The Fridge's 2012 Hype List: Gaming

Posted by Jeff the Fridge from Cardiff - Published on 25/01/2012 at 12:39
7 comments » - Tagged as Technology

This articles comes a bit late, seeing how January is nearly over, but the gaming year won’t start for another few months, and what a year its shaping up to be.

There are three amazing new Resident Evil titles on the horizon, as well as a classic Nintendo re-boot, along with Nintendo’s new console. Sony has already said they won’t announce the PS4 in E3 2012 and Microsoft are being none committal. Thankfully for Nintendo, this means at least another year of good sales. After controlling the handheld market in 2011, Nintendo has got some competition coming in the form of the PS Vita in February.

So, for all you casual and advanced gamers, here are my top five most hyped games in 2012.

5. Resident Evil: Revelations (Nintendo 3DS)

Save for The Mercenaries 3D, most 3DS games have been for casual gamers. Thankfully, Revelations looks like a return to form. After Resident Evil 5 being a more action orientated shooter, and Resident Evil 4 being more about overwhelming you with creepy old Romanians, the main zone of Revelations, the stranded ship Queen Zenobia, harks back to the Spencer Mansion from Resident Evil 1. The enclosed, creaking corridors really instil fear - if you’ve got a decent pair of headphones to shudder through. The shooting is much harder than previous games, due to the fact that the game shifts into first person so you can shoot the vile fish people that shuffle towards you.

4. BioShock Infinite (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)

The BioShock series is one of the greatest of this generation, along with Mass Effect and Uncharted, so you can expect Infinite to be the latest and greatest. The new city in which the game is set feels like a stark contrast to Rapture, being a floating city showing how great America is, instead of an underwater one that rejected modern society. Sadly, this means no more splicers, big daddies or little sisters. In one way, I’ll miss them. In others, I’m looking forward to how Ken Levine will top them. The enormous mocking bird seems to have replaced the big daddies, and new accomplice Elizabeth replacing the little sisters. Elizabeth also adds new depth to the combat, adding the ability of tears, bringing objects from the past or future to add cover, more ammo or even an alternate route. Despite leaving Rapture, many people will still regard BioShock as the game to look forward to the most this year, but not me.

3. Kid Icarus: Uprising (3DS)

Most young people won’t remember Pit’s adventures in Kid Icarus, and by young I mean anyone under 30, but I grew up with my dad’s SNES controller in one hand, and my brother's N64 in the other. Kid Icarus had much to do with Metroid, seeming like a vertical cousin, but the new game seems to have had a revolution akin to the one with Metroid with the Prime series. The new game is more of a third person shooter, using the circle pad and stylus to aim, and left bumper to shoot. About half of the game will be on rails like Starfox 64 (or Lylat Wars as it was called in Britain) whilst the other half is stationed on the ground as a Zelda-style hack-n-slash. Unlike other Nintendo games, every character in Kid Icarus has a voice actor, which is about ten times more than the voices used in the recent Skyward Sword. This is the Kid Icarus game that everyone has been clamouring for since his return in Smash Bros. Brawl.

2. Resident Evil 6 (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U(?))

As most of my friends will tell you, I’m a huge Resident Evil fan. Barely announced a week ago, Resident Evil 6 is shaping up to be one of the best games on any system for 2012. It has three playable characters, Leon Kennedy from Resident Evil 4, Chris Redfield from Resident Evil 5 and a new unnamed character so far dubbed Mercenary. The Leon sections look extremely like a return to Resident Evil’s horror roots, showing creepy underground sections and the return of proper zombies. The Chris sections seem like more action orientated levels, using a cover system and proper supplies. It has already been shown that you’ll fight against humans in these sections, meaning more shoot outs, and the introduction of a cover mechanic, to hide from bullets and from the new long armed mutants from the trailer. No one really knows what the Mercenary sections will be yet, but gameplay footage is making it look like God of War, the character using lots of combat manoeuvres. Mercenary also seems to be being chased by a huge monster, similar to Jill in Resident Evil 3 with the nemesis, meaning more epic boss fights and tense fleeing sections. This is the combination of all the great Resident Evil games recently, using the overwhelming horror from 4 and the intense shooting from 5 to make this the best looking and probably most accessible Resident Evil yet. Plus, from the trailer, it seems you can move and shoot. Finally...

