Gaming

Clive at Five's Most Anticipated Games of 2013

It's 2013 and that means... Well, it means I'm going to keep doing what I've always done: PLAY VIDEO GAMES!

Now last year, I really cheaped out. Two of the games I listed were REPEATS, and the rest were very predictable based on 2011's picks. This year I've decided that (despite still being highly-anticipated) I can't put them in my top five AGAIN... Those games are:


* Blizzard All-Stars (formerly, "Blizzard DotA") -- Third year running on this one, so I definitely couldn't list it again. Now why am I anxious for this game? Well, I'm a huge League of Legends fan, but I hate buying boots every game. It's like... I want to work on my Attack-Speed Vi build but I can't afford a Zephyr because I still don't have tier-2 boots, dammit! All-Stars promises to simplify the formula so that players can concentrate on important things, not redundant things like buying boots. I effing HATE buying boots!


* StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm -- I'm sad to say that, I'm starting to lose my faith in Blizzard. They are becoming the company of unfulfilled promises. We STILL have yet to see features promised at launch in SCII and Diablo(w) 3. You know, they used to take a long time to release games, but they would be incredibly polished. Now they take a long time to release games, and they're STILL unfinished. Anyway. Heart of the Swarm. I'm more looking forward to the story than I am the multi-player, which is a sad reflection. But as far as quality RTS titles go, StarCraft is still the title to beat, flaws and all.


* Grand Theft Auto V -- This one goes without saying. I love GTA, but I hated "IV". Everybody did. The game was way too serious. I think Rockstar knows this. So far, all signs suggest that "V" will be a return-to-form (cue the Hallelujah chorus). Now, they just need to promise us that they'll drop the whole "relationships" nonsense... If I have to update my in-game Facebook status to "Just robbed a guy. LOL!" in order to reach 100% completion, someone from Rockstar will be thrown from the top of a 16-story building.

Enough of that, let's talk about what's NEW on my radar for 2013!

[Honorable Mention]) Tomb Raider - Crystal Dynamics

Tomb Raider: The year was 1996 when Tomb Raider was released, and Lara Croft was the hottest arrangement of polygons that ever existed. I was a 6th grade boy at the time, so how could I not fall in love with Lara Croft the game? But with time, my taste in imaginary women evolved, and despite remaining a super hawt hawttie (and later portrayed by super hawt hawttie Angelina Jolie in film) my interest in Lara Croft the series wanned.

Then this game appeared. While it's an "origin story," it's not a return-to-form to the primarily puzzle-focused action platforming style of the original games, it does look much more interesting than your average First-Person stealth game, focusing a lot on using (or reacting to) your environment.



Not sure if I'll be picking this one up at launch (March 5, 2013) or if I'll wait for a sale, but Lara Croft Tomb Raider is definitely on my list.

5) Antichamber - Alexander Bruce

Antichamber is an indie puzzle game (surprise!) that takes place in a barren white... place. You know what? I can't describe this game. Here you go:



It comes out today (1/31/2013) and I will be buying it instantly. Watch my YouTube Channel for da vids!

4) Pikmin 3 - Nintendo

Pikmin is a unique game, straddling RTS and puzzle adventure genres... two of my favorites. The weird thing is that I had never even heard of this game until the Wii U (maybe because I never had a GameCube?). My first experience playing Pikmin was the mini-game in NintendoLand (bundled with the Wii U), and GUESS WHAT? It's ridiculously addictive! If you've never played a Pikmin title, this video will get you caught up:


(Clive does not endorse racist comments)

Pikmin 3 will be released in Q1, 2013.

3) SimCity (5) - EA

I like SimCity games. A lot. Lara Croft SimCity 2000 (SC2k) was probably the first video game I actually LOVED. I could (and did) play it for hours on end. But then something terrible happened. EA bought Maxis, the studio that designed SimCity and SC2k. Then they started concentrating on crap like The Sims and incorporating social garbage into SimCity titles before anyone had really figured the whole "social" thing out yet. Basically, the franchise hasn't seen a truly significant upgrade since SC2k.

EA is calling SimCity "5", a "reboot" (hey, it's the hip thing now). Nevermind the fact that every single SimCity game is a reboot... and enhanced version of the original. SO SCREW YOU, EA! You know this isn't going to change anything! More attempts at "social" gaming (which will fail because it's EA), more micro-management instead of macro-management, small cities, and less "emergent" gameplay... basically all the things that die-hards will generally dislike.

Oh, except now there are curved roads. Congratulations, EA. You can now build a feature that has existenced since the dawn of civilization.

Okay, okay... I will admit that I am pleased that the game is using "exact" simulation instead of using numeric approximations like in previous titles. And also, the game looks great. I guess that's one benefit of having EA at your fingertips.



SimCity "5" holds a lot of promise, but I'm assuming they'll pander too much to "The Sims" players and try to gear the game towards scenario-based play. Hopefully Maxis will prove me wrong when the game releases on March 5th, 2013.

2) Watch_Dogs - Ubisoft ("No, YOU be soft!")

You already know I love GTA, but even I will admit that the formula is getting a little stale. So when I heard about Watch_Dogs I got pretty excited. It illustrates an important lesson in both life and high crime: Don't work harder, work smarter.

Remember the mission in GTA III where you have to kill Don Salvatore when he's leaving Luigi's club? If you didn't have a rocket launcher, you were pretty much screwed. If you did have a rocket launcher, you probably used a cheat code, you cheap bastard. I have too much honor for that, so I would pile up as many cars in the road as possible so that when Salvatore's brigade left the club, they'd get stuck in the cars. Then I'd toss a grenade, watch the chain reaction and usually get blown up in the process.

