Last week Bojeeva posted his Top 5 most anticipated games for 2010, and this week I’m posting mine, but to add a little interest, our Top 5s are going to go head to head. Essentially, we’ll be adding up the review scores from IGN, Eurogamer and Gamespot for each game, then adding the scores of all the games together. Whoever’s Top 5 scores the highest gets a couple of crisp notes.Why? Well, for starters I’m sick of being on the losing end of our seasonal Arsenal/Utd bet, but also because it adds even greater weight of expectation to the games as we buy them, and turns the normally mundane experience of reading online reviews into something with a rooting interest akin to Fantasy Football. On top of that, it will tempt us to review the reviewers, and, of course, it has the potential for upsets and reversals.
Just to be fair, I’m leaving Bayonetta off my list. It would probably rank as one of my Top 5 most anticipated games of 2010, and its not out yet, but we all know already how highly it’s going to score, so including it in my list would be a cheap shot, and I like to save my cheap shots for when nobody is looking.
So, in reverse order, these are my most anticipated games of 2010...
5. Mass Effect 2I’m among that small group of people who weren’t that impressed with Mass Effect. The story was great, as was the sense that your in game choices were having a sizeable effect on the plot and the broader game universe. On the other hand, the combat stank, the team mates were barely adequate bulletstoppers and there was no point in doing the dull, repetetive side missions. And couldn’t it bang on? And on. And on. It’s quite likely that Mass Effect 2 will also be all talk, but I can forgive that if Bioware makes good on it’s promise to tidy up the clunky cover and soporific shooting and make the galaxy worth exploring. Add to that the sense of a persistent universe created by Mass Effect 2’s promise to use your Mass Effect save file to bring the life changing decisions you made in the original into the sequel, and you’ve got a game that’s determined to build on it’s strengths and fix its weaknesses.
4. Heavy RainI’ve got an Xbox 360, a Wii, a Mac and a PC, and until I heard about Heavy Rain I’d never once regretted the absence of a PS3 from that list. Now though, I’ll either have to start saving or console borrowing, because I really fancy a bit of Quantic Dream’s conceptual thriller Following four characters linked by a serial killer, Heavy Rain has the potential to be a genuine step forward in gaming, one that puts narrative and character before action and interaction. Of course, it is possible that a game in which you have to brush your teeth and help dress your son for school might well turn out to be too close to everyday real life to be interesting. It is possible that a game that will continue to unfold its story regardless of whether you’ve managed to kill off one or more of your characters will consequently feel less like a game and more like a movie with button prompts. On the other hand, its also possible that the focus on human relationships and the finality of death will make Heavy Rain the most emotionally involving, high stakes game you’ve ever played. I’m choosing to be optimistic and expect a revolutionary gaming experience.
3. Alan WakeI love a bit of survival horror, be it early Resident Evils and Silent Hills, neglected gems like Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem, or even grisly, action-packed versions of the genre like Dead Space, but it has to said that survival horror as a genre seems to be in trouble these days. Silent Hill is a laughable shadow of it’s old self, Resdient Evil has become a shooter, and Dead Space was a bit of a one-trick pony, and more focused on shocks than suspense. So why am I so sure that the oft-delayed Alan Wake will buck the genre’s downward trend? Er…I’m not. It might stink. The reason I’m so excited about Alan Wake is because at least half the articles that mention it have name checked Twin Peaks when trying to describe Alan Wake’s look and feel, and anything that can evoke the stratospheric high points of David Lynch and Mark Frost’s patchy but brilliant early 90s drama/murder mystery/soap opera pastiche has to be worth a look.
2. Crackdown 2I was a late convert to the original Crackdown. Never a wholehearted believer in the wisdom of crowds, I tended to ignore the praise heaped on it from all quarters and instead trusted my own instincts, which suggested that the perfunctory, barely-there plot (three islands, three gangs, 21 gang leaders, go kill) would be too shallow and shapeless to provide the game with any sense of progression. So, I was wrong about that, eh? The urge to collect more orbs, to leap taller buildings, to drive cars faster, to aim sharper, to throw further, these ever improving attributes provided Crackdown with all the impetus normally granted by plot twists and changing environments, as well as making it completely addictive. To be honest, Crackdown 2 could be a simple retread of the original and I’d still be keen to play it, but the fact that it promises to add a day/night cycle that affects the type of enemies you face to existing template of running, jumping, kicking cars makes it a must have. It’s also the only game to appear on both my list and Bojeeva’s, making it the Wayne Rooney of videogame review fantasy football.
1. Red Dead RedemptionI can hardly tell you how much I’m looking forward to Red Dead Redemption. In fact, I can hardly tell you why I’m looking forward to Red Dead Redemption, but I am. Lets be honest, it’s predecessor, the slightly tongue-in-cheek Red Dead Revolver was good, but not stellar. The two Call of Juarez games were fun but felt a little like Call of Duty with a cowboy skin and some banjos, and much as I adored playing Gun back in the day, I can’t pretend that it was much more than a technicolour Saturday matinee of a western game with a slo-mo mechanic that was already starting to look unoriginal even back then. So why do I think Red Dead Redemption will buck the trend? For starters, it’s an open world game from Rockstar San Diego, the company (if not the particular division) responsible for open world gaming’s finest moments, The Grand Theft Auto series. In the best westerns the landscape becomes practically another character, so Rockstar’s ability to create living, breathing, endlessly fascinating open-world landscapes for you to explore looks likely to be a huge and fitting selling point for Red Dead Redemption. Add to that the good looks and evocative character designs currently on display in the trailer, what appears to be an intriguing plot concerning an outlaw becoming an unwilling agent for the law, and Rockstar’s promise of hitherto unseen naturalism in the integration of plot, side missions and environment, and you have my pick for the most exciting game of 2010.
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