2011 seems to be the year of the comeback in video games.
Artwork by Sean Gonzalez
The new year of 2011 brings great hopes to video gamers as many old heart warming favorites will make a comeback. My list is the top ten most anticipated video games of 2011. Many old titles are going to be renewed, and many developers are planning to bring something new to the video game table. This new year will hopefully top last year’s games, which can be found here.
10. Tom Clancy’s high tech military shooting franchise is making another return with Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. The Ghost Recon series always features soldiers with high tech gear, including robots and invisibility suits. Future Soldier is supposed to take the ideas of future warfare to a new level, putting the player into the hands of the most advanced super soldier, ever. The game was expected to be out in 2010, but got pushed back by Ubisoft until April 2011.
9. Number nine is a video game that does not sound as fun as most other games, but after reading about it in GameInformer, I thought it looked sweet. The game is Alice: Madness Returns. Yes, the game is based on the movie Alice in Wonderland, except more horrifying and delusional than the movies. The game takes on a gruesome look when compared to the movies. Instead of the blonde and seemingly innocent Alice, this Alice wields weapons and has dark brunette hair. This game surprised me; I spent thirty minutes taking a look at multiple trailers and got to get an in depth look the epic Wonderland this game is expected to bring near the holiday season of 2011.
8. Irrational Games is back to bring what looks to be the greatest Bioshock game ever, Bioshock: Infinite. The game is set in a flying city named Columbia, ironically in the year 1912, when the technology was not able to create such a city, or is that just what we think? This game seems interesting, and the mystery of Columbia will make this game a unique one to play, promising to bring an amazing storyline to combat the action-adventure found throughout the series.
7. Has there ever been a game that made someone so scared they could not sleep at night? Many fans of the first Dead Space thought so, and in interviews with the public the developers at Visceral Games have been asked to tone the horror down. The public made these requests, as many games, including myself, were scared playing the first game. They are actually planning to bring more scary scenes and events into the game. What they do plan to tone down is the gore and gruesome, while building more upon the anxiety, which will in turn will bring more fear into gamers. Dead Space 2 is another action-adventure game inside of an alien infested spaceship. Be expecting this horror game soon, as it comes out this month, January 25th, 2011.
6. L.A. Noire will be yet another sandbox game published by Rockstar Games, but will be set in the 1940’s and 50’s. A sandbox game is one that has many different stories to follow – not just one strict storyline – and can do almost whatever the players want to do in the given environment. Rockstar games published Red Dead Redemtpion, a great sandbox game set in the old west before the westward expansion of the United States. L.A. Noire is expected to bring about the classic 40’s and 50’s gangster scene into a video game, the first of its kind ever done.
5. Gears of War 3 is making its release near the holiday season of 2011. Developer Epic Games decided to push the release back an entire year to give more time to make the game as perfect as possible. With the new technology that comes out every year, they may be upgrading the graphics and game engine to run more smoothly, while providing a beautiful setting for the player. This game is an Xbox exclusive, and many Xbox 360 owners are looking forward to this third installment of the Gears series.
4. Although Ubisoft Montreal is hard at work keeping online servers for Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood up to speed, they are in the process of making Assassin’s Creed III. This will be the third installment featuring a new time period, maybe the snow torn Soviet Russia and their struggles against the Templars during the Revolution of 1918? No matter what era is chosen, I’m positive this game will bring yet more conspiracies to life while providing the enjoyment of freely roaming around doing whatever you want.
3. “You can’t have the cake because the cake is a lie,” is the line that still rings clear in many gamers’ minds from Portal. Portal 2 is going to bring back the high-speed puzzle plat forming adventure that the first one brought. The game uses a real time physics gaming engine (capturing action and re-action in real time) to allow traveling between dimensions and rooms without ruining the high-speed visuals of the game required to complete each puzzle.
2. Zelda, a personal favorite series of mine is making a comeback in 2011. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is the next turn for the longtime series, promising to bring many of the old elements from the first successful game back to the gaming scene. The trailer and viewable demo looks amazing, showing a more masculine Link with high paced action. Link looks like a green samurai, cutting down foes with the greatest ease. One great aspect that Zelda has is the countless puzzles that challenge the minds of gamers. It is safe to say that the developers will implement these puzzles back into the game.
1. Duke Nukem Forever. I think that sums up the number one anticipated game of 2011. Duke Nukem is a series of games from the 90’s that has Mr. Duke Nukem destroying aliens with brute force as they are trying to conquer Earth. It is a mindless game to play, and the player runs through infested Earth with large guns, blowing them apart for hours on end. This game has been anticipating a release every year since 1999, and with all the cancellations and lawsuits settled, it is expected to be arriving early in 2011. It will be 15 years since the last Duke Nukem game. Gamers thought the trailer of Duke curling weights was a joke, as every year there has been some sort of trailer or announcement for this game, but this time the game is actually supposed to come out.
