Average Gamer 12.30.2011 Year in Review Edition

Posted by Dan Watson on 12.30.2011

From Duke Nukem's failure to live up to the hype and the buzz around Dead Island to the success of Saint's Row 3 and more, 411's Dan Watson takes a look at the gaming year that was in this week's Average Gamer!

Welcome back to the Average Gamer, the only column written by an average guy about average topics.

This past week was awesome. Christmas Eve, I received one of the real nice official Blackhawk jerseys as well as about thirty other miscellaneous gifts. Clothes, money, movies, etc. were all given to me. Then Christmas day received board games, this pretty cool watch, some video games that I failed to pick up earlier, and a bunch of other items. One of those items was tickets to Raw the next day. Raw was pretty cool to see live. The place was crazy for CM Punk but the audio was tough to understand. Then, worked Tuesday and Wednesday off on Thursday as we went to Downtown Chicago to see the zoo lights, Macy windows, and eat in the Walnut room. All in all it was pretty cool. Plus now I get to have Monday off so really couldn't be a better set of ten days.

In the gaming world, I have been busy playing everything I can. Gears, Call of Duty, Saints Row, Halo Anniversary, Metal Gear Solid set, Apples to Apples, Madden, etc. etc. etc. One thing I want to talk about briefly with that is if you haven't done so already check out 360voice.com. I have been following a bit closer now as it gives me reason to go through and play daily. I have a streak of like ninety-five days going of playing. Be sure to stop by there and check on my account, Dag821.

For my readers' feedback time, I want to ask the following question…

What was your favorite gift given to you in the past twelve months?

Mine is tough, since I am someone that lives in the moment I am going to go with the two most recent gifts I received. Raw Tickets were amazing and this watch is pretty cool.

Year in Review

We had a ton of games this year come out in addition to some big news stories. The biggest news story was probably Sony with its hacking incident. Sure they didn't have adequate protection and sure there were plenty of people who may have had their identity stolen, but at least their consoles didn't have the red ring of death right? Wrong, this year could have been Sony's year to really get the ball rolling on taking over first place instead they are stuck in the middle of the pack.

The other big story of the year was Nintendo abandoning the Wii and jumping to WiiU. Every time I hear that name, it makes me think of ESPNU and MTVU (university channels). Only time will tell if this will flop or right Nintendo's ship. Nintendo has been on a downward spiral for the past few consoles, especially later in each of the consoles' life cycles. With that said, who knows maybe Nintendo has figured something out and is going to turn this thing around.

In the new release department, I cannot remember a time when we had so many major title releases in such a small span. This summer didn't let us catch up on finishing games and once September rolled around, it became almost a new AAA title each week; Forza, Gears, Batman, Call of Duty, Skyward Sword, Skyrim, Saints Row, UnCharted, etc. It got to a point where you would buy a game, play for a few days and get into another soon after.



One game that was a highlight of the year for me was Saints Row 3. The game isn't amazing or anything special at all. The game is great for a few reasons but one is the ability to just pick up and play for a few minutes without having to worry about being stuck in a thirty minute mission. There are tons of collectibles and challenges as well.



Another game that I feel deserves mentioning is Dead Island. This game was one that many people were talking about for quite a few months because it was an open world, first person, zombie adventure. The game didn't wow many but honestly it wasn't terrible either. I still have yet to finish it but plan to in the coming weeks.



Finally, it wouldn't be a review of this year if I didn't cover the end of the biggest gaming industry joke. Duke Nukem: Forever was finally released. The game didn't live up to many people's expectations but was still a pretty decent game. This game was hit with delays followed by delays and almost cancellations for the better part of a decade. It hit shelves after one final delay and then the game sunk. After about two or three weeks no one was talking about the game anymore.

What to look forwards to

2012 could be a really good year or a pretty bad year. Based on the titles we have already heard of we have a lot to look forwards to. Twisted Metal, BioShock:Infinite, Mass Effect, and so many more. If the world doesn't end we will have a pretty good year based on just the small sample we know of already. In addition, WiiU will be released. I don't know if it will be affordable based on the controller being some sort of tablet, controller hybrid thing. With the economy slowly turning around we will see how many spend the money to get this after a short run of the Wii.

2012 Predictions

I feel that we will hear more rumors and bits of news about PS4 and the next Xbox. I do not believe we will see anything at E3 as I feel 2014 will be the release year for the consoles.

The world will not end on December 21, 2012 or any other day this year.

Video game sales will continue to increase and more games will pass big name movie and book series in the income areas.

Well guys and gals, the end is here. Our calendars will all change on Sunday and I will be back next week with another Average Gamer. Enjoy the celebrations.