The Big Games of 2012

2011 is finally done and it was awesome. Now the question is, can 2012's list of big games be as good as 2011? you decide. Looks like a decent lineup to me. Check the big games that are said to be released in 2012.

Bioshock Infinite

Developers - Irrational Games Publishers - 2k Games Release Date - June 1, 2012 Platforms - Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PC

I loved Bioshock. The world of Rapture was such a treat to explore. Irrational Games is taking a break from the underwater world and provide a setting that's completely opposite. Bioshock Infinite is set on a city in the sky, a city called "Columbia" that has giant blimps and balloons to keep the city afloat. Just like Rapture, it looks gorgeous and the change in setting is perfect to bring the Bioshock franchise forward.

Max Payne 3

Developers - Rockstar vancouver, New England, London, and Toronto Publishers - Rockstar Games Release Date - March 2012 Platforms - Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PC

Max Payne is back, and with how amazing Rockstar is as a studio now I can't wait to play the third installment of Max Payne. Everything you remember about Max Payne will be back especially the famous bullet-time feature known in past Max Payne games. For the first time, they will be introducing multiplayer(go figure)

Diablo 3

Developers - Blizzard Entertainment Publishers - Blizzard Entertainment Release Date - 2012(Hopefully) Platforms - PC

It will happen. This game will be released eventually. Diablo 3 has been on beta testing for months so its only a matter of time until we get a release date. just hold your breathe a little bit longer.

Dragon's Dogma

Developers - Capcom Publishers - Capcom Release Date - March 27, 2012 Platforms - Playstation 3, Xbox 360

Capcom's latest title. Dragon's Dogma is Monster Hunter meets Shadow of Collosus minus the multiplayer elements which kinda sucks. The game pits you against mythical monster like gryphons, hydra's, and of course dragons. Capcom aims to give you the complete experience of fighting these huge monsters instead of just hacking away in their feet in other games. Its going to be an open world game with around 30-100 hours of content.

Halo 4

Developers - 343 Industries Publishiers - Microsoft Studios Release Date - Holiday 2012 Platforms - Xbox 360

Not much of a surprise when they revealed Halo 4. What's more shocking is that Halo 4 will not be developed by Bungie, the team who pretty much started this franchise. Not only that, it is said to be another trilogy. So aftter four, expect five and six. Not much has been revealed since it's reveal in E3 2011 but expect its release at the end of the year.

Mass Effect 3

Developers - Bioware Publishiers - Electronic Arts Release Date - March 6, 2012 Platforms - Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC

The final chapter of Commander Shepard. The reapers have finally arrived and are invading earth. Can't wait to see the epic conclusion. I got my save file all set up to be imported  into the game and ready to use that sweet tech blade added into the game. In terms of gameplay, nothing much has changed, just improved hopefully for the better.

Tomb Raider

Developers - Crystal Dynamics Publishiers - Square Enix Release Date - Q3 2012 Platforms - Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PC

This isn't a new game, its a reboot of the franchise. This new Tomb Raider will be an origins story of the famous Lara Croft, and how she came to be. First look of the game was revealed in E3 2011 and was pretty impressive. One of the best reveals during E3. They say it won't play like the old Tomb Raider and the main focus of gameplay is survival.

There are tons of other  big games to look out for like Twisted Metal, Final Fantasy XIII-2, Prey 2, Borderlands 2, the yearly games for the Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed franchises. I haven't even touched the handheld games coming this year. With Vita coming out, that's another list of games to look out for, not to mention the 3DS games. If there are any more you think should be mentioned or can't wait to get this year, hit the comments. Looks like 2012 might be another good year.

Our Top 5 Best Games of 2011 [Update: Migoy's Top 5 added]

2012 is only hours away and just like last year, we came up with our top 5 games of the year. It was yet another amazing year for gaming. 2010 was great and all and had good announcements, but those announcements became a reality in 2011. This year had so many big titles coming out all at once that made all our wallet's bleed. There was a lot to pick from for our top 5 so it was definitely a tough one. With how great 2011 was, it made me wonder, can 2012 be just as great or even better? There were so many great triple A titles that I still can't believe all them came out in a span of just one year. From the start of the year, until the end, there was always that big title that people have been eagerly anticipating for release. Sadly, we didn't get a chance to try ALL the big games that 2011 has to offer so we only consider games that we've played during 2011.

Quash's Top 5 Games of 2011

#5 L.A Noire

Oh Rockstar, thank you for releasing an amazing game each year. I think I'll always have a Rockstar game on my top five. L.A Noire was simply amazing. While it was not perfect, it was a successful first attempt to immerse a player with actual police work with interrogation and all. A unique game that you might not see in a long time. The new technology used to capture the facial expressions from actors is just genius. It worked so well that it succeeded in making it a clue for players to identify if the person being questioned is either lying or telling the truth. Definitely a must try.

