I have seen on Twitter recently that people have been discussing what year was the best year in the games industry. British retailer GAME decided to find out which year was most popular by running a poll to 2000 of the company’s customers. It turned out that 1996 won the poll by 1% with the release of the Playstation and N64 seeming to be defining moments to the gaming community. In the top 5 gaming years in the poll, there was not one year recognised after 2002. This got me thinking, why is this? Many consider this current generation of consoles to be one of the best of all-time as it has so much variety and although it hasn’t been a smooth journey, gaming has evolved so much. If we consider gaming from 2005, I firmly believe that the games which are due out this year mean that the best year of this current generation has been saved until last.
Of course everyone is entitled to their opinion but I believe that the quality of games which have been released and are due to be released this year is the highest quality which the ‘red ring of death’ generation has ever known. You may be thinking that game developers will have one eye on the future of gaming with the PS4, the next Xbox console, the OUYA and Steam Box. This would be fair enough to believe but the games which have been released and have yet to be released this year shapes 2013 to be the perfect swansong to these excellent years I have spent falling in love with gaming.
With the year almost a quarter of the way through, we have already been treated to some tremendous gaming achievements, most notably two games that I wasn’t even going to buy. Bioshock Infinite and Tomb Raider have taken the gaming world by storm and have both received rave reviews from critics and gamers alike, with Bioshock Infinite receiving higher praise.
When a review embargo is lifted, I am always intrigued to see what a game scored and see if the game is worthwhile buying, wait for it to go on sale or ignore it completely. When I saw the first review scores for Tomb Raider I decided I had to get the game and the same applies to Bioshock Infinite. At a time of year where the ‘best of the rest’ games are normally released, two phenomenal titles have been released in quick succession. These are two games which don’t rely on annual releases and both have their own style, although they can be compared to some, which have impressed the gaming community at large.
As well as these two powerhouse games, there have been several good titles to be released so far this year. Games such as Gears of War: Judgment, Dead Space 3, Ni No Kuni, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and Devil May Cry have proven popular with gamers with some of these being adored by fans and critics alike. It seems as though before we move onto the next stage in gaming, these games are determined to give us some great memories to part with as most of us move on to the future of gaming. With 6 months remaining until the start of fall, the season when the PS4 is due to be released, there is plenty of life left in the old dogs yet.
As we have known for some time, Grand Theft Auto V will be the biggest gaming release of the year. Like the highly anticipated blockbuster movie, everyone will be desperate to experience Rockstar’s latest sandbox title and we will no doubt be seeing more from GTAV on the horizon leading up to September. With the number of fans Rockstar has, the fresh feel of the games and their attention to detail means that Rockstar will no doubt have another hit game on their hands.
On top of GTAV, there will be many more games revealed come E3 in June but of the games already confirmed, it looks like my opinion on the best year of the current-gen could come true. Games which have shown early promise such as the promising and ‘out of the ordinary’ survival game The Last of Us, Capcom’s exciting and futuristic Remember Me and the finest characters from the DC universe will be fighting in Injustice: Gods Among Us have all still to be released. These games are all new intellectual properties and will hopefully provide some ideas in the games which we have yet to have seen before. As well as these new IPs, several sequels have still to be released including the recently revealed Metal Gear Solid 5, Assassin’s Creed IV, Metro: Last Light, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Grid 2 and the follow up to the well-renowned Telltale Games title, The Walking Dead.
Some of you may be reading this and thinking ‘Most of these games he is talking about aren’t even out yet, how does he know if they will be good or not?’ The truth is I don’t know if these games will be any good, all I am saying is that the early signs are very promising and if the games are even half as good as they have looked in trailers and gameplay demos, then 2013 will be a great year for games, even excluding the PS4, Xbox Durango/720 and the other consoles which have still to be released.
This generation of console gaming will be remembered for creating great gaming franchises such as Gears of War, Dead Space, Uncharted and Saints Row to name but a few. As well as the great times, many will unfortunately remember the Xbox’s ‘red ring of death’ and the PS3’s ‘yellow light of death’ and I believe that is another reason why this year will be a great swansong for these two consoles. Every wrong has seemed to be righted with both consoles as many gamers now own an updated PS3 or Xbox 360. There is no need to worry if your Bioshock Infinite game did actually save or if you play your Xbox all day that it won’t overheat. Right now, everything is as good as it has ever been as far as the PS3 and Xbox 360 are concerned and it seems that the games are also looking to be the best they have ever been in the year before we experience the coming of a new age.
@SimonMarshall6
No comments:
Post a Comment