100. Nintendo Direct

If you want to express how you feel about a certain company or product, then always do a GIF through the Simpsons. This is exactly how fans around the world feel, whenever Nintendo announces a new Nintendo Direct. Granted that they have certain games or products which are cool, but it’s nothing fresh or ground breaking, and fans are just anxious for something new. While we wait for Nintendo to announce anything worthwhile, let’s all board the hype train.

Of all the changes our industry has undergone as of late, the free to play model is arguably the most exciting and helpful for the consumer. Offering free games with sustainable economies that are actually of a decent quality is an absolute revelation, and it’s a system that we hope will only go from strength to strength. It’s not all sunshine and roses mind, with plenty of games being priced as free for very obvious reasons.

For every one of these stinkers though, we have a League of Legends or Team Fortress 2, so with that in mind, here are the F2P shooters of the future that will hopefully be rocking your socks rather than your wallets.

Thus we retreat into our more negative sides to tackle ten upcoming games that are unlikely to be making that elusive release window any time this year. We’ve got ten of them for you to ogle and pine for, as they aren’t getting here any time soon.

For more interesting top 10 lists and features, please click here. What games do you think will miss out the 2013 calendar? Do you agree with our list? Let us know in the comments section below.

Stay tuned to GamingBolt.com for more news and updates.

2012 has been a bit of a mixed bag. We did get a few good releases for the Wii, and the system sold pretty well too, and there were no real setbacks to speak of. But it wasn’t the Wii we were focusing on these past few months. Even though the Wii U released only a few weeks back, it has been the focal point of the year, as far as Nintendo is concerned.

But to keep this article from getting too incoherent and messy, let’s talk about them one-by-0ne.

Wii

You haven’t forgotten about this little console, have you?

Surprisingly, despite being in what is clearly the last year of its life cycle, the Wii received a decent number of great games. After its much awaited European release in 2011, Xenoblade Chronicles finally saw the light of the day in North America this year.

The other two Wii titles that people wanted to see released on the west got launched as well. The Last Story was an absolutely delightful RPG, with a great story and addictive gameplay that reminded us just how wonderfil Japanese Role Playing Games can be. The game was almost as good as Xenoblade Chronicles, in some respects, and in many ways, the highlight of the Wii’s year.

Pandora’s Tower, on the other hand, was a tad bit disappointing. While we appreciated its story and the emotional connection it could have with its players, we called Pandora’s Tower a “a clunky, uninspired generic dungeon crawler that shows on occasion a flicker of genius.” Well, two for three, Nintendo, not bad.

Rhythm Heaven Fever was a pleasant surprise. Anyone who played the DS game knew what to expect- an extremely enjoyable music games with an abundance of variety in mini-games. And that is exactly what we got.

Other titles like Mario Party 9, Just Dance 4 and Skylanders Giants kept the system going for the rest of the year. It didn’t exactly had the best year, and there weren’t a whole bunch of major releases to speak of, but there were a few great launches, and anyone who owns a Wii cannot really say they had a bad year in video games.

However, needless to say, 2013 looks bleak for the Nintendo Wii. There’s absolutely no future for this system now- this much can be said without any reservations. The next gen Nintendo console is out now and will be entering full gear soon, and Nintendo and the third parties- the ones that are supporting the system- will be focusing completely on the Wii U now.

Sure, we will get to see a few forgettable, shovelware, casual releases on the Wii in 2013, but there’s nothing for serious gamers to look forward to starting January 1st. Actually, starting now.

Overall Performance: B-

Wii U

The Wii U received a crapload of hype throughout the year, and a lot was expected of it, but when it finally got launched, things didn’t go quite as Nintendo had planned. There was a shortage of stocks, there were tons of technical issues and glitches found in the console, it was being reported that the system was technically crippled and that it delivered titles with poor graphics. Some people are going as far as saying that the Wii U is not even a next gen system. Now that particular statement is something Nintendo should be used to, but still, that’s harsh.

