A Year in Prediction – Enter 2012
As we welcome the coming of a New Year, we celebrate the year that was in all things pop-culture. In my humble opinion, it wasn’t necessarily the greatest year for film, television or gaming as a whole whilst also considering the current foreboding state of the internet as the coming vote for SOPA and PIPA looms in the United States – our fates decided on a crucial vote this coming January 24th.
But the year passed was definitely one of the biggest for the burgeoning e-Sports community with multiple campaigns, tournaments and leagues held world-wide to resounding success. The highlights and phenomenal match-ups are far too numerous to recount, however, while not technically e-Sports related, nothing elated my spirits more than watching StarCraft II shoutcaster and all around good-guy Sean ‘Day[9]’ Plott face his fears with man-mode engaged as he live streamed his endeavours to conquer the physiological horror game Amnesia: The Dark Descent for hundreds of thousands of fans to see. On a side note, a heartfelt congratulations to Day[9] for a well deserved nomination for Forbes 30 under 30 in Entertainment
Note: If you have time to kill, its definitely a treat to watch Day[9] lose his S#!%
With the hope of the New Year, e-Sports and StarCraft fans clamour to see the KeSPA vs. Blizzard feud come to end as the current South Korean StarCraft: Brood War ProGamer’s contract expire. The current competitive e-Sports scene sees the South Koreans dominating the competition in StarCraft II with few Western ProGamers able to fend off the assault. However players like Lim ‘BoxeR’ Yo Hwan and Lim ‘NesTea’ Jae Duk while respected StarCraft II players are actually out-of-retirement and South Korean B-Team players from Brood War respectively. The metagame and overall landscape of StarCraft II would be altered with the transfer of the current Brood War champs such as Lee ‘Jaedong’ Jae Dong, Lee ‘Flash’ Young Ho and Kim ‘Bisu’ Taek Yong were they to take up arms in StarCraft II.
Speaking of the changing metagame landscape, the first highly anticipated expansion for the world’s most popular Real-Time Strategy (RTS), Heart of the Swarm is predicted to release in 2012 with the announcement made at BlizzCon 2011. With not much experience with the Terran or Protoss races, I can say I’m excited about the new Zerg Swarm Host and Viper units introduced to the multiplayer. The Viper, dubbed the flying Defiler (SC: Brood War) adds a much needed siege breaker to the Zerg swarm with its Blinding Cloud spell (Dark Swarm) and Abduct ability as well as the Swarm Host providing Zerg with an excellent ranged siege unit utilising Zergs greatest strength, their numbers as locusts swarm the enemy. The one gripe I have is with the new Terran Shredder – too cheap and easily deployed into the opponents mineral line with a drop ship and can potentially eliminate every worker within seconds with its AOE radiation attack. While not adding to the big-ball-of-death, it’s just another way Terran players can harass. But we’ll ultimately have to see how the pro’s handle the changes and I’m eagerly awaiting the fruits of their labour but If all else fails, there’s still the Legacy of the Void to come.
Unfortunately with the tyrannical threat of SOPA and PIPA, the e-Sports community and generally the entire internet as we know it would be crippled and oppressed similarily yet terrifyingly worse than the censorship laws in China, Iran and Syria. For more information on how you can prevent this atrocity you can watch an entertaining and brief summation from StarCraft II shoutcaster Mike ‘Huskky’ Lamond with this cute video of a cat, or a more in depth and litigious summation from John ‘TotalBiscuit’ Bain, a UK law graduate and another SC2 shoutcaster.
On the gaming front, we did see a respectable line-up of releases across all platforms. A myriad of Triple-A titles such as Skyrim, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Batman: Arkham City, Darks Souls, Catherine, inFAMOUS 2, Portal 2, Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, Uncharted 3, Gears of War 3, Killzone 3, Resistance 3, Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 (anyone seeing a pattern here?) as well as the release of every casual gamers favourite hand-held the Nintendo 3DS. However not all bode well for our friends over at PlayStation with hackers forcing Sony to shut down the PlayStation Network (PSN) for about a month, dealing a decisive blow against the PlayStation community.
