Yeah I mean I'd say MGS2 was 'average', but I definitely thought MGS4 was legit bad. But I digress.
Here's my anticipate list:
1. Bloodborne - Dark Souls and Demon Souls redefined what I thought was possible on consoles anymore from any developers. Games like this just don't get made anymore, unless it's on PC and has a very small budget. From proved me wrong, and created some of the best games of last generation. My expectations for Bloodborne therefore are similarly large.
2. Zelda Wii U - Well I mean, it's Zelda. If it actually makes 2015, it'll immediately go to the top of my anticipation list. I'm a bit incredulous about the size of the world and how much interesting stuff they'll actually pack into it (Twilight Princess world was not half as big and was simply boring as fuck to traverse outside of dungeons), but I can't not have this on my list.
3. Armikrog - Point and click adventure game, by the Neverhood creator. This is like eight dreams rolled into one, and is immediate justification for Kickstarter to exist. Thank you Gods of gaming.
4. No Man's Sky - Open ended game set in a universe so large it would take 500 million years to visit every place even if you visit one planet every second, this is the definition of high concept. So much to do, so much can go wrong. But I love developers who aim high, and unlike many people I know exactly what you're supposed to do in NMS and so my expectations are set precisely at "as long as they actually execute it, we're good."
5. Hyper Light Drifter - They say it's inspired by Zelda, which is already my flavor. But it's god excellent pixel art and fantastic concept. The music is also rad, being made by one of my favorite game composers these days.
6. Just Cause 3 - For a while there it looked like it was set to be destroyed by microtransactions. Then all of that was false and it's back to balls-to-the-wall action and grapple hooks strapped to the sides of rockets. It's the open world game of dreams.
7. Rime - Gorgeous Studio Ghibli/Studio ICO/SalvadorDali etc inspired adventure puzzle game. It's magnificent looking, it's inspired by like everything I love, and they seem to have the right idea about how to approach the concept judging by the interviews. TequilaWorks isn't a surefire hit, but I'm willing to take a chance on this one.
8. Kentucky Route Zero - I've been avoiding playing any aspect as I wait for all the episodes to be out before playing. Apparently, that's set to finish in 2015. Everyone I talk to raves about it, its distinctive American mythology, plot and stark and innovative atmosphere is to die for.
9. Twelve Minutes - This game puts you in a neverending loop of twelve minutes when you find your wife accused of murder, and you must try to solve the mystery within the twelve minutes stuck only in your home. You can do essentially anything and the game will adapt. For example, if you take over the cooking from your wife, she will not just continue the animation she will go and complete a different task. You can sit down at dinner, or not. You can go in your room and search around, or interrogate her. You can do nothing. Every action you take is a chance you might get out of this time loop and figure out what's going on. It's an amazing concept and so far people say it's extremely well executed.
10. Persona 5 - I'm pretty sure this is going to make it this year. So, it's one of my favorite jRPG series and I'm super hyped for it.
HONORABLE:
11. Syberia III - The first two are amongst my all time point and click favorites. They're also some of the only games my fiancee and Mother enjoy. So we sit down together and try to solve the games. They're excellent games themselves, but because of the way they bring my family together they have extra weight.
12. Xenoblade Chronicles X - The first game was good but a bit overrated in my view, but I'm still hugely anticipating this one.
Not necessarily. I mean of course that'll be the case most times, but one or two years when there has been a less clear frontrunner (like no Uncharted games or Metal Gear games or Halo games in that year), the lists tend to spread out and get a bit more inventive.
I mean as you can see from my list I got lots of big ones on there, but I dunno too many of the "big AAA games" are just sort of uninspired these days. It's not that I need innovation or anything like that (refinement > innovation), but so many of the big guys seem rather interested in continuing to peal back layers of depth for some sick drive toward mass accessibility. It can work for some games, but most games do go off the rails for it.
A lot of my list is also governed by skepticism. Like if Star Citizen does its job right it'll likely be one of my favorite games of all time, but because I am skeptical with all the money they're getting it'll not go off the rails a bit with development I didn't include it. it's insanely ambitious.
