I am a gamer with less and less time for games. I’ve also become a lot fussier in my selection of games to play.
But this year brings the release of two games that I’m very interested in and have been waiting for.
Final Fantasy XIII
Final Fantasy (FF) is one of the longest running game series that I’m aware of. With FFXII being a flop (well in my opinion) the videos released so far for FFXIII look to be promising.
The world looks to be very dark and gives me the impression of a cross between the dark FFVII Midgar and the high tech FFX Zanarkand.
The main character Lightning looks cool and according to reports Character Designer Tetsuya Nomura was asked to create a “female version of Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII”. Very interesting considering Final Fantasy VII is definitely the most loved game out of the series by Final Fantasy fans.
FFXIII will be released to PS3 and Xbox 360 however I’m not sure on any other platforms other than these.
Diablo III
The long awaited Diablo III was announced last year and looks set to release this year on PC. Diablo I, II and II Expansion were huge titles earning Blizzard all sorts of awards for best selling games.
One of the reasons that I believe that we’ve waited so long for this game is because after Diablo II – Expansion the team disbanded. After a while most of the Diablo team left Blizzard and created their own company Flagship Studios and created the game Hellgate: London. Although hyped up as a ‘Diablo fans dream’ it was a huge disappointment. Uncreative environments with repeating levels and a small world to explore as well as a poor storyline and execution.
Diablo III will take place 20 years after we saved the world in Diablo II. There is still a lot of information kept secret about the world and characters. The only NPC confirmed from previous Diablo’s is Deckard Cain. There have been 3 character classes confirmed Barbarian, Wizard and newly created Witch Doctor.
One of the exciting things is that the development for Diablo III started in 2005 and they’ve been through three revisions of artistic design before reaching the standards felt neccessary by the Diablo III team. This gives me the impression they’re only going to put out quality and with Blizzard’s track record (i.e Starcraft: Ghost stopped) this is extremely exciting. The released Diablo III will only be the best that Blizzard can do. Blizzard do quality.
With these great games coming out this year my dilemma is the fact that my PS3 is broken and I managed to blow up what PC I had (very old system).
So I will be saving like mad to try to mend or buy a new PS3 as well as look at maybe getting a new PC. Wish me luck!
Amber Craig 