Top Ten Pretenders To Modern Warfare 2's Throne

Infinity Ward's shooter, aka 'best thing ever™' is finally with us, and for the overwhelming majority, the game would appear to be worth the wait. But among the current crop of ‘next big things’ in games, which titles have the potential to inspire similar levels of sheer fanaticism? Which franchises have the clout to match the furore, sales and sheer launch panic of Infinity Ward’s record-breaking sequel? NG games editor Dan Howdle and myself put our heads together to come up with the top ten contenders...

Fable 3
Most platform exclusives will have their work cut out attempting to emulate Modern Warfare 2’s mass hysteria, and as a result most of the titles on our list are multi-format. But if there’s any big franchise sequel likely to pique the general public’s interest next year, it’s Lionhead’s third Fable game. The premise itself is relatively intriguing, with the game enabling players to rule a kingdom in a much more ‘hands-on’ role than other real time strategies/god sims/role-playing games, but it’s the recent confirmation of motion-control elements courtesy of Project Natal that will provide that ‘must-have’ factor for casual and core gamers alike, guaranteeing game sales and column inches alike. With any luck Molyneux and co. will have the sense to include Natal-powered throne-sitting, crown balancing and peasant-baiting mini-games.
TH

Half Life 2: Episode 3
It’s as yet unclear as to whether Valve is going to release the next stage in the franchise as another piece in the Half-Life 2 series, or whether it’s time to put the whole episodic episode behind them. We can’t knock the quality of the games, but we do wish that Valve would finally bite the bullet and release a clearly labeled sequel. Outside of Star Wars, we can’t think of any other IP in which an episode appears once every three years, but at least with Half-Life, when it finally does, it doesn’t feel like it creator is sadistically chafing your childhood with a worn Brillo. Whatever Valve is concocting, episodic or otherwise it’s going to rock your socks off, of that we can be – reasonably – certain.
DH

Metal Gear Solid: Rising
Not a huge shock, but certainly welcome news was Hideo Kojima’s announcement at this year’s E3 of a new game set in the Metal Gear universe. With the huge level of original praise for MGS4: Guns of the Patriots now lost amid debate over the excessive use of cut-scenes and the death of the Japanese games industry, team Kojima will have a potentially massive point to prove. Although the man himself claims he’ll be less hands-on with Rising, we won’t be surprised if he finishes off MGS spin-off Peace Walker, moves to Hollywood to direct a 5-hour, 3D Solid Snake movie, then splices the footage into a perpetual stealth-based MMO using motion-control tech.
TH

Final Fantasy XIII
In every genre, there are elements which are specifically synonymous and as a result, usually highly accomplished. In JRPG’s it’s cropped waistcoats worn by effeminate pubescent amnesiac ladyboys. To be frank, we’re bored of this approach and bless Square-Enix, it appears that they are too. Final Fantasy XIII has a far more adult appearance; one which reminds us of our own pick for best sprawling Japanese epic of this generation; Lost Odyssey. Conversely, the developer is bringing back a very traditional turn-based battle system, a move of which we heartily approve because to be quite honest, as great as the game’s predecessor was, gambits were nonsense. Only Square-Enix would dare invent a battle system that has no player involvement whatsoever, but that daring has a habit of paying off from time to time.
DH

GTAV
It’s a million miles away we reckon, and while those cheeky chappies at Rockstar certainly wouldn’t tell us if they’d started working on a follow-up to GTAIV/Episodes From Liberty City, (our guess is they almost certainly have) they do like to tease us so. As such the EFLC manual had an unexplained reference to a possible sequel - ‘Liberty City. It’s Over! Next Stop’… followed by a torn piece of artwork looking like an old school postcard of a mountain range, and some text that reads ‘Seagull Theatre’. Either Rockstar is going for a new game set in neutral Switzerland, it’s a reference to a new skiing-themed GTA spin-off (hotwire the chairlift!) or a massive red-herring. With the studio’s common touch and marketing skill, even a combination of all three would sell millions.
TH

