Today continues the three part Roundtable discussion of our staff’s review choices for 2013. On Monday, we asked our Australian staff members about their review choices. Now we have asked our European staff to take a break from drinking tea and eating crumpets(or whatever other stereotypes there are toward Europeans) to discuss which games they will review and why they are excited for it.
George Sinclair
Retro City Rampage
I picked this to review because I grew up playing old games on my uncle’s 1989 Gameboy. I used to play games like Battletoads and the such. That was the closest I could get to games in the 1980′s until Activision released a title called Activision Anthology on the PS2 which had about 30 games from the 80′s. Me and my brother played it all the time despite most of the games being horribly aged, but that’s all the part of the fun with retro gaming. Note: Keep in mind that “Retro City: Rampage” has a much later release date in Europe.
The Last of Us
Naughty Dog has been my favourite developer since I played Crash Bandicoot 3 on my best friend’s PlayStation 1, and I mean they’re my absolute favourite. Jak and Daxter is my all-time favourite franchise. I’m always excited for a Naughty Dog release, but The Last of Us blew me away with just what Naughty Dog is capable of. From Crash to Jak to Uncharted, I’m not just excited to see their next game; I’m excited to see the next stage of development of Naughty Dog as a studio.
Bioshock Infinite
Come on, who doesn’t want to play this? It’s the next Bioshock game, do you really need more explanation other than I can’t wait to see what comes out of Ken Levine’s brilliant design mind next?
Killzone: Mercenary
During the lead up to the release of the PS3 when they were showing off tech demos, Killzone 2 was the game that really stood out. The flying bullets, the soaring missiles, men dropping left and right, the orange eyes of the Helghast. It amazed me, truly amazed me. The best bit was the opening mission of Killzone 2 was every bit as crazy as that tech demo. As for Killzone Mercenary, well, if Sony needed a studio to develop a good shooter for the Vita, they should have gone to Guerilla Cambridge first. I think it’s going to give us the shooter experience we really need on the Vita instead of the sub par efforts of Nstigate.
Ratchet and Clank: Full Frontal Assault
I’m a long time Ratchet fan as many of us are and I’m interested to review the Vita version because I want to see how Insomniac’s next Ratchet experiment goes. I say “experiment” because the game is a mixture of shooting, platforming and tower defense. I want to play this out of interest more than anything.
Beyond: Two Souls
Every once in a while, a game will come along and sting you in the backside with how good it looks visually. For me, these games often have me repeating the phrase “Oh my God” a lot. Beyond: Two Souls really piqued my interest when it was unveiled at E3. I didn’t play much of Heavy Rain, but as soon as I saw this, I needed to play it.
God of War: Ascension
I just want to laugh at Kratos’ inability to communicate with other people again. Did anyone catch his attempt at sarcasm in God Of War 3? He even sounded angry whilst trying to invoke humour. Oh, and it has some of the most impressive graphics and action on the PlayStation 3.
Oddworld: Strangers Wrath
I haven’t reviewed any Vita games yet…
The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct
Sure, the game looks horrible visually, but does the zombie apocalypse need to be pretty? Well sure, ok, it would be nice, but the details about the gameplay interest me. Zombies will be able to detect you by smell, you’ll have a limited inventory and you will have to carefully decide whether or not to save a survivor. I also hope we get a chance to really explore the beginning of the apocalypse and how Daryl and Merle survived it. Will it just be a more playable version of Telltales game? No. But hopefully, it should be worth playing all the same.
Vlad Pintea
Tomb Raider
Well I chose Tomb Raider because it’s one of the franchises I grew up with. I still remember being absolutely clueless about what to do in the first game (I was like 5 or 6). Furthermore, I think it’s important to have more feminine protagonists in the industry. It doesn’t have to be macho men everywhere, and Lara is certainly the most important one. More than this, in the past Tomb Raider games, even if they were solid, Lara felt very “sexualized.” Whether it’s clear from the first trailer that in this reboot, she’s clearly more grounded to reality. As I’ve stated time and time again, it’s very important to understand the characters, and this game is clearly intent to show us more than Lara’s passion for tombs. In fact, it’ll show us why she loves exploring them so much. It’s also a step up from the other games with its open world-like structure, and I still believe that the multi-player can be something good to the franchise. I don’t mean because of the usual “Team Deathmatch,” but because of the other modes that put an emphasis on survival and discovery, something akin to the single-player component.
Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2
As for Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2… Even with its many faults I really enjoyed the first one. Unfortunately, the main reason I liked it was because there are very few games that are 100 percent sniper-focused. Even the first one has a few annoying run-and-gun sequences, which I hope are gone in the sequel. Seeing the trailers, and gameplay videos, it definitely seems to be a step up from its predecessor, so that’s why I’m looking forward to it.
Splinter Cell: Blacklist
Contrary to many people, I enjoyed Splinter Cell: Conviction more than the other games in the series. Not because I don’t have the patience the past iterations require. If you’ve played Conviction you know that it still requires you to study the enemies. It’s more versatile than the others; it’s more fast paced without sacrificing what made the franchise great in the first place. The story is much more engaging and personal, and this just brings out who Sam Fisher really is, or how far would he go to save his daughter. From what I’ve seen, Blacklist seems to be another step in the right direction, combining the fast paced elements of Conviction (like “Mark and Execute”) with the more stealthier approaches of the past games like picking up bodies and hiding them.
Mirror’s Edge 2
As for Mirror’s Edge 2… Even if it wasn’t officially announced, we know DICE is working on it, and I’m extremely excited about it. I loved the first one for its gameplay that was 99 percent focused on parkour (the one percent being the shooting elements, but those were optional anyway) and also for its story. It was predictable yes, but I still think it has huge potential. You can, in fact, read more about what I would like in the second game here. I don’t know anything about Mirror’s Edge 2, but I’m definitely looking forward to it because of what made the first one so enjoyable, and the things it can improve on.
Now that you’ve heard from George and Vlad, what do you think? Do you want to jump from rooftop to rooftop in Mirror’s Edge 2? Are you looking forward to watching Ellen Page’s performance in Beyond: Two Souls? Do you even like video games? Let us know in the comments section below and type away.
