Top Five Most Looked-Forward To Games Of 2012, You Guys!

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Fri Mar 23, 2012 3:30 pm

Let's do it! It's the:

Thread Where We Say What Our Top Five Most Looked Forward To Games Of 2012 Are!!!!!

PINBACK'S MOST LOOKED FORWARD TO GAME OF 2012, #1: NAVAL ///AR: ARCTIC CIRCLE

Of all the types of games I wished I actually loved to play, instead of just loving in my mind, this is it. Sprawling naval warfare, with vast oceans buzzing with radar sweeps, aircraft carriers, fighters, missiles, submarines, all skulking around trying to find and blow up the enemy. DELICIOUS! And this one looks to be the most approachable one of this genre to come out in quite some time. Command might also come out this year, but it's so goddamn detailed and complicated I know I stand no chance. With N///:AC, at least I stand a chance. Will I do more with it than fiddle with the tutorials, fire up the first scenario and quit forever? Almost certainly not. But I'm sure as shit lookin' forward to it!

PINBACK'S MOST LOOKED FORWARD TO GAME OF 2012, #2: STARCRAFT II: HEART OF THE SWARM

Until a few weeks ago, this was by far the #1 thing on this list, so much so that the rest of the list would have been rendered pointless. However, having burned out a bit on both the game and the community, we're gonna knock it down to the ol' #2 spot. Also, who knows, it may not even make it out this year. I would imagine that by the time it's ready, it'll be back up to being way in front of this pack. But for now? You just cool yer jets there, Kerrigan.

PINBACK'S MOST LOOKED FORWARD TO GAME OF 2012, #3: XENONAUTS / FIRAXIS XCOM / WHATEVER

I know XCOM was the best game ever, you guys. I just never got into it. I tried again earlier this year, and though I see the appeal, the interface is so goddamn unusable at this point that it wasn't even fair to it for me to continue. I WANT to feel the love. I really do. So I'm hoping one of these releases comes out and really sells it to me! I wanna be a part of this. I hope I can be a part of this.

PINBACK'S MOST LOOKED FORWARD TO GAME OF 2012, #4: MECHWARRIOR TACTICS

I first heard of this a couple hours ago when RetroRomper posted the screenshot. Looks pretty sweet! I'm in!

PINBACK'S MOST LOOKED FORWARD TO GAME OF 2012, #5: UHHHHHHHHHHhhhHHHhhhhhh

I can't think of one right now. Maybe if you all post your lists it'll inspire me. Or something'll jog my memory or some shit.

The Happiness Engine · Fri Mar 23, 2012 5:32 pm

Ehm... I dunno, is Harmonix going to chart 5 songs I like? Seriously so sick of fanfiction broken up with tedious mechanics.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Fri Mar 23, 2012 7:44 pm

The Happiness Engine wrote:Ehm... I dunno, is Harmonix going to chart 5 songs I like? Seriously so sick of fanfiction broken up with tedious mechanics.

Does anyone know what this posts means? I'm ready to learn.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Fri Mar 23, 2012 10:04 pm

pinback wrote:
The Happiness Engine wrote:Ehm... I dunno, is Harmonix going to chart 5 songs I like? Seriously so sick of fanfiction broken up with tedious mechanics.
Does anyone know what this posts means? I'm ready to learn.

Yeah, it means that Mass Effect 3 can gobble a bobble!

ICE CREAM JONSEY'S TOP FIVE ANTICIPATED GAMES OF 2012!!!

#1 - X-COM / XENONAUTS/ XCOM / XENOPHILIA / WHATEVER!!!

I had X-COM (the only one worth mentioning, besides Apocalypse) as my #2 game of all time when I did that list. I have had a tiny bit of interest in the various games that have tried to CAPTURE the magic of X-COM since. They all get something wrong, every one of them. This game, whatever the fuck it's called, has gone the LONGEST without APPEARING to fuck things up. So what the hell. I'm in. I'm in!!

Even if they change everything and ruin it, it's been almost 20 years since the original. I'm in!!

#2 - BIOSHOCK: INFINITE

Wow, what a dumb fucking name for a game!

