Brake For Frogger!

Most Wanted 2010.

So the smoke has settled on the festive period and we’re underway as far as 2010 is concerned. We could have done a section on what games we thought were best in 2009 but we decided it’s best to look forward towards what we can’t wait to get our mitts on this year. Here, in no particular order, is mine.

Bioshock 2

I’ve mentioned before of Brake For Frogger that the sequel to 2007′s first person adventure wasn’t greatly on my radar when it was first announced. I loved the original but a sequel just seemed like cash in nonsense.

Reading previews and play through write ups lately it obvious that Bioshock 2 looks to have gone beyond any cash in labels and that care has been taken in replicating one of Bioshock’s biggest assets, the sheer atmosphere of Rapture itself. The idea of taking control of a Big Daddy, the first game’s ever present threats, is an interesting one and the return of the Little Sisters should provide plenty of Adam harvesting fun. Multiplayer is apparently being farmed out to the guys who do Unreal Tournament which therefore means it’s upgraded from ‘bolt on’ to ‘fun’.

Heavy Rain

Yes, one of my most wanted games is a PS3 exclusive which will involve me buying Sony’s current gen console to be able to play it. I’ve always put off buying a PS3 for the simple reason that most of the stuff on it I could play on the 360. Heavy Rain however has got me interested because I played Quantic Dreams’ previous game Fahrenheit on the PS2.

Now Fahrenheit had some major faults, mainly the fact that it started out as a tense murder mystery and quickly became something akin to the offcuts of X-Files scripts blended together. It did however contain some original ideas as far as story telling went and how small, everyday decisions would effect the outcome. The intention always seemed to be to get as close to an interactive movie experience as possible and a good job was done with the technology of the time.

So Heavy Rain seems to build on that idea further by having an ever changing story dependant on your actions as a player. The fact that the story will continue even if one of the main characters dies is certainly a plus point and an advance on how games usually deal with such things. There’s an apparent emphasis on character’s emotions and thoughts rather than presenting them as just digital slabs of meat.

So Heavy Rain looks like a winner even if it’ll technically set me back £300 to play.

Alan Wake

Take Silent Hill and mix it with The Shining and you’ll get something similar to what Remedy are aiming for with Alan Wake. Moving on from making Max Payne the developers seem to have been at this one for a good long while as it was first announced ages ago. I liked the look of it at the time and had seriously got around to thinking it had been canned as gameplay footage has only resurfaced a short while ago.

Thankfully it’s come back on the radar and is looking all the better for its time underground. Alan Wake is a horror writer who goes to a remote town in order to finish writing his latest book. Strange things are afoot when he discovers that the creatures he writes about come to life and proceed to take over the town.

Storywise it’s probably not a great leap forward but it looks like a pretty decent upgrade on what Silent Hill did a good few years ago now. Add to this the fact that I get some smug satisfaction from the fact it was on my hit list three years ago and we’re on to a winner it would seem.