Critical Rockets most anticipated games of 2013

It's still the early days of 2013.  Post apocalypse and here we are still scratching a living out on this wretched world and really the only way to make time pass us by a little quicker is the collection and playing of awesome videogames!

So like last year I thought I would copy bigger budget professional sites by having my own list of games I really want to play in 2013.

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the white witch - February 1st

Sure it sounds like a lost Narnia tale with the white witch thing, but honestly this title looks amazing for a PS3 exclusive.  The gameplay is part Pokemon part Tales, with you gathering familiars, levelling them up and even evolving them.  The Tales part comes from the deep combat system and character progression.  The art and story are by Studio Ghibli who traditionally create anime films inspired by certain moral messages.

I am really looking forward to this because of the inner pokemon trainer in me and also to play a proper character driven JRPG, instead of the now bog standard emo angst characters we have to suffer in the likes of Final Fantasy and it's spin-offs.  The story of an orphan boy who recently lost his mother, now taken to a paralell kingdom to help save someone who likes strikingly similar to his dead mother is more heartwarming really, and actually gives us a character we can care about.  Ni No Kuni is released this February so pick it up if you are mad keen on JRPG games, this is one not to miss.

Fist of the North Star Ken's Rage 2 - February 1st


No anime is more manly than Fist of the North Star and no game is more manly than Ken's Rage 2.  Building on the mechanics of the original Ken's Rage, the gameplay has been sped up to match the other warriors titles released by Koei, while the game now adds more than double the number of playable characters.  The story goes past the Ken-Oh saga and covers more ground in all areas and the character progression system has been vastly improved overall.

When this arrives on February 1st I am going to miss posting here for a few days while I burn my way through the wastelands with Hokuto Shinken. 

Dead Space 3 - February 8th

This game has had a fair bit of stick from fans over the last year or so.  The addition of cooperative play and universal ammo have turned some players off, while the move away from the claustrophobic internals of a massive mining ship has alienated others.  I on the other hand look forward to marching around the frozen setting of DS3 with my brother and slicing some necromorphs into two or three of however many pieces it takes.

The psychotic episodes that players can have sound interesting when you play co-op and the dynamic between the characters sounds fun.  It probably won't be very scary but honestly survival horrors as we knew are a fading genre and how long could Dead Space keeps rehashing the same environment and theme before people complained about that?

Aliens Colonial Marines - 12th February

Gearbox software have been dragging this one out for quite some time now and I am willing to take a risk here with Aliens Colonial Marines.  The idea of four player co-op surviving waves of Xenomorphs on LV426 is too much of a nerd gaming moment to pass up.  This could be another Duke Nuken Forever, but if it has Pulse rifles and motion scanners it's pretty hard to pass up.

The story is probably the most interesting aspect seeing as the colony was nuked in Aliens, so how Gearbox have written in a partially intact colony will be interesting to see and how this story will fit within the greater Aliens mythology remains to be seen.  Man my February is going to be full of gaming.

Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 - March 8th

My first game of March and it's a big one for anime fighting fans.  The next true sequel of the series after Generations, Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 will focus on the Ninja war arc currently raging in the anime and Manga versions of the show.  Along with tonnes of new characters bringing the total to over 80, we will have dynasty warriors style combat sections against multiple foes and the return of those epic QTE battle sections.

The game is going to be epic for fans of the show and give me one of my biggest tournaments ever in gaming history.  It will be interesting to see what they do with the ending to this game seeing as the end of the war will mark the end of the series for now, making a fourth game a tough sell in the future.  Still this will be one of my top games this year, simply for the story battles and the gorgeously animated visuals.

The Last of us - April - June

This title really intrigues me.  Developed by Naughty Dog who are more famous for Uncharted and it's brand of action adventure, The last of us is a decidely darker tale set in a horrific future where a fungal spore has turned a large amount of the human population into psychotic monsters, while the remainder of humanity eke out an existence within walled cities.  The story involves a young girl named Ellie who is being escorted by Joel a blackmarketeer out of the confines of the militaristic safe zone and into the wild overgrown world beyond.

A lot of the details are still to be filled in storywise, but we know that the game will feature cover shooting and stealth with an emphasis on stealth.  Levels will be dynamic in the way you use stealth, where entire conflicts can be missed by sneaking past them, or new situations can arise because of your actions.  This is certainly one to watch.

Total War Rome II - December 2013

This is definitely the biggest launch for me this year, although more likely to slip into 2014 given the date of release.  Rome Total war is arguably the best of the series to date so Creative Assembly really have a lot to live upto here.  From what we know the game will feature new siege battles now involving huge city battles and city defences.  Beach landings with the newly added naval warships (something that was absent in the original game) and a deep family political system that see's your roman family members playing the political game to rise through the halls of power and into the senate proper.

This along with Warhammer total war will be gaming death for me as I will likely forget to eat when they come out.  Total war is one of the best strategy series to date and it's great to see them returning to the best setting for a total war game this year.

Well that's it for my most anticipated games.  Sure there will be others I buy as they fall in price or are on special offer.  I will probably get Dynasty warriors 7 empires and run through games like God of war ascension, but these just didn't have the same impact on me as those above.  Tomorrow I will be doing something a little different for a gaming site and that is my least anticipated games of 2013.  A list of those games I would prefer didn't arrive or need a break before releasing another sequel.