F1 2010 – Xbox 360 – 24th September
Codemasters first attempt at an F1 game ended badly last year with a poor product arriving on wii in November. This year they debut on the HD consoles and the game is looking siiiiccckk. All of this years drivers and tracks, the best console F1 graphics ever and what is reported to be very good handling. This is the game I am most looking forward to over the next six months.

Kirby’s Epic Yarn – Wii – Q3 2010
Everybody loves Kirby right? The little pink blob is coming back to wii this Autumn and the art style is looking awesome. I probably won’t buy it immediately but Kirby games have always been fun.

Super Scribblenauts – DS – Q3 2010
So the original scribblenauts disappointed me. It was an amazing concept done badly. This year though the developers have taken note of the complaints and fixed the control issues. They have also added a lot more words and also adjectives. For example this year you can put in something odd like a ‘pregnant car’ and be given a pregnant car that will eventually give birth to a baby car… Will let these guys fool me twice but if this years game sucks then I will forget about this series.

Professor Layton and the Unwound Future – DS – 2010
Professor Layton represents a brilliant story with amazing artwork and tricky puzzles to melt your brain. The first two games have been superb and another will not go amiss.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 – Wii – Q4 2010
Sonic the Hedgehog got me into gaming. We had sonic on the master system back in the day and I loved it. Unfortunately his 3d adventures have sucked with stupid gimmicks ruining the gameplay. Sega have gone back to basics with Sonic 4 a return to the game we all remember. Really looking forward to it.

So those are the games I am most excited about in the next six months. There is also a new Assassins Creed game coming which looks pretty darn good and also a Call of Duty game… which will be worth a rental. What are your most anticipated games?

Super Mario Galaxy 2 – Wii – 28th May 2010 (wouldn’t be released on a Sunday like in US so picked the next Friday)

The original Super Mario Galaxy is by far the best game on the wii so far, I voted as such by making it my second favourite game of the decade. It is also my favourite ever mario game (I preferred Sonic in the olden days). The game proved that platforming can be amazing in 3d when done properly combining the best graphics on the system with brilliant physics and a masterful soundtrack. Galaxy 2 promises to be more of the same with similar locales, slightly improved graphics and a typically marioesque daft storyline. Sure this might make Nintendo lazy but surely more of the same isn’t always a bad thing. The first game was so good that I would happily take more of the same. Bring it on Nintendo, this time I’m going to preorder…

In other news Split/Second from my previous list now has a new name and a release date. The game will now be called Split/Second: Velocity and will be release on 21st May.

In relative chronological order then:

Mass Effect 2 – Xbox 360 – 29th January 2010

The first game on PC was ranked as my favourite game of the last decade. The second game is supposed to be even better fixing all the issues that I am currently fighting with in trying to complete the first game again… which I have to do before getting this one as it continues on keeping the same save file and being affected by your decisions in the original. The big problem with the original is combat, too often you end up dying for seemingly no reason… that is just not fun, this has been fixed and I am very excited to continue the best gaming story I have had the chance to enjoy.

Just Cause 2 – Xbox 360 – 26 March 2010

I never got to play the first Just Cause game on the PS2, it looked promising but I have since heard otherwise. This game looks like it can fulfil the promise of the first game largely due to the idea of screwing around with a grappling hook (the image below showing a car having been attached to a fighter jet by grappling hook). That said a recent video has made the controls look a little bit weak so while I think this game could be amazing poor controls could render all the fine work pointless. That said the environments in the game look wonderful and with 10000 km2 to explore there will be hours of fun to be had… fingers crossed for the controls then.

Red Steel 2 – Wii – 26 March 2010

The first red steel game sucked. It was the first fps experience for so many wii gamers and the first with motion controls but it was awful. The controls were horrible, the story was simple and dull and the graphics showed the wii to be lacking. That all said though, there was promise. It remains the best game to feature true sword fighting and so along comes the sequel with the wii peripheral ‘motion plus’ that allows you to get closer to 1-1 motion. The team have also added a stylised cel shaded graphics system that makes up for the lack of power in the wii and it just looks like an improvement all round. A heavier slant towards sword fighting is also evident with the gun fighting now playing second fiddle which makes it immediately cooler. This is the first wii game I have been excited about since last summer so it has a lot to live up for in needing to reinvigorate the wii’s recently weak software lineup. Also don’t worry I am out of sequels now…

Red Dead Redemption – Xbox 360 – 30 April 2010

An open world western game is something I have been wanting to play for years. Back in 2005 a game called Gun came out on the PS2 but it had iffy controls and quickly got annoying. Red Dead Redemption looks to give the genre the GTA treatment thanks to it being developed by Rockstar the team behind that game. If any team can pull off a cool western game you have to believe it can be them.