Not all went wrong though. The Wii U received a few great games on launch, and three of those were especially awesome. ZombiU was a hugely anticipated titles, and we can gladly say that it delivered on our front. Not only did it get a highly positive review from us, it also won our Wii/Wii U Game of the Year award. ZombiU was an excellent game in an excellent, bleak setting, with incredibly challenging difficulty and truly spooky, creepy moments that stick with you for a long time.

On the brighter side of the things (visually), New Super Mario Bros. U was an excellent title, as is always expected of New Super Mario Bros. games. It was a typically hilarious, enjoyable and incredulously addictive title that spearheaded the Wii U launch lineup and showed us all why Mario games are still great in side scrolling 2D format.

Nintendo Land also grabbed our attention. We didn’t expect it to be good at all when it was announced back at E3 in the awful Nintendo conference. And while it may not have been to the Wii U what Wii Sports was to the Wii, it was still a hell of a game, enough to provide countless hours of joy while showing off many of the Wii U’s capabilities.

There were other remarkable titles as well- Batman: Arkham City: Armoured Edition,Assassin’s Creed III, Darksiders II, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, Scribblenauts Unlimited and Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge, which was surprisingly good. It was certainly much better than the original, crappy version of Ninja Gaiden 3.

So 2012 seems to have given the Wii U as reasonably good start, since the system does have games to go on, is selling well and has plenty of features to back its price. But 2013 looks to be a much better year for it.

The new home console has got games like Aliens: Colonial Marines, Rayman Legends, Injustice, LEGO City Undercover, Pikmin 3 and The Wonderful 101 and so much more coming our way, and we can all safely assume that Nintendo will be making a lot of huge announcements. Hopefully we’ll be hearing about the next Mario, Zelda and Metroid games soon, and maybe all new F-Zero and Star Fox titles (one can always hope).

So the future does look good for Nintendo’s new console. Will our prediction be accurate, though? Only time will tell.

Overall Performance: B

Of course, we don’t know that yet. We do know that Sony and Microsoft are both working on their next generation home consoles, but at the same time, they haven’t made any such announcements so far. Release date speculations have been rife for both systems, and most of them have the systems landing at the end of the year, but there’s no official word on anything yet. The two consoles have not even officially been announced.

However, it’s only logical that they do come out in the fourth quarter of 2013. Why? Because first and foremost, the Wii U is already out. If the PS4 and the Xbox 720 do come out by that time, the Wii U will have had a 12 month headstart on them, and if they wait longer, the headstart will have increased. And they don’t want that, especially when they’re going up against Nintendo.

Also, the PS4 and the Xbox 720 have been in development for a few years now, and the Xbox 360 and the PS3 are clearly nearing the last stages of their lives. Sure, they still get great games, but they’re both over half a decade old, and that kind of hardware doesn’t have much of a place in the market anymore. Developers have squeezed out every last drop of juice out of the two, and there’s very little the two HD consoles can provide anymore- creatively or technically.

Could next gen games look like this?

So it’s logical for MS and Sony to announce and reveal their new consoles as quickly as possible. They don’t want to rush it though. People shouldn’t have a lot of worries about Microsoft, but Sony has recently become very lax when it comes to advertising and marketing their products. If there’s one thing a console does not need, it’s poor marketing.

The PS4 and the Xbox 720 should be announced something before March, because that would give the two publishers enough time to market the systems and their launch titles properly before they release later in the year, which they ideally should (as I said before).

But what would the launch lineups be? We’ve already seen with the Wii U that fans want more than just ports and limited editions of games that have already been released. Can we expect maybe a Halo 2 remake for the Xbox 720? Or a new Forza game, seeing as it is, after all, an annual franchise. We already know developers such as Rare are working on major AAA titles for the Xbox 720.

And what about the PS4? I can completely see The Last Guardian becoming a launch title for it, seeing as it’s taken forever to come out for the PS3. But I don’t think Sony will be going all out with the PS4 to begin with. Remember when the PS3 was released? Sony still supported the PS2 for a few months after that with some heavyweight releases.

