2011: Best year for gamers ever?

[Melllvar]

2011's looking to be a damn good year for gamers. Much better than 2010, at least, which may be due to some of 2010's best games getting pushed back to 2011. Among other things, we've already seen the release of:

Dead Space 2
Killzone 3
Bulletstorm
Crysis 2
Dragon Age 2

and still have lots more to look forward to:

Uncharted 3
Infamous 2
The Last Guardian
Red Faction: Armageddon
Battlefield 3
Mass Effect 3
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Brink
Portal 2
F.E.A.R. 3
Duke Nukem Forever
L.A. Noire
Alice: Madness Returns
Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
Far Cry 3
Resistance 3
Rage
Gears of War 3
Batman: Arkham City
Metal Gear Solid Rising
Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim
Bioshock Infinite(?)

... among others.

Put simply, that's a lot of good games. Also a lot of money gone, unless you have some system for piracy/borrowing/renting/etc. I don't even know where to start being excited, and that's not even a complete list. This is going to be a demanding schedule for the avid gamer. Can we keep up? Will it break us? Only time will tell.

Point is I can't spam the gaming section with a thread for each game coming out that deserves it, so I made this thread to solve that problem. NOW EVERYONE GET EXCITED!!!!
​

 

[Jesse]

I think it's good. Can't tell if it's the best ever yet. Can't wait for BF3, ME3 and Skyrim

Been disappointed with the new games lately. Dead Space 2 didn't impress me as much as 1. Dragon Age 2 was really disappointing. I really liked Bulletstorm though and from what I have heard Crysis 2 is one of the best shooters for a long time.

 

[Melllvar]

Dead Space 2 - Ew, disagree. I loved it, pretty sure it's my favorite of everything I've played this year. The first one was great too, but felt like 2 really kicked it up a notch. The last few chapters were really memorable (story-wise).

Dragon Age 2 - I'm in the middle of that one right now, so far the combat seems leagues better and I'm definitely not disliking the story. I never finished the first one though so I can't really compare. I think a lot of people have been critical of it.

Bulletstorm - Loved it, had the Grayson Hunt avatar/quote for a while because of it. The story and comedy were the best parts, IMO, the gameplay got kind of old after a while (reminded me of Serious Sam with lots of weak enemies running at you, without using a lot of tactics).

Haven't been able to get my hands on Crysis 2 yet, unfortunately. I'm definitely most looking forward to Mass Effect 3, but I'm pretty sure I'll have to hit up every game on that list eventually. It'd also be nice to know what PC gamers have in store for them. I'm kinda out of the loop on that.

 

[Jennywocky]

Only played DA2.

It would have faired much better if it had not been marketed as DA2. The biggest problem with it is that was more a spinoff rather than a direct descendent of DAO.

Still, I finished the game with a rogue, started 1-2 new characters ... and quit playing them after a day or two. Pretty bad when my $55 only got me about 8-10 days of interest.

.. ..... .. ..

Right now, I'm playing Rift.

 

[A22]

BF2 was awesome. BFBC2 was pretty lame in my opinion. I'll download BF3, if it's good I'll buy it.

I've finished all bulletstorm missions in 2 days. That sucks, 'cause it was a pretty good game. Bulletstorm 2 should be awesome - is there any development/release info?

Crysis 1 had a few issues but was cool. I'll download Crysis II and if it's good I'll buy it.

F.E.A.R 2 was pretty lame, I'm not intending to download the 3rd.

I'll take a look at L.A Noire, for being a Rockstar game

Far Cry 1 - Awesome. Far Cry 2 - Not so good. Far Cry 3 - Never heard about it . This is new for me, I'll take a look.

Batman should be nice too.

 

[ProxyAmenRa]

BF2 was awesome. BFBC2 was pretty lame in my opinion. I'll download BF3, if it's good I'll buy it.

I've finished all bulletstorm missions in 2 days. That sucks, 'cause it was a pretty good game. Bulletstorm 2 should be awesome - is there any development/release info?

Crysis 1 had a few issues but was cool. I'll download Crysis II and if it's good I'll buy it.

F.E.A.R 2 was pretty lame, I'm not intending to download the 3rd.

