TSA’s Top 100 of 2013: 35-31 – Dead Space, Crysis & Battlefield

We kick this week off with five more games in in our Top 100 countdown, including three of EA’s big hitters and two other games that could be either a hit or a miss.

There’s a lot of variety in these five games and we’re really excited about them, clearly, as we enter the top third of our countdown!

35. Deadpool

Deadpool should be a blast. Developed by High Moon Studios, the team behind the two decent Cybertron Transformers games, this is a third person action game which looks to feature lots of fourth-wall breaking and interaction with the player, in true Deadpool style.

Comic writer Daniel Way is on board and he’s written Deadpool in the past, so they seem to have chosen well. The reason that Deadpool is so high on our list is most likely due to the fantastic trailer released along with the game’s announcement at Comic Con earlier this year, which set the tone for the game brilliantly.

It’s not tied to any upcoming movies, so there should be a lot of freedom for the developers; don’t write this off as a cheap tie-in – just look how great the Batman Arkham games were. Could it be another comic book to game success? We think so.

34. Dead Space 3

The first two Dead Space games were great action horror games with some of the best and most atmospheric moments I’ve experienced this generation. Dead Space 3 follows on from its predecessor, with Isaac Clarke once again fighting Necromorph forces along with his own sanity. This time, however, Isaac is joined by Sergeant John Carver, who can be controlled by a second player in the game’s drop-in and drop-out co-operative mode.

It seems to be quite a unique co-operative experience, as each player experiences things differently as they play through and fight their own minds as well as the enemies. If you choose to play alone, however, Sgt. Carver won’t always be present – he’ll appear at some points, but it’ll be very much a solo adventure for Isaac once again.

The game appears to be even more action focused than before, however, as human foes will appear alongside Necromorphs and you’ll be able to roll or take cover as you play. Visceral Games seem to making the game more accessible, though they’ve made a point of stating that the horror aspects are still there.

It hasn’t reached quite as high on the list as it did last year, where it charted at number seven. This might be due to the co-op announcement and shift of focus to action, or maybe there’s just 33 better games this year. We’re not as excited for it then, but we’ll know fully when it releases next February.

33. Crysis 3

Crysis 3 is set 24 years after its predecessor, with Prophet returning to New York only to find it encased inside a Nanodome, turning it from a desolate city into a rainforest with overgrown plantlife, swampy streets and flowing rivers. Prophet is out for revenge, after the evil Cell Corporation have transformed the once bustling city of New York into a quarantined wasteland in a bid for money and power.

The game is all about hunting and I’ve experienced that first hand with my time playing the brand new multiplayer Hunter mode. This mode has ten players, two of which are equipped with nano-suits and a bow, allowing them to become invisible and stalk their prey: the other eight players. Once killed by a hunter, you switch to their team and your objective is to take down the remaining troops. It’s a brilliantly tense mode whether you’re either stalking the troops or trying to defend yourself against the stealthy hunters, and only gets better as the round goes on.

Developed with CryEngine 3, the third instalment in the Crysis franchise should be extremely pleasing to the eyes, too; Crytek really know how to push systems to their limits.

Crysis 2 is actually one of my favourite first person shooters of recent times, even though I had initially dismissed it as a generic shooter. I found it comparable to Half-Life in terms of story, with some brilliant gameplay mechanics making it a great game to play. I’m one of the reasons it’s in the top third of our list then and it seems justified, with some unique multiplayer and what looks to be a brilliant story and setting. We’ll see for sure when it releases a couple of weeks after Dead Space 3 on February 22nd.

32. Star Trek

The upcoming Star Trek game isn’t strictly a movie tie-in. Though it is set between 2009’s Star Trek film and the upcoming sequel, it will feature an original storyline along with co-operative gameplay involving Captain Kirk and Spock.

[videoyoutube]There’s not too many details about the story but the main foes will be the Gorm, humanoid reptiles from classic Star Trek reborn for the new, alternative canon. It all looks a bit Mass Effect from what we’ve seen, which I’m aware is quite an odd statement to make. Hopefully it’ll be an action-packed co-operative sci-fi game rather than a poor movie tie-in. It’s out early next year, but there’s no specific date just yet.

It’s developed by Digital Extremes, who have proven themselves in the past with their work on the Unreal Tournament series, their porting and multiplayer development in the BioShock games and The Darkness II, which released this year and received a lot of praise.

They might just have another hit on their hands with this game.

31. Battlefield 4

We’re not completely sure that we’ll see Battlefield 4 in 2013. It’s an immensely popular series, but as it stands the beta testing of the game is planned for next Autumn. We could still see it at the end of the year though – around November, going up against Activision’s Call of Duty as Battlefield 3 did last year.

Battlefield 3 still has a huge multiplayer fanbase; there are still a lot of people who prefer the more tactical multiplayer compared to Call of Duty’s fast paced gameplay. Battlefield 4 could take this even further and create the best multiplayer experience for their fans. They’ll have to work on the single player campaign, however, as from what I’ve heard Battlefield 3’s campaign wasn’t anything to write home about.

We’ll no doubt find out more as 2013 progresses, with lots of information at EA’s conferences and some big things at E3 2013. Perhaps it’ll be in our Game of the Year list in a year’s time, or we might have to wait two before we can throw all of the ‘best shooter’ and ‘game of the year’ awards at it.

Come back tomorrow for more Game of the Year 2013 contenders as we enter our top thirty. If you’ve missed anything from our list, you can catch up here.