Saturday, January 19, 2013

5 Most Anticipated Movies and Games of 2013


So I’d say that 2012 was a pretty solid year for entertainment overall, at least enough so that I didn’t have any trouble filling up four lists of my favorite things from it.  And I’m always looking forward to the next year.  Here’s the movies and games I’m looking forward to in 2013.

Movies:

5. The Great Gatsby: Baz Luhrmann’s unique visual style, along with Leonardo DiCaprio as Gatsby, is enough to get me interested in this.  The fact that it was pushed from Christmas season to May has me worried, and I wasn’t a fan of Luhrmann’s last movie, Australia, but I still have high hopes for this one.

4. Man of Steel: I’m still disappointed in DC’s refusal to turn most of their characters into a movie (Wonder Woman?  Flash?  I’ll even take Ambush Bug), but this new Superman movie looks, if nothing else, to be distinguishing itself from the legacy of the original quadrilogy.  I did love Superman Returns, but it’s also nice to see something truly different done to the franchise.

3. Star Trek: Into Darkness: It seems to me that they’ve wasted most of the momentum since JJ Abrams’ franchise reboot, with the only things of note being the comics and Star Trek Online.  I loved the previous one, so hopefully this can break the Star Trek sequel curse and make a solid addition to the franchise.

2. (tie) Iron Man 3 & Thor: The Dark World: Phase One of Marvel’s movie series is done.  So of course I’m excited to see what’s next in Phase Two.  With confirmations that these are going to set themselves apart from leading up to Avengers 2, new creative teams, and in the case of IM3 the addition of the villain we’ve been waiting for, The Mandarin, it’s going to be exciting.

1. The World’s End: Edgar Wright has made nothing but excellent movies.  The World’s End is set to be the finale to the “Blood and Ice Cream” thematic trilogy that was started with Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.  Details are still sparse and I’m pretty sure that a trailer isn’t even out, but Edgar Wright alone is enough to top this list.

Video Games:

5. Dragon Age III: Inquisition: People HATED Dragon Age II.  I loved it.  Oh it was flawed as hell, but I also found the change in story and focus on grey-and-grey morality fascinating, along with it just being more accessible for me.  I’m expecting this one to be just as controversial, and I’m hoping that I’ll love it just as much.

4. Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon: The oddball Gamecube launch title has gotten nods in the decade since it came out, but Nintendo’s avoided doing anything more with it…which has only helped to build it up more as a cult title.  And it’s always nice to see a cult title finally get the sequel it deserves.

3. Pikmin 3: I think the Wii U sounds really cool.  The features are awesome, what it does for gaming will be interesting, and it doesn’t have a single game I would buy the system for.  It’s not only nice to see Pikmin come back, but it should be a perfect fit for the gamepad and get me really interested in getting a Wii U.

2. South Park: The Stick of Truth: I can’t remember the last time I watched South Park.  The Stick of Truth looks like it will be a funny and interesting RPG that captures the visual style of the show.  Obsidian does good if imperfect work, and I fully expect this to be buggy and I’ll love every hour of it.

1. Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time: The latter two Sly games are some of my favorite games ever…so where has Sly been?  Its contemporaries, Jak & Daxter and Ratchet & Clank, got PSP spin-offs and, in the case of the latter, is still continuing today, while Sly got nothing.  And while having a new developer on the franchise is always scary, as long as there’s cool heists, plenty of variety in gameplay, and a story that can be silly and serious, I’m in.

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