I'll take a look at L.A Noire, for being a Rockstar game

Far Cry 1 - Awesome. Far Cry 2 - Not so good. Far Cry 3 - Never heard about it . This is new for me, I'll take a look.

Batman should be nice too.

Wow, you're a hard person to please.

 

[A22]

Wow, you're a hard person to please.

Well I love tetris.

 

[Reluctantly]

Right now, I'm playing Rift.

Oh, do share your impression and experience with that game if you would be so inclined. I hear it's a promising MMO.

 

[Jennywocky]

Oh, do share your impression and experience with that game if you would be so inclined. I hear it's a promising MMO.

Generally, I would say that Rift cribbed WoW the way that WoW cribbed EQ2. There's a lot of stuff in terms of mechanisms and system/interface design that is just literally lifted out of WoW; they didn't bother to recreate the wheel... which actually might have made the most sense, because WoW players will immediately know what to do, Wow devs already did all the design work, and the Rift devs can just focus on innovation.

Best Feature #1: The three-soul skill system (where you can acquire up to three different talent trees to build synergy with). You can also change your trees at any point in the game, to do a completely new build. Each of the four classes (Mage, Fighter, Rogue, Cleric) has eight different souls for your character to work with; you have to use the eight within your class, but there's still some great synergy to explore.

Best Feature #2: You can acquire up to four "roles" AKA "builds" for your character, all using different talent trees. So instead of having to level up one character to Tank and another for DPS, you can use the same character for both, and all you do is switch to a different Role, once you set the Roles up. Very versatile, saves time. Equipment is the only thing you'd have to switch, really.

Best Feature #3: The real-time ad hoc Raiding system: Rifts open up, if you walk nearby you get an option to Join Public Group, and you're in. It is that easy. (Sometimes you just get added automatically, if you walk into the middle of it.) Looting is simplified, and you're basically Raiding while in the middle of another quest, and afterward you just go on your way. As someone who does NOT enjoy lengthy, precise Raid schedules that eat up my real life, I really like this. (And you get some Raid goodies along the way too.)

Best Feature #4: The Raids mentioned above occur because the world is being invaded via a Rift from another dimension, and it's your job to fend off the baddies. If you do not, they actually will sometimes wipe out an entire outpost, and you can't access the quests or stores there until you wipe out the invasion. Some invasions are small enough that one character (played right) can close the rift; others will need larger pick-up groups to end the invasion. It usually hasn't been much of a hassle, because players are constantly wandering by and joining the Raid, and I think it adds some flavor to anotherwise static Quest system.

I think those are the four major differences. There's minor stuff (like being able to have three trades instead of two, like in WoW), but you'll notice the similarities immediately. If you did like WoW, this basically gives you another world to explore; but if you like the additions to the system, then that's an added plus. I'm not sure what future changes they have planned, although right now there seems to be a huge planned world "Raid/invasion" occurring as part of the mythology.

 

[ElvenVeil]

best gamer years are imo 95 - 2002 ~

From Chrono Trigger to Morrowind. Then it just went down hill; Oblivion ! (do we have a puke smiley here?). I look forward to Skyrim and Diablo III , although I must admit I fear that Skyrim could be a failure that will reach oblivion proportions.

 

[Solitaire U.]

Another year of rehashed shit from the looks of it. F.E.A.R. 3? Far Cry 3? Battlefield/Mass Effect 2011 erm...I mean 3? With a cyberpunk that pre-dates Win XP, a metal-gear grinding stealth assassin senior citizen, and the king of hijacked one-liner's himself dredged up for a cameo appearance it's sure to be a banner year indeed. Too bad the Master Chief couldn't make it to the party this year. Deus ex machina indeed...Suck it Down!©

Pardon the lack of enthusiasm, but your list is just a reminder that the golden age of Video Gaming as a creative art is dead and the Disney-Pixar clones have taken over.

 

[Melllvar]

I've finished all bulletstorm missions in 2 days. That sucks, 'cause it was a pretty good game. Bulletstorm 2 should be awesome - is there any development/release info?

