2011 Video Games and Movies

Just a simple list of stuff I'm looking forward to in 2011.

Video Games
Ace Combat: Assault Horizon
The Ace Combat series is the best flight combat game series in existence, bar none. Now, mind you, early previews have raised some red flags - most notably the shift of the game to the "real world" versus a fictional world - but I have every confidence it will be an excellent game. Probably not a day-and-date purchase, though.

Lego Star Wars 3
Initially I had written this game off since it takes place in the Clone War years (the domain of the prequel trilogy), but it sounds like they've gone above and beyond the previous Lego Star Wars titles and added in a lot of neat features. Still, not a full ticket-price purchase.

Bulletstorm
A game unabashedly designed to be fun, a shooter not even pretending to be anything but brutal fun. Frankly, it sounds awesome, and the dev crew has clearly embraced the absurdity of it and amped it to 11. Should make for an excellent rental.

Dragon Age 2
The original was not without many (and rather serious) flaws, but BioWare is a superb company and I don't doubt that they've listened to the fans and made adjustments accordingly. Pre-order already placed.

Shogun 2: Total War
I suck at strategy games, especially of the real-time variety. I mean, I really suck at them. But, the total war series has always been one I've wanted to try, they just needed to head into a theater of combat I actually cared about. Japanese Imperial era fits the bill nicely. I'll be waiting for a good sale price, but definitely looking forward to it.

Portal 2
Portal 1 was everything the hype said it was, and more. Is Portal 2 worth $60? I don't know, I'll be waiting on some reviews (or I'll rent the 360 version, most likely), but I strongly suspect this will be everything we've been waiting for.

Red Faction: Armageddon
The Red Faction games are more fun than they have any right to be. I wasted dozens of hours on Guerrilla... and then wasting more hours on the PC version, too. Like Bulletstorm it's not really about story, but it should make for some awesome destructive fun. Definite rental, possible purchase.

Mass Effect 3
Bioware's Mass Effect series is my favorite set of games released since Final Fantasy 6's Super Nintendo came out in 1994. The end of the trilogy is my most anticipated release -- movie, book or video game -- of 2011. Period.

Batman Arkham City
The original Batman: Arkham Asylum was a game that took us all by surprise with how great it was. Can lightning strike twice? I'm thinking yes.

Star Wars: The Old Republic
After the disaster that was Final Fantasy 14, Final Fantasy 11 lived on as my MMO of (occasional) choice. The Old Republic will most likely break that. Yes, I will be a Jedi, and yes, it will be awesome.

Movies
Pirates of the Caribbean 4
Okay, so Pirates 2 & 3 weren't all that great, but I enjoyed them thoroughly (the trick is to ignore the thing masquerading as a story and just roll with it), but it sounds like 4 is on the right track to recovery. Streamlining down to just Johnny Depp and Geoffry Rush for the core cast is probably a good call (though I question how effective Sparrow will be without a straight man to play off of), and adding Ian McShane (of Deadwood fame) as Blackbeard is genius. I'll be along for the ride without a doubt.

X-Men First Class
X-Men 3 and Wolverine were rather crap, so I'm a bit leery about this one, but at the end of the day it's still X-Men, so I'll give it a look based on how the reviews turn out.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
This is the English remake of the Swedish movies/books known collectively as the Millennium trilogy (all of which were excellent). I fully expect this to be an absolute train wreck, but my morbid curiosity will likely result in a rental.

And that's it for movies. Short list, to be sure. For reference Captain America, Thor and Green Lantern do nothing for me. And although Pixar is putting out Cars 2 next year, which I will watch and likely enjoy, it's not a franchise I much care about (make a series called Planes and we're golden, though).

Honorable mention to "Song of Ice and Fire", which is an HBO series based on George R.R. Martin's excellent fantasy series. Normally I don't go for TV too much, but I'll be grabbing these off Amazon as soon as they're available.