Red Dead Redemption
Rockstar will hate us for saying this – in fact, we can almost hear the telephone lines vibrating as their inevitable call approaches – but we’ve always wanted a GTA game set in the wild west. Of course, there’s much more to Red Dead Redemption than that and the two games are vastly disparate, but since GTA is the archetypal sandbox benchmark, Red Dead Redemption is a sandbox western and both games are by the same developer – albeit different teams – the two have to belong somewhere together in the same sentence. Of course, one thing Rockstar do insanely well and that is already apparent from the limited trailers available is believable characters. Gung-ho heroes and loveable rogues abound. Dare we say the game has an almost Coen brothers feel to it. Red Dead Redemption is one to watch and could well be the one truly great western that gaming has never had.
DH

Halo Reach
Okay, so ODST was something of a disappointment for anybody not adorned in Master Chief tattoos, but Reach could be the game to pick up Halo 3’s mantle to realistically become the biggest game of all time – especially if the recently-rumoured return of the green, helmeted one (er, the Chief) turns out to be true. It would be quite the feat on just the one platform, but then again it’s a direct follow-up to Halo 3; not only the biggest selling game of 2007, but the game which made $170 million in its first day on sale (breaking the record for any entertainment product, previously held by Halo 2) and shifted 8.1 million copies in it’s first three months on sale. If any game can replicate Modern Warfare 2’s thunder/hype/sales it’s Halo. We just might have to wait 18 months for proof, though.
TH

The Last Guardian
There are games that are big when it comes to sales, there are games that are critically acclaimed. Sometimes the two go together, sometimes not. Games which offer an empty experience comprised of the reclaimed meat from whatever cinematic cashcow happens to be coaxing the nation’s youth to its dumb, worthless teat tend to sell well despite the inevitable critical drubbing it receives because… well, because it has shiny robots on the cover. Conversely artful and innovative games like Ico, Shadow Of The Colossus and Okami tend to fare less well on account of… well, not having shiny robots on the cover and therefore being unable to remind simpletons of the tawdry, throwaway experience they once had in a cinema seat while chugging their girlfriend’s weight in popcorn along with a diet coke and its accompanying lost irony. Which is all a very long way of saying that The Last Guardian is breathtaking and easily one of our more anticipated games of next year. Which automatically means that Fumito Ueda’s mum might buy a copy, but probably no one else.
DH

Fallout: New Vegas
Here’s the maths - the popularity of the United States’ hedonism capital, multiplied by the number of people desperate for new post-apocalyptic RPG content (think Fallout DLC) equals an incalculably massive level of demand for the under-wraps follow-up to Fallout 3. Not a direct sequel, but also not a spin-off like a Brotherhood of Steel, Bethesda has promised that the Obsidian-developed game will follow along the same lines as it’s predecessor, but offer some additional ideas. If the environment is anything to go by we’re guessing gambling, go-go dancers and penthouse suites. And gaudy facsimiles of global historical monuments. We should see something on it soon, as it’s out in June.
TH

Mass Effect 2
Mass Effecting, across the universe, on the starship Normandy, 40 years from Earth. That’s the song we sing to ourselves every day since the release of Mass Effect. It had a profound effect on us. Here’s a game developer who has finally struggled free of the bonds of the Star Wars license and gone on and done what it does best; an RPG that’s a bit like Star Wars. All kidding aside, January next year can’t come soon enough and such is our excitement for Mass Effect 2, that we’re already feeling slightly maudlin when dwelling on its imminent arrival. The sooner it comes, the sooner we’ll have finished it and one of the small true joys of our lives will once again be over for at least another fortyear. We reckon this might be because secretly, we’d quite like to BE Shepherd and live the rest of our lives as a Spectre. There’s only two ways that’ll happen of course; either playing the game over and over ‘til we die, or turning clinically insane. Neither would actually be that bad.
DH