Split/Second – Xbox 360 – 31 May 2010

This game seems to be a mix between Burnout 2 and Excite Truck in that it is insanely fast frantic racing and the scenery explodes around you. Therefore this game should be epic. That said it also sounds like it could be largely down to luck as to where you finish what with the environmental obstacles causing havoc. Still that should make it very good multiplayer. The other slight issue is its made by Disney… which makes it sound weak. Oh well, I am game, where do I sign up?

So other than the fact that I can’t buy Mass Effect 2 until I have recompleted the first game and then have a gap until the 26 March 2010 when two of these games come out I have a pretty good and spaced out lineup for the next six months.

Other games I can look forward to:

• Trackmania – wii
• Backbreaker – Xbox 360: something needs to give Madden some competition and force it to improve its game

All images courtesy of ign.com

This is a game that leading up to its release I could not have been less excited about playing. this is partly because before August I was not paying any attention to 360 games due to not owning the console myself but partly because super hero movies tend to be daft. The one exception I have played to this rule being Spiderman 2 which was fun for web-swinging aimlessly around New York city.

Then the game came out though and I got to watch more footage of the game, the way it controlled and the cut scenes and I changed my mind.

Having now played through this game it is in fact one of the best games I have played. If I had had more time with it before deciding the game of the year then it would have certainly been higher and possibly challenged Dirt2 for the win. The game starts with you escorting the captured Joker through Arkham Asylum (Gotham City’s mental asylum). The joker escapes custody and takes over. Your job obviously is to stop him. The game sees you fighting a number of batman villains including Poison Ivy and Scarecrow along with hundreds of standard inmates and the combat is remarkably simple with one button for attacks and one button for counters. How you fair in a particular battle is largely down to your timing and it is immensely satisfying to take out a room full of goons without taking a hit. It would sound like this system though would get awfully repetitive but it does not largely down to the variety of animations on screen keeping you interested. Certainly it is easier than some other games but I don’t see why that should necessarily be a problem… The game environments contain gargoyles and other creations that allow you to perform stealthy kills as well. It is also satisfying to take out a room full of gunmen individually without being seen.

This game is also one of the best looking that I have played with the asylum coming to life through the environments. Coupled with some of the best voice work and music in gaming you will be immersed into this world. It is also an open world so although you are able to follow it in a linear way you are able to go where you like and do what you like. In fact this is encouraged thanks to the Riddler trophies dotted around the island. There are over 200 of these in total and through following the main story I only managed to find 50 or so of them but moving about the island is so fun that I intend to go hunting for the rest.

Once the main storyline is completed after about 10 hours (I completed it in a week… although I did play it a lot more frequently than Modern Warfare 2… because shock, this is better) you continue to have free reign over the island, alternatively there is the option of completing a challenge mode which gives you a task to do in a specific amount of time. This is a good way of extending the life of the game and I look forward to finishing it. The main story itself is also of a good length. You will not get any Mass Effect or Modern Warfare style annoyances when the game seems to end a couple of hours south of proper this game goes the distance and does not outstay its welcome either. A very good job then by all involved.

In conclusion I thoroughly enjoyed playing through Arkham Asylum, it is far and away the best superhero game I have ever played and its success has led Activision to announce that their spiderman games have been rubbish and that they need to try harder. This film does for superhero games what the first spiderman movie did for superhero films. It has moved the posts of what is available for the genre. A wonderful storyline, perfect controls and a relatively simple fighting mechanic are what make this game great. It flows wonderfully and lasts exactly the right amount of time. Well done to Rocksteady for making one of the few games that I could happily play again and again.

9/10

(images lovingly pinched from ign.com)

Top 5 games of 2009:
5. Metroid Prime Trilogy – Wii
4. Batmand Arkham Asylum – Xbox 360
3. Fifa 10 – Xbox 360
2. Professor Layton and Pandoras Box – DS

Game of the Year:
Colin Mcrae: Dirt 2 – Xbox 360

As usual there were also games which should have been better. Scribblenauts is the best example of this. After strong E3 hype the final product did little but let me down with terrible controls really putting me off from what is still a really strong idea. The other big let down this year was F1 2009 for wii, certainly my expectations were not high for this product. But it did nothing to even remotely impress me with its controls or damage model. Sure it looked good and faithfully had all the tracks but it was not good enough…

Heres to 2010′s games.