What does this have to do with Watch_Dogs? This game allows the player to hack things. So instead of stealing ten cars to cause a pile-up (and gain the cops' attention), you could, oh, I dunno... hack a street light, make it green in both directions and cause a massive pile-up... all without looking suspicious as hell.

So basically, it's a hacker-inspired GTA.



I want. But no release date yet. Just "2013".

1) The Witness - Jonathan Blow

Indie Puzzle Game. That's probably all that needs to be said about why I'm looking forward to it, but I'll try to elaborate.

Jonathan Blow has a weird brain. That weird brain created an amazingly weird but clever game, Braid in which you manipulate time to solve puzzles. It's one of those games that makes you feel really smart for figuring it out. The "story" was ambient and didn't punch you in the face like most games, which I appreciated. And while none of it mattered during the gameplay, the final "cutscene" was mind-blowing. Needless to say, my expectations for mind-blowing-ness are equally as high for The Witness.

The other thing that really intruiges me about this game is its striking similarities to MYST. A lonely but beautiful island with nothing but mysterious puzzles to solve. There aren't many videos worth showing, but just look at this picture and tell me you don't see MYST. !



RIGHT?! OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG....

Now, J.Blow hasn't set a release date, but he has mentioned on his blog, that his team is moving out of development mode and into production mode. That's a good sign, right? HURRY UP, GAME!!!

-- -- -- -- --

That's it for this year....

What's on YOUR list?

-Clive

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New, New Super Mario Bros: Needs Moar "New"

(Inspired by an IGN Blog Challenge.) My obsession with Mario games is likely worthy of a restraining order. And though they say love is blind, I feel my ability to assess the quality of Mario titles is still fairly well intact. (Mario can always hide from me in Delfino Plaza if my stalking gets too out of hand.) Aside from the blunder that is Sunshine, the Mario franchise has gotten better with age, culminating in the masterpiece that was Super Mario Galaxy. Yet in the midst of the some of the greatest Mario games to date, I've longed for the simple "Saturday Morning" enjoyment that can only come from the NES titles of yore. You can imagine my delight, then, when I learned of New Super Mario Bros Wii! The prophecy that this game would be Mario 3 for a new generation was perfectly realized. No, it was more than 'perfectly realized'. This game exceeded all reasonable expectations. The multiplayer aspect was brilliantly implemented to add a magnificent new dimension of strategy (and aggravation) to the gameplay. The combination of old and new power-ups struck a nice balance, and matched the game's level-design well (unlike a certain Frog Suit). Most importantly, the addition of Star Coins made this game challenging for the insane completionists like me, without alienating casual players who just wanted to beat the game. This being said, I think New Super Mario Bros is an easy addition to Nintendo's win-column. Now Nintendo, as any smart company would do, has presented us with two new NSMB titles for 2012, one for 3DS and an implied launch title for Wii U. It's not news to anyone that most sequels are not quite as great as their predecessors (especially when it follows closely on the heels of the original) so there is naturally cause for some apprehension. I'm certainly not worried about NSMB becoming Nintendo's Call of Duty, but I am a little worried that the concept of a "throwback" Mario can start to look and feel a bit diluted in an over-saturated market of NSMB titles. This in mind, Nintendo must make sure they continually iterate the look and feel of future 2D Mario title. Nintendo need look no further than its own franchises for a proper example of how to do this. Before Galaxy 2, no two Mario titles used quite the same artistic style, but that was perhaps a limitation of the system hardware. Today, we're living in a technological age where Mario is no longer GPU-limited to look like the closest approximation to his box art. Would changing the appearance of such an iconic character and the well-established Mushroom Kingdom be too big of a slap in the face for fans? I would argue not. After all, it has worked just fine for Link... No one playing Zelda asks who the eff that pointy-eared guy is. Even though Mario and the Mushroom Kingdom are pretty solidly defined, I would challenge Nintendo to push the design envelope, specifically, in toning down the "cartoonism" of NSMB titles. The other thing I'd like to see Nintendo break is the repetitive one-plane (left-to right / bottom-to-top) level design. Galaxy (1 & 2) had some really interesting 3D transitions within 2D-levels, for example, around a corner with a graceful 90-degree camera swing, or a smooth rotation around a pill-shaped planet. Dare to break the confines of a one-plane existence with NSMB, Nintendo! This will bring 2D Mario to life without jeopardizing the simplicity of a 2D game. As far as WiiU-specific features, just... don't. I'm okay with a quick flick of the wrist to use a propeller cap, but that doesn't translate to the tablet, especially if you're playing without a TV. No one wants to shake the screen they're playing on. Other than that, don't change a thing. The co-op gameplay was fantastic, and the elegant simplicity of recreating a Mario 3-like experience is exactly where a 2D Mario title needs to be. Now just take what was already a great success and bring it to life with nicer visuals and 2D gameplay in a 3D world and I'll be first in line to buy it. And while I'm distracted with this game, Mario will have enough time to escape back to Delfino Plaza. Readers: What are your thoughts? Did you play New Super Mario Brothers? What do you want to see out of a future NSMB title? Don’t forget to check out the weekly Podcast!

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If you have a pulse, you should be excited for FEZ

FEZ is possibly the neatest-looking nostalgia-inducing indie game I've ever laid eyes on. Here's exactly why you should be in love with this game: Read more

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SimCity "5" and My High Expectations

Why has enthusiasm for SimCity games continually outshone games of the same vintage? Emergence. SimCity basically defined the genre, but Maxis has a big task ahead of them if they plan on redefining it for SimCity in a new decade. Here's Clive's take: Read more