HERE ARE THE TOP 25, go to the link at the bottom to see top 100:
25 – Metal Gear Rising (Multi)
More Raiden! Yay? Regardless of what you think about Metal Gear’s half boy band wannabe/half deadly cyborg, the prospect of Hideo Kojima producing a balls-out action game is damn exciting. Details are thin on the ground at the moment, but we expect Rising will ditch much of MGS4’s stealth in favour of combat. The story will likely be a prequel, filling in the blanks on how Raiden ending up becoming the tragic ninja figure seen in Guns of the Patriots. Let’s just hope for less talking and more slicing men in half with a razor sharp katana.
24 – Dragon Quest IX (DS)
Level 5 are blazing a trail for the RPG genre by continuously delivering cute, comprehensive and ultimately fun games with the Dragon Quest series and this DS only title looks set to further strengthen their position. The stunning title has already sold over two million copies in Japan alone and we can’t wait to get our hands on the western version, if not to lose ourselves in it for 100+ hours.
23 – Lost Planet 2 (Multi)
Hard to believe the original’s three years old at this point, huh? The snow-covered, bug-infested landscapes of the first have melted away, revealing lush tropical areas and a whole mess of human factions fighting over limited resources. Also gone is the character-driven story from the first entry, which has been replaced with a create-a-character everyman and four-player co-op. Despite all these drastic changes, you can still count on absurdly large boss battles, chest-caving explosions and some of the coolest, most varied multiplayer out there.
22 – Gran Turismo 5 (PS3)
This is it – the Gran daddy. It's been years and years in development, during which time we've had several prologue guises, all in preparation for the main event that simply has to be amazing – Gran Turismo 5. Expect the finest physics and best-looking cars you've ever seen, all in stunning HD. It's got a lot to live up to with Forza 3 sitting smugly on the winner's podium, but we wouldn't bet against GT knocking it flat onto its arse. IF it ever actually arrives, that is.
21 – Split/Second (Multi)
One of the most balls-out nasty racing experiences of last year’s E3 brought to you by… Disney Interactive? Shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody who played Black Rock Studios' previous racer, 2007’s stellar Pure. Instead of goofy banana peels and other silly kart-style weapons, Split/Second uses areas in the environment as the weapons themselves. Stunts and precision driving build up a “Powerplay” meter that lets you detonate or destroy entire sections of the track. Plus, it requires a helluva lot more timing and skill than your everyday homing missile, making for an altogether fresh take for one of the best looking racing games we’ve ever seen. Wonderfully nasty business!
20 – Call of Duty 2010 (Multi)
It's been radio silence from Treyarch on the next instalment of 'the other' Call of Duty - the one still trading off the events of WWII. Two things it has going for it: First, Zombie mode. The team knows it's on to a winner with this so expect bigger things. Second, every single rumour out there points to the new World at War being set in Vietnam. Outside of the woeful Shellshock II, we haven't had much chance to get our hands dirty in the barbarous jungle warfare of Vietnam - add in a bit of the hallucinogenic trippiness of Apocalypse Now and it could be just as worth the wait as MW2.
19 – Splinter Cell Conviction (Multi)
Yeah, we all known Sam has had a mega facelift and is turning back the clocks to 2002 to go all Jack Bauer (people still care about 24, right?) by ramping the action level for Conviction to 11. What you might not know is just how promising the game’s co-op is shaping up to be. With levels specifically built for tight team play, coupled with some badass Jason Bourne style tag-team takedowns, sneaking about with another stealthy mate could yet be Conviction’s biggest selling point.
18 – Disney Epic Mickey (Wii)
Don’t go ignoring this as just another Disney license. This is a Disney license headed by Warren Spector, the man responsible for Deus Ex, Thief and System Shock. He’s also a man with an incredibly nerdy fandom of animation, so Epic Mickey is officially serious business. How serious? Try a darker-than-usual story that blends real-world and cartoon history to create a plot involving some of the most obscure characters in Disney’s history. Try a cartoon game world you can erase and repaint as you see fit. And the usual Warren Spector tropes of free-form gameplay and player-driven narrative development are here by the boatload.
