jdevlin24t

You wouldn't usually think of Halo 4 as a sleeper pick, but with the last few entries treading water, the Halo franchise isn't a shoe-in for a GOTY nomination. I think Halo 4, under new management at 343, could surprise a lot of people. What I've seen and heard so far shows a ton of potential; from the epic single player, slick new graphics and animations, sweeping soundtrack, finely-tuned multiplayer, and innovative episodic co-op; Halo 4 looks to impress a lot of gamers on November 6th.

I don't think Duke Nukem needs to take it more seriously, they need to update their idea of humor. Gearbox has an excellent staff of writers including Anthony Burch who pens "Hey Ash, whatcha playin'?" and they can easily overcome this stale form of campy humor with refreshing scripts from newer writers with innovative ideas. Randy Pitchford seems very passionate about his games and franchises. Listening to him talk about Borderlands, Aliens, and old-school Duke Nukem; you can tell he loves them all and wants to make them the most fun games possible. He's openly admitted that Duke Nukem Forever was a bad game and by the time he got his hands on it, it was too late in the build and they were pressured to release an inferior product. I believe that the next Duke Nukem will surprise a lot of people with quality gameplay and exciting new writing.

@Rxanadu: Link's death would have to have special meaning that could move the story along, just the shock factor of Link being dead is not enough. If Zelda is your main character, she has to feel responsible for Link's death and be compelled to do something about it. You could base her adventure around some sort of time-travel element where she has the ability (either through some new power or item that she comes across) to go back and try to prevent Link's death from ever occurring. Almost playing the story in reverse until your reach the climax and find out HOW and WHY Link died and what is Zelda's connection with it. Just as an example, you could have Zelda looking for ways to bring Link back when she comes across old testaments of the lost power crystal that when wielded grants the user time-travel abilities, but it is a great power and is very unstable. So at first you can have Zelda, who is inexperienced with this power, have difficulty controlling it and that can be how you progress the story and introduce new levels. The crystal does have the power to instantly transport its user to any moment they desire, but Zelda's inability to fully control the crystal is what makes it jump back in time inconsistently, thus you have your progression. Hope this helps, good luck!

I wish I played more games from 2012, but I've been trying to grind down the massive backlog. The few games I've played are UFC Undisputed 3, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend, The Walking Dead, and Diablo III. The best one probably is Daiblo III even though I cared nothing for that game after a couple playthroughs with one character, there just isn't enough incentive (loot) to keep me engaged.

This is kind of comforting to know that I'm not the only person with 300-400 video games. Is anyone else discouraged that they might not get to play all the games they want, I know I am.

@Bourbon_Warrior: Definitely Firefly, seeing as how it is only one season you can crank it out quickly and move on to the next on your list, not to mention it is a phenomenal show with an excellent cast of characters that you grow to love. Nathon Fillion's performance is hilarious and bad-ass all at once, while Joss Whedon's directing and writing is excellent and exactly what you'd expect from Joss.

Being OCD, 100%ing games is a must. It aggravates me when I see a gamerscore that isn't complete or there are weapons, levels, and other content that I haven't seen or collected. E.g. I'm replaying Splosion Man so that I can get all 47 single player cakes and all 47 multiplayer cakes on hardcore difficulty, even though I have games like Red Dead Redemption, Mass Effect, Skyrim, and Sleeping Dogs sitting on my shelf that I'd much rather play. Splosion Man was a good game, but it lost it's luster a long time ago and yet I can't stop playing it because I HAVE to see and do everything the game has to offer. Consequently my backlog exceeds 300 games (150 of which are still in shrink-wrap). I will always 100% games.