Games to Watch

Here are the games on which I'm keeping tabs this E3 ... QUICKLY!

Aliens: Colonial Marines
I really thought this game was dead. It had gone dead quiet for ... a year? Two? I can't remember now. Anyway, this franchise + Gearbox Software + Sega sounds AWESOME. This is going to be a title that could really surprise some people at this year's show.

Battlefield 3
I've recently discovered that the Battlefield series has been doing the 'military shooter' thing better than anyone for a long time. Intense action + non-retard story + smooth PC-based gameplay = HAWT.

BioShock Infinite
It's a Ken Levine game.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution
The devs on this are saying all the right things, showing all the right assets, and displaying some real soul and originality, but because this is tied to a beloved franchise, I'm nervous about it.


The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Because the fifth time is the charm, yes? There is no logical reason for this series never clicking with me, so I will try, try again!

Final Fantasy XIII-2
I love numeric and Tactics-based Final Fantasy titles more than I should, but word on the street is that this title is actually going to play a lot closer to classic Final Fantasy than its predecessor. I'm curious to see whose stage this shows up on during the console pressers.

Forza Motorsport 4
I suck at all racing games, but really enjoy the sim racers anyway. Turn 10 does it better than anyone else right now, so I love Forza right now.

Gears of War 3
Time to finish the fight. The Gears of War series has been the best third-person action series of this generation, and I'm looking forward to suiting back up. Big dudes, big guns, big action, and big story that doesn't take itself too seriously. Sounds fucking great.


Madden NFL 12
Why the fuck not?

Mass Effect 3
Remember when Mass Effect was that space RPG that we were getting instead of KotOR 3? How it was not that big a deal to anyone but us hardcore RPG fans? And then Mass Effect 2 came out and told us all to get our shit and get the fuck out because it wanted to be with shooter fans now. I'm curious to see how much shit I'm going to have to put up with to love Mass Effect 3.

Metro: Last Light
I REALLY need to go back and finish the first one. I know most of you are terrified of these eastern European games, but you knuckleheads are missing out. Eastern Europe is the '90s Seattle' of this generation of gaming. If you don't believe me, then go play The Witcher, STALKER, or Metro 2033 then go to the card shop and get an 'I'm sorry I'm such a xenophobic fucking homer' card.

NCAA Football 2012
The best football game every year gets better every year.

Neverwinter
A great setting for an MMO. Too bad Atari sold its developer. I want to know what the status is on this now. This could be a cash cow if it appeals to all those jilted Bioware fans that Bioware doesn't want anymore.

Rage
John Carmack. BOW.


Silent Hill: Book of Memories
This is actually being internally developed at Konami, which is interesting. It's the first one since the non-Silent Hill Silent Hill 4 to be developed by Konami. That bodes well for this title.


Silent Hill: Downpour
This series has really come off the rails since Toyama-san stopped working on it, but something about this one ... looks right. If they realize that 70% of the original trilogy's success was the sound design, this could be great.

Soul Calibur V
I've always had a soft spot for this series. That hasn't changed. It seems free of the pretension that dominates Street Fighter, Tekken, and all those douche-attracting fighters. PLEASE let this have the character-builder ...

SSX
Thank the Maker that EA dropped the CoD-serious take on this series that we were threatened with at that fake gaming awards show. We're back to crazy snowboarding on a mountain, and that suits me just fine.

Star Wars: The Old Republic
MMOs generally have the highest 'suck' factor in terms of what percent of them are utterly terrible. SWtOR, having been tied to the excellent KotOR series, looks to be a fun money-printing press for EA. I don't like the art style, but I like everything else I've seen about the game. I'm hoping to see a release date. I think it's at least a full year out.

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
The first game was near-perfect, the second game's single-player was too long, but still great, and the multiplayer was surprisingly solid. Both narratives were rock-solid. The third game is going to be awesome.


Uncharted: Golden Abyss
And thus starts the spin-offs. It was inevitable, I suppose. Since Uncharted 3 is in development, this has been farmed out to either a 'B' team or another dev. I'm excited about, don't get me wrong, but I just wanted to make some things clear right up front. Maybe it would be better to delay this until the 'A' team can work on it? That never happens with handheld spin-offs, but ... one could hope.

Warhammer 40k: Dark Millenium Online
I love everything about Warhammer 40k, so I'm curious about this.


Warhammer 40k: Space Marine
This falls outside of Relic's comfort zone, which is strategy games, but I trust them when it comes to quality. They also know this IP inside and out. It looks Gears-esque, which bodes well, and this has the potential to be a really fun take on the IP. I look forward to seeing more.

And that's it. I can't wait to see what other games surprise us, but this is a good place to start.

What did I leave off?

-Blaine

Star Wars: the Old Republic

Just wanted to share some stuff that has me grinning like an idiot in anticipation of the privilege to hand EA a monthly fee.

First, read the GamePro preview here.

Next, watch this awesome interview with Lead Writer Daniel Erickson.




Bad-ass interview, huh?

Also, don't forget 1UP's preview.

All this has me thinking about two things.

One, the more I read/watch about Star Wars: the Old Republic, the more it seems like an MMO that I would forget is an MMO. Thus, it would be an RPG in which I have the option to play with friends, and it would be an RPG that is ever-expanding. Yes, I think I like that idea.

The other think that I keep coming back to is when I'm going to fire up my Star Trek Online membership. Soon. I think I'm going to wait until both Dragon Age - Awakening & Final Fantasy XIII are wrapped up.

What about you? Are you excited for Star Wars: the Old Republic? Do you play MMOs? Why or why not?

Also, I am a HUGE Star Trek fan, and kind of dug the STO beta, but have delayed starting my monthly fees for STO. Should I start it at all?

