#15 – Army of Two: The 40th Day (360, PS3, PSP) – 1/12

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I’ll admit, Army of Two: The 40th Day doesn’t look spectacular, but it looks like it will offer a solid coop experience sure to make any any coop lovers (such as I) more than happy. I never played the first one; but I’ve heard it was a decent game with some great coop. I can only hope The 40th Day delivers more than that, but more awesome coop sounds good to me either way.

#14 – Lost Planet 2 (360, PS3) – 2/23

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Once again, never played the first one, but Lost Planet 2 looks like so much fun. The game is very much like the Monster Hunter games, if anyone has played them. Basically you can play with 3 of your friends, or online with strangers if that’s your type of thing, to take down gigantic creatures. Much like the game Shadow of the Colossus, it looks like much of the game will be you and your friends going “holy ****, look at that thing!” Lost Planet 2 looks like a coop blast.

#13 – Dead Rising 2 (360, PS3, PC) – Q1

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Okay I know everyone’s probably a little tired of zombies by now, as I am. But I was somewhat brought back to my love for zombies after seeing the movie Zombieland, with its “fun” take on zombies. And Dead Rising is exactly the video game version of that. What looks most exciting about Dead Rising 2, besides giving us more of the fun ride that was Dead Rising, is the multiplayer. Dead Rising 2’s multiplayer consists of many zombie mini-games to play against 3 other people in, showcased as a game show. Looks sort of Mario Party-like, and Zombie Mario Party makes me pretty excited.

#12 – Bioshock 2 (360, PS3, PC) – 2/9

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Its pretty obvious that I would have Bioshock on my list. It was one of, if not the best game of 2007, and it took everyone by surprise. What you may be wondering though is why it is so low on my list. Bioshock was an amazing game, but it was also complete. The game was such a fantastic package that it is going to be really hard to follow, and I’m sure the developers had the same reaction when asked to make a sequel. Also they game has multiplayer….really? Does it really need that? But none the less, I’m going to play the crap out of Bioshock 2 regardless, and here’s to hopes that it will deliver.

#11 – God of War III (PS3) – March

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As much as I hate to admit it, this is another game that I did not play the previous incarnations of. The first one just didn’t interest me with its mindless button mashing and the second one came out way too late in the last console generation, as 360 was already released. But after watching the demo of someone playing through God of War III at E3 this year, I’m definitely going to buy the first two games and play through all three. The things you can do just look so amazing. I don’t care if I’m just mashing buttons as long as what’s shown on screen is badass.

#10 – Red Dead Redemption (360, PS3) – 4/27

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Red Dead Redemption is the 6-years-later follow up to Rock Star’s Red Dead Revolver. The game will basically be turn-of-the-century, wild west Grand Theft Auto 4, even using the same engine. That may sound recycled, but GTAIV was a good game, so it sounds pretty awesome to me, especially since it turn-of-the-century (when industrialization is beginning) as opposed to the cowboys and Indians type of wild west that most people may be used to.

#9 – The Last Guardian (PS3) – TBA

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The Last Guardian is a game that I don’t really know much about, but what I do know makes me very excited. The game is made by Team ICO, a company who brought us the games Eco and Shadow of the Colossus, which were apparently fantastic experiences, though I haven’t played either of them. Because of those previous games, the Last Guardian has been anticipated by many people for a long time. On top of that, the graphics and story look amazing. The story appears to be about the extreme love between a boy and his eagle/squirrel monster thing. In another words its the Never Ending Story: The Game, which is awesome.

#8 – Epic Mickey (Wii) – Q3

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Epic Mickey will be epic. It may be a Wii exclusive (way to play it safe Disney…), but I’ve been waiting for a Disney game with the classic characters (Mickey, Donald, Goofy), as odd as that may seem. Castle Of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse on Sega Genesis is one of my favorite games ever. I don’t really know much about the gameplay, or anything at all, except that the concept art makes the game look like it will be beautiful and have a very unique look compared to what people would normally think of with Mickey Mouse.

#7 – Alan Wake (360) – Q2

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I hadn’t heard much about Alan Wake (except that people thought it was going to be awesome) until I saw the demo shown as E3 last year (the video I’ve linked to). But after seeing the game played on screen, I was in. From what I can tell, the story sounds like you are a famous horror writer whose fiction starts to come to life, which you must then battle. The battle mechanics seem to be a little different, where you have to shine a flashlight at enemies before shooting or doing other awesome things to kill them, as they are afraid of the light. Anyway, the story seems phenomenal and it just appears to be third person action game that’s just a little different from the rest.