And we could always expect motion controller games for both, since we’re all pretty sure that if there’s one thing Microsoft will include in the next Xbox for certainty, it will be an enhanced version of Kinect. What about the PS4 though? We have no idea what kind of controller input it will use. The PS Move has been pretty successful, but we don’t know if it’s been successful enough for Sony to use it as their main controller in the next generation. Maybe a finetuned, slightly tweaked version of the motion controllers? Recent patents suggest so.

But of course, we shouldn’t forget about the console that kicked off the ninth console generation- the Wii U. Nintendo’s new system had a few problems at launch, but it’s been selling well, and some of its games, such as Nintendo Land, New Super Mario Bros. U and ZombiU have managed to grab plenty of attention. But will Nintendo’s new system have a better year come January 1st?

If Nintendo’s record in the console market in the last decade is anything to go by, then no. But Nintendo’s really been going from strength to strength recently. They’ve been performing strongly in the handheld market as usual, and the console side of things is looking good too. Titles such as The Wonderful 101, Bayonetta 2, Pikmin 3, Dragon Quest X and Rayman Legends are all coming out exclusively for the Wii U in 2013, and multiplats like Aliens: Colonial Marines are lined up as well. Maybe we could have a new Zelda announcement too. And a Metroid one. Please, Nintendo, a Metroid one!

Yeah, but not like this, Nintendo.

2012 was a transitional year in gaming. It’s been described as that by many people, us included. And 2013 seems to be a startup year for the next generation, the year when the foundation is put in position for the next six or seven years to build on. It doesn’t seem logical that Sony and Microsoft would wait more than twelve months (ideally, not even that much) to release their consoles after the Wii U has already launched, so here’s hoping that we might get to see some actual next generation games in 2013.

Why? Don’t ask that. Ask, why not? Who loves sub-20 fps framerates anyway? While consoles may have some good exclusives, ultimately some people care more about games running at a good visual fidelity and having solid performance.

This year has been good for PC gaming. We saw a lot of MMOs, and quality ones at that, like Planetside 2 and Guild Wars 2. These MMOs provided hours and hours of excellent gameplay and were easily comparable to big budget AAA games.

Let’s talk a bit about the PC exclusives that were released earlier this year–Diablo 3 and Torchlight 2–both these games are quite similar in their approach and design, one has a higher production value while the other provides a lot more content and is less ambitious when you think about the overall budget. They are priced appropriately too, however, Diablo 3 underwent a lot of criticsm from everyone due to its always-online nature even to play the single-player portion.

It was a good game but certainly not comparable to its illustrious predecessors which are still being played today, well, at least Diablo 2. If you want to know more about the problems that plagued Diablo 2’s launch you can read our editorial here, which was quite vitriolic in nature and written by yours truly.

While most third-party games are available on the PC, some of them like Dragon’s Dogma do not make it, and there was a rumor recently that the PC version was on the cards but was proved wrong. However, we have plenty of games like Resident Evil 6 and Borderlands 2 which made a mark on the platform offering great graphics, while the former bombed, the latter made it as one of the most critically and commercially successful games of all time.

There were also indie games that made their mark this year, and we personally loved like Of Orcs and Men, Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams, Sine Mora, Awesomenauts and much more. There were also games like Dark Souls which finally made to the platform after a long time, and it’s something people were also clamouring for. The port was poor but the PC wizards did their magic on it and made it one of the best ever, with high resolution, framerates and much more.

There were also games like Sleeping Dogs which received a high resolution texture pack on PC and also games like Assassin’s Creed 3 which really shined on the platform. We loved both the games and scored them really highly. Overall it was the year of MMOs and unique games on Steam that not only dazzled gamers but also made them excited as to what’s to come next year on the platform.

In 2013, there will be a lot of games like Crysis 3 and Bioshock Infinite, which will no doubt look and run the best on PC, and we will also have games that will be exclusive to the platform, which not only includes new MMOs but the ones from Kickstarter as well.