17 – Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)
It's a real shock to see a second core Mario game on the same console (it hasn't happened since Mario 3 on the NES). But don't think the developers are resting on their laurels just because it's a sequel to the best game on Wii - based on what we saw at E3 ’09 (there has been zero shown of it since) it looks to be filled with wildly original ideas that will only enrich the awesome concept of jumping around small planetoids. And after the lackluster New Super Mario Bros Wii, the console and its players needs a real Mario classic now more than ever.
16 – Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver (DS)
Finally, a reliably legitimate way to obtain the Gold / Silver starters in Generation IV – that alone cements HeartGold and SoulSilver’s place on this list. Add a super cool Tamagotchi-esque PokeWalker pedometer accessory (you can transfer your Pokemon into it and they gain EXP as you walk – and it does other stuff too) and HeartGold / SoulSilver gives us PokeFever all over again for the umpteenth time. Now all we need is a worldwide Celebi distribution – make it happen, Nintendo!
15 – Metroid: Other M (Wii)
E3 2009 was an amazing show for Nintendo. In the span of one hour the company announced Super Mario Galaxy 2, New Super Mario Bros, Golden Sun DS and, most shocking of all, a Team Ninja-developed Metroid game that looks like it’s going to kick our whiny fanboy teeth in. The real question is: what the hell is it? Every screen shows a different type of gameplay (FPS, side scroller, third-person etc), the cutscenes look super-serious and Samus appears to actually have voiced lines. If this is as crushingly badass as it appears, Other M could easily wind up as Nintendo’s big push for Fall 2010.
14 – WoW: Cataclysm (PC)
How do you make World of Warcraft better? You destroy it. The return of Deathwing, a mighty dragon from Warcraft II, will trigger a cataclysm that will reshape Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms of Azeroth forever. We’re used to MMO expansions offering increased level caps, new races, and new endgame content (which Cataclysm will also deliver). But this is the first time we’ve seen an MMO expansion used to reinvent lower-level areas, giving veterans a compelling reason to roll a new character from scratch.
13 – God of War III (PS3)
Although we still haven’t really seen anything of it apart from what’s in the now-widely available demo, the (allegedly) final adventure of bald, Greek, homicidal madman Kratos is just over the horizon, and it’s already more gruesome than just about anything else on the market. But God of War III promises more than just spilled entrails, realistically tearing flesh and balls-to-the-wall brawling – if its developers are to be believed, it’ll also introduce entire levels set on the bodies of the gigantic Titans, who will move dynamically through a massive, open environment. We can’t wait to see more.
12 – Halo Reach (360)
That’s right – Halo doesn’t crack our top ten. Not yet, anyway. After the overwhelming hype and then uninspiring sameness of ODST, we’d prefer to keep our expectations at a reasonable level this time. Doing so is pretty damn difficult, though, when Bungie releases a piece of concept art that features multiple Spartan characters, a screenshot that reveals much more realistic graphics and a trailer that surprises with an actually kinda scary Covenant at the end. By the time the multiplayer beta hits this spring, we’ll no doubt be right back in the feverishly anticipating frenzy once more.
11 – Medal of Honor (Multi)
By now you should know the crazy irony that new Medal of Honor (no subtitle yet) is riffing off Modern Warfare and ditching WWII for present day Afghanistan, the current battleground a la mode. And while in recent interviews the dev team has had the audacity to act like Infinity Ward's game never happened, this decision will undoubtedly haunt them from now until its release in late 2010. Much of the anticipation factor here is based around whether the rejuvenated EA LA team can pull off a coup d'etat and best IW at its own game. Or should that be, 'with their own game’?
10 – Fallout: New Vegas (Multi)
The big question about the mysterious Fallout: New Vegas is: What kind of game is it? The first two Fallouts were deep, turn-based, PC role-playing games. But Fallout 3’s RPG skeleton supported a body that bulged with green, mutated first-person shooter muscles. To make matters murkier, Fallout 4 is still on the way and there may be an MMO someday as well. So we’re confused, but still excited.
Why? Because whatever form it takes, New Vegas is being developed by Obsidian, which employs many of the folks who actually invented the Fallout franchise and/or worked on the canceled “Van Buren” (code name), which would have been Fallout 3 if not for boring business reasons we won’t go into here. Simply put, nobody has better odds of nailing this thing.
