2012 Games Preview

What are you most looking forward to next year? Euro 2012 and the Olympics? Quad-core fondleslabs? The extra bank holiday? Ridley Scott's Prometheus? Sequoia blitzing 20 petaflops? Something entirely different, perhaps? Or maybe you're just too busy cramming your underground bunker full of bottled water and dried fruit ahead of …

[Si 1]

The Last Guardian

Any bets on whether Sony will be able to get The Last Guardian out of the door next year? All the behind the scenes goings on suggest Sony management has had enough of waiting and are pushing for the game to be done and released even if it upsets the creators.

After Mass Effect 2, ME3 has an enormous mountain to climb to top it, but I think it's my most anticipated game next year, with Bioshock Infinite and the new Tomb Raider following closely behind.

No doubt, Ubisoft will trot out another tired Assassin's Creed game. I really, really enjoyed the first two installments but they've milked it too hard now. Annual sequels are too frequent for me, I much prefer every two years.

Next year has the potential to be one of the best years ever, but then so did this year, and I was quite underwhelmed by most of the big releases (Gears 3, Uncharted 3, Saint's Row 3, etc).

[Greg J Preece]

I was about to ask about the Last Guardian myself, but what you're saying about it being rushed is not music to my ears...

[jai]

sad about last guardian

I too would like them to take their time with Last Guardian. Team Ico games are not so much games as they are works of art. I'd be happy to wait another year if the creators felt it needed it. It'll be worth the wait.

Also missed off the list was Wrecked: Revenge Revisited. Although, technically that would have been a 2011 game had the xbox submission process not been screwed up. But if it's anything like it's predecessor, Mashed, and all the video and screenshots suggest it is and more so, then it'll be the most fun you can have multiplayer racing since... since... well, since Mashed i guess.

For me, 2012 is all about Max Payne 3 and GTA5. _Can_not_wait_to_play_them_!

Will we see Starcraft 2.2? And Dawn of War 3?

[Anonymous Coward]

What about

Diablo 3, Starcraft 2 Heart of the Swarm and World of Warcraft Mists of Pandaria.

I know release dates aren't announced yet, but I would be very surprised if Diablo 3 slips beyond the first quarter or possibly second quarter. Blizzard have always intended the gaps between Starcraft 2 versions to be about 18 months. I suspect Heart of the Swarm will be more second half of the year, but should still be out in 2012, unless they slip it because of other releases (i.e. Diablo 3 and World of Warcraft 4). Mists of Pandaria has been formally announced for 2012, but again no specific release date.

[mafoo]

Pandas

Diablo 3 will be awesome and is an obvious omission from the list.

However Mists of Pandaria is possibly the greatest rape of an game attempted to date. Its the final death knell for most wow players over the age of 12. Im nominating it for worst game of 2012 - along with the slew of forthcoming Olympic tie-ins.

[Armando 123]

*sigh*

If we're going to get re-hashes and repeats, could we at least get a new Baldur's Gate? I've been replaying that since it showed up on Antiques Code Show, and even at 12 years old, it's still a damn fun, damn playable, damn absorbing game. Damn it.

[Alien8n]

Nearest you'll get to that nowadays is DDO. But they could so easily do a new Baldur's Gate using the Elder Scrolls engine. Dragon Age would just make the game seem far too restricted as an engine, it needs to be on a massive scale.

Maybe we'll yet hear those immortal words once more "Go for the eyes Boo!"

[Anonymous Coward]

Sniper Elite v2 looks well worthy of a mention...

[Anonymous Coward]

Diablo III?

Did you mention it and I missed it?

[Godwhacker]

You missed out 'Dishonored'

http://www.dishonored.com/

Looks a hell of a lot more interesting than a lot of the things released in 2011...

[The Envoy]

Same old same old...

As a non-player looking at this preview I get the feeling the world of computer/console/online games is in even worse shape than the movie industry. The same old square jawed guys with guns. Does anything happen except the graphics getting better? Can I get a list of five truly original, creative and good games? Do they exist? Can I put off buying a Playstation, XBox or whatever yet another year?

[MJI]

Plenty of games of different genres, shooting is common, but there are lots of different style games.

Want something TOTALLY different - Little Big Planet.

Definately a lot better than hollywood.

Even games like films are better than films.

Anyway try these - none are like that

Little Big Planet

Portal

Assassins Creed

Mass Effect

Uncharted

[J-Wick]

Creative & good games?

Ok, so they're not all from this year (not even close), but: Braid, Limbo, World of Goo, P.B Winterbottom, Machinarium, the Bit.Trip series, Fluidity, & Night Sky., Next year, Botanicula looks good, plus Miegakure if it ever gets released.

Basically, if you want to find good games, you'll hear about them & find 'em. If you don't, you won't.

[Alien8n]

In the case of most games it is really just upgrading the graphics, cutting the 1 player game down even further and then making the multiplayer experience even more difficult for the noobs to get a foot in (I'm looking at you COD:MW. I'm a veteran of Black Hawk Down, but it's so annoying when you die within seconds of spawning just because you're level 1 and everyone else is level 50, or more often the case because they're an annoying little brat using a glitch to shoot through the floor). For a franchise that's grown each game from one to the next try looking at Gears Of War.

[Turtle]

The Olympics?

"What are you most looking forward to next year? Euro 2012 and the Olympics? "

The Olympics?

Do you mean The Olympics with hordes of cheating, blood-doping, performance-enhancing-drug taking, money-seeking "athletes" in a display pandering to the shallowest kind of national chauvinism by allowing nations to compete against each other in fields of endeavor which have no actual significance whatsoever - scored by dishonest and biased judges and run by the corrupt officials of a corrupt corporation known as the IOC?

Those Olympics?

