Now that the year is almost done, it's time to look forward
to what we can expect in 2013.
One game that I'm really looking forward to is The Last Of
Us. It's a zombie apocalypse game, and, to be honest, I can take or leave an
apocalypse or zombies. However, the real reason I'm excited about The Last Of
Us is that the core of the game seems to be the relationship between the
protagonist (a fortysomething man who may be a military veteran) and his
charge/sidekick, a girl of about 14 he's smuggled out of a secure facility. A
pseudo-father/daughter relationship is pretty unusual for a game, and the
voice-acting, from the clips I've seen, sounds tremendous. Not only that, the
game appears extremely well-designed, the combat looks visceral and gruesome
and the zombies aren't run-of-the-mill 'BRRAAAAIIIIINNNSSS' sorts. It comes
from Naughty Dog, makers of the Uncharted games, but will strike a more
gritty/realistic note. It should come out in May 2013, and is PS3 exclusive.
In March Tomb Raider, the unhelpfully titled reboot of Lara
Croft's series, comes out for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. Miss Croft has taken
quite a spanking from Nathan Drake, so this game may mark the resurgence or
loss of a series that's been around for ages (in gaming terms). It goes back to
Lara before she was a seasoned adventurer and killer of endangered species, and
will feature a reasonable amount of survival gameplay. I can take or leave Tomb
Raider (I've probably played about three of them over the years), but the game
does look like it has potential.
A day before Tomb Raider, on 4 March, the second season of
Game of Thrones comes out on DVD/blu-ray. It's still bloody annoying to have to
wait so long, but I'll be pre-ordering this for certain. The first series was
hugely enjoyable, and the DVD extras (especially the commentaries) were
surprisingly good.
March also sees the release of God of War: Ascension. It
tells the tale, which I have a feeling includes quite a lot of violence, of how
Kratos became the Ghost of Sparta, and his betrayal by Ares. It's PS3 exclusive
and will feature the first multi-player offering of the series, although I must
admit I find multi-player gaming as tempting as multi-player colonoscopies. A
while ago I read an article indicating that Kratos would be slightly softer
than his later self, and less prone to do things like murdering women. We'll
have to wait and see if that's the case.
A possible release (Autumn 2013 is the present forecast) is
Dragon Age III: Inquisition. Origins, the first game, was very popular,
although DA2 was less so due to an obvious lack of time that led to
environments being very heavily reused and music copied and pasted a lot from
Origins. However, the Arishok was cool. Inquisition has had far more
development time, and, according to one report, a single dungeon in it is
larger than the whole of DA2. The game will take place in Orlais, and the plot
is largely guessable if you played DA2 (big civil war: sort it out). Inquisition
has a job on if it's to stand comparison with the likes of Skyrim, but it could
be a very good game.
I'm hoping that Sworn in Steel (Tales of the Kin 2) by
Douglas Hulick will be out next year. I think it was originally pencilled-in
for this year, but it got pushed back. The first book was enjoyable and
included some fascinating lore/world-building, and I've been wanting to read
the follow-up ever since.
Another possibility is the next book in the Stormlight
Archive, by Brandon Sanderson. The first book, Way of Kings, was a rather
enormous book that I absolutely raced through, and I'm hoping that we get the
second instalment this year. A word of warning, though. The Stormlight Archive
is set to be a mega-series (akin to A Song of Ice and Fire, or Wheel of Time)
so it's possible that later books might have long waits between them. However,
Mr. Sanderson's a pretty snappy writer.
Using exhaustive and cunning research techniques (I googled
it after nothing showed on Amazon) I've discovered more good news, with an
October release planned for The Ace of Skulls, the fourth book in the Tales of
the Ketty Jay series, by Chris Wooding. I really like this series. It has an
unorthodox world, with approximately Victorian/early 20th century technology
mingled with a more scientific approach to magic. There's also a great blend of
drama and humour, which can sometimes be missing from fantasy.
Incidentally, if you got an e-Reader for Christmas and want
to fill it with reasonably priced (free to $2.99) independent books, there's a
fine list here (including Bane of Souls, a sure sign the list is of high quality):
http://indiebookblogger.blogspot.co.uk/p/budget-book-buys.html
Last but not least, I hope to have Journey to Altmortis
published this year. There's still much work to be done, but, with luck, it'll
be out in the first or second quarter of 2013.
Thaddeus
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