Anticipation 2011

So far, I’m looking forward to only one game this year.  And it isn’t Star Wars: The Old Republic (which, personally, I think is going to “fail” insomuch as MMOs fail by not beating WoW and allowing the company to pass out money hats).  Last year, despite owning many games, all of which I really wanted to play, I only played one game a lot (not alot), and that was Red Dead Redemption.  Even though I’ve never been a big fan of the Grand Theft Auto series, something about RDR just clicked, and it was probably the setting and tone of the tale.  I played it all the way through, I played the multi-player for many hours, and I bought all the DLC for it.  It was the best game of the year.  Well, maybe a tie between it and Minecraft.

I’m going to call it already, and say that the best game of 2011 is going to be L.A. Noire.  I mean, just look at this…

I don’t often get super excited about games.  I try to keep my expectations low or at least reasonable.  But it just isn’t possible here.

What about you?  What game are you eagerly awaiting?

6 comments

  1. Oh wow that doese look really cool. I guess this will be on my list to buy this year. I am anticipating Kindoms of Amalur: Reckoning by 38studios and Big Huge Games. I did a little write up on it on my blog. So thats 2 and maybe 3 including the Zobie one you wrote about earlier on my to buy list for this year.

    Scott

  2. I don’t like RockStar’s game design, it’s too violent and dark for me. That said, it really does look like a good idea for a game, and that motion capture tech is very nice.

    1. One of the main reasons I was never a big fan of the GTA series is that I don’t like playing bad guys, and the games are almost unplayable if you try to take the high road. Red Dead Redemption put you in the shoes of a former bad guy trying to life a good life, and when you are faced with places where what you have to do is morally questionable (mostly in Mexico) it does fit thematically and historically with the period being depicted. Sure, the game allows you to gun down innocent people, but I never did. This is what I’m looking for in L.A. Noire, playing a good guy fighting against the corruption with some hard choices.

      GTAs “kill everything and be a bad guy” design just never flew with me.

  3. I have a 360, but I’m still super disapointed that RDR hasn’t come out for PC yet. If there is no announcement soon for a PC release, I’ll likely end up picking up a 2nd hand copy of the game.

    I hadn’t even heard of this one, and it looks very cool, but I noted at the end a distinct lack of PCDVD logo, so it seems once more a console exclusive.

    So I dunno. We’ll see.

    My main interests at this point are in the way of Dragon Age II, The Witcher II, and (if it even releases this year, which I doubt, but you never know) Diablo III.

    1. RDR is confirmed to not be coming out on PC. Ever. This probably won’t either. Consoles have been lucrative for Rockstar, and likely the effort and cost to port to PC isn’t worth it to them. I wouldn’t expect them to make many, if any, PC games in the future.

      1. GTA4s port was handled really badly, and I think that cost them a goodly number of initial PC sales. I would hope they’re not using it as an example of why they shouldn’t do more PC releases.

        A well-done RDR port would sell like hotcakes even now, sure it’d be subject to more piracy than the console equivalents, but there is almost no chance they wouldn’t make more than the cost-to-port investment.

        Still, I think PC has lost Rockstar as a developer which is a pretty big shame, GTA:SA is one of my favourites from the series. I get what you guys are saying about the ultra violence, and GTA certainly allowed you to be an offender in this regard. Most of the directed violence was toward gang members and the like, but it wasn’t like it put you on any kind of moral highground being in a gang yourself.

        I think what made it tolerable was the laughable cartoon-esque graphics. GTA4 fared less well in that regard, due to the more realistic graphical style, I think.

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