You know how it goes by now. BioShock and Fallout 3 were HUGE HITS. Sequels were warranted! Only... well... a third party developer was contracted to get a sequel out the door as quickly as possible. I bought both BioShock 2 and Fallout: New Vegas on day one and disliked them both! You'd think I'd learn my lesson, but Ice Cream Jonsey doesn't learn anything!

Look at this hotness! This is the sequel I actually wanted, not the one I deserved!

#3 - MONACO

This lofi heist game sounds like a lot of fun! Seeing how it has won the grand prize in the 2010 IGF, it's almost certainly ready for release! Any second now!!

#4 - MAX PAYNE 3

The second one came out during an unfortunate time in video game development, where "physics" made it so every time you walked into a room, you'd knock over tables and chairs and shit! Max 2 and Deus Ex:Invisible War became impossible to take seriously! Well, Max is BALD now, which means you MUST take him seriously! I'm sure Rockstar will do a laughably incompetent job with this, but I may just get it anyway!

#5 - FUCK YOU, IT'S WASTELAND 2 ANYWAY!

I know that it's not going to be out until October 2013 at the earliest, but if the IGF can have games win awards in five straight years, I think it's OK for me to put a 2013 game on the list.

All right, I've said what I have to say!!

Roody_Yogurt · Post by **Roody_Yogurt** » Fri Mar 23, 2012 11:08 pm

I did mean to write up my thoughts about Bioshock 2 in my "Roody Reviews Games' thread, but I guess I never got around to it. It's true that Bioshock 2 never exactly reaches the point that justifies its own existence- although it's also true that the Minerva's Den DLC brought it a good deal closer to that point.

Still, just the same, you can see the makings of something good there. Like the first one, the overall plot is 'eh' (and even less so, since it's a too-similar iteration), but Bioshock 2 seems to be moving in a direction where they are embracing the fact that each level is an opportunity to tell its own story. Dean Tate, the guy who gave a talk on one of the panels at PAX East the other year, was especially lauded for his contribution to Bioshock 2, and it is true that it is one of the better ones (I thought some parts of it were cribbed from Half-Life 2, but still).

Anyhow, if there were to continue down that path, saying 'fuck you' to the giant plot and just trying to make the small stories more distinctive and engaging, I'd be pretty cool with that. Bioshock Infinite, on the other hand, looks like it's trying to redeem the 'full-game narrative,' which almost makes me worried for it, as I kind of think they are more likely to fuck that up.

Roody_Yogurt · Post by **Roody_Yogurt** » Sat Mar 24, 2012 1:01 am

ROODY YOGURT'S TOP FIVE ANTICIPATED GAMES OF 2012!!!

#1 - WHATEVER GAME BEN COLLINS-SUSSMAN AND JACK WELCH IS RELEASING TODAY

I only found out about this game like 14 hours ago, when I saw Jonsey's retweet about it (which said it was coming out tomorrow). Truth be told, there were aspects of their first game that I did not enjoy, and I had a bit of a conflicting opinion on their second game, Hoosegow. The first time I played it, during a ClubFloyd, I thought it was the future of IF- a great game in which NPCs notice everything you do and comment accordingly. The second time I played it, I thought some of the puzzles were a bit weak, and it wasn't the masterpiece I initially thought it was.

That said, Ben and Jack still have one of those admirable creative partnerships where they really seem to work together well. I've never been in an extremely productive collaboration (largely due to myself), so two people who work together well just mystifies me on some level. Having accomplished that, new games by this duo always have the possibility of blowing previous works out of the water.

Plus, both Ben and Jack are friendly guys, and Jack *really* struck me as a super-cool, laid-back fellow when I met them at PAX East, so I'd like to see them write the awesome game their enthusiasm and intelligence merits.

Runners-up: Whatever games ICJ or loafingcoyote release this year.

EDIT: I realized later that they were most likely announcing a game a part of this TMBG mini-comp, where a bunch of people wrote games inspired by Apollo whatever songs. Here, I was thinking it was one of those surprise, oh-here's-a-full-game announcements. Oh, well.

#2 - MAX PAYNE 3

This one gets second place just because moreso than most of the other games on my "top 5" list, I might actually play this one. Max Payne 2, while not a terrible game, was enough of a disappointment that I don't think the series really has any integrity left to save.

