My Top 5 Anticipated Games of 2013

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sat Oct 27, 2012 4:26 pm

In no particular order:

Antharion, by Orphic Software

Chasby, by Roody Yogurt

Monaco, by Pocketwatch games

EDIT: SCREEN SHOT TO COME LATER!

Twilight Zone table, on Pinball Arcade by FarSoft

Wasteland 2, by Brian Fargo

Xenonauts, by those guys doing Xenonauts

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sat Oct 27, 2012 4:27 pm

Christ, Monaco.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Sat Oct 27, 2012 5:28 pm

No commentary on any of 'em. Okay.

I'll do this later.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sat Oct 27, 2012 6:05 pm

Lemme fix that screenshot and add commentary. Sure. You can spur me into action by either doing it yourself, or with spurs. Can't catch me though!!

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Sat Oct 27, 2012 6:23 pm

My picks are coming tomorrow.

Roody_Yogurt · Post by **Roody_Yogurt** » Sun Oct 28, 2012 2:34 pm

The Cave

The Cave is the first adventure game by Maniac Mansion's Ron Gilbert in years. For a long time, I wanted to think that Maniac Mansion's specialness was a fluke and that Gilbert went into to edutainment for all those years to hide that fact, so much that I was quite skeptical when he first started coming around back to mainstream gaming.

The thing is, some of the things I've heard about The Cave sound really good, forcing me to think, hey, maybe this guy does have what it takes.
Cyberganked

(Apologies if this is supposed to come out in 2012)
I think Robb is kind of crazy for taking this on, but the idea itself has a great potential. Also, as someone who is likely to be a betatester at some point, this game has the benefit of definitely being within my budget, no matter what my finances are like.
Shadowrun Returns

I've always kept a certain distance from most of the Shadowrun francise; I sort of get the feeling that if I looked too closely, I won't like what I see. Still, I have fond memories of playing the SNES game, and this new Shadowrun game supposedly borrows some elements from that one. For that alone, I am intrigued.
Jane Jensen's Moebius
Not having the rights to her earlier work (or the budget to do it properly, probably), Moebius is called the "spiritual successor" to the Gabriel Knight series. Now, Gabriel Knight 3 might be the inspiration for one of the funniest Old Man Murray articles ever, but even when mired with terrible puzzles, Gabriel Knight games always had really great stories based on just-researched-enough things to make them really fascinating. Here's hoping that this new one continues the trend.
Watch Dogs
[youtube][/youtube]
I only found out about this one while compiling this list. I guess it's some hacker-y thing that takes place in Chicago in the near future. In fact, in the game video, it almost looks a bit too much like Chicago for my own tastes, but maybe a sinister, tech-infused story is just the thing I need to like Chicago more.
LocoCycle
[youtube][/youtube]
(honorary mention)
This was my original #5, when I couldn't think of five games to look forward to. I picked it solely because I think it's great how you drag your owner by the leg of his pants through the entire game.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Sun Oct 28, 2012 4:16 pm

For the most part, my list will be very mainstream and very shitty.

01. Grand Theft Auto V

[youtube][/youtube]

Game looks amazing. Developers know pretty much every inch of the current gen consoles, and it looks like they'll have to use every trick they've got to pull off the largest and best looking game in the series to date.

02. Need for Speed: Most Wanted

[youtube][/youtube]

Need for Speed games are hit and miss. The more they drift away from the "pursuit" angle and toward "Fast and Furious" the worse they get; fortunately, it looks like this one is returning to what made this series great -- straight up "chase or be chased" mode.

03. SimCity 2013

[youtube][/youtube]

Spoiler: I have never played SimCity. I've seen it played, I understand how to play it, but I've never played it myself. This one looks fantastic and looks like a good place to start.

04. Star Wars 1313

[youtube][/youtube]

Star Wars games have a rocky past, I know this. That being said, this one barely has a connection to the trilogies, and looks pretty good. This one might fall under "hope" more than "anticipation". We'll see.

05. Wastleland 2

[youtube][/youtube]

The developers of Wasteland 2 asked for a million dollars on Kickstarter. They got it in less than 2 days, and ended up with over $3 million in donations. Wasteland is a classic, classic RPG. I played it back on my C64, and am very much looking forward to the sequel. Which brings me to ...

Honorable Mention: Cyberganked!

I'm being lazy so I just linked to Roody's picture. But of course I'm looking forward to helping, testing, and most of all playing this game!!!

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Wed Nov 14, 2012 3:16 pm

Let's COUNT 'EM DOWN, fellas!

The number five Pinback's most looked forward to game of 2013 is:

Jonathan Blow's The Witness

What is "the island"? Unlike Lost, will we ever find out? Look, I know saying you liked Braid is like admitting to fucking Bieber-fever in a forum like this, but I do not care. Braid was hyped all to hell, and was even better than advertised. Are games art? I don't know, but if you want an example to try to prove it, Braid is THE example. A true masterwork, and it means that whatever Blow came out with next, I'm gonna be in line. Even though so far it just sounds like you walk around solving stupid little puzzles. Don't care. Sign me up.

Number four on the ol' listeroonie of games what I want to buy next year is:

COMMAND: MODERN AIR/NAVAL OPERATIONS

Seems funny to have a "game" on this list that I can pretty much guarantee I will probably never play past the first two tutorial missions. I mean, holy Christ. This is a modern-day Harpoon modelling every single plane, boat, ship, bullet, radar, vending machine and miniature deck of cards from every Navy all over the world, to exacting detail. It's too much, man. But it's going to be a monumental achievement, and I've been following it for a couple years now, and I just can't wait to see the finished product, even though I'll never be able to understand it.

Ah, what's this? Number THREE on my list of looked-forwarded-toed-gamesed??? It must be...