Our money’s on Fallout: New Vegas having the look and intensity of Fallout 3, but blending in more of the original games’ deeper RPG stylings and an irradiated American southwest setting. We’ll almost certainly tear up a post-bombs-away Las Vegas (hopefully with a full party), but Van Buren explored everything from Hoover Dam to the Grand Canyon, so New Vegas could too. All this makes New Vegas a very safe bet.
9– Heavy Rain (PS3)
Remember that Heavy Rain tech demo with the pissed-off French chick? That was all the way back at E3 2006. Since then, anticipation around David Cage's latest project has become dangerously swollen and is nearing bursting point. Admittedly, the anticipation is evenly split between curiosity-based anticipation and excitement-based anticipation, but either way a lot of expectant eyes are going to be on Heavy Rain when it's finally released next month.
We've had an early version in the office for a while. And it's definitely... different. From the opening sequences we've sampled, it's safe to say that it's pretty incomparable to anything else we've ever played. Certainly we can't remember having to button press our way through a man's morning ablutions before. Pretty unusual, right? It's going to split opinion in the same way as Cage's previous bizzaro offering, Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy, but its unconventional approach to game design is guaranteed to be talked about for years to come.
8 – BioShock 2 (Multi)
Last January, we chose BioShock 2 as the most anticipated game of 2009. The original was so unusual, so unconventional and so unbelievably good – while the mystery surrounding its follow-up was still so maddeningly complete – that we couldn’t stop thinking or dreaming about what a sequel might entail. One year later, our enthusiasm has dampened… but not by much. We’re skeptical of the new multiplayer, but after playing at least half of the single-player campaign, we’re convinced what really matters about this franchise – the darkly moral story, the wonderfully bizarre weapons, the spectacularly realized underwater setting – has been very well repeated in Rapture Redux.
Some stuff, in fact, is much better. Suggesting so in 2009 might have been labeled heresy; in 2010, however, we know that the superpowered, super-aggressive Big Sisters are by far the most terrifying BioShock enemies you’ve ever faced. We know your Big Daddy protagonist’s drill dash is easily one of the most satisfying, and gory, attacks. We know the underwater exploration sequences are the most eerily gorgeous areas of either game. Of course, we haven’t reached the inevitable twist yet… or the inevitably dramatic final act. This is BioShock, after all, and what really has us excited for next month’s release is everything we still don’t know.
7 – Final Fantasy XIII (Multi)
The long-awaited first current-gen Final Fantasy! All the hopes of countless PS3-owning RPG fans are riding on this one, and we’ve certainly waited long enough. Although we’ve heard a lot about the futuristic worlds of Cocoon and Pulse and met its cast of heroes (we’re in love with protagonist Lightning already), much of FFXIII is still shrouded in mystery even years after its initial announcement, which only heightens our anticipation to finally, at long last, watch its secrets unfold before us.
Since its December 2009 release in Japan, the internet has been atwitter with FFXIII’s polarizing design. Opinions range from “Where are the towns?!?!? Too linear!!! This isn’t an RPG WTF!!!” to “No towns? Awesome, I can buy everything I need at any save point without talking to 50 dumb NPCs!! It’s so focused and streamlined.” All this passionate debate just makes us even more excited to play the game ourselves and form our own opinions.
6 – Red Dead Redemption (Multi)
Call of Juarez, Gun and the original Red Dead Revolver especially have done more justice to the mythology of the American frontier than cinema in the last decade, and the medium of videogames, well, ever. Admittedly, the genre is a hard sell to gamers weaned on BFGs and Spartan Lasers, but if you’re willing to dive into this gorgeously unique setting, you’ll find one of the grittiest, most violent, and all around badass epics ever to mosey onto consoles.
Rooted in Rockstar’s own GTA IV, Redemption is massive. Don’t let the sprawling serenity of an unconquered prairie fool you into thinking you’re in for a soothing experience. Playing as former outlaw John Marston, you’ll find no shortage of strife throughout the various towns. But it’s the spaces in between could end up defining the game, playing host to vicious robbers, brutal hangings and over 40 animals who may want to kill you (Liberty City with bears!) Halo, Killzone, Gears of War - them thar games are for boys. Red Dead Redemption? Well, now, that’s a game fit for a Man!
5 – StarCraft II (PC)
It’s been over 10 years since the original StarCraft redefined the real-time strategy genre – and we’re ready to dive back into perfecting our build orders to orchestrate the ultimate zerg rush. Wings of Liberty, the first of three installments for sequel, will follow the story of Jim Raynor and his band of mercenaries aboard the battlecruiser Hyperion.
