It's been rather quiet here in STC lately... are people too busy playing games or what?
I'm busy with research (and I have to teach lab this semester...ugh, what a time sink)! Anyway, what games are you looking forward to? I know a bunch of big-name titles (DMC4, MGS4, Age of Conan, etc) are on their way. You gonna play/get any? Ciao,

-avatar!

I think that No More Heroes is the only upcoming game I'm going to pick up.

'Tis the year of the Big Fours: Ace Attorney 4, Devil May Cry 4, Metal Gear Solid 4, Soul Calibur 4..... and Street Fighter 4, maybe?

I'm currently looking forward to Nanostray 2, and am praying the news of a February delay isn't true.  Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, Burnout Paradise, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, No More Heroes, and Professor Layton are all just around the corner.  Looking ahead, there's the port of Hoshi no Kirby: Ultra Super Deluxe for DS and Okami for Wii.  I'm really hoping Samba de Amigo turns out well on the Wii, and LittleBigPlanet is looking pretty sweet.

As for pipedream demands, I'd love to see an Elite Beat Agents 2.  Just one more, iNiS; that's all I ask for.

Wii Mario Kart and an obscure game called "Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None." Yeah, it's probably a point-and-click adventure, but I'd like to see how exactly they incorporate an 11th person into the story. Plus I'm a Christie fan. ^_~

I don't really have much exciting me at the moment. In the very near future (as in it has shipped and is on its way to me now) I'm looking forward to checking out the Harvey Birdman game.

After that, the new Advance Wars, Apollo Justice and... then things sort of dry up a bit. A lot of the big games that people are waiting for, I've lost interest in. That doesn't mean I won't get them though. I'm hoping Lego Batman will be fun.

Then, after the real games I'm hoping for:
Shenmue 3
Dizzy Collection (DS)
Ouendan 3 or Elite Beat Agents 2 (DS)
A new 2D Mario for DS.

What do you think my chances are?

EBA2 likely greater than O3.  I'm just waiting and waiting with bated breath for Kohler to report something eventually. :)

I'd be all over that; heaven knows sales of New Super Mario Bros. were spectacular enough to warrant a sequel. 

So..... would we want more like NSMB -- or would anybody like to see a new title cut from the NES Super Mario Bros. 2/Doki Doki Panic mold?

Well, for me, I'd be leaning towards more the NSMB end. I'd be hoping for something tight, with better structure, some very cool power-ups (I'd be happy to see a 2D version of the bee suit and springy Mario from Galaxy but I'd love a few more animal-themed ones). Most of all, I'd like something with a bit more of a clear visual style rather than just the M64 in 2D feel.

I'm not totally against the SMB2 thing but it wouldn't be my favoured direction.

I'm very keen on the new Civilization game coming to consoles. Civilization is a game I dearly want to be good at but I just get lost amid the minutiae. This one seems to be more objective-based.

Unexpectedly one of my most anticipated upcoming games is Tomb Raider Underworld. I'm currently really enjoying Anniversary, despite traditionally not paying any attention to the series (the control method in the first one put me off completely).

I'd like to think I can play Fallout 3, but I get motion sick from first-person games, and the tacked-on 3rd-person viewpoint in Oblivion wasn't any help. If they can fix that I'll be very happy.

Too Human appeals to the die hard PSO fan in me. High hopes for that one.

I need to know more about the new Gradius, but if it's a 2D effort and not some horrible 3D 'evolution' it's a no-brainer for me.

Little Big Planet has my attention too.

I'm kinda lookin forward to trying out Professor Layton and the Curious Village.

-Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (having just recently caught the PW bug)
-Kirby SuperStar DS
-Castlevania DS 3 (it hasn't been announced, but IGA has mentioned working on it)
-Super Smash Bros. Brawl (nostalgia galore!)
-Final Fantasy IV DS
-Pokemon Ranger 2

And the 1,001 games already released that I haven't gotten around to... currently playing Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and... Diablo 2. My to-play pile goes back very far...

