With 2010 drawing to a close (and the Mayan Doomsday drawing closer ) it's time to look ahead to 2011 and what games are going to be doing damage to your wallet. So which games slated to come out in 2011 are you most looking forward to?

Here are my top 5:

1) Rage - I've been feverishly anticipating this game for a couple of years now and when I saw the video from id's E3 presentation I was blown away. The game was running silky smooth with blow your load level graphics and crazy smooth animation on a XBOX360, which doesn't have anywhere near the horsepower of a modern PC. More importantly all the different weapons, gadgets, and the vehicle racing all look like they will be a blast.

2) Portal 2 - The original Portal was an amazing game. Quite possibly the greatest physics based puzzle game ever. Plus it introduced one of the coolest villains of all time, GLaDOS. the only knock on the original is that it was just much too short. Frankly I would have been happy with essentially the same game as Portal 1 just longer but Valve went ahead and put in a whole bunch of awesome looking new features expanding the gameplay possibilities almost endlessly.

3) The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings - The eagerly anticipated sequel to the best RPG of 2007 and frankly one of the best RPGs ever. What I loved about the original was the gritty mature environment and the difficult decisions without a clear black & white that had real profound consequences in the game. The sequel looks to bring back all that goodness plus an enhanced combat system and a shiny new engine.

4) Dragon Age 2 - The sequel to Dragon Age: Origins. While I didn't go as crazy over the original as some people I still thought it was a great game. I mean it's a Bioware RPG, you can't go wrong.

5) Deus Ex: Human Revolution - While the second game in the series wasn't nearly as good as the first it was still a decent game and one can always hope that the third game will return the series to the standard of awesomeness that the first game set.

So there it is, the games that will be ravaging my wallet in the upcoming year. What games are you most looking forward to?

The Witcher 2
Dragon Age 2
Drakensang II

I hope for an announcement of Oblivion II and Elite IV ?

Wouldn't this be The Elder Scrolls 5? I would like to see this too, but since the GameBryo engine has been cancelled, I think it may be a couple more years before we see another Elder Scrolls game.

I can't think of any AAA titles that I am waiting for. As for Indies, I am of course curious about Vogel's next game.

X-Plane should be releasing version 10 next year - it is the champion of Flight Simulators since Microsoft canceled their series. I would argue it's been better then Microsoft's version for several years now.

Minecraft's ongoing development continues to tickle me. It will be very interesting to see what Notch does with all his money and newly founded studio.

There are undoubtedly many indie games in development now that I don't know about, so those are always exciting to discover. The Indy Scene continues to be the place where the most enjoyable developments are.

I'm too, but he keeps delaying letting us see the part after the demo. I can't wait for the end to see if I'm right about how it turns out.

Yeah I really don't have any indie titles on my radar for 2011, by contrast this year I had Eschalon: Book II and Amnesia: The Dark Descent to look forward to. Still I'm sure I'll wind up getting some indie gems in 2011. Since indie games don't get nearly the publicity as the big company titles a lot of them tend to sneak up on me and I wind up getting a really great game when I least expect it (for example And Yet It Moves came out of nowhere for me and it's a great physics puzzle game).

Sticking to Mac/PC releases, in order...

The Witcher II
Avadon
Dragon Age II
Eschalon Book III

As for Dragon Age: Origins... I really have to admit: this really is a hell of a good game. Yeah, it's slim on spells, and it doesn't seem to have as much of the kind of cool, fun armor & weapons that I seem to remember NwN2 having. (Shopping was more fun in NwN2.) But on the other hand they do have other cool things like runes, and battle techniques... and the animation is nice (the summoned bears really move like bears, and all those little wolf-like affectations that the summoned wolves have are really cool to watch), and the graphics of course are quite nice... the story is really lacking, a problem which the length of the game magnifies, but the writing is really not bad at all -- although often semi to very unrealistic, and often clumsy. Although the game appears to be trying in a not-so-subtle way to turn me into a Christian, I can ignore that. And while it's true that the women in this game don't have the cute butts that the ones in NwN & NwN2 had... admittedly that's a minor detail . I think I'll just say that while I played NwN2 several times, I don't think I'll play DA:O a second time for quite a while... . But at any rate, while I'm at it (44% finished at this point... sigh... long game), I like the game very much.

I liked The Witcher better, which is why I'm looking forward to that sequel better than DA's sequel.

While I'm not sure I remember any cute butts in The Witcher, I do remember some awfully pretty legs and arms.

As for Avadon... a Spiderweb game is always welcome in my heart, I'm always looking forward to the next one. His graphics and animation might be distressingly weak, and tiresomely repetitive, not to mention timid in their 'updates', but these games are always fun.

That was also my main issue with DA:O which is really surprising considering it's an area Bioware usually excels in. Hopefully it's something they address in DA 2, although the quick turn around (just over a year with Mass Effect 2 in between) makes me worry. Still despite the lacking story the game was quite good and it's Bioware, they would have to release a bunch of serious stinkers in a row to stop getting the benefit of the doubt from me. So with that in mind I'll go ahead and assume DA 2 will be great.

I'm looking forward to the final version of "Revenge of the Titans" by Puppy Games.

Also, my own Dirk Dashing 2 will be completed next year, in case anyone likes fun, old-school platformers. The sequel will have much-improved graphics and lots of new features. I've been documenting my progress in my monthly newsletters, with screenshots of recent builds.

Be sure to post your release news here! I don't want to miss it.

Well, I know this is probably something that doesn't even need to be mentioned - BUT, I would love for my Christmas present next year to be Book III. I know it isn't realistic, but somebody has to step up and say that it would make 2011 for all of us who love Basilisk Games.........

Thanks for the invitation, BW! I'll do that.


I second that!

To me, Might and Magic : Heroes IV
Turn based strategy game serie I've been following for nearly 20 years now.
What will happen with my social life, shall happen (or not happen, most probably).

You mean Might and Magic : Heroes VI, right?

And is it correct that this one won't be released for MacOS X? It looks like the first one of these that may not get a Mac version...

Well if Heroes VI came out next year I think all production here in the studio would stop for a couple weeks. That is a AAA game that I wouldn't miss.

Yes, VI, 4 has been out for 9 years, sorry.

It's due April 2011 for now (at least in Europe), the story in game happens 600 years before H5.
http://mightandmagic.fr.ubi.com/ (us site redirects directly to facebook, weird)

And the first trailer is here (yes, it's still Paul Romero and Rob King to the music)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEBGPcRBnQU

And it looks like they want to change quite a few things gameplay wise.

PS : it's hard not to post a wall of text about h6