Of Games and Great Anticipation

Last year has left us with some really awesome worthwhile games such as Red Dead: Redemption, Fallout: New Vegas, Dead Rising 2 and Super Meat Boy. However, the list was relatively small in quantity in comparison with previous years. Looking at the list of this year's upcoming games, 2011 is looking quite promising, to say the least, but as it is with games (and pretty much else for that matter), any given title can turn out to be a huge disappointment in the moment it is released.
So, with no further ado, here's my list of my top 5 anticipated games of the year.

1. Portal 2

The first game was love at first sight for me. I just simply loved every single aspect of it, especially the dark humor. That is, before it got brutally murdered by being overused by everyone and their grandmothers on the Internet to the point where mentioning the word "cake" in the wrong time, at the wrong place might get you punched in the face.

So enough about that, Portal 2 was announced around April last year with the most mindfuckingly awesome ARG ever. According to most recent info, it is going to be released on April 18, this year for the PC, Mac, Xbox 360 AND PS3, which is also getting a promised Steam support.
Unlike it's predecessor, Portal 2 is going to be a full-length game with tons of more gameplay features such as the propultion and repultion gels, the excursion funnel and a thermal discouragement beam (a.k.a.- LASERS!). The game is also going to have a multiplayer co-op mode, requiring players to team up with each other in order to conquer various obstacles in specially designed chambers.

Portal 2 is going to take place many years after the events in the first Portal when the Aperture Science facility is slowly decaying and lush vegetation can be seen all over the place. GlaDOS has now awaken from her long sleep only to meet her new human friend, about who there is not much info yet and all we know is that she is NOT going to be Chell from the first game.
Besides longer gameplay and a whole new bunch of stuff, there will be new characters and according to Valve, the test chambers are going to be a lot more challenging.
And are we in for another epic ending with proper musical accompaniment? Only time will tell.







2. Duke Nukem Forever 

Hail to the king, baby! After 14 long years of empty promises, fake trailers and screenshots and god knows how many dollars of budget money wasted on hookers and cocaine, we can finally safely state that this long awaited sequel is going to be released this very year. May 3, to be precise, for PC, Xbox and PS3. What makes me so sure that this time it's legit? Because it's not in the hands of the lazy-ass liars of 3D Realms anymore. Gearbox software is in charge of development now and they've had Borderlands, which was an awesome game.

Anyways, let's face it- we all know that it is almost certain that this is going to be a mediocre grayscale FPS, no other than the crap that is released dozens of times every single year. But deep down in our hearts we have that little flame of hope that this decade and a half of waiting might actually be completely worth it. Again, only time can tell.


3. Mass Effect 3 
I am not a big fan of RPGs and little are those which don't bore me but Mass Effect 2's excellent storytelling, sci-fi done right and action elements made it one of my favourite games of all time.  In this final installment of the trilogy capt. Shepard's epic adventure will finally come to an end. That is, if Bioware doesn't decide to milk the franchise by spewing a million expansions and spin-offs but that is not our concern for now.

Not a lot of info is revealed about the game for now, besides that it is going to be released sometime during Q4 of 2011 and that it's going to be on all 3 major platforms.


4. Crysis 2 

This time not a PC exclusive but a multiplat, Crysis 2 will be the first game ever to feature the new CryEngline 3. Because of that a lot is expected from the game itself in therms of graphics and physics engine capabilities.

Crysis 2 will take place in deserted New York City in the year 2023. Aliens have somehow made their way from the island to the rest of the world. You play as Nomad- the protagonist from the first game, with an improved nanosuit in your quest to kill all the bad guys. By now only one new suit ability is revealed- a special tactical vision mode to display detailed info about your surroundings. But this is just a mere fraction of the new features and weapons that are expected to be included upon the final release of the game.

Crysis 2's release date was announced to be on the 22 of this very March.


5. The Last Guardian
Although this is Team ICO's third game, the previous two being Ico and Shadow of the Colossus (both for the PS2), have been, simply put, masterpieces and I loved every single minute of them. The atmosphere, the thing I most cherish in a game, was amazingly done in way that made you feel you were literally in another world.

The Last Guardian (a PS3 exclusive) is going to have a similar to it's predecessors environment (will probably in the same fictional universe) tells a story of a young boy, finding and unleashing a huge best, eventually becoming friends with him. According to videos the gameplay will center around controlling the strange creature, tho not directly but trough the boy's actions in order to solve different puzzles throughout the game. 

So far, little information has been revealed but I'm having high hopes about it. The Last Guardian is to be released, like ME3, some time in the fourth quarter of this year.