#6 – Metroid: Other M (Wii) – TBA

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I used to love the old 2D Metroid games on NES, SNES, GB, and even my GBA. For some reason I never really got into the 3D ones on Gamecube/Wii, but I’ve always heard how awesome that are. The new Metroid game, Other M, will be a mixture of the two, popping in and out of 2D and 3D, which sounds absolutely awesome to me. Even if it were a 2D game with 3D graphics I’d be all in. So I’m hoping this will be a return to Metroid’s roots, but with some sweet graphics. I’ll definitely be picking up the Metroid Prime 3 pack for Wii to play through all of those before playing Other M.

#5 – Red Steel 2 (Wii) – 3/23

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The first Red Steel, a release title for the Wii, was probably one of the biggest let downs in history of me being anticipated for a game. But they got me again. Red Steel 2 claims to fix all of Red Steel’s problems and best of all they’ve fixed the sword mechanics! Red Steels big claim was “hey you can sword fit with the wiimore just like you would in real life!” but instead it just sucked. But now that Nintendo has released their Wii motion plus accessory, Ubisoft claims to take Wii motion plus to the next level, allowing more 1-to-1 motion with the sword. So in other words, sword fighting will be (hopefully) actually awesome this time.

#4 – Mass Effect 2 (360) – 1/26

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I actually just recently start playing the first Mass Effect in anticipation of the new one coming out. I had been hearing how amazing and epic the story is, with people even going to far to read the two novels after completing the game. I’m already in love with Mass Effect, and from what I’ve heard Mass Effect 2 fixes everything the first game did wrong (mostly combat, which I don’t like very much in Mass Effect). Stoked.

#3 – Heavy Rain (PS3) – 2/23

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Heavy Rain is what most people would consider an interactive movie. The experience is significantly cinematic and nearly everything you do affects the storyline (much more so than the binary “good or bad” karma that most games offer). Think the movie version of the choose-your-own-adventure Goosebumps books but extremely more interactive. The story, from what I can gather, involves you living out your normal life with your wife and son until your wife is killed and you have to deal with it and help your son deal with it. I’m sure it gets much more complex and crazy from there, though. Heavy Rain will definitely be a love it or hate it type of game, but for people looking for that type of experience will definitely want to check out this PS3 exclusive.

#2 – Splinter Cell: Conviction (360/PS3) – 2/23

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Splinter Cell: Conviction is all about a man who’s daughter gets killed and he goes rouge to find her killer, taking out anyone that comes in his way. Despite that awesome story (and sweet story transitions with no loading, as you’ll see in the video), the gameplay mechanics in this game looks ridiculous. You interrogate people, your gameplay objectives are displayed right on walls and stuff (ala: the Heroes titles), mark and execute (as you can also see in the video) which lets you kill multiple people at once super fast, your last position that the enemy thinks you are at is shown as a ghost, and Sam Fisher just jumps around like crazy with awesome stealthiness. Ooooo, watching that video just gives me goosebumps.

#1 – Final Fantasy XIII (360/PS3) – 3/09

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I don’t need to say much here. It’s a new Final Fantasy game, with voice acting again, and this time its on Xbox 360. That means achievements for Final Fantasy! I am hoping the achievements will be ridiculous so I am forced to get every ounce out of this game that I can. FFX was one of my favorite games of all time, with one of my favorite video game stories, despite how ridiculous it was. FFXII went a little weird with the MMO style combat, but FFXIII appears to be back at with random encounters where it belongs. I don’t know much about the game. But I know its a new Final Fantasy and that its on 360. That is all that matters.

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I’ve included a Google calendar with all of these games mentioned (that I have dates for) in case anyone wants to see them all in that format.

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Did I miss something? Disagree with something? Let me know in the comments!