#4 Batman: Arkham City

This is the best video game based on a comic book character to date. The freeflow combat and the sneaking around is just perfect. It literally feels like you're playing Batman. If you've played Batman: Arkham Asylum, then you know what to expect. My only problem on the first game was that you're restricted in just the Asylum. Well now that complaint is gone since we have a whole city to roam around in. With how stunning Arkham City looked, it's one of the best looking games of 2011.

#3 Dark Souls

God this game was a freakin pain in the ass. I died numerous times were I wanted to throw my damn controller for dying over and over. I got over it, got better at the game and is one of the best games I've played.  Character customization is so deep, the boss fights are epic and oh so challenging, and the game has online features that you will never find anywhere else. It's a sequel to the painful Demon's Souls and is now an open world game. Yes, it's very challenging, but to be honest, that's the beauty of Dark Souls. Give it a chance and you'll probably regret it. Stick to it, and you'll be just as amazed and satisfied as I am when I finished the game.

#2  Portal 2 

To put it simple, this was just one of the most well crafted video games I've ever played. Literally pure genius and was such a treat going through its 10+ hour campaign. It has quite a complex concept, at the same time it first started out as a side game for Half Life 2. People honestly started buying Orange Box just for Portal. It was just really good. The sequel is now a full retail game and just got everything right.  From the well designed puzzles that have a perfect difficulty curve, to the hilarious dialogue between Wheatley and the famous GLaDOS. Any gamer or even a non-gamer will appreciate Portal 2. It's that good.

#1 Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

Literally blown away by Skyrim. One of the most anticipated game on my list. Since its been years since the last one, my expectations of Skyrim was damn high. When I finally got a chance to play the game, I was gone for days and was over satisfied with what this game has to offer.  Surpassed my expectations easily.

The new leveling system with perks and all just made the game so much better and of course you can't forget the amount of content this game has. This game can easily clock over 100 hours. Game looks amazing and the fact that you can be and do whatever you want is just great. Skyrim for me is the best Elder Scrolls to date, and possibly the best western RPG out now. If you haven't played Skyrim, you're missing out.

What about you guys? what's your top 5 games of 2011?

Migoy's Top 5 Games of 2011

Yet another great year for gaming. A lot of big releases and empty wallets plus I finally got a PS3 even though we are arguably at the end of the PS3's life span. Now being late to the current gen HD gaming party, I missed out on a lot of great titles released this year so forgive me if my list is a little unorthodox but here are my Top 5 video games of 2011.

5. Beyblade: Metal Fusion (DS)

I may be the only living person in this world that would out a Beyblade video game in his Top 5 games of the year. I originally got this game just for shits and giggles, sure the real thing is a fun little spinning top toy and usually games based of movies, animes and especially childrens toys are just made for a quick cash-in. To be honest the game surprised me very much and in a positive manner too. Previous Beyblade games have been nothing more than a either a digital simulator of the real thing where you barely had any control aside from waiting for a super bar to fill up and activating it or some campy RPG/plaformer with characters from the show.

This one felt like a legit video game. You spin your top and instead of just watching it clash with another, you could actually move it around, attack, jump, and defend while all fighting against the physics of a spinning top which, in my opinion, was very well done considering that this is a DS game and usually details like that are forgotten given the nature of the source material in general.

I know you must all thing this is pretty bogus to be in my Top 5 or even on my gaming radar but hey, there must have been SOMETHING in the game that let me spent a good 30 hours of my life on it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lHk4v_KMUg[/youtube]

4. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii)

This may not be the "Ocarina of Time" killer that some people been claiming and it may also not be the best Zelda game out there but Nintendo did a damn good job with what they were going for in what I would say is the real Zelda release for the Wii.

Most people say that the first hour or so of the game is super boring which I can see the merit of their opinion but after Twilight Princess' boring ass first (4?) hours this was very refreshing. The motion controls works great for the most part outside of aiming and the mixed art styles of Wind Waker x Twilight Princess looks really good.

My only real gripe with the game is the lack of seamlessness in the world. If you could fly in and out of the surface world and Skyworld without it having to load then that in itself would have made a ton of difference. Not only that but Skyloft alone is it's own area that needs to load every time you go to it (which happens a lot in this game). Now I understand that these maybe due to hardware limitations, plus this was the only real major release that the Wii got this year but it is indeed library.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Zm1tLH1Oks[/youtube]

3. Dissidia 012 (Duodecim) Final Fantasy (PSP)

The prequel to one of my favorite PSP games of 2009. Duodecim added more features, more characters, and a new story to the convoluted Final Fantasy crossover action fighting game w/o sacrificing quality.

The additions did nothing but bring good to an already great game. Dissidia Final Fantasy used to be one of my top PSPs games but has been dethroned by Duodecim. Back then I couldn't even imagine what a Final Fantasy crossover fighting game would look like, now I wouldn't have it any other way.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTWNthnswWE[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeKoDl6KXto[/youtube]

2. Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (PS3)

Seriously, I need to stop playing this game. I am having such a good time with this game that it is impeding my progress in other games such as Skyward Sword and GTA4 (which I borrowed) where there is an actual story to push through and finish.

