Two thirds of the way through! It’s a good mix of titles in this five, including what will most likely end up being the biggest game of the year. Onwards with the list!
35 – Saints Row 3
In last year’s list as Saints Row 3, but now officially titled Saints Row: The Third, it’s probably the only game of the hundred that brings up the words “childish”, “jetfighter”, and “three foot purple dildo”. For what it’s worth, this year’s entry into the chaotic open-world crime series looks set to take the madness of the previous two games to a whole new level. There’s really not a whole lot more to say – if “three foot purple dildo” didn’t get you interested, I don’t know what would – aside from the game sees you again in the shoes of the leader of the Third Street Saints, this time battling The Syndicate for control of new city Steelport. Gameplay-a-go-go:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fU2VTZI2as
Oh, and if you’re at all interested in Saints Row or Volition, check out this great hour-long video history of the studio, released as part of SR3’s promo. Saints Row: The Third is due out on November 18th for Ps3, 360 and PC.
34 – Modern Warfare 3
Everybody knows the drill by now – the annual Call of Duty release is the biggest game of the year – and this year looks to be no different, with the latest in the Modern Warfare plotline due out this November. The Russians are still invading the States, as well as Western Europe (Activision have just released a poorly-timed trailer for the London segment of the game), and the plot leads on from MW2 with Soap, Price and Nikolai on the run.
New to the series is a co-op Survival Mode, more in-depth than the Zombies mode from World at War and Black Ops, and the Spec Ops mode in MW2, playable across all multiplayer maps and with it’s own path for upgrades. Also new is the Call of Duty Elite service, a part-free, part-pay package which enables detailed stat-tracking and is currently in beta testing with last year’s Black Ops.
In case you didn’t know, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will be released on PS3, 360, PC, Wii and DS on November 8th.
33 – The 3rd Birthday
The Parasite Eve game that’s not quite a Parasite Eve game and the mobile game that ended up as a PSP game that is The 3rd Birthday came out in Japan at the tail end of last year. Luckily for us, it didn’t take too long to make the journey to the west, arriving on our shores in April.
As Lee said in December: “Plot wise, it’s the standard Parasite Eve “Manhattan under attack by weird life-forms known as The Twisted” fare. Not that we’re complaining. We’re all for cities getting attacked. As long as we can play hot women that ultimately save the day, of course.” I’m presuming Lee was happy with The 3rd Birthday then, as in his review he notes that “fans of Parasite Eve will relish in more blonde bangs, tight tank-tops and gory shenanigans.” Unfortunately though, he also reports that “those searching for a fully realised third person shooter on the PSP will be left somewhat nonplussed, however.” Shame. Lee gave the game 7/10, dead on the Metacritic average of 70.
The 3rd Birthday is available on PSP now – and it’s even up on the PSN Store.
32 – SOCOM 4
SOCOM 1 was one of the first online-enabled games of last generation. It was also one of the first games to feature voice command play. SOCOM 3 was one of the first games to have downloadable map packs. Combined Assault was one of the first titles to have online co-op, Fireteam Bravo 3 was one of the first to use the online passes we now so know and love. Well maybe not love.
Unfortunately, SOCOM 4 wasn’t really a breakthrough in any particular field. A tactical third-person shooter with the now-expected co-op and multiplayer components, dodgy stealth, and decidedly average graphics, we never actually gave the game a final score due to issues we had with the online multiplayer. As much as I don’t like quoting myself, here’s my conclusion on the game from back in April: “Special Forces is not a bad game, in fact it’s a reasonably good one, there are just inherent flaws that pop up now and again.” Don’t be too put off though – if you can grab a couple of copies for cheap for you and your friends (buying new will get you the SOCOM Pro extras), there’s a lot of fun to be had in the game’s co-op mode.
SOCOM 4 (SOCOM: Special Forces here in the UK) is out now on PS3.
31 – Duke Nukem Forever
“Hail to the King? Sorry but no, the King is dead.”
That’s how Dan concluded our 5/10 review of Duke Nukem Forever. That very article also noted the poor graphics, sounds, humour, pacing, and “overall feeling of tedium”. After fourteen years in development, DNF finally launched in June to Metascores of 48, 51 and 54 on 360, PS3 and PC respectively. All things considered, the launch wasn’t too positive – something not helped by 2K’s PR company lashing out and blacklisting sites that gave the game poor reviews, but hey.