Still, in this third installment, Mr. Payne is going to motherfucking Brazil, and I can't think of a finer place I'd want to go to shoot scum of the earth. I don't really care how much the game preserves the series' 'noir' sense or whatever else the crybabies are crying about; I just want the sun to shine brightly as I shoot people around buildings huddled together on steep inclines.

#3 - THE SECRET WORLD

Now we get into the games I won't even play! The Secret World is a MMORPG. Oddly enough, it's also supposed to be a level-less MMORPG, so I imagine it's not going to be all grinding, making Korean kids rich and crap.

It's designed by this guy named Ragnar Tornquist, who was the creative mind behind the adventure games The Longest Journey and Dreamfall. Now, it's not like this guy shits gold, but both TLJ and Dreamfall have some great aspects and I look forward to dude returning to the series.

It is my hope that The Secret World is either so awesomely cool that I enjoy reading the occasional article about it (I waste enough time without getting hooked on MMORPGs) or it fails miserably, forcing Tornquist to go back to adventure games.

Either way, I look forward to its release!

#4 - THE WALKING DEAD

Speaking of adventure games, let's talk about Walking Dead. Having never read the graphic novels (comics? I don't even remember what it's based on), it took both the tv show to both awaken and kill my interest in the Walking Dead universe.

Unfortunately, Telltale Games, makers of various episodic adventure game series, in their pursuit of bigger and better intellectual properties (other recent games have been based on Back to the Future and Jurassic Park), have gotten mixed up with WD and are releasing a game on it.

I have no intent to pick the game up (the show really killed my interest), but the sooner that WD comes out (and fails), the sooner that Telltale Games might go back to the adventure games I want to support.

#5 - BIOSHOCK INFINITE

(This was going to be one of the Game of Thrones games but I couldn't find a nice picture to link to)

Yeah, I'm still curious how Bioshock Infinite turns out. I'll probably wait 5 or 6 months to pick it up, though, if at all.

Runner-up: Any Game of Thrones games that come out this year-

I don't intend to pick any of these up, but as a fan of the book series, I like seeing these screen shots and stuff as a visualization of some of the things I've read about. Plus, as long as Game of Thrones is somewhat successful pop-culturally, the tv show will do well (which I have been enjoying), and that gives GRRM more incentive to finish the series before he dies.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Sun Mar 25, 2012 9:59 pm

In no particular order ...

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
Ubisoft created the best (although not best selling) shooter series in Ghost Recon, and then promptly ruined it with their DRM. Everything about this one looks awesome, so hopefully they won't ruin it with their overbearing "you gotta be online with the disc in the drive and our servers can't be getting DDOS'ed at the time" copy protection.

Kinect: Star Wars
Standing around in your underwear, waving around a pretend lightsaber and using the force. Yeah, this is what I've been dreaming of since 1977. Please, please don't let me known.

Indiana Jones and the Fountain of Youth]
It's a fan-made free game, but the artwork and gameplay look awesome and I've been dying for this to get finished. I'm really looking forward to this one.

Battle Chess
I've been waiting for someone to update this for 20 years now, and now it's here. New, HD animations and online support to boot. I've been wanting a reason to get back into playing chess, and this might be it.

GTA V
This may not hit until early 2013, but ... Jesus, this games seems never ending.

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Mon Mar 26, 2012 12:15 pm

Roody_Yogurt wrote:ROODY YOGURT'S TOP FIVE ANTICIPATED GAMES OF 2012!!!

#1 - WHATEVER GAME BEN COLLINS-SUSSMAN AND JACK WELCH IS RELEASING TODAY

Stupid comment of the week, appropriate if you'd posted this on Caltrops:

"Gee, I didn't know the former head of General Electric was into doing video games!"

No, strike that, most of the people on Caltrops probably are too stupid to even know what General Electric is, let
alone who Jack Welch was. They'd probably think it's a power company, and he used to be
with the company that makes juices and jelly.

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Mon Mar 26, 2012 12:16 pm

I'll bring up a whole new issue here. Roody, you seem to think that all the extra bells and whistles they throw into a lot of the FPS or combat simulators are just "piling on" or are "gold plating," they're just extra things like physics simulators and such, and they put them in because they make nice extra features but don't really improve the gameplay.