There’s a lot to look forward to on the PC next year, but one thing is for certain, when the next generation consoles do get announced including their specs showcased, the PC will be ready for them with its GTX 680 and quad core CPUs, to handle whatever third-party games the developers have to throw at it. Maybe, the consoles could blow it away, which would make next generation a highly competitive one.

Overall Performance: B+

However, when the system came out in February there was a lot of hype considering it’s a Sony product and it’s also something that looks absolutely stunning with the 5 inch OLED screen making games look much better than they are.

However, only a few games really took advantage of the hardware and some of them looked great simply due to the art design. We reviewed the system extensively during launch covering the hardware to games and also plenty of editorials and stuff.

The hardware itself was quite amazing as reviewed by yours truly. I gave the hardware an 8.5/10 and mentioned that it had a lot of potential.

“The PlayStation Vita is an amazing hardware. You will actually be surprised when you hold the thing, and get immersed in that beautiful OLED screen. The Vita is a must own system, if you like portable console experiences on the go with great network features.”

So let’s talk about the games, shall we, the weak point in the system’s arsenal. There is a growing concern that third-parties are going to ditch the system due to its low sales and that’s a perfectly acceptable concern because it’s even selling poorly in the Japanese market.

Two of the notable games we’ve had for the system in 2012 were Gravity Daze and Persona 4 Golden which is sort of an enhanced version of an old game with jazzed up visuals and extra content. Gravity Daze was an awesome game and we praised it a lot in our review.

“Gravity Rush is a killer app for the Vita; one that not only oozes a lot of charm and creativity, but also provides some much-needed diversion for people who own the system,” I wrote. It does seem like it has been a long time since I have written that considering I hardly pick up the system anymore.

Here are the great Vita games we’ve reviewed on GamingBolt so far. Uncharted: Golden Abyss was a solid title from Sony Bend but what was Naughty Dog doing instead of supporting the system? Bend did a great job but the game was inconsistent as a whole with some input lag in the analogue sticks.

Here are the other launch titles for the system so far, and most of them were pretty average games. The sad part was that good games like Assassin’s Creed: Liberation didn’t get much exposure due to the low sales and a great third party effort like that should have been rewarded by people. Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified turned out to be a pretty bad game when you look at the reviews but we didn’t review it.

There were other games like Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, Everybody’s Golf, ModNation Racers: Road Trip, Little Deviants, WipEout 2048, and while the last game was great, the launch line-up was pretty poor overall when it comes to quality.

So what else? We also had Unit 13 which was a great game but a bit generic too considering its Zipper we are talking about here. It was fun to play but could have been much better considering the foundation was solid.

Metal Gear Solid HD Collection was something that was a really quality title for the system, with tons of replaybility and value for money. Metal Gear Solid 3 looks as awesome as ever and runs quite great too.

There are a lot of itsy bitsy titles, including a massive one in Persona 4 Golden but we didn’t get a chance to review that yet. Overall it was a forgettable year for the Vita owner but hopefully we can see great games released in 2013.

Soul Sacrifice from Keiji Inafune looks pretty great and considering the recent Monster Hunter delay in Japan, we can’t quite understand whether Capcom is giving this game a chance to perform well commercially or not.

It is really vital for Sony to turn the ship around considering plenty of developers are shunning the Vita and it is also vital for them to drop the price of the system and bring it down to mass market price point because people have shown that they simply don’t care about dedicated hardware consoles any more and to tempt then a price drop is a must.

It worked for the 3DS and it could work for the Vita before, people forget about the whole handheld, oh and games are required too.

Overall Performance: C-

The third parties have delivered as usual and the quality of all their ports have been fantastic, too, except Black Ops 2 maybe… but that’s not the point here; it looks like Sony has been trying out a different strategy this year by appealing to the casual market instead of the core that they usually do.

Did it work out for them? Not really. The sales of Playstation All-Stars and Wonderbook in the Europe have been abysmal, and as you can see by clicking on the links, our reviews have been middling at best, although, we found some potential in Wonderbook. The entire year was a pretty drab affair for the PS3, with first-party games like Starhawk and Twisted Metal underperforming sales-wise.