-Blaine

Happy Frakkin' New Year! Here's a podcast!

It's a new year, a new decade so here's a new podcast.

We rap about all the games that are worth talking about in this new year (that would be 2010 for those of you keeping score at home.) We also wrap up our top games of the decade by revealing our #5 - #1. We also talk about all the old shit we've been playing this last week. You Fallout 3 apologists might be pleased.

Tony is blasting George Michael right now, so it's a little distracting.

Listen in, enjoy, and let us know what works for you, and what doesn't.

We'll be podcasting again on the 16th, to wrap up CES, and we'll be posting in the meantime.

Let us know if there's anything in particular ya wanna hear/read about from us.

Word.

-Blaine

Lately, it's always Bioware.

I have a large, potentially huge (kudos to anyone who gets that reference) pile of shame. Like, AMAZINGly big.

But, see, I'm also a bit of a collector, though not as much as I used to be. I have an RPG collection the likes of which you can't imagine, though I have managed to migrate as much it as possible to portable (laptop, DS, & PSP) formats.

Anyway, the point is that I've got a million unplayed games, and yet, I keep going back to Bioware games (though, the Witcher, which I haven't yet played through, is in there right now, too.) Lately, I've been ping-ponging between Dragon Age & Mass Effect.

Mass Effect is over two years old now. I played through it a few times on 360, then snagged it on PC when it was on sale on Steam for $10, and am now playing through that a second time in order to have a save w/ the latest DLC and w/ level 60 (which is only possible on a new game +).

Dragon Age, though...I just beat it over Thanksgiving! What the fuck am I doing playing this game again already?! I've got the Witcher to beat, not to mention a million older RPGs.

I just really love that game, I guess. And to be fair, it's been a pretty different game this time. I was a male human noble warrior in my first game, and now, I'm a female city elf rogue, and not only is the origin totally different, but I'm doing things in a slightly different order, and the character interactions are different because I'm playing a female character.

Really, though, I was the same way with Final Fantasy VII, then Resident Evil 2, then KotOR, and a handful of other games. I just get really into certain games, and while I still do play through new games, these games just call me back again & again.

I was kinda chuckling to myself about this last night, as I was making short work of the Fade section of Dragon Age, and doing so much more quickly and confidently than I was in my first playthrough. I realized that I already had some of the complex puzzles in the game memorized, and was surprised by that, but then realized that Dragon Age is now one of those 'go-to' games for me. I'll play it again and again, trying to find ways to get the game to react differently than it has before (and I'm usually successful; I once got Tifa to come to me in the Golden Saucer instead of Aeris.)

Anyway, it always kills me that I spend about half my gaming time replaying games that I've already beaten.

Do you guys think I should worry that a) I've narrowed my game-playing almost exclusively to RPGs & b) I spend half that time playing through adventures I've already finished?

And what about you? Do you have any games like this, that you go back to once a year or so and play through again? I actually played FFVII every year, once a year from 1997-2004. I know, I know, but I'm hoping to hear that you're the same way!

ANYWAY, have a great New Year, get drunk, don't drive, and if you're coming to my house for walking tacos, be there at 7:00 tonight!

See ya in 2010!

-Blaine

Second! Pffft...

Let me give you a proper introduction and spare you from Tony's slander of a fine, fine game.

This is the Untitled Gaming blog. Those of you who have been following our podcast for a while know what to expect, roughly. Imagine this as sort of a non-stop literary form of our podcast in which Tony and I will just post whatever the fuck we feel like (relating to gaming) whenever we feel like it.

We honestly have no idea what to expect from this, but it struck me as a good idea over the weekend, and I informed Tony that we were doing this last night, since it wouldn't be right to take on this venture without him.

I think that this will be a daily thing, if not multiple times a day. Some posts will be three sentences, while others will be overly bloated reviews, others will be commentaries on gaming news stories, and still others will be nearly pornographic in how extremely they satisfy your brain.

At first, this will serve as our running discussion on the top 10 games of the 00s.

Before I assert that I am above even pretending that Tony's hatred of a landmark game based on its unforgiving save system is worth validating via a response, I'm going to reveal some of the games that have been in our discussion, so that you all can make cases for and against, if you'd be so kind.

Here's the short list, in no particular order:

Bioshock
Final Fantasy XII
Grand Theft Auto III 
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Mass Effect
Guild Wars
Diablo II

Fable II
Fallout 3
Orange Box (this isn't even a game, but I didn't pick it, so whatever)
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
MVP Baseball 2005
Ace Attorney: Phoenix Wright
Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness
Final Fantasy IX
Gears of War
Gears of War 2
Hotel Dusk: Room 215
Lost Odyssey
Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Dragon Age: Origins
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (PC)
Indigo Prophecy
Shadow of Destiny


So, that's the short list, and that's even missing a few that both of us wanted to put on there.


Hell, I just realized that Tony didn't put any racing games in there. That's surprising. I thought for sure that we'd see a Codemasters game from him somewhere in there.

One thing that will be interesting to see is how Tony and I come to a consensus on criteria for the decade's top ten games. It's clear to me, at the moment, that we have slightly different criteria. For example, multiplayer matters little to me. I do enjoy multiplayer, but I haven't quite figured out how important to me it is. It's important enough to keep Modern Warfare 2 and Forza MotorSport 3 out of the discussion, since both have extremely severe problems with their respective multiplayer experiences (though Forza 3 has a far better single player experience than the laughable MW2 single player.) I do enjoy both games but both are cases of diminishing returns on a franchise.

So, what do you guys think? What's your criteria? What would you champion for our list, and what did we leave off? Don't forget to tune in this weekend when we post our first podcast of this series!

-Blaine