I love games. And because I love games so much my wallet (or now more accurately, my husband’s wallet) takes a hit at least once a month if not more, all in the name of investing my time wisely.
This year will be no different from the last who knows how many years since I started buying games with my own money. We all know all the headlining triple A titles will come out in the Fall as part of the Holiday sales push, our summer will be relatively quite, with a few A and AA releases to interrupt our plans of clearing up our backlogs. Every year is the same, a pattern we have come to know, accept, and still grumble about.
2011’s video games schedule has a whole bunch of 3s in it, some of which I will be playing, others that I have long since abandoned. Here’s a rundown on the titles I am most excited for:
Dragon Age 2: When my husband bought Dragon Age with some of our wedding gift money I was playing Final Fantasy XIII. I’ve always enjoyed my Japanese RPGs to Western ones, but FFXIII left such a sour taste in my mouth that I stopped playing it and decided to give Dragon Age a shot. So many of my gaming friends praised it and Matt would play it from the minute he got home from work until I dragged him to bed. It didn’t take long for me to get sucked into the shoes of my character and within a couple of weeks I had played through the game with three female characters, slaughtering thousands of Darkspawn. Since the last fantasy “RPG” I played was Fable 3 (an abomination if ever there was one), I’ve been itching for something new now that I have finished Fallout 3.
Patapon 3: I adore these music loving, battle hungry, rhythmically inclined eyeballs! After passing on Patapon 2 purely because it was only available in North America in digital format, I can now take my Patapon army on a new adventure as the third installment will be out on UMD as well. Patapon 3 will also include multiplayer, which I am intrigued by and hoping that I will find enough people I can play with online who won’t quit out if things aren’t going their way.
3rd Birthday: It’s about *bleeping* time, Square! The last time we saw Aya was in 2000 on the PS1, a couple months before the system would be replaced with the PS2. 3rd Birthday is not a port but a game built exclusively for the system which means there is a lot riding on it’s shoulders. The PSP sadly never had as much support as I wish it had, and with 3rd Birthday coming out as the system seems to be ending it’s production cycle, I feel bad for the little system that should have but didn’t. It’s depressing in a way to think that this is going to be one of the last PSP games I buy and add to my already too small PSP library.
Sorcery: Sorcery is the main reason I wanted to get Playstation Move. After watching the cool trailers and demos I thought to myself, “Hey, that actually does look like a lot of fun, and with a controller in my hand I don’t look like that big an idiot playing something like this.” Fantasy has always been one of my favourite genres and I am not going to pass up the opportunity to pretend I am drinking magical elixirs and weave spells together with the Move wand. Now if only there was a She-Ra & He-Man Masters of the Universe game. I could have The Power!
Silent Hill Downpour: You know, I still haven’t finished Homecoming (because my father in law is borrowing it, although I don’t think he’s played it since I first lent it to him) and I really should get on that before Downpour comes out. And while I have a lot of love for Silent Hill, I am beginning to worry it has peaked and is going the way of Final Fantasy. I hope and pray that Downpour proves me wrong, but I am not going to let rose coloured glasses keep me from being completely honest when I do lock myself in a room for a week with the lights out to play this one.
Elder Scrolls Skyrim: Well, it’s a new Elder Scrolls game, so of course this is on my list. The only thing that will interrupt my time dealing with evil magicians, demons and thieves and mixing potions in Skyrim will be when I need some mindless violence, and for that I will proceed to the next game on my list….
Gears of War 3: Setting aside my annoyance with Microsoft and their decision to push Gears to Holiday 2011 because they had nothing else exclusive set for the season, Gears of War 3 is the game I am most excited for. I know that I was very vocal with my feelings over Twitter when the news came down the line, but I refuse to let that ruin my excitement for a franchise that has been very dear to my heart. Before I moved to the US and married my husband, Gears 2 was one of the games he and I would play online frequently to help ease the pain of living so far apart. While I would have been happier with it coming out in April, just weeks after our first anniversary, I anxiously await the day we can sit down on the couch together and finish this Epic story together.
This post was part of Gamer Banter, a monthly video game discussion coordinated by Terry at Game Couch. If you’re interested in being part of this, please email him for details.
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