Top Gun – iTunes link
Real Racing – iTunes link
Monster Trucks Nitro – iTunes link
3D Rollercoaster Rush – iTunes link
Touch Hockey: FS5 - iTunes link
Homerun Battle 3D – iTunes link
Tiger Woods PGA Tour by EA Sports – iTunes link
Slope Rider - iTunes link
Aqua Moto Racing - iTunes link
Finger Foos – iTunes link
2XL Supercross - iTunes link

I will be writing a review for each game as the days goes by, one game a day, starting tomorrow. I will update this page with scores and links to each review.

Family Guy: Uncensored is a game where, if you do story mode, you go through different levels where each one is a different mini-game, and you are presented with cut scenes in between each one. The game has a sort of 8-bit mixed with new-age graphics feel, which is pretty cool. The problem is that every other thing in the game sucks so bad that the graphics are the furthest thing from my mind.

The gameplay itself is absolutely atrocious. I’m pretty I’ve never played something this bad in my entire life. Each mini-game is completely different, yet each one still finds a way to make me want to kill myself before progressing in the game. I wanted to get through each level to be able to review it, but I only got through 4 out of the 7 because I simply couldn’t take any more of it. In every level, I found myself just trying to get through to the next level. And the mini-games aren’t just terrible, they’re hard; like, really hard. I almost through my phone at one point. Also, the load times are longer than any other game I’ve ever played on the iPhone. You end up spending more time loading than you do playing the game.

On top of that madness, the cut-scenes are terrible. There aren’t any fast, witty jokes or even references to anything (at least enough to make you laugh or happy about anything at all). Actually there was a cut-scene where the greased up deaf guy runs past the screen, but that was the closest to anything funny in the entire game. There are some references in the games themselves, but barely any.

Oh, and the music is TERRIBLE! It’s so bad I can’t begin to explain it. It has absolutely nothing to do

So the bottom line is that this game is the most terrible piece of crap ever made for the iPhone. And Glu Games, the company that made Deer Hunting 3D, made this game. How could they make such an epic, disasterly failure? And the game is $4.99 somehow. There is no way I’d recommend downloading this game for free, not to mention $4.99!

Oh yeah, and I’ve had this game downloaded and played on and off for about 2 weeks, maybe 3. I had to play the game in 5 minute increments to keep myself from throwing my iPhone into the blender. Going back to get the screenshots was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do in my life.

TTR is your typical music game where where circles come floating to the bottom of the screen and you must, in this case touch, the “notes” as they reach the bottom, going along to the music. It includes over 100 free songs to download, the best online play of any iPhone game to date, and tons of other features that make it stand far from its competitors. If you want to read more about TTR 2.6, read my review here.

TTR 3’s biggest new feature is it’s DLC (downloadable content). You can now buy track packs of different bands which include 2 to 6 songs for $0.99 to $2.99, and special themes for each pack. The recent iPhone 3.0 software started allowing this DLC feature, so it seems that Tapulous was just waiting to implement this as soon as they could.

The game also adds avatars that you can dress up and show off online, which I guess isn’t a bad thing, but it doesn’t add too much to the game either. I feel like that may have been them trying to grab the tween audience that play all the Facebook apps. TTR 3 also adds chat support either overall, or in each game lobby.

Weapons were also added to the new version. Certain sections of the notes are stars (star power anyone?) that you must collect to gain a weapon or shield, then you tap it to use it. This addition is actually pretty cool rather than gimmicky. The only problem I have with it is one weapon make the sound crappy, and I don’t exactly enjoy playing a music game when the music sounds crappy.

All in all TTR 3 is an awesome update/sequel and I strongly urge everyone to pick it up. The only downside of the new app is that it costs $0.99 as opposed to the last edition which was free. The reasoning for this is that an app needs to cost money in order for it to include DLC, so they made it the cheapest price it can be at $0.99. It’s still worth it.

Tap Tap Revenge 3 – $0.99 [iTunes Link]

Sportacular updated for (fantasy) football via TUAW

The game is simple, where you just tap the sheep, frog, or pig while it’s in the air to make it go higher, and if you fall to the bottom of the screen then you lose. There will be items along the way that either save you when you fall or make you go higher faster. Like I said: simple. But for some reason it’s so captivating and fun. It’s the sort of game that some people won’t be able to put down, and others will just come back to it time to time again.