Considering the last one was just released I haven't heard anything about Bulletstorm 2, but considering it sold well and the ending pretty much said, "Fuck yeah we're gonna make a sequel," I can only imagine it'll be out in 2-3 years.

F.E.A.R 2 was pretty lame, I'm not intending to download the 3rd.

I know what you mean, although I liked that they at least widened the variety of enemies in Fear 2. The reason I put Fear 3 on the list is that, from what I've seen, it may be a lot better than 2. It seems like the game has a heavy co-op aspect (in single player), where one person can play as the point man and another person plays as Paxton Fettel. They get different abilities and have to work together, with point man doing the usual bullet-time stuff and Fettel being able to possess enemies. So I think they might be getting the series back on track with this one (or maybe not).

Also it's supposed to have a weird multiplayer mode where four players have to fight through enemies to reach checkpoints, but there's an ever impending wall of death that will instantly kill the entire team if it touches any one of them following. Sounded kinda intense.

I'll take a look at L.A Noire, for being a Rockstar game

I'm mainly interested because of their new MotionScan tech:

MotionScan

There was also an article from the QuanticDream people (Heavy Rain developers) saying that it was a "dead end" and that the stuff they were working on was a lot better, which sounds pretty good.

 

[Melllvar]

Another year of rehashed shit from the looks of it. F.E.A.R. 3? Far Cry 3? Battlefield/Mass Effect 2011 erm...I mean 3? With a cyberpunk that pre-dates Win XP, a metal-gear grinding stealth assassin senior citizen, and the king of hijacked one-liner's himself dredged up for a cameo appearance it's sure to be a banner year indeed. Too bad the Master Chief couldn't make it to the party this year. Deus ex machina indeed...Suck it Down!©

Pardon the lack of enthusiasm, but your list is just a reminder that the golden age of Video Gaming as a creative art is dead and the Disney-Pixar clones have taken over.

Ah, this thing again. I don't really know what to say except that I like seeing great gameplay refined and innovated, great storylines continued, and amazing virtual worlds further expanded on. The list does contain a lot of sequels (I've actually been thinking of this as the "Year of 3's", for obvious reasons). There are a lot of new IPs coming out too, but I left them off since it's harder to tell if they'll actually be good or not. I don't think anyone has much doubt that new Uncharted or Elder Scrolls games are going to be awesome.

Beyond that, developers have incentive to reuse IP (whether it's a good or bad incentive is another question). The best thing a new studio can really hope for is to launch a blockbuster game and rake in bajillions every year or two with another sequel, without having to start from scratch all over again. It's kind of annoying when they decide to over-milk their products and then run them into the ground (Tony Hawk, Call of Duty), but that's what game buyers reflect. I forget the exact statistics, but only about the top 10 or 20 games each year actually turn a noticable profit. All the new IPs that come out are basically hoping to launch a big franchise that they can milk for all it's worth.

Personally I think games have just gotten continually better. Every year they find cool new ways to improve, beyond just graphics. My favorite new thing is decision-making carrying over between games (e.g. Mass Effect series), although augmented reality and motion control isn't bad either (if you disagree you probably haven't played Heavy Rain with Move support). Would gaming really be better if instead of making extended series, every game was a new experimental IP that might bomb (think of all the new IPs that basically sucked: Ninja Blade, Venetica, Quantum Theory*, Damnation*, etc.), or if they stayed stuck with the gameplay and graphics from 2001? No, sorry, I think 2011 is probably the Golden Age of gaming. Can't even imagine what 2021 is going to be like.

There was a semi-relevant opinion piece on Gamasutra a while ago: Tetrists vs. Narrativists, although it's not an exact parallel for this discussion.


* Both of these games (Quantum Theory and Damnation) were completely horrible, two of the worst games I've ever played, but they actually had pretty good premises (IMO), they just got severely fucked up by bad game design and (probably) publishers pushing the release date a year or two ahead of where it should have been, or deciding to cut their losses, release it before it was ready and move on to something else.

 

[A22]

About LA Noire: Wow. I didn't know that. It's shame it is console only.

 

[Hadoblado]

Ummmm... Starcraft 2 came out LAST year.

End of discussion.

