoming titles I want to play, and here it is.

The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
I can honestly say I never finished the Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. From what I've heard, it was one of the longest offline RPGs to play through, and take the add-on content into account and I would probably still be struggling to see the light of day if i'd persevered. But here comes Skyrim, and despite the knowledge that I'll have to fully sacrifice my social life for even the slimmest chance of seeing this new game through to completion, I'm still going to buy it. Stunning updated open-world graphics, lots of ideas carried across from the successful Fallout 3 (which is Bethesda's best game) improved dual wielding combat, more immersive dialogue sections and free-roaming dragons. What's not to like?

 

Aliens Colonial Marines
This game has been delayed almost as long as Duke Nukem Forever (also published by Gearbox) and look how badly that turned out. Although I'm not holding out much hope for this game actually delivering the goods, it's still on my most anticipated list. Touted as the 'true' sequel to James Cameron's Aliens, and bringing back all the things we loved so much about that film - like pulse rifles, drop ships, hard-ass marines and lots and lots of blue tinted lighting - this game will be a nostalgic and terrifying trip. If it's not crap.

Battlefield 3
Battlefield Bad Comany 2 has occupied the majority of my casual gaming time for the last year. And that's right, I havn't been playing Call of Duty. Infact, Call of Duty is nowhere to be seen on this list at all. Strange you say? In my personal opinion, Call of Duty was one of the finest shooter franchises out there, but now it's become uninspired and formulaic, and the campaigns are ripping off Michael Bay movies, which is a very low level of creativity in anyone's eyes. The upcoming Battlefield 3 has a shiny new graphics and destruction engine, and it gets my vote purely because this franchise is still trying to perfect the modern military shooter and is pushing itself in new directions and not rehashing the exact same game structure to cash in on the naivety of the masses.

Mass Effect 3
Mass Effect (1) was a brilliant concept well executed, but it was still far more linear than it needed to be. It also suffered from a number of sections that caused my Xbox 360 to drop to about 5 frames per second (buggy parts of game coding i guess) and failed to sustain my attention long enough to see it through to completion. So I waited a year before picking up the sequel, and regretted the delay immediately. ME2 is everything I wanted the first game to be - epic narrative, free roaming space RPG, improved shooter controls and dialogue - and most importantly, the game depicts an original sci-fi universe that stands wholly on its own this time round.



Batman: Arkham City
Arkham Asylum was clearly the best Batman game ever to hit the market, and I admire it for following its own interpretation of the material rather than pursue the movie rights. It was a bit like Assassin's Creed, a bit like Splinter Cell, and a bit like the much loved saturday morning cartoon, with Mark Hamill returning to ham it up as the Joker. This time we're off the narrow confines of the Asylum, and in full free-roam mode in Gotham City.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Although the preview videos and trailers for this have done nothing to convince me it will be the blockbuster they say it will be, it's still on my list purely for being a sci-fi cyberpunk 'Bladerunner' type action game. And being a sequel to Deus Ex certainly does help. If all fails, I'll find it in the bargain bin in 6 months and make my own judgments.

Gears of War 3
Although Gears 2 hasn't entered my Xbox in over a year, this game will be a definite purchase. What other console title has local split-screen campaign, horde, and deathmatch to play at a party? (I mean a real party, where real people come to your house and talk to other real people). On that note, the lack of local co-op multiplayer games on console is infuriating. They must forget we like to share the sofa sometimes.

Dead Island
With any luck this will be everything Left 4 Dead should have been - co-op zombie slaying on an open world island with vehicles, weapons which consist of anything and everything, and nice visuals. The screenshot below isn't from a cutscene. It's an ingame screenshot, and it looks great.

Far Cry 3
Maybe I should save myself the pain and stop hoping this will be any good? But it's returning to the jungle, and the jungle is where this franchise belongs.