In the first part of our look at some of the most highly anticipated games of 2012 we brought you everything from Tomb Raider to Metal Gear and we even threw in some Final Fantasy for good measure! Now in our second part we take a look at an MMORPG that looks set to turn the multi-billion dollar industry on its head and we take a look at the first non-Bungee game from the Halo series…all that and a heap more!
So here is the conclusion of our two part feature…
Borderlands 2
Release date: July 30th
Platform: Xbox 360, PS3, Microsoft Windows
It surprised us by taking the look of cell shaded games and turning it’s on its head! No you won’t find any cute talking boats or beautiful joes here…Borderlands was badass to the core, we loaded our gun and prepared to hunt down a long lost treasure!
Set five years after the events of the first game Borderlands two introduces many new elements and characters to the popular series. Firstly we’re greeted by four new characters, with only two revealed so far – Salvador and Maya, battling for glory and riches in a tournament to the death, your character will face off against Handsome Jack, an unscrupulous character who claimed the glory of the Eridian Vault for himself and now seeks to remake Pandora in his image.
After his betrayal the mysterious Guardian Angel appears only to charge you with a single purpose… Kill Handsome Jack!
The game will play a lot like the original, a first person shooter with role-playing elements (levelling and skill trees) thrown in for good measure, there will also be a wide arsenal of weapons at your disposal but the AI in the game has gotten a bit of a makeover! According to developers enemies will be smarter, work to bring you down and realise that a few bullet holes might mean they need to take some cover and heal up!
Our trigger happy finger is gunning for a fight…roll on July!
Street Fighter x Tekken 
Release date: March 9th
Platform: Xbox 360, PS3, PS Vita, Microsoft Windows
They’ve kicked the crap out of Wolverine, they’ve beaten Spiderman black and blue and they’ve even brought down the all powerful Phoenix so moving swiftly on to the next world, the Street Fighter crowd have set their sights on the world of Tekken.
Some folk are a little confused about the game so here is the breakdown – both Capcom and Namco have been involved in the project but Capcom have developed this game and it will be based on their traditional style of 2D gaming to help compliment their projectile system. Namco are also developing their own game ‘Tekken x Street Fighter’ and this version will be more true to the traditional 3D arena style gaming that Tekken fans will be more used to but it won’t be seeing a release until 2013!
Characters confirmed on both sides include Chun Li, Guile, Ryu, Sagat, Xiaoyu, Kazuya, Nina and Yoshimitsu!
The game will also feature a storyline mode to help explain why these two worlds have collided but in all honesty…we just want to kick some ass!
Bioshock Infinite
Release date: June 1st
Platform: Xbox 360, PS3, Microsoft Windows
You may not remember but one of the first articles ever published on the arcade website was a series overview of the wonderfully dark and terrifying Bioshock games. We have been serious fans of the franchise since day one and with only six months before Bioshock Infinite falls into our little gamer clutches we can honestly say that this is definitely our most anticipated game of 2012!
The game will play a lot like its predecessors, a first person shooter but once more with elements from role-playing games added in. Players take on the role of Booker DeWitt, a former Pinkerton Agent now tasked by a mysterious client to track down a missing woman called Elizabeth who they’ve tracked to the floating city of Columbia.
Once marvelled as the height of American achievement Columbia soon sank into corruption and was abandoned by the nation who lifted it into the skies. Launched in 1900, the city, now twelve years old has fallen into disarray torn apart by civil war and two rival factions, the Founders and the Vox Populi, both of whom seek the power held by Elizabeth but both for very different reasons!
Is it June 1st yet?
Editor-in-Chief, part-time super villain and hoarder of cats. If you can’t find me writing, I’m probably in the kitchen!
Halo 4
Release date: TBC
Platform: Xbox 360
All we know so far is that Halo 4 is not being developed by Bungie, the groundbreaking team behind the massively successful franchise but instead the reins have been handed over to 343 Industries who are currently in control of the Halo servers and were the folk behind the Halo Waypoint system.
Other than that we’re aware Halo 4 is set directly after Halo 3 (fancy that?) and players will once more take control of Master Chief John-117 and Cortana who find themselves adrift in space on the UNSC frigate near a former Forerunner planet and that is about as much as we know so far!
According to the developers and writers, Halo 4/5/6 will play and feel a lot differently than to what traditional Halo fans will be used to, guns will be needed of course but the focus now is on exploration and unravelling a forgotten mystery than fighting for survival… that sure sounds interesting but we’re going to remain somewhat sceptical until we can find out more! Halo 4 has been pegged for a Christmas release in 2012.
Diablo III
Release date: 1st Quarter 2012
Platform: Microsoft Windows, MAC
From Blizzard Entertainment comes the third instalment in the online MMORPG, Diablo III and rather than annoying you with more writing we’re just going to show you why we’re so flippin’ excited about this release…
Editor-in-Chief, part-time super villain and hoarder of cats. If you can’t find me writing, I’m probably in the kitchen!