Starhawk is far from the amazing game that was Warhawk. Twisted Metal, I believe, was released too late in the system’s lifecycle where car combat games have become something of an extinct species like Dodo. We had one from India too called Smash n Survive.

Mass Effect 3’s appearance on the PS3 earlier this year was something refreshing considering how big of a franchise it is. The biggest gem for the system in the entire year was no doubt Journey, a game that has won numerous GOTYs worldwide and is also one of the best games on the PS3.

The third parties have chugged along releasing underrated games like Asura’s Wrath, Syndicate and Dragon’s Dogma. The latter, while ran great on the PS3, did not reach its potential due to horrible design decisions and is something that I personally loved very much due to how absorbing and fun it was to actually kill enemies. Asura’s Wrath was one giant cutscene while Syndicate provided a lot of fun but fell short.

PSN provided some great games like the Unfinished Swan and Journey, but Xbox Live trumped it in this department with the release of Fez and other exclusives. However, the presence of the stellar PSN + balanced it out in style with a lot of free games and great discounts.

Early in the year we had some decent games like Final Fantasy XIII-2, which didn’t really set the year on fire because it was a safe sequel. Our review described it as: “Final Fantasy XIII-2 comes with its fair share of problems, but it is an excellent game that represents a tentative step into modernity for its genre.”

There were a bunch of games released in May including Max Payne 3 and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, which we thought would do really well. They were good games especially Max Payne 3 but the latter disappointed in a lot of areas.

One of the bright spots of the year was undoubtedly Telltale’s Walking Dead. We scored all the five episodes really highly and also produced an editorial that proved to be really successful. It’s one of the best series to have been released on the PS3 with fantastic writing and characterization and is something that really deserves your money.

This year also brought a lot of new IPs like Sleeping Dogs, Dishonored, and XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and as you can see by clicking on the links they are all pretty spectacular games scoring highly and each of them providing a really unique experience to gamers.

Dishonored, especially was something really well made, except the ending. We wrote about it extensively in our PC review, which described it as “Dishonored is a plot-driven game offering you a lot of freedom to do things in a way you want. Not only does it look stunning but plays well, too. People sometimes say “Beauty with no brains” to describe a shallow thing. That wouldn’t apply to this game, though. It has both.”

Assassin’s Creed 3 turned out to be great along with Borderlands, FIFA 13, Darksiders 2, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 followed in November which was a poor port on the PS3 like its predecessor Black Ops, and it seems like Treyarch prioritizes the Xbox 360 a lot more than the PS3 for some reason. There were duds like  Resident Evil 6, Medal of Honor: Warfighter and 007 Legends as well.

While the PS3 missed some great first part games like the Xbox 360, Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale proved to be horrible in both scope and execution and was a weak effort by first timers Superbot.

There were also games like Need for Speed: Most Wanted and Hitman: Absolution, the latter which I enjoyed a lot but it proved to be a flawed game based on our review. The game that took us by surprise was Far Cry 3, which we wouldn’t have suspected because of how poorly Far Cry 2 turned out to be. The game was a winner in all departments except the story maybe, and received a perfect score on our site. We don’t really throw that around a lot, mind you.

This year was a bit weak for the PS3 when it comes to first party support, but next year seems really promising because of two spectacular games like The Last of Us and Beyond: Two Souls from Naughty Dog and Quantic Dream respectively. There are also a lot of third party games like GTA 5 and others which will make a good year no doubt.

Sony may reveal the PS4 next year, but a Naughty Dog game for the PS3 will keep the interest high as we look forward to its successor to bring the goods.

Overall Performance: B-

And it did- it did have a pretty good year, receiving some really, really good titles, with devs also announcing other huge games for the system to be released in the near future.

But what exactly were the highlights of the year for the 3DS? Let’s take a look.

