Remember Last Guardian?
The staff of Destructoid are a bunch of chiseled yet humble geniuses that make the world better every day through our humanitarian efforts via gaming news and features. The only flaw that canpossiblybe said about us that we aren’t psychic. Yeah, it’s a real bummer.
No where is this clearer than in looking back at our annual most wanted feature, where we list the game(s) each of us are anticipating. To be fair, the aim of these features isn’t to state our predictions for biggest commercial successes but to share our enthusiasm for upcoming titles. In any case, we were pretty on point in 2012 with most of our (admittedly safe) predictions becoming true.
With our most wanted 2013 list only a couple hours away from posting, now seems like a perfect time to reflect on our 2012 list: the ones we nailed, the ones we were horribly off point with, and the ones that never came out.
These are the games where our expectations were happily met by glowing reviews from Destructoid and other sites. Overall we were “right” about 21 out of 27 games.
What we saidin January:Prior to playing the beta, I wasn’t so sure aboutDiablo III. All these years later, could it compare to the fond memories we have of its predecessors? My doubts disappeared almost immediately. It’s funny how quick I was to forget that Blizzard takes its sweet time for a reason.
What we said inour review:Even if it’s not a perfect game, there’s something special aboutDiablo, and it’s something that keeps people playing beyond just a basic addiction to loot. That I’ve already sunk over 40 hours into the game in just over a week and I’m not even close to being bored of it yet is a testament to the magic ofDiablo, and something that can’t be ignored.[8.5]
Metacritic:
What we saidin January:Arkane Studios make the type of games I like to play. It so happens that these are the type of games that rarely get made these days. Beyond Irrational Games, Bethesda, and Valve, no developer wants to take the risk of spending years crafting a rich, varied world that you may explore. It takes time, money, and a whole lot of skill. And, finally, Arkane have all three of these, which is why I thinkDishonoredwill shape up to be one of 2012’s most memorable single-player games. That, and I was blown away when I saw it in action at QuakeCon last year.
What we saidin January:Jenova Chen, Kellee Santiago, and their studio thatgamecompany made a name for themselves with their 2009 PSN title,Flower. It was a fundamentally simple game that nonetheless elicited passionate emotional responses from players, and few (if any) other titles since have matched it in those respects.
What we said inour review:Journey’s interactive, visual, and aural elements work together, rather than fight with each other, in order to provide a flowing, seamless, influential, and utterly exhilarating experience.
This is interactive art. This is how it’s done.[9.0]
What we said inour review:I am incredibly grateful toXenoblade Chronicles, for it has rekindled my love for console JRPGs, a love that had been systematically throttled by the likes of Square Enix and tri-Ace for the past few years.[8.0]
See also:
These are the games we got horribly wrong. We aren’t gambling people for a reason. Sorry if you purchased any of these. If you did, you should have read the review first, ya dummy!
What we saidin January:This game looks like an absolute delight, and is a shoe-in first-day pickup for me. A delightfully vicious little puzzle game in which two differently sized creatures have to escape from variousSaw-like traps,Escape Planmarries intricate environmental puzzling to beautiful, stylized graphics to create something very unique looking. The protagonists, Lil and Laarg, are some of the most unusual game heroes I’ve seen in a while, and the ability to play around with them using touch controls ought to make for some remarkably tangible characters.
What we said inour review:Awful obligatory minigames aside, there’s a solid game to enjoy at the core. You’ll just have to be a really big fan to suffer through the dire moments.[6.0]
Many of our anticipated games have moved on to 2013. Even worse, some of them we haven’t heard from in a long time. Let’s check back in and see what’s going on.
What we saidin January:I haven’t watched an episode ofSouth Parkin about a year. Outside a couple episodes, it’s never held my interest (You Have 0 Friends” was the last great one). The episodes typically start off with a good premise, but then run that premise into the ground through repetition and dull writing. Yet, here I am looking forward to Obsidian’s attempt to RPG-ify the beloved brats and bring new life into Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s ever-aging lovechild.
What we saidin January:It wouldn’t be a “most anticipated PS3” list withoutThe Last Guardian, right? This game’s numerous and lengthy delays — I’ve put it on this list forthreestraightyears, now — haven’t reduced my anticipation for it at all. What does have me somewhat worried is thedeparture from Sonyof the project’s visionary director, Team Ico’s Fumito Ueda; at least he’ll finish the game, and at this point, we’re still assuming that that’ll happen this year.
Last update:They’re working on it or sowe have been told.