Star Lords

As previously mentioned, I'm championing this game because I believe it has the potential to bring back the MAGIC of space 4x! Can it? WILL IT?!?! I dunno. But MAYBE, so I'm looking forward to it!

Gettin' down to it now! Where "it" is my second most anticipated release of 2013!

StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm

Let's just get it out of the way already. God.

And now, the MOST ANTICIPA-- it's the same as Flack's.

Grand Theft Auto FiVe

You can play golf in it. And sit by a lake (pictured). And everything else you'd want to do in a GTA game, but with vibrancy and fun where GTA4 brought drab lifelessness. I haven't loved a GTA game since the original GTA3, but this seems primed to BRING THE LOVE BACK, and I can't wait, ohboy, ohboy, ohboy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Also: yoga!)

EDIT: And if they modeled the Sepulveda Pass to any semblance of reality, I am going to fuck that shit up. (After eating a bunch of hot sauce.)

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Wed Nov 14, 2012 5:14 pm

Well, you got one right! ;)

Also, I'm probably going to have to remove SimCity off my list. I just read that it will most likely require a constant internet connection to EA for DRM. I can't go for that. No can do.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Wed Nov 14, 2012 6:01 pm

Flack wrote:Well, you got one right! ;)

Also, I'm probably going to have to remove SimCity off my list. I just read that it will most likely require a constant internet connection to EA for DRM. I can't go for that. No can do.

Oh god, not you too. Christ. I've never seen more always-connected people whine about having to be always-connected.

If we're doing that here, I'm leaving. Or at least restricting myself to eight-line posts.

ICJ will appreciate the H&O reference, at least.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Wed Nov 14, 2012 7:15 pm

The stay connected thing is one step worse than the must- have-the-CD-in-the-drive thing. Other than that I cant say cause I don't have any games that require an internet connection/DRM thing.

THE
SHACKLED
AARDVARK

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Wed Nov 14, 2012 8:24 pm

pinback wrote:Oh god, not you too. Christ. I've never seen more always-connected people whine about having to be always-connected.

It has nothing to do with being connected to play. It has everything to do with "that's a horrible way to inflict DRM upon your paying customers." Seriously.

A few years ago, a mistake in the PlayStation 3's bios caused it to mistakenly think it was a leap year when it wasn't. As a result, all online games stopped working. Even worse, if you had a first gen PS3 (like mine), your PS3 wouldn't even boot up. Sony's solution? "Oh well, just wait a day." (1)

Ubisoft, one of the first companies to adopt the "always connected" DRM scheme has had to drop it for two reasons. One, people are actively boycotting their games now. And two, with every major release, script kiddies think it's funny to DDoS Ubisoft's authentication servers. With the servers too busy to respond, nobody can play any Ubisoft games. (2)

The real problem comes two years from now, when EA decides they want you to buy SimCity 2K14, and force the issue by turning off the old authentication servers, preventing you from playing a game you purchased. Search Google for "are capcom's servers down?" Every time Capcom's servers go down, which is often, nobody can play any Capcom games on the PS3 -- even ones with no online capabilities whatsoever. (3)

These companies have gone too far [and] you know it don't matter anyway.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Wed Nov 14, 2012 9:34 pm

EDIT:

<s>What if it was just an online-check when you started the game? Would that change anything?

(Because that's what it is.)</s>

Apparently they backed off on that. Oh well.

I just wish more than 0.2% of the "always online" bitchers weren't always online. But I understand, you have to take a stand.

EDIT 2: HEEH EHEEeeee, 2 for 2 H&O. HOW LOW CAN YOU GO???

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Wed Nov 14, 2012 11:10 pm

This is the greatest JC thread and it's not because of the games.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Sun Nov 18, 2012 7:41 am

Heart of the Swarm now has a release date: March 12, 2013.

No confirmed release dates for any of my other most-anticipated (though GTAV says "Spring, 2013.)

The Witness currently contains 528 puzzles, as of this writing.

That is all.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Nov 18, 2012 3:07 pm

Antharion's Kickstarter FAILED. Wow. I have never seen a Kickstarter get so close and fail. They wanted $15,000 and got $13,810.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Sun Nov 18, 2012 3:56 pm

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:Antharion's Kickstarter FAILED. Wow. I have never seen a Kickstarter get so close and fail. They wanted $15,000 and got $13,810.

Seems like there should be some contingency plan for things like this on Kickstarter. They say that 98% of those that reach 60% reach 100%. The number for those that reach 92% must be in the 99999.9.9999.999..9.9.9.9% range.

Can't you opt in for like a "bonus week" if you're that close? Seems a shame to ditch something like that that got so close.

ICJ · Post by **ICJ** » Sun Nov 18, 2012 4:07 pm

Perhaps they could elect to up what they give Kickstarter for amother week. Those parasites.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Sun Nov 18, 2012 5:46 pm

Most of the Kickstarters I've seen lately have the one-two price goals. Like they'll set their goal at $10k for the project and then they'll say "but if we get $50k we'll do some REALLY COOL STUFF!" That way at least they'll get the $10k, and if they only get halfway to their $50k goal, they at least get that money as well. I've noticed several lately doing that.

I've also read about several funded Kickstarters failing. Haunts was the most recent one. They raised $28k and after a year of work, the developers quit. It's a good reminder that you're not BUYING anything with Kickstarter ... you're investing in something that might or might not come to fruition.

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/10/19/kicks ... mers-quit/

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Nov 18, 2012 7:16 pm

Maybe it's just me, but the "stretch goal" thing rubs me the wrong way. These people should be glad that they are getting money without having go deliver anything, and - let's be honest - the percentage of total Kickstarters that have actually delivered what they said they would is probably what, 5%?