To answer the original question, no, I am not looking forward to the Olympics.

[GeorgeTuk]

Wow.

Just wow.

[MJI]

The Last of Us

REALLY looking forwards to this one.

2012 won't be quite as good as 2011 but I am still excited.

[Greg J Preece]

Wonder if we'll see Hawken in 2012. That looks hella fun. And aren't the new Tribes games coming out next year too? The paid-for version might actually be decent, but given how much Tribes has been dumbed down since T1, I'm doubting it.

[Ian 70]

And for those wanting a little more classic gaming

What about Legend of Grimrock? PC and later Mac, dungeon master style game updated for the modern era.

http://www.grimrock.net/

Certainly looking forward to that more than any console title or it's usually lacklustre port.

[Anonymous Coward]

Dungeon Master...

Lost many an hour to that, Chaos Strikes Back and Bloodwych. This new game looks good although it would be nice if it was free roaming dungeon rather than grid based. Will give it a bash though.

As for those games - look great. Apart from Counterstrike Global Offensive. Looked at the video on Youtube and it looked no different to CS: Source apart from a few UI tweaks. I love CS: Source for the odd 30 minute play, prefer Portal.. however is CS Global Offensive what the devs at Valve are working on? I would really love to finish the HL2 series. It was left on a bit of a cliff hanger at the end of Episode 2.

[DrunkJunkie]

I would have to agree but let me play devils advocate...

Looking at the budgets some of these big hitters have you cant really fault the designers / publishers to milk them for all they are worth with each console generation.

Uncharted / Gears / HALO / COD - all have massive budgets, some to challenge the biggest films in hollywood... I am sure I read that the first Modern Warfare (the one that innovated) had a similar budget to Titanic (i cant check this due to the over zealous internet filters at work) checking Wiki it seems thats around $200m.

Bearing that in mind, launching a new IP is somewhat a gamble, especially when doing something completely new where you dont know the target market.

I am not saying dont innovate, instead look at using the other distribution methods available to you... Child Of Eden was a brilliant game, whilst being pyhsically released went on to do exceptionally well when offered as a digital download. Not everyones type of game but its one example of many, for more just look at From Dust, Limbo etc.

Anyway, on a slightly different note cant we all please stop talking about the next gen consoles... yes the WII U will be coming out and yeah, it will (probably) have better graphics that the current gen HD consoles but unless they have good third party studio support (this is Nintendo remember) it will still just be the usual Zelda, Mario, Wario, Luigi games so not that much of a game changer. The lack of information at the moment just compounds my view on this.

The current (HD) consoles still have loads more to offer, the recent XBOX dashboard update has brought full kinect functionality to pretty much the whole thing with more apps to come along. The PS3 is still under-used, even Naughty Dog have said that whilst all processors are doing something they can still optimise their code further so expect good things from The Last Of Us (hopefully 2012 release)

[Citizen Kaned]

oooh

last of us looks cool. thanks for the heads up! :)

[RyokuMas]

So what about...

... the next title in the Duke Nukem series? Hadn't they better announce it now if they want it to be out before 2020?

[Anonymous Coward]

Since we are rehashing....

Bring Halo 2, 3, (and onward) to PC. Bring Gran Turismo 5 (or any decent driving game) to PC. Take Portal 2 to consoles (if not already).

Yes... you (producers...) don't want to do it, because all the corners cut to make those will show up on the PC and vice-versa, right?

And rehash by rehash, Mists of Pandaria isn't a new game. It's the same game you had 5 years ago, with new scenery. Whatever, I'm game, bring it on.

Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 HoS are the last hope here: The game mechanics of Diablo 2 are well known, but the game is based on 90's graphic power, and the gameplay demo showed real promise. In Starcraft 2 engine, people managed to do incredible things, including a MMORPG similar to WoW, without extra tools. It got so good that Blizz took it and hid away.

At least they didn't put release dates on them, they are being honest about that.

[Citizen Kaned]

never happen...

console makers like their exclusives.

im hoping that colonial marines makes it this year and isnt the painful game that AVP2 was.

looking forward to a new tombraider too. unchartered was fun but the puzzles were so easy. me and the wife love that type of game and play them together.

im also looking forward to see if splash damage can come up with something. brink was great fun but early problems killed the game a bit and the community died off quick.

devs need to separate pc and console games. im fine with both getting the game but PC shouldnt have the gimped options consoles need.

[Juillen 1]

Guild Wars 2...

That's due out this year, by all accounts.. It's looking great (out of all the games supposedly out this year, it'd be the one I get, if I only got to choose one).

It's PC only, as far as I'm aware, but well worth mentioning..

[E.]

Diablo 3, rFactor 2, Tomb Raider

Doesn't that cover the important genres?

[BorkedAgain]

Portal 3?

[Shaun 2]

Daedric Armour

Why is it going to take a month to get your Daedric armour? Complete the Dawnstar Museum quest to get 4 respawning daedrics (therefore daedra hearts) every 7 days, and some respawning ebony. Nip over to Gloombound mine and get enough ebony to craft a full set of armour and most of the weapons. Wait 30 days and the mine replenishes, and you can make some more.......

A month - Pah - I did it in a day, and that included making 500+ iron daggers to level up my smithing :)

[Anonymous Coward]

lollipop chainsaw you say? Well that sounds relevent to my interests.

[btone]

yeah right

With Syndicate banned by the infantile Australian cyber guardians what chance Lolipop Chainsaw. Should cause a few palpitations for the moral 1950s dropbear wankers in the suits...

[Scott 19]

Looking forward to...

a Skyrim patch that fixes the many bugs would be good, then it'll be that until ME:3 coms out.

[insane_hound]

Diablo 3

How can you forget Diablo 3?????