Gamezine's Most Anticipated Games of 2009 - Part 2/4
Monday, January 19, 2009 11:24 AM
We continue our video game picks of the year in part 2 of Gamezine's Most Anticipated Games of 2009.
You'll find part 1 after this link, and at the end of this four part feature you'll be able to vote for your most anticipated games of the year!
- BIOSHOCK 2: SEA OF DREAMS (TBC 2009) 360/PC/PS3 presumably
Bioshock garnered as much praise as it did condemnation from players who couldn't get past certain flaws. To be fair to those players, those flaws were pretty sizeable. The much-hyped morality choices went basically out the window, the Vita Chambers made things far too easy, and the second half wasn't as good as the first.
2K Marin has a lot to prove with the sequel, prequel, or whatever it is, and all we've got to go on is a teaser trailer and a title. We're personally hoping it'll be as good as the (in our opinion) superb original, and fixes the flaws some found unbearable.
- COLIN MCRAE: DiRT 2 (June 2009) All platforms
After the tragic accident that claimed the life of the famed rally driver, Codemasters are determined to make the next game to bear his name something pretty special.
Better physics, more DiRT and a massive array of options both online and off are promised. We'll find out more soon.
- GOD OF WAR 3 (TBC 2009) PS3
Ahh, God of War. So many developers have tried to replicate the greatness of what on the surface appears to be just a basic hack-and-slasher, but all have failed. Now Kratos is back to show all of them how to do it. With the PS3's graphics behind it and even rival developers getting excited, there's really no way this game could fail.
Sony just can't afford to let God of War 3 slip into 2010, so let's hope it's not rushed to release packed with bugs like a certain major Epic-developed sequel. You can watch the teaser trailer after this link.
- WOLFENSTEIN (TBC 2009) PC/360/PS3
After Return to Castle Wolfenstein was overshadowed by Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, Quake 4 developer Raven has a lot to prove in the wake of the much better Call of Duty. They've already created controversy by including aliens and other dimensions, which is obviously a ridiculous inclusion to the series that previously featured Nazi zombies and a Robo-Hitler.
Still, we get to fire weird otherworldly weapons into Nazis, with the added bonus of FEAR-style slow-motion controls. Unlike the Medal of Honor/Call of Duty series, Wolfenstein is a less serious, more comic-booky look at Nazis, and I think that's what we're all craving for in our WW2 FPS games.
- WHITE KNIGHT CHRONICLES (Q1 2009) PS3
First shown as White Knight Story, Level 5's PlayStation 3 turn-based JRPG promises an offline epic story and a four player online co-op game; both of which will affect the other as you play each of them.
WKC hopes to rectify the repetitive and dull combat of most JRPGs by adding customisable moves and combos, involving plenty of strategy and spectacular animation. If Level-5 can get the balance right, the PS3 could have a better exclusive alternative to FFXIII, especially since it's already performed well in Japan.
- BIONIC COMMANDO (Q1 2009) 360/PS3/PC
Third-person platform shooter with a robotic arm that makes you swing like Spider-Man. Want to know more? Well, there's a lot of acrobatics involved, a lot of cool combat, and massive boss encounters.
Even more excitingly, there Bionic Commando includes multiplayer. Anyone play multiplayer 007: Agent Under Fire with the grapple watch that allowed you to swing from wall to wall in an instant, firing as you go? This could be even cooler than that!
- THE SIMS 3 (
20th February 3rd June) PC
Yes, we realise this is about as high on the average Gamezine reader's Most Wanted list as an Imagine Babies mission pack, but it's still a major title. There's also a reason The Sims is as popular as it is - it's a great concept and an addictive game.
The third game will bring the idea of community to the fore, with a whole town of other families for your own Sims to interact with (but not SimTown, that would be silly). There's also no more Personality Sliders, as they've been replaced with personal 'Character Traits'. The Mood Bar's gone too, with a subtler and wider-ranging replacement.
Whether EA can persuade non-Sims fans to buy is another matter, but as those Sims fans already number in the millions, I don't think they're too worried.
- MAFIA II (TBC 2009) PC/360/PS3
Call the original Mafia "like GTA" to a serious fan and you'll get punched in the face. It was far more serious and frankly Mafia is more like The Godfather game. except it's good.
The fantastic acting and writing will draw most people into the series, although there's a lot of background detail to entertain players too. Newspapers with actual news from the 1940s! Wow! Hopefully the GTA4 hype period is now over, so we can hope that Mafia II will actually sell well.
- GTA: CHINATOWN WARS (20th March) DS
A 3D Grand Theft Auto on a Nintendo console. and it's on the DS, not Wii! The only exciting thing to come out of Ninty's casual-focused E3 presentation last year was this announcement, and as we approach Chinatown Wars' release we're getting more and more impressed.
Cel-shading may seem odd for a GTA game, but it allows DS games to hide their graphical shortcomings effectively. A not quite top-down, not quite 3D perspective should keep things interesting too, and even better - Chinatown Wars has an 18 Certificate. It's a GTA game all right.
So there's our second selection and you can find the first after this link.
Excited by any of these games? If so, make yourself known in the comments section, and if you want to remind us of any 2009 games we might have forgotten (we don't think we have), don't hesitate.