It’s not all bad though. Sad Panda reckons it’s “a refreshing change of pace to the carbon copy FPS games we are subjected to en masse nowadays” and Mickey2010 says “it still gives you everything you love about a Duke Nukem game”. Most of the argument seems to be over whether Duke Nukem himself belongs in 2011 – and even the WeView result was torn between “Avoid It” and “Rent It”. While it may not be the year’s greatest game, if you’re looking for some old-school shooter action DNF may be worth a look-in.
Duke Nukem Forever is available now on PS3, 360 and PC.
That’s it for today – we’ll be back with number thirty and up tomorrow!
hazelam
maybe if gearbox start from scratch with a new duke game it could actually be fun.
i’m still not a big fan of the character, but if the game is good i can easily look past that.
just finishing up what they had is i feel what caused the problems for DNF.
it felt slightly schizophrenic.
there’s the old duke gameplay, but then they added stuff like regenerating health, not a bad addition i feel, and the two weapon limit, probably the worst thing they did to the game.
either go old school all the way, or do a modern fps.
mixing the two the way they did with DNF didn’t work well.
i’ll have to get the third birthday at some point, and i’m still hopeful sony and/or square enix will see their way to legally bringing the original parasite eve to europe sooner rather than later.
Kovacs
The original Parasite Eve is almost certainly going to be one of the new PSOne Import Classics:
http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2011/08/01/ntsc-j-and-ntsc-u-psone-classics-confirmed-for-scee/
hazelam
i really hope so, because’i’ll admit, i played a pirate copy in the past, and the game was amazing, but now i really want to buy a legal copy.
i know i could get a us store card and get it from the us store, but i want to play it on my psp, and i have a lot of games on my uk account on there, it’s a pain in the arse having games from more than one account on a psp, what with only being able to have one account on there at a time.
and that’s without all the comics i’ve got on there at the moment.
it’s also annoying when psp demos are only available in the us.
i wonder if the vita will allow multiple accounts.
Kovacs
Yeah, it is very annoying. The only way around it is to delete the account, install the other, download, delete that account, and then re-install the main account.
Good question about the PSV, though. I wonder what Sony are planning.
SpikeyMikey23
Really enjoyed the socom demo but not enough to justify the purchase. MW3 is a given for me. You can keep the saints row franchise. Not a fan. ;)
bunimomike
Not much for me on the list although most of them fascinate me and it’s a bit of fun keeping tabs on them.
If Activision grow the sense to also sell their COD games in single player form too (eg. RRP £25 just for the single player component) then they’d have already prompted me to play MW2 and Black Ops but until then, no deal. A shame really as plenty of friends agree and have done the same thing.
Hopefully all publishers will one day work out that not everyone wants multiplayer but still wants to spend money on great single player campaigns from extremely popular multiplayer games.
Foxhound_Solid
Might give saints row 3 a go….
RudeAwakening
I reckon MW series’s number is up, I have a feeling that BF3 will take its crown this year.
The Lone Steven
They should have scrapped Duke Nukem Forever and rebuilt it from scratch. After 12 fecking years, all we got was a very at best average game. I have only played the demo and i was not impressed by it. It seems they were too scared to take a huge risk and be unique so they just decided to go the generic FPS with a Duke Nukem skin. :(
Saint’s the Third looks excellent. I think it’s probably the only time where a didlo reference is okay on a TSA article. But i am annoyed that the people laucher is only for those who preorder. :(
Kreisash
A few of my mates and I have decided to jump on socom 4 recently, grabbing cheap second hand copies as the pro pack is free in EU. It’s reminiscent of Ghost Recon which we used to enjoy and while has a few glitches here and there, is quite a blast at times. It’s a shame that the online versus is mired by a lack of a queue system (you would have thought they would have learned from MAG) so all of the games are pretty much death match now.
R4U Eldave0
SR3 is going to be awesome! Sure, its not going to be great on a technical (read: boring) level, but in terms of good, old-fashioned fun I can’t think of anything that comes close to it.