Is this a valid analysis of your comments?

Roody_Yogurt · Post by **Roody_Yogurt** » Mon Mar 26, 2012 12:54 pm

I don't think I was really commenting on that at all, but it is also true that I don't think that such things make a game without a good plot. I still haven't gotten around to playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. so maybe after I play that, I'll have another sequel to look forward to, but for the most part, I only have Valve games to look forward to, FPS-wise.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Mon Mar 26, 2012 8:26 pm

Are Caltrops posters really stupid, Tdarcos? Really? Stupid? That's what you're going to go with?

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Tue Mar 27, 2012 4:19 pm

It's hard for me to get behind "Monaco" when that's the picture that's fucking up this thread's width. Everything else I hear about it though is pretty good.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Tue Mar 27, 2012 6:10 pm

I really am getting steamed that Tdarcos of all people thinks the Caltrops posters are "stupid."

Crude? Crass? Sarcastic? Insulting? Sure. But that's the smartest forum, pound for pound, on the Internet. (There's no dummies here, but there's also only... God... how many people left?)

Let's count.

ICJ. Pinback. Flack. Tdarcos. Vark. RetroRomper. Roody. The Happiness Engine.

8 people. 8 people are all that's left. Perhaps it's time for a membership drive?

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Tue Mar 27, 2012 7:01 pm

Don't forget Pinback's fake Tiger Woods account and the R e a l i t y C h e c k guy. Oh, and TDarcos' other account that he uses to talk to himself with. And his wheelchair.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Wed Apr 04, 2012 11:52 am

NAVAL ///AR: ARCTIC CIRCLE is being release April 10th! Very exciting! I will not be available from 6 - 6:30 PM on that day, as I will be playing through the first tutorial mission and then uninstalling it.

The price, surprisingly, is $19.95. I'm like, cool? But then I'm like, hmm.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Wed Apr 04, 2012 3:18 pm

The funniest thing I've seen all month!

Jonsey and I were discussing the subs in NW:AC, which the creators admit are "wildly unrealistic" because you can give them orders even if they are underwater.

He was unaware that even in these modern times, communicating with submerged subs is extremely difficult at best, and usually not even possible. We both did some research on the "WIKI" PEDIA, and this exchange occurred!

Code: Select all

&#40;3&#58;04&#58;06 PM&#41; bparrish99&#58; Well, NW&#58;AC is set in 2030, so let's just pretend that by the time we get there, we can talk to subs underwater.  REALISM&#58; ACHIEVED
&#40;3&#58;07&#58;18 PM&#41; robb.sherwin&#58; I had no idea that was a problem.
&#40;3&#58;07&#58;22 PM&#41; robb.sherwin&#58; I love that that is a problem
&#40;3&#58;07&#58;32 PM&#41; robb.sherwin&#58; It's like SimEarth's big fucking face saying FUCK YOOOOOOOOOOO
&#40;3&#58;08&#58;02 PM&#41; robb.sherwin&#58; The coding used for US military ELF transmissions employed a 64-symbol Reed-Solomon error correction code, meaning that the alphabet had 64 symbols, each represented by a very long pseudo-random sequence. The entire transmission was then encrypted. 
&#40;3&#58;08&#58;18 PM&#41; robb.sherwin&#58; However, the main method of error correction was "&#91;T&#93;o not say stupid shit in the water, you fucking maggots."

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Wed Apr 04, 2012 3:53 pm

James Cameron tweeted from the bottom of the ocean last week.

Perhaps from the future, as well.

http://www.nextmovie.com/blog/james-cam ... -sea-dive/

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Thu Apr 05, 2012 2:32 pm

In further reading the NWAC manual, and hearing interviews with the creators, it sounds like it's HARPOON FOR RETARDS.

OMG that's the only game I ever wanted!!!!!!!

I'M SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(And I just can't hide it.)

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Mon Apr 09, 2012 5:07 pm

It's /// Eve!!!

HOLY CRAP, AREN'T YOU ALL STOKED?!?!

I'm STOKED, BRAH.