Out with the old and in with the new is always the mantra that comes to mind with the passing of yet another year, but this coming string of 365 days seems to have something a bit greater in store for gamers the world over; a staggering string of highly anticipated titles that will, for better or worse, leave many wallets empty. Seriously, in what seems to be an unprecedented occurrence, 2011 is shaping up to be chocked full of must-have games that we all seemingly can’t wait to get our hands on. And while certainly, someone’s most-wanted will be omitted, that’s no reason to think it was completely discounted from being included on this list – merely that there just wasn’t space – that doesn’t mean we’re not looking forward to it as much as you are, we promise. In the meantime, go ahead and have a gander at our 10 most anticipated games of 2011.
10. Rage: Having worked not just on Rage, but video games for a significant amount of time, id can pretty much take their time and do whatever they want to make Rage stand out amongst the rest – especially when initial comparisons easily drew visual and narrative parallels to Borderlands. While it is always disappointing to have to wait for a game from a developer that has historically changed how people not only play, but look at video games in regards to popular culture, it was obviously a better move in comparison to simply releasing the game to directly compete with Borderlands and hope for the best. Visually, the game looks as stunningly gorgeous as just about everyone would have come to expect from the people who terrified the pants off us with creatures like Imps and Hell Knights for roughly the last two decades and the gameplay looks solid enough for it’s slated release early this year. All that’s left now is to wait and see if id will do as they’ve always done and deliver something that changes how we look at video games yet again.
9. Dead Space 2: Proving once and for all that science fiction and survival horror can go hand in hand to create something positively, if not terrifyingly, awesome – Dead Space 2 is set to arrive at the end of January to once again put us in the engineering boots of the indefatigable Isaac Clarke as he sets out to take Necromorphs, dismember arms and prove that he can easily stand amongst the likes of Chris Redfield and Master Chief. Not only expanding the playground of potential horrors that Isaac will face, it’s easy to see that EA didn’t have to go out of their way too much in the process of amping Clarke up, making him badass enough to handle whatever the void might throw at him. Regardless of how much of a sleeper, cult-hit the original Dead Space was initially, the fact that a sequel was put into development gives credence to the overwhelming desire that players not only enjoy playing as Mr. Clarke or the world he inhabits, but dismembering the hell out of anything that gets in his way.
8. Marvel vs. Capcom 3: I shouldn’t really be excited for Marvel vs. Capcom 3 given how many times I’ve had my ass handed to me in any number of matches, whether it be in an XBLA match of MvC2 or at an arcade cabinet in some dismal locale, but I am. The amalgamation of Marvel and Capcom characters going over the top to deliver an almost gratuitous amount of hurt on each other in graphically teasing ways is more than enough to appease comic book or video game fan alike. Add into it the addition of an almost copious amount of characters and it’s easy to remember why Marvel vs. Capcom 2 was such a sought after collector’s item prior to it’s release on Xbox Live and Playstation Network – because even if you get your ass beat at a regular interval, that doesn’t negate the fun the game is ripe as hell with. So, after waiting several years for a sequel, MvC3 is not only arriving before summer, but is looking as great as it ever did. Now here’s hoping that Capcom doesn’t pull a Lost Planet 2 and get us all excited for something that resembles nothing of what we loved on delivery.
This feature top 10 list continues on the next page, please click below to see our next couple choices for the top 10 most anticipated games of 2011.
