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

As we’ve reach the top 40 of our Top 100 of 2012 today I can feel just like I’m hosting an episode of Top of the Pops. Top of the Games perhaps? Doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, does it? Anyway enough of me, here’s five more games that we’d picked out as potential high points of 2012.

40 ModNation Racers: Road Trip

One of the games on our list that has handily been released, ModNation Racers: Road Trip was a launch title for the Vita back in February. Developed by SCE San Diego Studio, the same team behind the PSP version of ModNation Racers, the game features a staggering seven control set-ups, and in Alex’s review of the game he noted that none of them really work that well and said that “…it’s baffling that Mario Kart doesn’t have any such problems with control.”

It’s been obvious that ModNation Racers, and indeed almost every cart racer, is drawing from Mario Kart from the get go. Sadly ModNation doesn’t live up to Nintendo’s racer, with Alex saying that Mario Kart is “…streets ahead in every aspect apart from the still utterly sublime creation aspects that Sony’s title can offer exclusively.” In fact the game’s creation elements are, according to Alex, its saving grace, with a lack of online, muddy visuals and a poor framerate dragging the game down.

Ultimately the game came in at 5/10, with Alex saying that “ModNation Racers Road Trip isn’t terrible, it’s just not particularly good.”

39 Twisted Metal

So far we’re two-for-two on games that have actually been released, with Twisted Metal arriving for our PS3s in March for those of us in the EU. That was after a small delay due to the almost ever present localisation issues that plague European PS3 owners, but we only had to wait for the game an extra month. Not that bad right?

Whilst we didn’t review the game, Alex did take a less formal look at it. Initially he dismissed the game, with its cheap looking menus and generally garish presentation flying against an industry that seems to have prided itself on becoming more “refined” since Twisted Metal’s last outing. However, on a second look he found that it all clicked into place, leaving him to proclaim it “…the dog’s bollocks,” and “…a genre title that’s amped up well past eleven,” so it seems that it has more to offer than a quick glance would indicate.

With the game sitting at a fairly healthy 76 on Metacritic, it looks like Alex’s assertions about the game may well have been spot on. No, this isn’t going to be a game that leaves you amazed at its slickness but it will leave you feeling like you had fun. What more can you ask?

38 Prey 2

Prey 2 is a game that, for a few weeks, looked like it had been cancelled. Initial reports in March suggested that came’s cancellation was imminent, and Bethesda’s refusal to comment on the rumours left many feeling uneasy. However, by mid-April they’d cleared things up and confirmed that the game did in fact still exist. In the same statement they announced that the game would not make it’s 2012 release date, and had instead slipped next to year due to not meeting Bethesda’s quality standards.

That wasn’t quite the end of the story though, with anonymous sources claiming that developers Human Head had stopped working on the title in November in an attempt to improve their contract.

With information about the current state of the game, or even the current developers, lacking I’d be hesitant to tell you what it’s going to be, but last time we saw anything about the game it was about U.S. Marshal Killian Samuels, a survivor of an airliner crashing into the Sphere from the first Prey. Some years later he’s become a bounty hunter on the alien world of Exodus.

As for the game itself? Well last year we talked to Chris Rhinehart from Human Head about the game and he can probably do a better job of describing it than I ever could:

37 Medal of Honor 2

Now titled Medal of Honor: Warfighter, we can expect this game on shelves at the end of October. The game continues from 2010’s Medal of Honor reboot, with Danger Close remaining on development duties. Once again you’ll be playing as a Tier 1 Operator, with events in the game drawing from recent real world events (such as pirates in Somalia). This game, apparently, features two Tier 1 Operators in the campaign, presumably tackling events in different locations like the Call of Duty series.

Beyond that I don’t have too much more to share about the game, although once again Danger Close are working with real Tier 1 Operators to try and make the game as realistic as possible, and are also donating money to charities set up to help US veterans. It’s nice to see developers giving something back to the military they draw from in their games, much like the Call of Duty Endowment has.

36 Diablo III

The final game on today’s list was released back in May, with the game shifting a huge 3.5 million copies on launch day and up to 6.3 million by the end of the week, making it the fastest selling PC game ever. Add in the 1.2 million who had access to the game via WoW’s annual pass, and it’s clear why the launch was mired by server problems.

For those of you who don’t recall, the game requires a connection to Blizzard’s servers if you want to play, even in single player mode. Sadly the weight of eager players seemed just to much for those poor servers, leaving the game inaccessible for many at launch, with those who did get in often complaining of bugs.

Launch issues aside, the game seems to be very good, drawing a rating of 88 on Metacritic. With Blizzard’s expertise in RPGs in general, and the pedigree of Diablo and Diablo II, it’s not surprising that they managed to pull off another great action RPG.

That’s it for today’s games, we’ll be back tomorrow with another 5 games in our countdown.