First off, I apologize if this blog is poorly written or constructed. It's kind of the first time I do something like this so it might not be very cohesive. I have not included games such as Heavy Rain or Super Mario Galaxy 2 because I own an Xbox 360 exclusively, so realistically I can only anticipate games that I'll actually be able to play. Also, the games are not listed in order because I'm excited for practically all of these games equally and I think it would serve no purpose in the end.
2009 was a great year for gaming. Excellent games such as Batman: Arkham Asylum and Uncharted 2 were released and a few ( Bioshock 2, Alan Wake...) were delayed for next year. As 2009 will be no more soon, I thought it would be a good idea to list what I'm looking forward to the most in 2010, on the subject of video games.
Project Natal I'll start with the only non-game on this list: Natal. Now I know that some (many) of you are skeptical about this (including me) or have complete faith that Natal won't be a good gaming experience, but I remain excited to see the final product and be able to experience it firsthand. I think the idea of playing a video game without a controller is intriguing and, granted it will probably have as much shovelware and poor quality games developed for it as the Wii has had, I'm certain there will also be some quality content that will be exclusive to Natal.
Just Cause 2 This game looks nuts. I have not played the first Just Cause, but from what I've heard, watched and read, the sequel sounds like crazy fun that I would enjoy taking part in. Just Cause 2 seems like it's going to be a great sandbox game, a genre I've always enjoyed because I love open environments that you can interact with and where you can do practically anything you want. Also, it's crazy, something I always appreciate in a video game.
Final Fantasy XIII I'm not a big Final Fantasy fan (I think the most I've played of any FF game was 20 hours of Final Fantasy X), but I've recently discovered that I like JRPGs. Actually, I love the genre. Final Fantasy is one of the most notable JRPG franchises and Final Fantasy XIII looks pretty fantastic. It also has been receiving favourable reviews, so I'm assuming that this is an excellent game as well.
Bioshock 2
I loved the first Bioshock, so it's normal that I would be excited for the sequel, now isn't it? The atmosphere and plot of the first game were amazing and that's why I enjoyed it so much. Now, a sequel to Bioshock seems unnecessary to more than a few people (including me) and having it take place in Rapture once more seems even worse, but hearing more about Bioshock 2, it seems like it could end up being an interesting game to say the least. The multiplayer sounds very unique and inspired, and perhaps the campaign will be able to live up to the first one. We'll just have to wait and see.
Bayonetta I played the demo and the game immediately appealed to me. I'm not a big fan of Beat 'em ups as I've not played many, but Bayonetta has got me interested in the genre. Its excessive nature and main character are things I appreciate, the combat is intuitive and it seems rather complex (which is a good thing). I'm not too certain if the story will be as interesting as the gameplay itself, but I don't think that factor is very important in a game like this one.
Mass Effect 2 Probably one of the best Western RPGs that will come out in 2010, Mass Effect 2 looks really good. I mean it looks simply beautiful. The revamped shooting mechanics along with the fixes to the various technical issues the first Mass Effect had, along with the improvements to the exploration with worlds that actually look different and a potentially engaging story (it is Bioware), make this game worthy of anticipation.
Crackdown 2 Though the first Crackdown had several problems, it was still very fun. Jumping and running on buildings to collect the Agility Orbs, watching your character progress from what was practically a weakling to a total badass and the awesome explosions made for a really fun experience. Hopefully taking what made the first game so great and refining those things, Ruffian Games can make Crackdown 2 an excellent sequel.
Fable III I enjoyed Fable: The Lost Chapters, was a bit underwhelmed by Fable II, and am anticipating Fable III. I find the concept behind Fable to be an interesting and somewhat refreshing one and I would like to see the idea developed further. Peter Molyneux is a very optimistic individual, and I want to see his vision for what Fable III should be and what it actually will be.
Split/Second I tried to get into the racing genre of video games with Burnout Paradise, but that game was very frustrating to me, even though it's categorized as an "arcade racer". Now, Split/Second totally looks like an arcade racer. The premise of it makes me think of Twisted Metal and it just seems like it's going to be exhilarating to play.
Super Street Fighter IV Dude, it's Street Fighter IV but Super. At first glance, it might seem like something more suited to being DLC, but I believe that this case is similar to what people thought of Left 4 Dead 2 prior to its release: they thought it was too soon even though it really was not. SSF IV will bring many improvements to the previous game, improvements that I think make it worth the purchase. It will also cost 20$ less than a normal, newly released retail game. That's something that does not happen with the new Maddens or Call of Dutys.
So there's my list. Hopefully it was not too terrible to go through. A few other games I would like to list are: Alan Wake, Splinter Cell: Conviction, Metro 2033, Batman: Arkham Asylum 2 and Dead Rising 2. I'm looking forward to all of these games and more and my list would probably be different if I owned more than an Xbox 360, but I don't. Perhaps I'll get another in 2010 :P.
