Admittedly I’d never played a Far Cry game until Far Cry 3. In fact as far as the franchise went, I only really knew of the Far Cry game that was released on the Wii around the consoles launch, and well, it looked terrible and reviews for it backed up that opinion. So I never went out of my way to look into the series. Until Far Cry 3 was coming out. I saw images, trailers, and then gameplay footage and I was HOOKED. I desperately wanted to get the game. Around a month after it’s release I came across a pretty great deal on amazon and picked up the game for just £30! A 1 month old current gen (at the time) AAA game that was getting praised by everyone and everything. Not a bad deal! Now, for those who know me, and those who checked out my Top 10 Favourite Games list, you might not expect me to have been all that interested in this TYPE of game, as I’m usually one for platformers in the style of Mario more than anything else. However, I quickly fell in love with the game, running around, hunting wild animals, trying to figure out the best way to take down a camp of enemies etc, and just exploring the vast and beautiful Island. So with Far Cry 4 on it’s way next month, you can damn sure bet I’m hyped for it!!! From everything I’ve seen and read about the game, it doesn’t look too different to Far Cry 3, albeit with different characters and a new location. And honestly that’s why I’m looking forward to it so much. Far Cry 3 might very well be my favourite game of the last generation, which says a lot considering how much I adore the likes of Mario Galaxy 1 and 2, Star Wars The Force Unleashed and a handful of other great games. It was a damn near perfect game (lack of replayability unfortunately prevents it from being perfect), so knowing that FC4 is going to be more of the same GREATNESS that FC3 was, only with even more to do, I don’t see how anyone who loved the last game can’t be looking forward to this one!
Again, I’ll admit to not knowing anything about the Bayonetta series until recently. In fact the only reason I heard of it in the first place was because the internet went crazy with fanboys being pissed that NINTENDO had saved the franchise and would be getting a sequel exclusively on the Wii U. Oh man was that hilarious. They were upset that Bayonetta 2 was likely never gonna happen, then even more upset and ANGRY because Nintendo saved the day and it wouldn’t be released on Sony or Microsoft consoles. Since I own a Wii U (and I love love love love love it), I’m ok with that :P. So, for a game I’d never heard of before, why am I so excited for it? Simple. They released a demo last week. I downloaded it. And holy balls was I BLOWN AWAY. I didn’t know what the game even WAS, so I went in with little to no expectations, which probably helped. The demo drops you right into the action after a minute of tutorial to let you know the controls, and from there it’s crazy chaotic button mashing madness!!! But it isn’t JUST a button masher. There is some skill involved too, mainly with the dodge system, which can be tricky when you are surrounded by a few enemies and manage to dodge one attack and walk right into another lol. Then you need to have perfect timing in order to gain some slow down where time slows down for the enemies and you get a few seconds of being able to beat them senseless before they come up to speed. And there are some amazing special attacks too. A torture attack that involves you sending a poor enemy into some kind of meat grinder is my favourite. Getting combos in this game feels so satisfying too, and on my first play I was able to get over 100 hits in a single combo!!! So for first time players it won’t take you hours to get used to it, you can pick it up and play with no problems. The music that plays throughout is damn catchy, and the graphics… oh wow. I was impressed as hell with them, and I don’t even have my Wii U connected to a HDTV! This one comes out in a little over a week, and I cannot wait. Best thing about it though? There is a special edition version of the game that comes with the original Bayonetta game, complete with new controls based around the Wii U!
This is Triad Wars! A sort of spiritual successor to Sleeping Dogs (which just had a HD definitive version release btw, go buy it because it rocks), set in the same world that pits you against other gang members. Only this time it’s an online multiplayer game where the other gang members are real people from around the world!!! Build up your criminal empire in an open world sandbox game at the expense of other people. We don’t know too much about this game yet but the premise is enough to get me interested. I loved Sleeping Dogs, and while I’d love a sequel (something the developers are wanting to do, so I’m hoping we do get one), this still sounds amazing. I can’t wait to go online and rule the criminal world!!! No release date yet beyond “early 2015”.
Here’s a little game that I doubt many of you have heard about! Ha. Mario Kart 8 in May helped drive Wii U sales by a couple of MILLION, and come December 5th (or November for you lucky bastards outside the UK), I fully expect the Wii U to surge once again thanks to this game. Super Smash Bros games have been a staple of Nintendo consoles since the N64 (though the first one was originally going to be a SNES game!), though for me I’ve only ever really played Melee on the Gamecube. I tried Brawl on the Wii but didn’t care for it too much, because of how awesome Melee was in comparison. So when the announcement was made for a new SSB on the Wii U, I was kinda excited but not sure what to expect. Since then however, we’ve had developers from the game and people from Nintendo actually state that Brawl wasn’t the successor to Melee like it should have been, and they have gone out of their way to fix those problems for the new game!!! All aboard the hype train! The visuals look great, the roster looks fantastic, the music from what I’ve heard is exactly what you’d expect, and the levels we’ve seen look fantastic. But the best part of it all? GAMECUBE CONTROLLERS. Oh yes. Nintendo are releasing new Gamecube controllers for the Wii U (that atm are only going to be compatible with SSB), as well as an adapter for people who still own their original Gamecube controllers (like me!). Why am I getting so excited about being able to use the Gamecube controller, you ask? Well, it’s not that I don’t like the Wii U Gamepad, because I absolutely do… but the Gamecube controller might very well be the BEST game controller ever made. And it was part of the reason Melee worked so well too. A great game with a perfect controller. So being able to play the new SSB with the best controller ever made is just icing on the amazing cake that Nintendo have baked. GIMME!!! Ooooo, and I almost forgot… Amiibos! Still not fully sold on those figures yet, but they are going to be here for SSB and I am interested to see first hand at how they are used.
And those are the 4 upcoming games I’m most looking forward to! How come I only did a list of 4? Well, I didn’t want it to just be a massive list of all things Wii U, because aside from the 2 PC games I have on my list (FC4 and Triad Wars), there isn’t anything else I could have really put here other than Wii U games. So Splatoon, Mario Maker, Yoshi’s Woolly World and just about everything else we saw from Nintendo at E3 earlier this year were kept off the list, though I am absolutely looking forward to them all!
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