My most anticipated, in no particular order. Keep in mind, I’m mostly an RPG gamer who also loves hybrids (Deus Ex, System Shock, BioShock, etc.)

*The Witcher 2 – Assassin’s of Kings:

Really disappointed in not having the console remake of the original, as I would have prefered a more hack-and-slash type of combat system. But, as other people have said, this seemingly PC-exclusive is at least promising to be on-par with anything BioWare does, if not better. It’s like if you took BioWare and Chris Avellone’s writing and puree’ it with the choice and consequences, freedom, and grey morality of the Fallout series. Doesn’t hurt that it has a solid foundation for its universe in that it’s based on a series of novels/short stories and the developers already got it right once before.

*BioShock Infinite:

I was a fan of the System Shock games way back when, so, of course, seeing the legacy continue on is promising to me. While BioShock 2 was lackluster compared to the first, that was because of having different developers and reusing content from the original game wholesale with little variation. This is a new BioShock, in a new setting, with new ideas, all by the original developers who brought us System Shock 2, SWAT 4, and BioShock. They don’t disappoint. Why would they now?

*Persona 2 – Innocent Sin PSP:

I know it’s not a new game, but Sony screwed us out of this game before, so this has been a long time coming. If you played a Persona game, you’d see why people would be hyped for this. This was where the series changed from being ‘good’ (like it was when the first Persona was originally released) to being great. This is arguably the best title in the series in story and characters possibly rivaling Persona 4, which is my personal favorite entry to date.

*Deus Ex – Human Revolution:

Again, I love genre-blending hybrid games. Deus Ex and System Shock 2 were kings of this long before titles like Mass Effect, BioShock, and the last two Fallout entries made it popular by allowing more console-gamer exposure. Deus Ex 2, to put it very lightly, was a letdown, with little of the role-playing elements left intact. Alpha Protocol would have almost been a good spiritual successor to Deus Ex, if only Sega hadn’t made Obsidian rework half the game in the last months of development with little time for QA (Yes, it was Sega, not Obsidian at fault). When I initially heard about Deus Ex 3, I was really skeptical, but now I feel like it’s at least assured to be better than Invisible War, if not up to par with the original.

*Catherine:

Atlus are at their best when they do weird things. The Persona games are weird. The Trauma Center/Team games are weird. The development team behind those two series working on a cross between a Japanese visual novel game, a survival horror adventure game, and Q*bert, is weird. That’s what Catherine is. Atlus are amazing at their production values, their music, and their character writing, and this game seems squarely focused on at least three interesting characters and their relationships between each other. The last two Persona games could invest you in the personal stories of characters extremely well at a quick pace, whether or not they even had anything at all to do with the meat of the game. Now, these kinds of encounters are the main focus, and I can’t see Atlus suddenly losing their footing in familiar territory.

*The Elder Scrolls V – Skyrim:

I was sold at the mention of the Radiant Story system. With Oblivion, Radiant A.I. was so amazing that other sandbox games had to pay attention if they wanted to make what seemed to be a living, breathing world. Red Dead Redemption followed up on similar ideas in a great way with NPCs that were constantly doing things and randomly-generated encounters that occurred out in the desert. Radiant Story, as a system, is kind of similar, but with a kind of focus on the player character and what they have done. Quests can be generated to send you to locations you have not yet located, with enemies, objectives, and treasures relevant to your character’s interests through a check on your skills and statistics, in some ways, it’ll be tailor-made to your strengths and weaknesses, and it encourages running around and exploring, taking in the beautiful environments of the game. If there’s anything Bethesda has proved with recent games like Fallout 3, it that they are learning to tell stories with the environments alone, like with Springvale School at the beginning of Fallout 3, which was riddled with cages, corpses, and child-sized skeletons. I don’t remember there being an explanation, but it let your mind connect the dots as you explored, creating a creepy and memorable location. Here’s hoping there’s some of that with Skyrim.

*Guild Wars 2:

I feel like EVERYONE should get around to buying this when it comes out, if only to send a message to more money-hungry companies that subscription fees aren’t gonna fly anymore. The economy is hurting and isn’t getting much better, so it only makes sense that a company that does more for less deserves more attention. That’s not to say GW2 doesn’t looks amazing by it’s own right. I hate MMO’s and I am excited for this, and even with the scarce bit of the original Guild Wars I played, I never regretted buying it. GW 2 is more of a game for Singleplayer RPG gamers than The Old Republic is, in my opinion, because even with ‘Class-Specific stories’, ‘personalized companions’, and a ‘fully-voiced experience’, I have a feeling that the game is still going to be the typical MMO grind, which is the worst part of the genre. ‘No, Mister Yoda-Lookalike, I DON’T want to kill 10 wamprats from 15 parsecs away. I want to feel like I’m actually important, thanks.’

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As for Mass Effect 3, I honestly don’t really care. The first Mass Effect was my favorite. The story was short, but the sidequests planet-side made the universe feel massive. I didn’t have the issues a lot of people had with the Mako for the most part, I loved the inventory system, and I liked most of the original cast (bar Kaidan and Ashley, screw them) incrementally more than most of the characters in ME 2. All of the best aspects of Mass Effect were outright eliminated in 2, rather than improved on or expanded, and the sidequests were all culled as well. I’ll pick up Mass Effect 3 to finish the story, but probably later after they have an ‘Ultimate Edition’ with all the DLC on the cheap.