Expect Blizzard’s reputation for perfection to shine through when Wings of Liberty releases later this year, marking StarCraft’s return as the RTS king. After all, if the past is any indication, we could all still be playing this in 2020.
4 – The Legend of Zelda (Wii)
The above image was stealthily revealed during a behind-closed-doors session at E3 2009. We were there, naturally, and quickly noticed Link’s missing sword, seemingly replaced by this ethereal, pointy-headed girl. Further inspection suggests this being looks a lot like the personification of the Master Sword (even the cloak dangling over its shoulders looks like the hilt and ornamental handguard). Could we be in for a very waggle-y Zelda game revolving around Link and his newly anthropomorphized blade?
Above: It’s not exact, but there’s enough to suggest a connection
That’s literally all there is to say. Info is so scarce, in fact, we question if this still-untitled Zelda will even release in 2010, instead making way for Other M and Mario Galaxy 2. Satoru Iwata said just last week it was still on track for this year, but a few days later NOA main man Reggie Fils-Aime said the game will ship when it’s perfect, which is a not-so-subtle way of saying “not this year.” However, if it does make it out the door, there’s no doubt in our minds it’ll end up as one of 2010’s most sought-after releases.
3 – Batman: Arkham Asylum 2 (Multi)
The excitement over Batman: Arkham Asylum was a slow burn; initial cynicism over another comic book license gradually sparking into excitement, and then full-blown fanboy hysteria as we realised just how right Rocksteady was getting it. Arkham Asylum 2 enjoys no such luxury. After the brilliance of the first game, it has to deliver from the start. Fortunately we so far have no fears at all in that area.
First up. Rocksteady already has Batman nailed in terms of world, tone, character and game mechanics. Secondly, it has proven that it can innovate in terms of dramatic narrative, pacing and action set-pieces, with nary a single boss fight required (we’ll try to forget Poison Ivy). Thirdly, all of these things are now going to be brought to the centre of a crime-torn Gotham City itself by a team no doubt far more confident than it was a year ago. This is going to be amazing. We’re sure of it.
2 – Mass Effect 2 (360)
Last year Mass Effect 2 was our fifth most anticipated game. A full 365 days later it’s climbed up three spots to number two. Why the bump? After a painfully brief demo at E3, we were utterly floored by the quality of not just the visuals, but also the way in which the intricate story is told. Yes there’s still reams of text to read, but it’s all relevant, and now important conversations occur while characters walk around, lean, chatter, basically behave like people in actual dialog, not stiffly animated box-people. This presentation will be copied, no doubt.
Gameplay is changing for the better as well. The clumsy inventory is totally abolished this time around, replaced with numerous storage lockers and a streamlined use-me-anywhere interface. Add in new characters, new Force pow… er, Biotic powers and another brilliantly epic sci-fi tale and there’s next to zero chance of this falling short of expectations. The first game was big, but this one looks to be… massive. Oh and it’s out in 12 days.
1 – The Last Guardian (PS3)
This one might seem like a strange choice for our absolutely most-anticipated game of the year, seeing as we know relatively little about it apart from what was revealed in its wordless, achingly adorable trailer. But we know enough to get excited: it’s from the same team that brought us Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, two of the best and most memorable experiences the PS2 had to offer. And that trailer – which was so captivating that we gave it its own award – tugs on the heartstrings so fiercely that we can only imagine how strongly we’ll get attached while playing the actual game.
Above: See? The centerpiece of it all is Trico, a gigantic “erne” (sort of like a cross between a puppy, a kitten and a towering griffon) who serves as pet, protector and transportation for the as-yet-unnamed main character, a young boy who has to fight, outwit and evade some armored soldiers who apparently have it in for him and Trico. Whatever twists it brings, however its all-too-likely tragic ending saddens us, we’re already confident we’ll be waxing nostalgic about this one for years to come.
Jan 14, 2010
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http://www.gamesradar.com/f/the-100-most-anticipated-games-of-2010/a-2010011410758359055
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GREAT LIST
Although it differs from mine, very nice nonetheless
also why did they say NSMB Wii was lackluster?! its a classic already!
& FF13 @ #7 -- ZOMG FF7 REMAKE CONFIRMED!!?!!!! 
