The year is almost over, in terms of new releases its definitely over, so I’m casting my eye on 2011, and what games scheduled to release that I want to play and announcements I want and industry elements I’m interested in.

Bulletstorm: Made by People Can Fly this insane take on the FPS genre looks amazing and as a gamer who has never been a fan of Call of Duty and Battlefield games, Bulletstorm looks like my sort of thing. Mixing the craziness of games such as Vanquish, the skill shot style gameplay of The Club and the flat out badass nature of Duke Nukem it looks amazing

Portal 2:   Although very recently delayed I still cannot wait to play it. The first game introduced a new and unique concept and exploited it excellently. While I worry the new additions may over complicate it, I assume that like the first game it will gradually introduce these concepts so you learn how to use them naturally. This is a part of why Portal worked so well, that and something about Cake and lies.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution: As a huge fan of the original game Human Revolution definitely looks like a step in the right direction after the misstep of Invisible War. From the evidence in the trailers the art style looks amazing and looks to take its cues from Blade Runner, which is perfectly fine in my book. Also the time of the original release of Deus Ex is my favorite time in PC gaming with Half-Life and Unreal Tournament so recapturing that time is more than enough for me to play this game. Also Elbow Knifes are awesome.

Marvel Vs Capcom 3: As a fan of both Marvel comics and Capcom fighting games, MvC has always been a favorite of mine. I am so glad the Fighting game genre has been reignited over the past couple of years and this being a sequel to one of my favorite fighting games, I couldn’t be happier. I really dig the art style, I know some purists want Sprites but at the end of the day, I think the industry may have moved on. Here’s hoping people are playing it in ten years time like MvC2.

Metal Gear: Rising: Controversial maybe, but I didn’t mind Raiden in MGS2, yes he wasn’t Snake but he filled a roll in a very unnecessary and confusing game in the series, so his solo game excites me, first of all, I always wanted to play as one of the cyborg ninja’s from MGS and that the blade cutting stuff shown looks totally awesome.

Bioshock Infinite: This one may not even come out next year but from the little shown of it, it looks to be of incredible quality. Just the sheer mystery of this floating city with the robotic henchmen and the bizarre crow manipulation sets up a level of intrigue I’ve not felt since, funnily enough Bioshock.

Finally, from purely an interest in the industry I am really interested to see what Respawn(ex infinity ward) will announce, as well as Infinity Ward themselves and whether the Call of Duty franchise will lumber on with the FPS war genre.

In terms of what I want announced, I really want DICE to return to Mirror’s Edge, the first game fell short of its full potential and it really does deserve another chance.  Something that is probably even more unlikely is for Eidos to return to the Legacy of Kain series, Defiance finished on a real turning point in the games mythology and I’m very interested in what would happen and what Kain would do in this situation.

While clichéd I would be very interested if Valve actually announce anything about Half-Life 2 Episode 3its been a long time and several different games since Episode 2 so I’m wondering if it’s even still in production.