Which upcoming Xbox 360 game are you most looking forward to?
Blue Dragon
Fable 2
Forza 2
GTA 4
Halo 3
Mass Effect
Shadowrun
Two Worlds
...as of 2:00 pm (EST), Two Worlds is in dead last and Mass Effect is in 5th. WHAT?! It seems I'm one of the few who believes that one of these two games will take the Game of the Year award this year, and that baffles me. My gamer friends and I await Mass Effect like children await the end of the school year, and now I find that Halo, GTA, Blue Dragon and Fable 2 are pulling out ahead of it? I hope Mass Effect wish the second choice for everyone who voted on those other games, because this game is going to be massive! And it's gonna rock! (I hope...) My sentiments on the games (in order of which is in the lead, as of the time of this posting):
Halo 3 - I was never a big Halo fan. I hated it when I was in middle school and early high school, because it didn't offer anything novel (in my opinion). There were fewer guns than there were in Goldeneye (the first one, for N64). The character model was bland. There were no AI bots for multiplayer. There were only 10 levels (to my recollection). All-in-all, I though it was a step backwards. This leads to how I feel about Halo 3. Halo 2 was alright in multiplayer, if you had a lot of friends over. (The extra character model made it nicer, imo, but maybe that sort of stuff is only important to me. :P) Halo 3, thusly, I view as only "catching up" with what we have right now. Bungie is going to have to do a lot to make me want to buy this game, not because it's a bad game, but it just hasn't really stood out from the pack, for me (aside from it's overwhelming fanbase).
GTA IV - Alright, I'll admit it, I've played and enjoyed some GTA games, but I think the series is getting a little tired. San Andreas was enormous, and I can appreciate the time and effort the developers put into it (though they could probably sell a blank disc with the GTA label and still turn a profit). Still... how much more does the GTA series have to offer us? Look at Saints Row. Need I really say more? I just don't see what more the GTA series could show us, that we haven't already seen, to keep us coming back for more. Like George Lucas should have done with Star Wars, I think we should just let GTA fade out and appreciate what it was (and snicker at the spin-offs).
Fable 2 - Alright... I was under the impression that every had reached the concensus that Fable sucked. I thought it failed to deliver on much of what it promised (esp. 2-player coop play and the ability to turn into the Balverines) and had precious little replay value. I don't expect much more of Fable 2 and, unlike with Halo and GTA, I'm surprised anyone does.
Blue Dragon - ...you're kidding me, right? Okay, I won't knock it for being cutesy - I think Viva Piñata looks pretty fun - but what the heck?! I have even seen this thing (or don't remember it if I did) before today, when I looked it up. GameSpot sure isn't raving about it! Honestly, this looks like a Wii game. I wouldn't expect a game, with such a low standard graphically, to be coming out on the 360. Developers are playing with throwbacks right now (like Reality Pump and SouthPeak trying to bring back the top-down view). N64 graphics is not going to be a successful throwback. (Yes, I realize there are more pixel being utilized in this game, giving the scenery and character models a "smoother" look. I'm talking about fine graphical details, like we saw in the Gears of War skins.)
Mass Effect - Yay! :3 This game looks incredible. (If memory serves me correctly) you're given a map of the local supercluter. From there, you can select a galaxy. From there, a solar system, and from there, a planet (and maybe even multiple locations on each planet). If that doesn't say "big freakin' game" to you, you need to brush up on your astronomy. This game looks fantastic. It looks like Knights of the Old Republic but better. If you haven't seen the trailers or the interview with the developers, uploaded on this site, I strongly recommend checking them out (and then voting for this game on GameFAQs' poll ;P).
Forza 2 - I'm not much of a fan of racing games. From what I hear, Forza is one of the best racing games available, so I'm surprized this one isn't doing a little better in the polls.
Shadowrun - Of all the games in the poll that I believe are wrongly beating Two Worlds, this game takes the Grand-WTF-Prize. I hope the thousand some people who voted/will vote for this game are joking. Shadowrun looks STUPID. I appologize to anyone who is really looking forward to this game, but I just don't see the appeal. I guess it's combining the use of magic with FPS. Well, I hear there is another game like that, coming out, somewhat ala Unreal Tournament/Championship, that is going to focus primarily on the multiplayer aspect. If that's true, then what does this game have over that? The logical answer must be "storyline." I'll admit, I didn't read much about the storyline of this game as I haven't been keeping up-to-date with it, but lookign strictly at the character models, I know i wouldn't be able to take it seriously. The protagonists (I've seen) are a strung-out-looking human, a recovering-crack-addict elf, a midget with face paint (okay... that's kind of cool, but anyway...), and some creature that looks like the lovechild of Lucifer and the beast of Minos. Not one of those characters can I take seriously (no offense to midgets... it's the facepaint that does it), and frankly, with the exception of the midget, I'd much rather be shooting them all. Someone might be tempted to say that the characters shouldn't matter as long as the game is fun. Well, I appologize to anyone who may feel that way and I pity you, because you're telling me that it would be just as fun to play with (or as) a block of wood. Anyone who pays attention will realize that literature, film and videogame storylines are all becoming progessively more character driven, because lo-and-behold, it's more entertaining that way. (GoW, for example, is subtly character-driven. As are Rainbow Six and GRAW, and probably the best example, Splinter Cell.) If this game gets anything about a 7.0 on GameSpot (whose reviewers seem to have gotten more liberal in handing out points these days), I will be truly amazed. The idea of FPS + wizardy is unmistakably novel, but novelty alone doesn't make a videogame. Sorry FASA.
Two Worlds - ...you all make me sad. Ye of little faith. Has everyone already condemned this game to fail, just because we already have a series like it (Elder Scrolls)? I don't see anyone pooh-poohing Blue Dragon, although we already have a game like it (every turn-based RPG)! This game looks like is going to be Oblivion online. 8-players in a free-roaming RPG... that's not novel, that's just doing what every free-roaming game player has wanted for a long time. Not only do I hope this game rules, I hope it beats Oblivion (in sales), not because I didn't like Oblivion (quite the contrary), but because I would love to see Bethesda have a rivalry, forcing both companies to give their best efforts to their free-roam games. Two Worlds > your house.
All together, here's how I would have ranked the games, in order of how interested I am in their release.
1) Two Worlds
2) Mass Effect (a very, very close second)
3) Halo 3
4) GTA IV
5) Forza (it can be fun to watch others play and design cars)
6) Fable 2
7) Blue Dragon
8] Shadowrun