Usually when I boot up Ziggy (my PS3), UMvC3 is often the first game I pop in for reasons beknownst even to myself. Playing online has been a very laggy experience but I still want to try it even if I spend more time waiting in lobbies than actually playing. This was the first PS3 game I ever bought and it does not disappoint.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuTeQ7MMz9o[/youtube]

1. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (DS)

When I heard that this game was being developed by the same team who made the Phoenix Wright series, that was enough to hook me. Though hearing other people describe the concept of the game and the actual gameplay itself was really hard to figure out in my head. I did not want to watch gameplay videos outside of the officially released trailers as since this is essentially a puzzle game that I would see the answers to some of them.

I went into this game knowing next to nothing on how it actually played but with all the excitement in the world and I gotta say I loved every second of it. Everything from the story, the twists, the gameplay, the kickass soundtrack, and the very colorful characters just makes this game all the more memorable. A lot of people might say that once you are done with this game that there is no more replay value but I would say that it's just the same as reading a good book. Even if you know what's going to happen next, you just want to read it all over again once it's done.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JzevLn-N0M[/youtube]

Now this is a real ninja war - Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations gets a new trailer and it starts off with an awesome scene.

The trailer starts with a scene of the older Naruto and the younger Naruto in a sort of Cowboy showdown. The camera then pans out at the Naruto showing all the characters from each of their timelines behind them as if they are an army. Both sides then run towards each other to face off in an all out ninja war.

In my opinion, all games with time skips should have the significan characters from the previous timeline included with the modern roster of characters. They don't have be in the story but at least give us the option to play as them. CyberConnect2 did it once with Naruto Shippuden: Narutimate Accel on the PS2 by including all the kid versions of the characters from the previous game included with the newer, older versions in the roster.

Now when CyberConnect2 showed off Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 and didn't include the characters from Ultimate Ninja Storm 1, I was certain that they'd pull off this marketing scheme sooner or later. At first I gave them the benefit of the doubt by thinking that "maybe it's a memory thing, maybe only X number of characters can fit on the disc blah blah blah" but as soon as Ninja Storm Generations was revealed it was no surprise.

I'm not saying I hate them for it. It's just that with any major anime that gets a fighting game and boasts a crazy amount of characters, it's better to wait for the 2nd or 3rd installment as the 1st game is meant to test the waters. Anime based games are sort of my guilty pleasure but as seen with the Dragon Ball Z series of games, you know that the universe already has this butt load of significant characters and yet you see a game with only half of that amount or that this saga was not included etc. Then wait for the sequel as it is most likely gonna have those missing characters or that missing story line.

The trailer says that it is going to include a bunch of new anime scenes that will further develop the characters in the Naruto universe and from what the trailer shows, they look very well animated, like what you would see in a Naruto OVA. Which is more than I can say for the not-so-nicely animated clips from Street Fighter IV and Dragon Ball Z: Ragin Blast 2. Those were filler quality at best.

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations is out on March 13, 2012 complete with it's long ass name and will be available on both the PS3 and Xbox 360. It's ninja time!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK9CZelD72M[/youtube]

Trine 2 now out for consoles

Trine 2 is honestly the only downloadable game I've been excited for as if it's a triple A title. The sequel has been out for Steam since December 7 but it has finally landed on consoles. It's out now for the PSN(Dec 20) with it coming to Xbox Live a day later(Dec 21).

If you want a game to play with some friends, this is the game. It's a platform that needs a lot of cooperation to progress. Playing the game alone is not the way to go for this kind of game, but luckily you can connect with someone online now so if you do get the game, make a friend.

Compared to the visuals in the first game, Trine 2 is looks amazing. The world now looks alive and vibrant. While the length of the first game was just enough for the price given, I do hope its a tad longer.

Trine 2 will also feature an Unlimited mode which allows you to play any kind of character variation at the same time. Check it out the below, it looks pretty fun having a couple of wizards roaming around creating stuff.

I checked out PSN Store ande Trine 2 costs $14.99(same price in steam) with a demo already out if you plan to just try the game out first. If you haven't played the first game though, I suggest you give Trine a shot. It's still one of the best downloadable games out there and you'll appreciate the changes more in Trine 2.

Xbox Live's 12 days of great Deals

Looks like Xbox Live will be throwing some sales until the end of the year. Somewhat similar to the deals happening in Steam, each day until the New Year, Xbox Live will be offering special deals for games, game add-ons, and avatars, but the deal only lasts for 24 hours. gotta be quick!

You really have to be quick. Was only aware of this when they were on the second day, and first day had to be the game that I've been waiting to get a huge discount on. Xbox Live kicked things off with Bastion being 50% off on the first day. Can't believe I missed it.

The deals changes everyday so check regularly and maybe something will catch your eye. If you don't want to miss an awesome discount like me, check out this guy's page here. He works in Microsoft and will provide detailed information and announcements of the new offers.