Edit: Oh wow, added unneeded information in the title (...in 2010). Sorry for the typo!
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First of all, the only experience I've had in an MMO is by playing Maple Story for a while and the free trial of World of Warcraft therefore I don't know too much about the genre. I also have never written a blog before, or have I written something like an impression before so I hope this is not too horrible. I also have 666 posts, which is awesome.
I was pretty bored earlier today and I thought about playing Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine. I did just that and while I downloaded a whole bunch of stuff just to begin playing it, I read Aeria Games' short Beginner's Guide on their website.
After a while, I could finally start playing. The first thing you do when you begin playing is choose to create your character and in which server that character will be. There's only one right now, Cerberus, so that's the one I chose. I began creating my character and unlike most RPGs, you don't choose any of your skills in the beginning. Everything you choose during customization seems to be purely for the look of your character. For every clothing option , there are only two variations on that type of clothing. For example, there are only two type of shoes: work shoes and sneakers, but those two types have two different colors. The same goes for the tops and the bottoms, except each of those have three variations. The 3 weapons (Machete, Attack Knife and Battle Hammer) also seem to have no significant difference between them except for the look. The COMP is the Pip-Boy looking device on the character's left arm which can also be a halo-shaped device (the one I finally chose after all of this). I did not find any change when I was swiching "Models", though.
After you're done with the character creation, there's an opening scene that is way confusing. There's basically a lady named something like Kuroe who is giving you a mission. You are a Demon Buster and you are there with her to investigate the location of "Home II". There I realised and I was disspaointed that there is no voice acting in the game, even though the rest of the scene was pretty well made. Upon reaching an area close to Home II you receive your first mission: to investigate a nearby elevator.
You are now able to control your character. I was overwhelmed by the amount of menus and I spent too much time going through most of them. There are no hotkeys to actually access those menus so it's pretty frustrating having to always click at the lower-right corner of the screen to access something as simple as your inventory. And /dance does not work, sadly.
Great minds think alike? You find the elevator, find out that it's busted, report back to Kuroe and you are given a mission to take the east exit of the area to get to Home II. After reaching Home II, you find out the place has been attacked by demons and you begin what's basically a battle tutorial against Slimes. To fight, you target your enemy and afterwards you either left click three times or you press the attack hotkey three times to hit the enemy. You also use other options for battling such as using magic skills like the fire-based Agi or defensive skills like Counter or Guard.
After you go through all of this, there's another cutscene followed by a title sequence that also reveals a lot about the story which is basically about a post-apocalyptic Japan caused by a teleportation device accident that made demons appear.
You end up going in a Virtual Battle room in Home III, where you go through a whole bunch of tutorials and are given items after each part is done. Here you learn all, if not most, of what you'll be doing in combat. You assign your attribute points points each time you level up to any of the 6 attributes: vitality, strength, intelleigence, luck, speed and magic. The way you earn skills reminds me of Oblivion. It's called the Expertise system: you choose which aspects of combat you want to allow skill points to be allocated to, and they automatically increase depending on how you fight. There are 16 Technical expertise which include: Destruction Magic, Counter, Summon, Talk and Threaten and you will get stronger skills associated with that expertise over time depending on the ones you focus on. There are also 22 Knowledge expertise. These will only grant passive skills, if any, but will develope certain aspects of your character and these include Occultism, Magic Control, Psychology and Gun Knowledge. But not all of these expertise will advance depending on what you do; only those that you allow to advance will be able to and the others won't advance at all. You don't want to allow all 38 of the expertises to advance because there's only a limited amount of points that can be attributed to all of the expertises and if you focus on all of them, none of them will make you powerful. Chain expertise is another part of all this where if you develope a certain one enough, that will open up another expertise called a "chain expertise". There are 9 of these.
This pic was not taken in the Virtual Battle room, mind you After these tutorials you are basically set free into the world to explore. The first mission that you get afterwards is to get a wing from a Leader Pixie, and to do that you must obtain her as an ally demon via demon negotiation. This is a system that has been in the SMT games and in Persona 1 and Persona 2, I believe. You approach a demon and you must either threaten, taunt or talk to the demon so that you can acquire it. I have not done much of this during the short time I have experienced with the game, but it is an important aspect of the game. The demons that become your ally basically help you in battle. You can fuse up to three acquired demons together to obtain different demons.
All in all, this game seems pretty interesting and I'll probably play it frequently for a while. There are definitely some problems that will make it frustrating (you run slow and you can't jump), but I think that you should at least try it for a short while. It's free to play, by the way.
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