Top 100 of 2012: 40-36 – ModNation, Metal and Medal of Honor

And then there were forty! If you’re a little behind, catch up on yesterday’s games here, or read on for today’s five:

40 ModNation Racers: Road Trip

United Front’s ModNation Racers was a sleeper hit on PS3, getting decent review scores (with only the game’s lengthy load times holding it back) and building up a dedicated fan base. Now the game is heading to Vita from Sony’s San Diego Studio, with a whole load of new tricks up its sleeve. The racing itself has been tightened up, front and rear touch controls have been added to the track designer, and the game can access all of the user-created content from the PS3 iteration, opening up the millions of pieces already available from day one.

Whilst the latest previews have praised the game’s new additions, it sounds like the series’ now-trademark lengthy load times are still present – hopefully that’s something that will get fixed ahead of the game’s release next spring.

ModNation Racers: Road Trip is due out at Vita’s EU launch on February 22nd.

39 Twisted Metal

Despite David Jaffe’s constant claims to the contrary, Sony’s E3 2010 presser revealed that Eat Sleep Play are indeed working on a new game in the Twisted Metal franchise – the longest-running PlayStation-exclusive series to date. The new title, simply titled ‘Twisted Metal’, is a return to the darker stylings of the PS2’s Twisted Metal: Black.

Plotwise, nothing much has changed; players compete to win the car-combat Twisted Metal contest. What has been added though is a new multiplayer component, expanded massively from the PSP’s Head-On. Other additions include an extra special weapon for each vehicle, and a whole bunch of new factions including The Clowns, the Dolls, the Preachers and the Skulls.

Twisted Metal is due out on PS3 on February 14th in the US, with a European date yet to be announced.

38 Prey 2

Human Head really went back to the drawing board when they started on Prey 2. Rather than the usual formula of ‘previous game – bad things + new things = sequel’, the studio went for ‘core concept of previous game – everything else + a whole new game = sequel’. Out are the portals and other elements that made the original Prey a unique title, and in is a Red Dead-inspired bounty hunter adventure game with Mirror’s Edge’s free-running and a cross between Mass Effect and Deus Ex’s style. Killian Samuels, the aforementioned bounty hunter, is out to find out what happened in number of missing years of his life, killing a fair few people along the way we presume.

Interestingly, the game is being built on the older id Tech 4 engine – albeit a heavily-modified version – rather than Tech 5, the engine behind this year’s Rage. “We put a lot of time and energy [into id Tech 4], and we really love what it’s capable of at this point,” says associate producer Matt Bisenius. You have to respect a studio not afraid to stick with what they know in order to create the game they want to rather than just jumping onto the newest passing shiny thing.

Prey 2 is coming to PS3, 360 and PC sometime in 2012.

37 Medal of Honor 2

I was one of those people who really enjoyed 2010’s Medal of Honor reboot. If you’re also one, rest safe in the knowledge we are not alone – when the game took the WeView podium earlier in the year, it was awarded a ‘Buy It’ rating quite comfortably. Of course, MoH wasn’t perfect – there were technical issues with the now-ageing Unreal Engine 3, as well as balance problems and a rather short campaign – but I really hope when approaching the upcoming sequel, Danger Close keep the ‘feel’ of the first game.

So what do we know about Medal of Honor 2? Very little in fact. Based on executive producer Greg Goodrich’s words in an open letter revealing the follow-up earlier in the year, it’s likely we’ll see a sequel take place in the present day. The flyer included with Battlefield 3 confirmed nothing more than that the game is coming, and is definitely a Medal of Honor game. Most likely, given EA’s new-found love of Frostbite 2 (Battlefield, Command and Conquer, Need for Speed, etc…), the game will be based on that engine. It’ll be interesting to see if EA decides to split single- and multi-player development between two studios like they did for Medal of Honor (and were slated for), or if they’ll let DICE have some time off, with Danger Close picking up the MP reigns.

Either way, if it retains the same tight feel and atmosphere of the original, Medal of Honor 2 could be something really special in 2012. Enough to go up against Treyarch’s next Call of Duty? Who knows.

Medal of Honor will likely arrive on PS3, 360 and PC towards the end of 2012.

36 Diablo III

More than ten years in the making, next year should finally see the release of Blizzard’s Diablo III. The action-RPG series with a focus on dark magic last saw an outing in 2001, but the new game’s modified StarCraft II engine should bring it bang up to date. The new game keeps the style and story of the originals, as well as the isometric viewpoint, and adds online co-op to the mix.

The game has been in the news mostly over the last year or so due to Blizzard’s back and forth over bringing the game to consoles. Whilst the studio’s recent work has been limited to PC, at Gamescom Diablo’s lead designer was quoted as saying he is “very, very serious about bringing the Diablo III experience to the console”, and that Blizzard is currently building a world-class console development team with the hope of making that happen. So whilst nothing is in stone just yet, don’t be surprised to see the Diablo series on PS3 or 360 sometime in the not-too-distant future.

Diablo III is due for a release sometime in the first half of 2012 on PC and Mac.