One of the most anticipated games for the system, and maybe ever in Nintendo’s history as a company, started off the 3DS’ strong year in March. Kid Icarus: Uprising had been a long time coming, and by the end, none of us really expected it to be even remotely good. But when it did come out, it blew us all away with its addictive, exciting gameplay and witty, intelligent writing. It became one of the only three games to receive a 10/10 from us this year, and our reviewer even called it the greatest handheld ever, which it arguably is.

Another game that everyone had been really looking forward to for a long time that came a few weeks before Kid Icarus did was Resident Evil: Revelations, an excellent survival horror game that got unjustly swept under the run due to the hype that its console brethren were generating. It’s pretty odd, because Revelations was a hundred times better and scarier than Operation Raccoon City and Resident Evil 6 were put together.

“Sorry to keep you waiting!” It’s quite alright, Pit. 

Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance also impressed early on with its impressive visuals and an excellent and varied combat system. It wasn’t Kingdom Hearts 3, but it was a damn good addition to the franchise nonetheless.

Metal Gear Solid 3D and Tales of the Abyss were two more games that everyone had been looking forward to for some time, and when they came, they did not disappoint. Though both weren’t really new games, rather remakes/re-releases of old classics, we all had an immense amount of fun with them.

There were other notable releases for the system throughout the year than kept the library going- Rayman Origins, Heroes of Ruin, Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy, Rhythm Thief. And then there were eShop titles such as Mutant Mudds, Crush 3D, Crashmo and others.

Then came the big titles- first, there was New Super Mario Bros. 2. It was a 2D side-scrolling Mario platformer with an excellent premise, and it couldn’t really go wrong. And it did not. While certainly not as good as the DS or Wii NSMB games, it was still a blast to play through, and the perfect Mario dosage for the 3DS. For the time being.

It’s-a me- Mario with a golden brick for his head!

Then there was Pokemon Black/White 2. Sure, it’s actually a DS game, but the system didn’t get enough games to do an entire separate article for it. Black/White 2, while really good games, failed to offer the change up to the formula that we all wanted, and also failed to live up to the excellent titles that were Black and White. We all want a real, 3D Pokemon game, and Black and White 2 just served the purpose of a stopgap.

Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward turned out to be a surprisingly good game. None of us was really expecting this game to serve any kind of impact, but it turned out to be one of the better games to have been released on any system in recent memory and one of the best RPGs to have been released in 2012.

There were a few other notable releases too- Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask, Paper Mario: Sticker Star, Scribblenauts Unlimited.

Heading into 2013, we’ve got even more stuff to be excited about. Nintendo’s announced games such as Fire Emblem: Awakening, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow- Mirror of Fate heading our way right at the beginning of the year.

Other heavyweights such as Animal Crossing: New Leaf, LEGO City Undercover, Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse and Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon have been confirmed too, and it’s only safe to assume that we’ll also be getting another annual Professor Layton installment.

Not the best game in the series, but still pretty darn good.

Nintendo has also confirmed that Pokemon Myster Dungeon: Gates to Infinity will also be releasing in the US next year in March after its 3DS exclusive release in Japan this year. And there’s also been talks of an entirely new Zelda game- that Nintendo has confirmed to be in development- also releasing this year. Or possibly a Majora’s Mask remake, which has been going around the rumour mill for months now. Or maybe both. Hopefully!

All in all, it looks like the 3DS has a bright future, and that it’s getting only stronger and stronger with each new year. 2011 served to be the building year for the 3DS, and we got treated to plenty of great titles this year. And now it looks like this trend will continue for next year too. Let’s see if Nintendo performs as strongly in the handheld market as it always has.

Overall Performance: A-

That said, by the look of some of the titles coming out next year, the graphical limitations of the 360 will not be holding any developers back from churning out some awesome games. Read on for ten games that show that the Xbox still has some life left in it.

Take a look here for more exciting features. Do you agree with the list above? Which Xbox 360 games are you looking forward to in 2013? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

Stay tuned to GamingBolt.com for more news and updates.