Source: Nintendo, Sucker Punch, Bethesda, Rocksteady Studios, Epic Games, Naughty Dog
Edited: Nathan Lai
It’s near impossible to predict how 2012 will treat the gaming community, but I do suspect there will be fun to be had by all. Upcoming titles such as Dragon Quest X, Halo 4, the Devil May Cry reboot, DotA 2 (Defence of the Ancients), Starhawk, Twisted Metal, Ninja Gaiden 3, The Jak and Daxter HD Collection, Tomb Raider reboot, Soul Calibur V, Street Fighter X Tekken, Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, Asura’s Wrath, Kid Icarus Uprising and the Professor Layton/Ace Attorney series crossover (and potentially the Ace Attorney live-action film), just to name a few, paints a positive landscape for gamers in 2012. In the handheld department we welcome the release of the PlayStation Vita, the successor to the original PlayStation Portable (PSP) that no one really asked for. Without a doubt, this sexy gizmo is the most advanced and pristine handheld on the market, but only time will tell whether or not there is a place for true handheld gaming with the rest of the world playing games en masse from the Apple App Store and Android Market. An apology if I’ve omitted any game on any platform your looking forward to, the year’s jammed packed.
Personally I’m most looking forward to the local release of Final Fantasy XIII-2 which developers Square-Enix has assured it will address the linear gameplay of its predecessor. Metal Gear Solid: Revengeance as it would be interesting to see how Platinum Games approaches the revered IP from Hideo Kojima. Diablo III will assuredly be released in 2012 after its delay from predicted Quarter 4 2011 announcement. Being a huge fan of the series I sincerely hope this game won’t suck too many hours away from my social life in the multiplayer. Mass Effect 3 sadly sees the trilogy come to an end however I’m anxious to send my personal Commander Shepard to the frontlines of battle against the Reaper invasion. Finally Final Fantasy X HD (pun somewhat intended) is high on my most wanted list as I very much am looking forward to sink another 200+ hours into this magnificent game from the PlayStation 2 era – Sphere Grid stat maxing, Monster Hunting, Chocobo Racing (under 00:00:00!) and dodging the damned lightning bolts another 200 times. What can I say; I’m a glutton for punishment.
Source: Square-Enix, Blizzard Entertainment, Naughty Dog, Bioware and Platinum Games
Edited: Nathan Lai
On the news front, the coming year comes with the usual cavalcade of expo’s and conferences that will hopefully bring more news about the next generation of consoles. The Wii-U has already been slated for a release in the near future with Microsoft looking to release their next console. Hopes are high that the announcement fulfils its preamble cameo in the film Real Steel with the Xbox 720 logo advertised around the stadium. The PlayStation 4 is very unlikely to make an appearance due to the PlayStation 3’s intended lifecycle only half complete but hopefully Sony will grace audiences with a huge surprise come the E3 expo in June, otherwise the Sony conference will be quite dull in comparison to Nintendo’s Wii-U and potential Xbox 720 announcements. Other news that would be most welcome is the fate of The Last Guardian with Fumito Ueda leaving Sony late last year. Any news about the upcoming genre defining video game experience, The Last of Us as promised by Naughty Dog is also most welcome.
Other than that, all I’m looking forward to in the film and TV department is The Avengers directed by the legendary Joss Whedon, Snow White and The Huntsman, The Hunger Games and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Looking at the aforementioned list, there is an abundance of book (including graphic novel/comic books) to film adaptations, no real originality coming from Hollywood these days. Finally with a bittersweet farewell to one of the greatest comedy series, 30 Rock is in its final season with the actor’s contracts coming to end this year. Even if it were to continue, it wouldn’t be the same without the brilliant Jack Donaghy.
Source: Marvel Studios, Universal, Color Force, DC Comics, WingNut Films and Village Roadshow
Edited: Nathan Lai
My advice is to savour the opening months of 2012 with the steady stream of gradual releases as come November, your wallets will be feeling the pain.
UPDATE:
Members of Congress are now back pedalling due to the massive public outcry over SOPA and PIPA as members question the DNS provisions. A positive sign hat the petitions and mass movement against these uneducated internet illiterates have taken effect. Keep the good work going to keep the internet a safe haven for online freedom of speech and user-generated content.
Source: Ars Technica – “Under voter pressure, members of Congress backpedal (hard) on SOPA”
