Friday, January 06, 2012

The Video Game Post, 2012 Edition

Last year,  I made a similar video game post.  One of the things I wrote about is how I do not play video games as much as I use to.  In 2011, this became even more true.  I think the truth of the matter is that in the realm of video games I may be transitioning to a more casual player.  Evidence of this is the fact that unlike the past years I will not be posting a top ten list of my favorite video games of 2011. I will not even be posting a top five list.  I tried to put together a list, but I did not have five games that I liked this year.  I only bought three Xbox 360 games.  I liked one, disliked one, and was disappointed by the other.  The best I can offer is a top three list, so here are my best experiences with video games from 2011.

The best video game I played in 2011 was Batman Arkham City.  In fact, it is among the best video games I have ever played.  Everything about the game, the controls, graphics, music, and storyline work together perfectly to craft a fantastic batman story.  In this game I felt like I was playing Batman.  The original game, Arkham Asylum, was good but this one blew it away.  The second best game experience I had was Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare.  This  expansion pack for Red Dead Redemption introduced zombies into the wild west.   The length of the expansion was perfect.  Unlike the base game, Undead Nightmare did not outwear it's welcome and killing zombies is always fun.  The Wild West and zombies were a perfect mix.  Finally, the best iOS game I played in 2011 was Starbase Orion.  This 4X game is fairly light, but the controls are perfect for the iPad.  I played through it many times over the Fall.

In my video game post last year I also made mention of the agreement that Abigail and I have to get five video games a year, and I posted the games that I am considering.  One of the reasons that I only got three games this year is because the majority of the games I was interested in were delayed until this year.  This makes things harder this year, as there are potentially more games that I am interested in.  So here are the video games I am looking forward to in 2012:

Skyrim:  Technically, this game came out in 2011, but is the video game that I am most want to play.  Skyrim is an open world RPG.  This means that there is a big open world.  While there is a story, the players really get to define their own experience.   The previous game in Oblivion, was amazing, and I played it for well over 100 hours.  At some point in 2012 Skyrim should either drop a little in price or have a game of the year edition released.  Once of the those things happen, I plan on getting Skyrim.  It will for sure be one of the five games that I get this year.

Mass Effect 3:  I have blogged before about how much I enjoy the Mass Effect series.  I stand by my previous statement that Mass Effect is the best story I have ever experienced.  This is not because the story is so incredible (though it is good), it is because of the immersion within the story the game creates.  Mass Effect 2 continued this excellence, and I am very much looking forward to the final chapter.

Soul Calibur V:  I am a causal fan of fighting games.  I think this is mostly because two fighting games, Soul Calibur III and Mortal Kombat: Deception were everything I wanted from a fighting game.  However, every fighting game I have played since then has been a disappointment because they offer such a barebones single player experience.  I enjoyed Soul Calibur IV, so following up with the next game seems like a good choice.

Halo 4:  It is Halo.  I like Halo, and I have all of them.  This will be a great single player game and the multiplayer will be good as well.  This is also an absolute must get.

Aliens Colonial Marines:  This year a FPS about Aliens will be coming out.  It is made by Gearbox, and I have enjoyed their Brothers in Arms WWII games.  An Aliens game where I get to play as a Space Marine has a lot of potential, and I think the co-op multiplayer would be a blast.

Racoon City:  Racoon City is related to the Resident Evil game series.  Unlike previous Resident Evil games that have clunky third person controls, this is a full on first person shooter.  A first person shooter about shooting zombies.  Any shooter about blasting zombies is one that is of interest to me.  However, I will want to wait for reviews because first person shooters are a very western style of game, and Capcom is a very Japanese developer.  Sometimes when these two things cross it does not always work out.

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier:  I really liked the Ghost Recon Advance Warfighter games.  This is the next game related to that.  However, the first iteration of Future Soldier was very troubled and re-done.  This is another games I will want to read reviews about to see how it has panned out.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2:  I am just assuming this game is coming out, since there has been a new Call of Duty every year that the Xbox 360 has been out.   I was very let down and did not care for this year's Call of Duty.  The game this year will be made by Treyarch games, and I do tend to like the Treyarch games more.  However, I am wondering if I might want to take a break from Call of Duty this year, so I can experience other games.  It will really come down to the reviews for Racoon City and Future Soldier.  If I get one of those, then I will be very tempted to skip out on Call of Duty.

Soul Calibur V comes out at the end of this month, so I will need to begin deciding which five games I  might want to get soon.

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