 

[Causeless]

No, sorry, I think 2011 is probably the Golden Age of gaming.

Have to disagree with you there, 1998 was the Golden Age of Video Games.

(Though, you DID phrase it as the Golden Age of gaming, not games, which could be argued. Never before have there been so many gamers, connecting so easily... Never before has the gaming community been so diverse! The industry grows every year, too. Adding jobs, expanding the reach of the technology... We are in a golden age for our kindred definitely, if not for the somewhat lacking vision of mainstream developers of late. Anyway, you get my drift.)

 

[Melllvar]

(Though, you DID phrase it as the Golden Age of gaming, not games, which could be argued. Never before have there been so many gamers, connecting so easily... Never before has the gaming community been so diverse! The industry grows every year, too. Adding jobs, expanding the reach of the technology... We are in a golden age for our kindred definitely, if not for the somewhat lacking vision of mainstream developers of late. Anyway, you get my drift.)

Ok, Golden Age might be a strong term for how I feel about anything. I was mainly just arguing that I think games have gotten continually better, not worse, and are still improving every year. Apparently some people feel differently, but I'm not really sure why, unless they just have nostalgia for the past.

Anywho, I'm gonna keep updating this thread when cool new stuff happens, starting with...

1. Gears of War 3 multiplayer beta starts tomorrow for 360 Bulletstorm owners, April 25th for people who preordered, and lasts until May 15th apparently. If anyone's playing post your gamertag in the gamertag thread.
​

GoW3 Beta Preview

2. Portal 2 releases tomorrow night (technically Tuesday) for North America and Steam, think it's Thursday for AU and EU.
​

Portal 2 Demo

3. Apparently John Carpenter worked on (wrote?) the story and cutscenes for F.E.A.R. 3... so they at least have that going for them.​

 

[Hadoblado]

eh my friend is really into the gaming industry, even though he's not part of it. There are phrases I hear from him that ring a bell with my own perspective.

- The invention of motion controllers has taken the focus of games away from gameplay and given it to the production of stupid casual gimmicky gaming.
- the length of a game to completion is often very short, there is no longer the feel of playing through a truly epic game. A perfect example being morrowind - oblivion, though this was a while ago.
- emphasis on graphics instead of story line and gameplay.
- emphasis on small learning curves over customisation and depth of gameplay (dragon age 1 & 2).

He also mentioned some shocking statistic about the success of facebook "games", which serves only to sadden me.

I might play portal II, but other than that I've stopped playing games with the single exception of starcraft II which I play lots.

 

[kantor1003]

best gamer years are imo 95 - 2002 ~

From Chrono Trigger to Morrowind. Then it just went down hill; Oblivion ! (do we have a puke smiley here?). I look forward to Skyrim and Diablo III , although I must admit I fear that Skyrim could be a failure that will reach oblivion proportions.

Funny you mentioned two of my favorite games; Chrono Trigger and morrowind, a game I almost wasted a year playing. Please Bethesda, don't fuck me over with skyrim. I think it will be the last chance I'm willing to give to one of my favorite game developers. Oblivion was terrible. When you started out in morrowind you would have a difficult time slaying a rat, not to mention all the things that would utterly gut you if you dared to venture far outside the confines of the city walls. In oblivion you could pretty much kill anything from the get go and the tougher enemies wasn't introduced before you leveled higher up. Hopefully, Skyrim will appeal more to the hardcore rpg fans and not be stripped down to the point where even kids in diapers are able to play it. I want an rpg game, not a fable 3 esque adventure game.

 

[Hadoblado]

Kantor, have you ever tried adjusting the difficulty levels? I tried making a character that could be effective (without being some sort of hack/glitch abuser) on the hardest level of difficulty but failed miserably... It was hard to beat wolves and imps...

 

[Jesse]

I consider 1999 and 2007 to be golden years. This year could be just as strong and it's definitely stronger than last year.

 

[BitRogue]

My 2c for this years games (and I suppose just gaming in general lately) I've gone off MMOs in a big way, I spent 6 months on EVE last year and a considerable time on Guild Wars before that and the human interaction element did nothing for me.