1. Mario/Zelda/Metroid Wii U Release Game (Wii U)

Okay, this isn’t even a game, but, c’mon, just look at the new Nintendo console. It’s like a mix between the 3DS button layout, with dual thumb sticks to please shooter fans, and a tablet sized touch screen. Nintendo have primarily been showing off that beautiful Zelda demo featured in the video, making me wish Nintendo had just waited another few months with the Wii to have a HD graphics chip, instead of true Nintendo fans being left in 480p whilst competitors looked gorgeous in HD. I mean, just look at the recent Crysis 2 and Killzone 3. These are some of the most stunning visuals of modern gaming. This was just not capable on the Wii’s inferior graphics chip. Even saying this, Twilight Princess, Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Super Smash Bros. Brawl look so much better than most Xbox games, even so far to say that the aforementioned games look even better than the recent Modern Warfare 3. Eagle-eyed Nintendo followers will have seen clips of Super Mario Bros. Mii, a basic HD port of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, showing how good Mario could look on a HD system. But I would love it if Rare decided to do a new Metroid Prime game on the new system, or failing that, a port of the Prime collection from the Wii. My only reservations for the Wii U are that the controller does seem clunky, and what would happen if you dropped it and the screen broke. I’ve already spoken with HMV and they’ve estimated that it’ll cost about £200, so I don’t really want to pay that again if I’m careless.

So, haters gonna hate this list, but this is my personal list for 2012. If anyone has a problem with this list, comment below any suggestions to what they want on the list. Before any says it, GTA V isn’t going to be a good game, I’ve never liked the GTA series, or any Rockstar games, save L.A. Noire, so don’t bring that up.

I wish you all a happy gaming new year, and I’ll see you on the online battlefield - as long as you have sense and play 3DS, Wii or PC, because, even though I have an Xbox 360 and PS3, Wii and PC are superior consoles.

News Categories Technology

Worried about missing one of Jeff the Fridge's game reviews? Keep an eye on TheSprout Series section of theSprout's new Facebook Fan Page.

Related Articles: 2012: The Death Of The PS3/360?

7 Comments – Post a comment

Ragnarok

Commented 52 months ago - 25th January 2012 - 15:27pm

Solid list, fair play.

But, no mention of Final Fantasy XIII-2? The demo's been live on Xbox Live and PSN for a few weeks, and I've been on it constantly. It's the only game that I'm rather excited about. That and the Devil May Cry HD set. I really can't wait for that port.

And, if GTA V does come out this year (and if it is, it'll probably be the second half of the year), I think it will be a good game, at least on par with IV. But saying that you never liked anything offerings from Rockstar save LA Noire (which was a cracker of a game) doesn't mean that they aren't any good.

For instance, I really don't like the Uncharted series. People marvel over the gameplay and the graphics, but nothing new is offered (well, to me at least). It just seems rather predictable and flat. The only decent thing that's there is the lighting is sometimes decent, but nothing else. It's all about personal tastes, innit?

And personally, I prefer the PS3 to the other ones, but I do think all of them have a worthy audience. Well, apart from the 360. I've gone off the 360 ever since I realised you needed a Gold account to watch things on YouTube. That's rather insane.

Jeff the Fridge

Commented 52 months ago - 25th January 2012 - 17:15pm

i agree with you on the xbox membership matter, and also final fantasy xiii-2 came about seventh on my list

gadget guy

Commented 52 months ago - 25th January 2012 - 20:04pm

good list, but i would add luigis mansion 2 to the list as i played the origional on my wii with a gcube controller.
i also downloaded the resident evil rev demo for 3ds and i freaked when the octopus vacumm cleaner jumped out the wardrobe and got a bit too friendly with my face