Yep, can't disagree with any of his choices really, although I've never gotten on board with the Assassin's Creed franchise.
He's not wrong about Catherine though, always nice to see something original in today's market of sequels and remakes.

Whilst there is a nod towards some quirky games in there, particularly the Japanese games, he should also pay attention to the Live Arcade / PSN (Pfft) level games. That is where a wave of creative and innovative set of developers will release their wares. There have been tons of development houses closed and a lot of these have splintered off into smaller studios. Live Arcade is an absolute goldmine (Particular for those gaming purists who moan about the lack of innovation and the monotony of sequals) and no list of the best coming games can possibly leave out Trials Evolution.

I'm most anticipating Twisted Metal on the PS3. Maybe it's just me, but annual games like Battlefield and AC don't really get the juices flowing on my part.

Month and a week till this becomes the FIFA 12 thread. Or does it have competition around that time from one of those stupid FPS games?

Are there any special editions of FIFA this time? It's one of the easiest games to wrap into a bundle with some stuff yet they never do it.

Looking forward to fifa 12 this year, they look to have added some really smart features and also expanded the career mode, so hopefully that won't get boring mid way through a season as before

They've got the sky team for the commentary AND Clive Tyldesley and Andy Townsend for 'tournament matches' aswell - will that be for the FA cup and League Cup matches then when in career mode?

To be fair, he agrees with you and has a huge catalouge of games downloaded of XBL but most of them are found rather than anticipated if you know what I mean so its difficult to be able to write about them given that you only really find out about them when looking on XBL. I'll let him know though. He might do an article on some indi games. Out of interest are there any you've seen that you're looking forward to?

most anticipated game this year comes out november 18th

Need for speed?

Zelda?

I've loved the series for years, Link to the Past is possibly my all time favourite game, but I'm feeling really burnt out on the franchise now. Pre-ordered OOT 3D, so i've had it for months, but just can not bring myself to play it, not even reached the first dungeon yet. Can't believe I'm saying it but think I am going to skip skyward sword.

I've had a go on FIFA 11 online tonight. Mysteriously it's still full of people who quit as soon as you hit the second goal in. As Everton I beat Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Shamrock Rovers. All but the Barcelona opponent quit on my when I went 2 up. They really need to get a grip of that in online gaming. IMO quitting early should result in an automatic 30 minute ban. Enough of a pain to be a deterrant but not severe enough as to punish those who genuinely lose connection. (Not that the later happens on Xbox Live much)

Ive had the X Box in storage for a few months while we were in the process of moving house, well the internet got connected, out I went to but FIFA 11 to get some hours in before 12 hit the shelves in a month and I get exactly the same issues as you have. Must have had near to 20 quit on me, all of which I gave back feedback to (dont know if it actually means much). Hopefully something gets sorted somewhere down the lines as its become more of an issue as the years have rolled on. I didnt know losing 40 odd points or so off your Fifa rating meant that much to everyone, but obviously it does.

In Ultimate Team if you quid then you lose coins in subsequent matches, so it's a bit of a deterrent. Less people do quit I find.

Just finished playing Lego Pirates Of The Caribbean with the better half. Easily the best LEGO game after the original Lego Indy Jones. Naturally they don't get the hype of the likes of COD etc, but they really are well thought-out and well made games. Has to be played with a mate or the GF though, no fun alone. Plus there seems to be something amusing about sticking a giant shiny LEGO skull mask to your character and have him run around near the camera, and even better if it's the singing guy, endless fun annoying your gaming partner!

I do hope FIFA 12 has had some work done on the difficulty levels. I'm winning on legendary with Everton now but it's like pulling teeth. You are penalised for using the trigger in the tackle or for using A more often than not. The engine for fouls is pretty accurate when you do it, lots of 'meh' free kicks given like in real life.

The AI however cannot do wrong. You can draw the AI into a foul by waiting for them to challenge and knocking the ball away, but they have carte blanche to do full body checks, slide tackles from behind and shoulder charges that knock you six feet the other way. I can't ever remember an AI player getting a red card on legendary.

How'd you get your bird good on a PS3/Xbox boss? I've been training my lass on Little Big Planet for weeks, she can't play it for toffee, but I'm hoping I'll soon have an offline opponent on SFIV.

It would probably be quicker to have kids.

I was saying this stuff months ago, it's why I stopped playing it. I can win on any level with ease, the problem is, you have to do the same old crap to win. You can't play a slow possession game, you can't dribble past numerous players or break a team down, there's only two ways to score from open play, and this is them:

1) Through ball/lobbed through ball behind the defence when they're playing high up, if your attacker has enough space between him and their defender, you'll get in a good position and score (assuming the defender hasn't pulled your shirt for 30 yards our outpaced you, even if your sprint speed stat is 94 and theirs is 62).

2) By closing them down without pressing the 'press/close down' button, i.e. nicking it off their defender, breaking away (assuming you're not on the floor due to weird rag doll physics) and putting it in the goal.

Those really are the only two ways to score on Fifa when playing any level above semi-pro. Forget using skill or playing nice football, every game is a constant grind.

On Pro Evo if you quit early it gets classed as a loss for that person. You rarely get anyone quitting early as most of the geeks like to have a 0 for losses!

I'd quite any game if they scored a goal against me by intercepting the goal kicks. Absolute vermin.

Well, i know she was into stuff like Oblivion and FF, stuff like that before we were ever together, but over the 4 years she just joined in with me with stuff like Gears Of War, Army Of Two, and to be fair she's good at 'em. LEGO games too, which comes in handy as female logic is better than us blokes, so she sees stuff that i might not see, so it's a good pairing.

Good luck

I have bought the RWC2011 game, and I've played 4 games online. My first was a decent game, I lost 28-26 and, but since then whenever I have taken a 2 or 3 try lead against the opposition they quit. It's very hard to play a full game online...

Just gone out and bought this just now. Was either this or Deus: Ex.
Went for this because I have a feeling that apart from the hype Deus would of been a let down for me.

What do you make of it, pros and cons?

If you pass the goal kick to their striker, what do you expect them to do? Pass it back?

They should change that as it happens a lot on legendary. You lazily play the ball to a defender who stands leadfooten as their striker runs in on a sly diagonal run after the cut scene and side foots it in. They should make it so the strikers start far enough back to allow the defender to deal with it before they are closed down.

Pros:
Better Quality gameplay than RL Live.
Better graphics.
Ability to use set plays.
More responsive to buttons that are pressed.

Cons:
Unrealistic tackling, can tackle somebody when you stand 10 metres away.
The dangerous tackle penalty, not sure if it's a rule in Yawnion, but whenever somebody takes out my player off the ball I get the penalty on the half way line.
Other bug, sometimes you can't switch players which sometimes leads to tries against you.
World Cup mode is very short.

I'd say it was a good buy, I'd rather play that than Rugby League Live any day, as long as you play the game in the true RL style.