So lately I've been trying to see what games are coming out that are focussing on a good single player element, and to be fair, Im struggling to find anything original, or at least inspiring, to play. This years titles that I do have my eye on are
Mass Effect 3
Fallout: New Vegas
Dragon Age 2
Brink
Skyrim
Rage

Homecoming was on there but I've gone off it now after reading up some rather lame things about the game, that and the fact that it basically copies Call of Duty's gameplay.
Im a bit worried that the focus of Brink is going to be multiplay, in which case I probably wont buy it. I really wanted more of Borderlands style sweetness. Maybe Rage will succeed?
DA2, I might still buy, but since I complained a lot about DA1, its starting to look less likely. Oh please bring back the Neverwinter Nights gaming awesomeness (and not the new MMO that seems around the corner)
So its just down to Mass Effect3 and Fallout: New Vegas, and possibly Rage and Skyrim

The thing about gaming in this age is that never before have we had games with the kind of awesome visuals we are getting now. Its truly overwhelming how beautiful some of these games are. But sadly, what has been happening is that we are just being fed FPS copies regurgitated over and over again. Everything is focussed on console simplicity and I dont know if anyone has noticed but there are some genres which are all but gone these days because development houses have decided that they dont bring in the money.
When last did anyone see a spacesim, X3: Terran Conflict being the last I saw?
How about a true RPG, like NWN?
Or a good quest adventure like Dreamfall?

We are getting better looking games, but not necessarily better games. I'd add that while I can't complain about stories in games, I can also get a good story by just watching a movie or reading a book. To me, games these days all just run on rails. Anyway, just my 2c

 

[RubberDucky451]

Like BitRogue said, most of the current games are FPS remakes or lack any real story. We need a gaming renaissance.

I'm looking forward to skyrim because it's one of the few RPG franchises that are still going strong. Although I still prefer morrowind over oblivion. LA Noire also looks intriguing.

 

[Cogwulf]

When last did anyone see a spacesim, X3: Terran Conflict being the last I saw?

Actually a new game in the x series has just been announced
http://www.egosoft.com/games/x_rebirth/info_en.php

Your point still stands though because at the moment it's just one developer out of all of those out there making such a game.

 

[BitRogue]

Actually a new game in the x series has just been announced
http://www.egosoft.com/games/x_rebirth/info_en.php

Ah yes, the guys over on the spacesim forums mentioned something about an upcoming announcement from Egosoft - I guess this must be it.

Your point still stands though because at the moment it's just one developer out of all of those out there making such a game.

There are some folks on the open source side of things trying their hand at filling the void. The problem there being that these projects never seem to reach any form of completion. (Though depending on the context, it may not necessarily be a bad thing). The one Im keeping my eye on at the moment is Pioneer : http://pioneerspacesim.net/

 

[Architectonic]

Also a lot of money gone, unless you have some system for piracy/borrowing/renting/etc. ]

LOL. I can tell you are young.

For me the problem is time and RSI.

I only play games that are rated 9+/10 or very close to it.

Have you played any of those games already released? I've only played DA2 and it was kind of meh. And I'm reluctant to play Crysis 2 as I thought the first one wasn't that great. Portal 2 seems to be popular, but I never played the first one.

A lot of people get nostalgia for older games. But try playing Morrowind or Fallout 1 and you'll realise that they aren't actually that great compared to todays best games. I guess the goalposts have been moved.

 

[Melllvar]

LOL. I can tell you are young.

For me the problem is time and RSI.

Actually, according to your profile we're the exact same age. But there were 26 games on that list; if I bought them all new it would cost over $1,500. I consider that amount spent on games in one year to be 'a lot'. So... maybe you just make more money than I do?

Either way, the time thing is a big issue too. I don't have time to get nearly as in depth in as many games as I would like (multiplayer in particular often gets neglected).

Have you played any of those games already released? I've only played DA2 and it was kind of meh. And I'm reluctant to play Crysis 2 as I thought the first one wasn't that great. Portal 2 seems to be popular, but I never played the first one.

The only ones that I haven't played are Portal 2 and Crysis 2 (also the Gears of War beta - it's the time thing again).

