The year of 2011 was amazingly packed full of high quality titles released across multiple platforms, 2012 is shaping up to be another incredible year for gamers. These are my top anticipated games for this year and we’ll see if they can live up to my hype by years end (if they even come out in 2012).
MLB 12 The Show
Strange that a sports game is highly anticipated? Read on as to why. Being a life long San Francisco Giants fan finally paid off in 2010 with the Giants winning their first World Championship since 1954 and the only championship title I’ve witnessed in my lifetime (No thanks to Dusty Baker in 2002 World Series). I’ve always been a huge fan of video game baseball, starting with the Intellivision classic “Major League Baseball”. Back in those days there were no stat engines to keep track of your players or franchise modes. I was so enthralled with the game that I kept track of statistics on paper over the course of multiple seasons. To this day, no video game was as much fun playing against my older brother or my father than Intellivision MLB.
Through the years I’ve played all sorts of video game baseball, from classics like RBI Baseball, Baseball Stars, Bases Loaded, Triple Play, and one of my personal favorites, MVP Baseball. MLB 12 The Show comes from a breed of baseball developed over the years by the fine folks at SCEA San Diego Studios. I’ve played several previous iterations, both on PS3 and PSP. This year, MLB 12 The Show will be released on the new PS Vita along side it’s big brother on the PS3. As a rabid baseball fan, this is huge news. Both games will be able to share save files so I’ll be able to take my franchise or Road to the Show players from my PS3 on the road with me on the PS Vita. This is truly a dream come true. Given the power of the Vita over the PSP, MLB 12 will be very close in feature set and functionality as the PS3 version so playing on Vita shouldn’t fell like a crippled experience as it has in the past on PSP.
Street Fighter X Tekken
In the 1990s I was a fighting game junkie (I still am). I’d spend rent money on Japanese Sega Saturn fighting games, typically from NCSX (Yeah, I imported from NCSX before you ever knew you could). As my roommate and wife can attest, strange boxes from Japan would sometimes show up costing over $100 for a single 2D fighter. Never heard of X-Men vs Street Fighter or it’s amazing follow up Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter? These were almost arcade perfect console ports, only available on Saturn due to it’s amazing ability to play 2D games with the use of a 4MB RAM cart. Years later I sold my collection of import Sega Saturn games and I’ve regretted that ever since. There should be no doubt as to why I’m anticipating SFxT, especially the PS Vita version. While I do enjoy UMvC3, I feel as if the SFIV series is more to my overall tastes in fighters nowadays. I’m excited by new additions like fighter customization with gem system, progress right?
Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm
I’m a big fan of the Starcraft universe. I’ve read a lot of the books, obviously played the games a great deal. I can’t wait to play as Sarah in the Zerg campaign. Blizzard takes great care with their Starcraft franchise and I have no doubt this expansion will nothing but quality. And as per tradition, no official release date yet.
Diablo 3
Diablo is a fantastic game franchise. As someone who has enjoyed previous games in the series, I’m looking forward to playing D3 with great anticipation. Blizzard has learned a great deal from World of Warcraft and I’ve seen lots of WoW polish added to Diablo 3. I think this is a good thing as D3 is clearly more of an online action RPG instead of the offline style it has been in the past.
Halo 4
Halo may be “overused” but I do enjoy the story and universe. Halo has come a long way since the day it was revealed to the world at Macworld 1999. I’m a huge Bungie fan. I’ve played every Bungie game ever made and have been playing Bungie games on Mac long before Xbox or Halo itself. Myth is still one of my favorite games of all time. Even with all the shake ups over the years with Xbox, Microsoft, Halo, and Bungie I’m still interested in the core Halo franchise. Let’s hope that 343 can deliver a great Halo game.
Dragon’s Crown
Being old school, these 2D brawlers really excite me. Throw in RPG elements and Vanillaware being at the helm, call me super excited. 2D goodness on PS Vita and PS3. Cross game play. Action RPG style like their previous title Odin Sphere. It looks absolutely gorgeous.
The Last Of Us
The Walking Dead meets Uncharted. Naughty Dog is the best game story tellers of this console generation. The Uncharted series is a huge success and by far my favorite adventure game series of all time. I’ve played all of the games and I’m saddened each time they end. My most highly anticipated game by far is their next franchise, The Last of Us. I can not wait.
Tagged: Gaming, microsoft, playstation, sony, vita, xbox
