Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty is both a welcome return to the series for fans of the first game, and a great place to jump on for newcomers. After ten years, rather than changing a formula that still works to this day, Blizzard refined it to perfection. The game offers something for everyone, whether you are simply along for the ride of the story, are a top-rated player in competitive multiplayer, or are interested in player-created custom games. While the story and writing can be hokey at times, there is a level of gameplay polish that is not found from any other developer. Starcraft 2 also boasts one of the most dedicated and fun multiplayer communities out there, and even when you’re not playing the game, it is entertaining to watch the pros play in tournaments such as the GSL. If games had legs, Starcraft 2 would have the longest of any game released in 2010 and its variety of attractions make it the best game of 2010.
Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm release “probably not this year”
Speaking with Giant Bomb, lead designer for Starcraft 2 Dustin Browder has stated that the expansion to last year’s Wings of Liberty will “probably not [ship] this year.”
“We often say, ‘hey, we’re 90% done’, and then we find out from feedback internally or externally that in fact what we’ve done is quite awful, and we need to redo it, and suddenly we’re back to 30%,” said Browder. “So I don’t know, I haven’t gotten enough feedback to know how far along we are.”
While this may come as no surprise to fans, Activision has discussed the possibility of a Blizzard game in 2011. However, they have insisted that Blizzard will ship at least two titles in 2012 if they ship none in 2011, and it is reasonable to conclude that one of those titles will be Heart of the Swarm.
Blizzard has confirmed there will be a multiplayer beta for Heart of the Swarm prior to release.
Source: Giant Bomb
GOG teases “biggest announcement ever”
Good Old Games, the digital distribution company known for selling, well, good old games DRM-free and compatible with current PCs, currently has a countdown timer on its website, giving the time of GOG’s “biggest announcement ever” to be 12:00 PDT on June 2nd. The announcement will be the addition of a major publisher to GOG’s service and will be revealed via a live stream of a pre-E3 conference being held by GOG and CD Projekt RED. Recently, GOG has added several publisher libraries to its catalog, and it has teased the possible candidates based on major publishers that have not yet partnered with GOG: Microsoft, LucasArts, Electronic Arts, Square Enix, or Take2.
Each of those publishers has a respectable catalog of classics, but the fanboy in me can’t help but want it to be LucasArts. TIE Fighter should say enough. GOG has already had major negative publicity in the past when it shut down its website, seemingly for good, only to be re-opened with an upgraded site and no small amount of hate from fans. Let’s hope GOG has learned from those mistakes and will not disappoint.
Source: GOG.com
PC Games to Keep an Eye On
I could easily list all the games I am looking forward to this year, but I thought I’d instead spotlight the the PC games that I am most interested in playing. I consider the PC to be my main platform for gaming and I thought it had a great 2009 and I hope it is at least as good in 2010.
Alpha Protocol (Obsidian Entertainment)
I am a pretty big fan of Obsidian and especially Chris Avellone, who I think is among the premier game writers and designers in an industry where writing is typically poor. So it is no surprise that this is one of the games I am looking forward to most this year. For the unaware, Alpha Protocol is being called “The Espionage RPG” and is basically just that, a modern-day spy RPG. There are varying ways to play the game, from a suave James Bond-type to a bust in and kick ass Jason Bourne-type. Originally slated for early 2009 and now having suffered numerous delays, I hope that the extra time publisher Sega has given Obsidian has really helped to give the game the level of polish it deserves.
BioShock 2 (2K Marin)
This one shouldn’t take too much explaining why I am excited for it, with the first game being one of my favorite games of all time. I actually do not expect this to be as good as the first, but I’m certainly willing to be pleasantly surprised. I expect for the overall gameplay to be more polished, but perhaps the story and characters to not be as engaging. The multiplayer mode sounds great too which I have written on before.
Fallout: New Vegas (Obsidian Entertainment)
Another Obsidian-developed title, there is not much info widely available about this game yet other than it will use the Gamebryo engine (see Oblivion and Fallout 3) and it will not be related to the Fallout 3 story, merely take place in the same universe. Having recently played and beaten Fallout 3 for the first time, and this coming from one of my favorite studios, even the little info we have on this is enough to make me excited, and it is potentially the game I am looking forward to most in 2010.
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty (Blizzard Entertainment)
Like BioShock 2, this should need no explanation for why it is on this short list. Blizzard has been working on this game for years now and I expect it to be one of the most polished experiences of 2010. I have probably not played the original StarCraft for 10 years so it is definitely time.
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II Chaos Rising (Relic Entertainment)
The first expansion to 2009′s Dawn of War II, Chaos Rising will add an entirely new campaign, continuing the story of the Blood Ravens Space Marines, this time in their fight against the Chaos Space Marines. I am already a Warhammer fan, having played the tabletop game for more than several years in the past and I just loved this game’s main campaign. The game combines RPG and RTS elements (loot drops, fixed number of squads with no base building) to make for a truly unique strategy experience.
So there you have the games on PC I want to get my hands on most this year. Do you share the same anticipation or are your top upcoming games completely different?