A lot of people get nostalgia for older games. But try playing Morrowind or Fallout 1 and you'll realise that they aren't actually that great compared to todays best games. I guess the goalposts have been moved.

I agree.

---------------------------

Morrowind vs. Oblivion:
​

Speaking of the comments on Morrowind > Oblivion, I personally would rather play Oblivion if for no other reason than the fast travel option. Walking around everywhere (minus the striders) in that giant world in Morrowind was annoying as fuck.

Also about the difficulty, you could make either one easy just by customizing your character right. In Morrowind you just had to set your talents as things that were really easy to level up, regardless of whether you used them or not. For example, I would pick all armor skills and then just go stand there in the first room with the rats and let them attack me for a couple of hours straight, while spamming a healing spell. I'd end up a high-level character before the end of the first mission.

Then I tried that again when I started Oblivion, and found the enemies you face depend on your level. So I ended up fighting the hardest enemies in the game at the start of the first mission. Solution? Restart, customize character to level up only with skills that I absolutely never used, and play through the entire game without even making it as high as level 5.

This actually reminds me of a quote I heard from some big shot famous game developer once. Can't remember who or the exact quote, but it basically said, "If you leave a way to play your game that is really tedious and boring, but which will guarantee victory every time, the player will choose to play the game that way and then claim that your game was tedious and boring."

Anyway, point is that I disagree it was any harder or easier to 'cheat' the leveling system in one game than the other.

 

[Hadoblado]

I find it is up to the developer to make sure there is no way to break the game in a boring way. I find it very, very difficult not to make very powerful characters, especially in morrowind and oblivion where every point in endurance is not retroactive, and levelups are not automatically equal. It's like the developers want you to grind for the perfect character.

 

[Architectonic]

The games that have come out have been disappointing so far. The Witcher 2 was decent (but felt like it was too short!), but the rest were below average. Skyrim will be entertaining even if it falls short of the mark, but will it be out in 2011?

 

[Jordan~]

I'm excited about Mass Effect 3 (mostly because it has a gay romance) and Portal 2 was great and I'm kinda looking forward to Skyrim, the rest I could take or leave. Oh, and I'm inordinately excited about the pets expansion for The Sims 3. I may not be able to have a real dog, but by Jove will I have a shitton of pixellated ones. Most of them wolves.

 

[Architectonic]

Mass Effect 3 is going to be a 2012 game.

 

[monsterfurby]

I don't know. 1998 had:

Final Fantasy Tactics
Unreal
Tekken 3
Starcraft
Metal Gear Solid
Baldur's Gate
Pokemon (hey, the first games were actually innovative!)
Half Life
Grim Fandango
Thief: The Dark Project
Zelda: Ocarina of Time
I-War
Banjo-Kazooie

It probably depends a lot on personal preference, too. Most of the games you named I couldn't care less about (all shooters, basically), and I doubt those will have as much of an impact as the '98 titles and those of many other years. So, ultimately: good year? Yeah. Best year? No way.

 

[darude11]

2011's looking to be a damn good year for gamers. Much better than 2010, at least, which may be due to some of 2010's best games getting pushed back to 2011. Among other things, we've already seen the release of:

Dead Space 2
Killzone 3
Bulletstorm
Crysis 2
Dragon Age 2

and still have lots more to look forward to:

Uncharted 3
Infamous 2
The Last Guardian
Red Faction: Armageddon
Battlefield 3
Mass Effect 3
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Brink
Portal 2
F.E.A.R. 3
Duke Nukem Forever
L.A. Noire
Alice: Madness Returns
Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
Far Cry 3
Resistance 3
Rage
Gears of War 3
Batman: Arkham City
Metal Gear Solid Rising
Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim
Bioshock Infinite(?)

... among others.

Put simply, that's a lot of good games. Also a lot of money gone, unless you have some system for piracy/borrowing/renting/etc. I don't even know where to start being excited, and that's not even a complete list. This is going to be a demanding schedule for the avid gamer. Can we keep up? Will it break us? Only time will tell.