Conclusion

Sheep Launcher Plus! doesn’t really have much to it, but it’s still really fun for anyone that likes high score games that you just keep coming back to. It is a definite buy for anyone in my opinion. There is a lite version for anyone that wants to check it out, but if you get good at the game then you’ll eventually see this screen:

Now what doesn’t work is that you probably aren’t going to have any Facebook friends using Aardvark, so it’s really not any use unless Aardvark gets a much larger user count. And on that note, your questions really won’t get answered as well as you would want. I never seemed to get an answer to any questions that weren’t common knowledge. But when asked who played Superman in the original movie, I immediately got results. But even if I did get answers to those non-common knowledge questions, they probably wouldn’t be researched at all. There is no moderation as far as I know.

Because of this, I really think ChaCha has a huge advantage over this app/network. ChaCha is moderated to make sure the answers are good and researched, and the answerers are paid (not much, but still paid) which gives incentive for the questions to always be answered. The only limitation is that there is no iPhone app for ChaCha (and looks like there never will be), so you are stuck using text messages, which could be bad for someone without a messaging plan (like me).

Conclusion

Aardvark is a simple, yet spot on application in terms of design, but doesn’t have a large enough user base, incentive, or moderation to keep the questions answered in a timely manner or correctly. ChaCha is without a doubt the overall better service to use if you have a messaging plan (text 242242 or chacha.com), but Aardvark is a decent app if you can’t spare those precious text messages.

In TaxiBall you use tilt to move a ball around a world where you pick up people and drop them off at other destinations. What I do like about the game is all of it’s social networking features, such having a profile that shows your stats, awards, and a friends list. What I don’t really like about the game, is just about everything else.

For some reason this game just doesn’t pull me in. The concept sounds great: a Crazy Taxi sort of game created for optimal support on the iPhone. But it’s just a little too bland for me. I feel like much of the fun of the game is probably going back through the levels and trying to get a better score. But I just don’t want to. There simply isn’t enough to make me come back. And for some reason the controls just make me angry. I don’t know what, but I just feel like the ball is constantly not doing what I want it to. Oh and you HAVE to go into the settings and recenter the “neutral position” of the ball. Otherwise when you are tilting forward you can’t even see the screen. I just feel like this default neutral position (despite being truly level) should have been optimized for a normal person without them having to go into the settings.

Conclusion

For a Word Ace and Crazy Taxi fan like me, this game still didn’t do it for me, especially not three dollars worth. As much as I want to support the Self Aware Games studio, I simply can’t recommend this for anyone. But there is a lite version for the game, so definitely check it out and see if this is the game for you.

You tilt to move your character, you tap or hold down in a direction around your character to shoot, you collect keys, and you shoot bad looking things. That’s it. And with the gameplay being all there really is to this game, it doesn’t even work. When you are trying to touch the screen to shoot in a certain direction, your finger is blocking everything you are trying to shoot; so you can’t see what you are shooting/running away from. The art style is really all there is to really like about this game. Somehow, I would even say there is less going on graphically in this then there is in Gauntlet; so there’s nothing even to look at while you’re walking around doing the same thing over and over again. I will say, the game does trying to have funny/intriguing writing on the ground; but it’s far too and between, and most of the time it’s not even that funny.

Conclusion

I wouldn’t recommend buying this game, but there is a lite version; so if you dig the art style and you have a few minute, then it may be worth you checking it out. The art style is unique, but the gameplay is bland and there is nothing to keep you coming back.

Every one of those reviews and people who put the game at top of the most popular list were correct. This gave is so freakin’ addicting and awesome. You just hop on little ledges to get as high as you can without falling down and avoiding things. That’s it. But it’s so fun to do it. And it’s my favorite type of game where you just play over and over trying to get a high score (another example would be flight control). It’s the perfect type of game for the iPhone since I generally only play games on it when I need to wait for something.

On top of this though, the game has great social integration. You can sign into Facebook, which allows you to upload your score to your Facebook profile. But more importantly, it allows you to pull your friends scores into the game. This means that you can look at a leaderboard that shows you the best global scores and also the best scores amongst your friends. And on top of THAT, the game shows you your friends (or global) scores as you pass them in the game, while playing (sort of like a ghost in a racing game). This is something that I saw in the XBLA game Trials HD and loved it. It’s a great feature to integrate into any game.

Conclusion

Doodle Jump is probably one of the most addicting games on the iPhone platform that will surely keep you coming back to it trying to beat your Facebook friends’ scores.