PAX East is coming up this weekend, and this being my first major gaming expo, I'm pretty damn excited. Getting the chance to see and even get a little bit of play time with some upcoming titles has me all giddy in the pants, so I figured I'd run down a list of the top five games I'm looking forward to seeing in the exhibit hall.
Disclaimer: There aren't any specified lists (that I can find, anyways) detailing what developers will be in attendance, so this is all sheer speculation.
1. Dragon's Dogma
As you can probably see from trailer, this game looks like a Dark Souls had a baby with Shadow of the Colossus, then fostered it off to Monster Hunter -- Yes, that sounds awesome. I've watched a few previews -- actually about two hours or so of preview stuff -- and I keep coming away impressed with what I've seen. Then again, any game that combines RPG elements with the ability to climb on big-ass monsters gets me going, so this looks like a homerun. Despite that, I can't say I'm fully committed to the game. Capcom's dubious history as of late has given me good enough reason to keep my reservations. Hopefully I'll have those ill feelings rebuffed if I can get my grubby mits on the game this weekend.
2. Borderlands 2
Gearbox's Borderlands has a special place in my heart as one of the best action-RPGs on the current generation, so it's no surprise that it's sequel is on this list. There are so many things I want to see out of this game, from the new environments (something other than desert or swamps? Huzzah!) to the new playable characters, vehicles, guns, and just about everything else in there. Of all those aspects, the one that piques my interest the most is how Zero, the ninja, will play. Specifically, I want to see how those ninja flips look in the first-person perspective and if the sword combat will actually function well. I want to believe there's more to this game than just some new content -- perhaps sa noticeably updated engine or tweaked gunplay -- rather than a reskinned, dubstep-laden re-release of the original. But, if Borderlands 2 booth just happens to be a 15 minute video of Clap-Trap dancing to Nero, that'll be fine, too.
3. Max Payne 3
Max Payne 2 sits high on my all-time favorites list. Maybe I was just young and impressionable, and maybe it had something to do with the fact that it was the only game I had access to for a long, long while after my Xbox died and I got bored of Rome: Total War. I'm not sure, but after finishing that game upwards of 10 times, you bet your ass I'm excited for Max's return. Excited, yes, but, like Dragon's Dogma, I'm keeping my reservations. A number of things have me plenty hyped for this release, such as Rockstar's Euphoria and Natural Motion engines and the studio's excellent story pedigree, yet with the passage of time comes a large amount of skepticism. Will Rockstar put in the effort to make this capable of living up to its predecessors, or is this just cashing in on a popular name? With Rockstar's history, I'm almost certain they'll give Max the love he deserves, however I still want to give this a fair shake.
4. Fez
By now, it seems like everyone even remotely in tune with gaming news has heard about Phil Fish and his hotly anticipated indie game, Fez. I, on the other hand, only heard about this game as a result of all the hullaballoo that came out of Mr. Fish's controversial GDC comments towards Japan's games industry, and I'm pretty glad that I did -- hear about the game, that is, not the controversy. Fez interests me mainly because I have no idea what the hell is going on in the videos I've seen so far. It's hard to wrap my brain around its 2D/3D concept. The trailer above isn't really a gameplay demo, but if you do some searching, you'll likely see that it looks rather mind-boggling. Since the game's recently been given an actual release date, I'm really hoping it'll be on display during the show so I can see if it's as high concept as it looks or actually intuitive and I'm just dumb. Also, the music is absolutely captivating. I never knew chiptunes cold be so whimsical.
5. Far Cry 3
Ah, yes, Far Cry 3. You know, I was a bit surprised in myself when I gave this game a numbered position in my list, but then I recalled all the great times I had barreling through thick African jungles in a jeep, lighting dynamic brushfires to strategically corner my unsuspecting foes, or hang gliding across deep valleys in Far Cry 2. Then I remembered the terrible gunplay and stupid malaria gimmick and I thought to myself, "Man, I really hope they fixed that crap." Thus, Far Cry is here. From what I've seen so far out of the E3 presentation and the subsequent trailers, I'm quite stoked on this game, but I have to know if those key elements are still broken, unsatisfying, or just plain stupid. I'd also like to see how expansive the world is and whether the player is tied to a single, linear island set-up like the original Far Cry or something bigger and wide open. Personally, I'm gunning for the latter.
Despite it's flaws, I still loved Far Cry 2, so I'm hoping Ubisoft will pull through with this one. If the shooting still sucks, though, I'll probably still pick it up to see what whacky shenanigans those drug trips entail.
Honorable Mentions:
These are the games I'd sure like to see, but highly doubt will be on display. That, or I'm really confident they'll be amazing.
Bioshock: Infinite, Hitman: Absolution, Orcs Must Die 2, Trials: Evolution, Quantum Conundrum, Darksiders II, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Assassin's Creed III, The Last of Us
If you're going to PAX East, what are you looking forward to seeing/doing? If you're not going, what would you want me to look out for?
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