Point is I can't spam the gaming section with a thread for each game coming out that deserves it, so I made this thread to solve that problem. NOW EVERYONE GET EXCITED!!!!
​

Hey!
Where have you left the AC: Revelations?! It is the one from most waited games! Well... by myself (Portal reference)
And how about AC: Brotherhood? (Well, only for PC's)
Portal 2?
I don't know what kind of carp
Minecraft 1.X (actually 1.7, still updating)

 

[dialectical_stew]

How are games getting continually better? The most ground-breaking gameplay mechanic implemented in the last 5-10 years is probably the ability to take cover behind things.

Woo. Party time. Until the next Populous/Civilization or the like comes along, I'll be crying in the corner.

 

[Cognisant]

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Gnhneengnnhhnenhhh!

 

[Causeless]

I don't know. 1998 had:

Final Fantasy Tactics
Unreal
Tekken 3
Starcraft
Metal Gear Solid
Baldur's Gate
Pokemon (hey, the first games were actually innovative!)
Half Life
Grim Fandango
Thief: The Dark Project
Zelda: Ocarina of Time
I-War
Banjo-Kazooie

DAMN! I knew most of those, but had forgotten FFT came out that year as well.

My buddy and I still play that freakin' game.

 

[Froyo]

Yea, the graphics have gotten better and so on, but I don't see much innovation. Everything is being rehashed with improved graphics which is great and everything but not my ideal. I remember how exciting it was when the first Mass Effect and the first Crysis came out. Those were truly unique games when they came out and amazing to play. Those are just examples based on the initial list of games mentioned. I'm looking at monsterfurby's 1998 list and that has a lot more revolutionary games. Half life, Starcraft, Zelda: Ocarina of Time all get mentioned on the best games of all time lists.

The games I'm looking forward to most are: Mass Effect 3, Battlefield 3, Rage, and whenever Diablo 3 comes out. But I'm not too excited this year.

 

[Causeless]

The games I'm looking forward to most are: Mass Effect 3, Battlefield 3, Rage, and whenever Diablo 3 comes out. But I'm not too excited this year.

Diablo 3 should be fun.

I was worried at first that it would mostly just be a graphical upgrade, or that Blizzard would go the other direction and try and take the series to FAR away from what the original Diablo games were, but they seem to be doing it right and taking a happy medium: A new 3d engie, all the old fun, some new classes and some old, and some new gameplay mechanics that result in more choice for the player to keep things interesting.

 

[Froyo]

Diablo 3 should be fun.

I was worried at first that it would mostly just be a graphical upgrade, or that Blizzard would go the other direction and try and take the series to FAR away from what the original Diablo games were, but they seem to be doing it right and taking a happy medium: A new 3d engie, all the old fun, some new classes and some old, and some new gameplay mechanics that result in more choice for the player to keep things interesting.

Yes, I have high expectations for the game. I find Blizzard to be one of the best video game developers. All their games are all high quality although they only stick with 3 franchises: Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo. The only other modern video game developer that compares is Valve.

 

[420MuNkEy]

Crysis 2: 1st one sucked and the 2nd didn't deviate from that. It's a graphics benchmark, not a game.

Dragon Age 2: Major disappointment. It's not even in the same realm as the first. It's pandering to a generation of gamers who want shiny games and don't care about depth (ie, console gamers).

Battlefield 3: Looked pretty badass

Mass Effect 3: Hated the 2nd one and I doubt the 3rd will be as good as the first.

Portal 2: Same problem as Dragon Age 2 had (made for the console gamers). No depth and laughably simple puzzles. It was also dumbed down a lot so that it would run on consoles (admitted by Valve in the commentary). It would have been a lot better if they didn't have to limit the PC version to what the consoles were capable of or if they actually made puzzles rather than just introduced all the cool elements in a linear fashion and then (almost) never using them again.

Duke Nukem Forever: The only complaint I have about this is the fact that it got bad reviews. I don't know what the reviewers were expecting. It'll kill you old-style, just like Duke intended.

Far Cry 3: Far Cry 2 sucked worse than words can describe, but was beautiful. It's hard to know if it'll be good without playing it.

Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim: Looking forward to playing it. Hopefully navigation in the game isn't awkward like all other Bethesda games.
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