FINAL FANTASY XIIICurrently locked in mortal combat with
Mass Effect 2 for the title of "Biggest RPG of 2010," the thirteenth numbered
Final Fantasy looks very much like a return to the fan-favorite elements found in
FFVII and
FFX: Beautiful people with fashionable clothes engaged in a melodramatic story and lots of turn-based menu-driven combat. Even gamers who are growing a little weary of the Final Fantasy style are interested, just because the whole thing is so
pretty. March is gonna be huge, but FFXIII is so big that it simply eclipses everything else that month.
GOD OF WAR 2If you finished
God of War 2, you know exactly how God of War 3 begins -- with you as Kratos climbing Gaia's back on his way to getting revenge on the gods. Between letting players fight on the backs of giant Titans, attack with new weapons like the gauntlet-like Cestus, and use new abilities like the ability to fly vertically in wind tunnels, God of War 3 looks to push the series forward in many ways, but for many the appeal here is to see how it finishes off the trilogy from a story perspective.
HEAVY RAIN
Call it a modern adventure game, an interactive drama, or a series of playable cut-scenes, but Heavy Rain has earned plenty of attention by being different from everything else on PS3. And it's hard to ignore a game that's content focuses on realistic characters going through tough events in everyday life, with player decisions and actions making up part of its story. If you've ever wanted to check out a game where you see the emotional arc a father goes through after losing a child, this is for you.
3D DOT GAME HERO A tribute/homage/rip-off/parody of 8-bit action adventures (and then some), 3D Dot Game Heroes tells the story of a 2D kingdom thrust into 3D by their king, but the main plot centers around the hero taking down a malevolent bishop. This action RPG is filled with references to the good ol' days of console adventuring, starting with a much-too-faithful feel of the original
Zelda games, continuing with a cameo by the 8-bit hero of
Spelunker, and of course, the very beep-and-boopy music. There's also a nifty character editor if you want to 3D-ify your own pixel people (or another game's!).
THE LAST GUARDIAN
Team Ico and Fumito Ueda have a well-deserved reputation for making games that almost instantly spur an, "Are games art?" discussion whenever they're brought up. So it's hard not to be excited for their next big project, The Last Guardian. All we know so far is that you have to take care of a huge griffin-like monster, and it at least
looks a lot like
Ico and
Shadow of the Colossus. But will it be a stand-alone title? Will it tie those other esoteric stories together? Will it make us cry by killing off our giant, "sea eagle" pet in the end? We can't wait to find out!
GRAN TURISMO 5After holding our breaths for so long while waiting for Polyphony Digital's long awaited "driving simulator," we can finally start looking forward to exhaling as Gran Turismo 5 is slated to release in early 2010. In standard GT fashion, the PS3 racer comes packed to the brim with an abundance of features including 1,000 cars, 60 tracks, and fully modeled car cockpits. A first in the series, Gran Turismo 5 also features car damage -- adding to the already keen attention to detail that keeps gearheads and videogame fans alike returning for more. With the usual world circuit series rounded out by fully fleshed out rally and NASCAR modes, GT5 is a title no car nut can afford to miss.
BIOSHOCK 2Though it no longer carries the subtitle "Sea of Dreams," one gets the feeling that this sequel to 2K's smash-hit shooter will still deal in utopian/dystopian themes and ultimately corruption. A bit of the story has been revealed, and here's a quick rundown of we know so far: It's 10 years after the
first game; you play as the first Big Daddy (complete with new weapons and plasmid powers); new splicer types and Big Sisters attack you; and a cult-like society run by one Sophia Lamb (and her crazy butterfly imagery) is the new Big Bad. You can see why we're eager to figure out how it all fits together when the game releases in February.
JUST CAUSE 2We loved sky diving, car surfing, and airplane hijacking the
first time around, and the sequel looks to be focusing on spending as much time as possible performing some combination of those things. Not many other games allow for a ridiculous series of events such as using a grappling hook to slam two guys into each other while standing on top of the roof of a moving car. If there's anything in the world more important than pulling off ridiculous aerial stunts like that with the aid of a grappling hook, we haven't heard of it yet.
ARMY OF TWO: 40th DAYWhen the first
Army of Two fell into our hands, we weren't sure if it was an odd celebration of man and friendship, or if it was just borderline homosexual (fist pumps included). And now with the prospects of another bro-venture among the list of next year's releases, we can't help but gasp with excitement. Whether that emotion is related to having a solid co-op experience (which is nice for the PS3, since there's no
Gears of War), or laughing at the game's antics, depends on which person you talk to. The most interesting part to us about The 40th Day, is that once per chapter, Salem and Rios will come across a very specific situation with a clear, "good/bad" choice. What will you do broseph?
MLB 10 THE SHOWThe previous incarnation is quite possibly the best baseball videogame ever, so '10 has to impress us with the little things while keeping the original mechanics in-place: calling pitches as a catcher, introducing the Futures Game, and having small stadium animations like a working splash counter at AT&T Park are a nice start. If they can fix the online play (and those loading times) this year, '10 is likely to take the mantle from '09 as the best baseball game ever. Spring can't get here soon enough.
