For me there are two parts to the gaming year. Everything before the holidays, and everything after the holidays. The holidays are when we get about 20 games a goddamn month and we really don't know which ones to get. These are my most anticipated. In no particular order except for the last one being my most anticipated.

Far Cry 3

I never really liked Far Cry 2. I mean it was well made, and the world was beautiful. But there was a serious lack of shit to do. Okay maybe there was a lot to do but none of it was worth much and the missions just kind of ran together. Albeit I would have given it an 8/10 on presentation alone.

Now we have Far Cry 3 first announced at E3 in 2011. This game made a big splash with its speech about insanity at the end of the presentation, and the game looks fun as hell. While E3 2012's showing of the Co-Op which had the framerate of a fat kid running a mile lessened my enthusiasm, it still looks damn fun.

Persona 4: Golden

I have produced shits that I enjoyed more than my playthrough of the original Persona 4. I don't know why I didn't like this game. It had everything I liked about Persona 3, but I just didn't enjoy it as much. Maybe it was the fact I played this a week after I finished Persona 3. Maybe its because the bosses gave me a hell of a time. Maybe because the story just wasn't that good. And when your playing an RPG the story NEEDS to be good.

I've come to the conclusion its because I like a mix of plot-driven and character-driven story. Thats what Persona 3 was. I loved the characters, Aigis, Yukari, Junpei, and the plot was mindbendingly dark and amazing all at once. Persona 4 had fun characters and...a murder mystery that can be figured out if you used your god damn brain just a little bit. I had figured it out hours before these kids and it made me SLAM MY HEAD INTO A GODDAMN WALL!

Okay now that I've slammed the original enough, here is why I'm excited for Persona 4. New eyes. Playing an 80 game and jumping into another 80 hour game can give you something I call a hangover. All the things that irked you before are here and fucking insane. Maybe now that its been so long sense I beat Persona 3 and 4 I can finally replay Golden and maybe enjoy it.

Hitman: Absolution

Hitman: Blood Money is one of my favorite games of all time. Its a perfect mix of stealth and action, and while I didn't enjoy Dishonored as much as I had hoped I would (I still loved it) I think its mainly because of Blood Money just setting the bar so GOD DAMN HIGH. Sure Blood Money had its flaws, but I loved it enough to buy it twice. Once on the PS2 and again on the 360.

Absolution is the return of the gameplay that I loved so much, and from the reviews coming out, I should love this so much more.

Thanks for reading!