So, did anyone happen to catch the Wal-Mart pre-order of SSBB for $20.00?  I grabbed one copy, and my order's gone through, so we'll see if they honour it in the future.  I'm not holding my breath, but maybe....

I'm actually really anticipating PixelJunk Monsters for the PS3.  It looks like I could sink alot of time into that, as well as a couple of good co-op maps with teh wifez0rz.  Mario Galaxy spoiled us.

No, and let me add: damn it! Wish I had known...
You know, I've noticed that game prices have gone up quite a bit recently. It certainly can't cost that much more to produce an HD or Blu-ray disk than a regular DVD. Are people really paying $60 and up for games these days?

cheers,

-avatar!

The SSBB Wal-Mart thing seems to have been a fluke; right about on par to Apollo Justice selling for $69.82.  (The 2/19/08 release date for AJ may or may not be correct, though; despite Capcom's press release claiming a 2/12 date, every other retailer is still stating 2/19.)

Dunno, doesn't seem much different from the peak era of the SNES; I'm still surprised that Killer Instinct and Chrono Trigger sold for $60 retail when they first hit.  And don't get me started on those $100+ SFC imports.....

My long term view of it is, gaming is an expensive hobby, period.  Ten dollars more than the generally acceptable $50 retail mark for games nowadays shouldn't come as a shock to anyone.

Advance Wars: DoR is definitely the big one for me. Field Commander was a lame and ineffective patch to get my AW fix, but DoR is most likely going to be awesome and deliver ridiculous amounts of playtime. By the way, DoR is 4th in the Advance Wars series, too...

On the DS front, there's also Warhammer 40k and Panzer Tactics DS, though I might not have much need for them after DoR. Basically also Rocket Slime and Phoenix Wright but I wonder if I'll ever get to them. There's also Warioware: Twisted! which I've been wanting to get for a really, really long time but have somehow always passed on...

I've also been hearing very good things about that And Then There Were None game, it's definitely made a big jump in my list of interesting games. I've also been wanting to get my hands on Raving Rabbids 2, now that the insane end of year flood is cooling down. Also Nitrobike, Sonic & Mario (& Miis) and later in the year, Dragon Quest Swords.

Oh, and I'm not paying Xbox 360 prices for games, they're just ridiculous. It's one of the reasons I'm not getting the box.

I hate to say it but I think I'll be picking up Burnout: Paradise later this month. The series has become increasingly less fun for me since B2 and the licensed pop-punk soundtracks of Takedown and Revenge made my ears bleed. Paradise seems to be taking a Midnight Club approach with its free-to-roam city and letting the player to enter challenges at any time which is a big draw for me. Also, the game looks gorgeous.

I remember paying $64.99 for FF2 and $69.99 for FF3. Games were expensive back then. On the other hand, there were less of them...

I rent my 360 games. Since most of them only last up to 10 hours anyway, it's a good investment for me. While I like the system (graphically, at least), it would be nice if there was something to play on it *other* than shooters.

Still don't have a Wii (and not likely to until March) so I can't really go in that direction for my games (not like there's much for the system anyway). The PS3 is on hold until next year.

There are many games I plan to buy this year, but I can't say there are any that I'm really looking forward to other than MGS4, and my interest level in that one isn't what it once was (I don't expect SF4 to see a home release until next year).  The game I want the most right now is Resident Evil 5, but that's 2009.  It should be interesting to see what Nintendo announces for later this year.  We know Kirby Wii, Animal Crossing Wii, Disaster, and Wii Music are all coming, but the company has basically nothing announced for DS and I'm sure there are some other secret Wii surprises in the pipeline.

ENDLESS OCEAN for Wii comes out the 21st... kinda like everblue except no time limits or things to kill you.. just freedom to explore underwater

Fable 2

"I need to know more about the new Gradius, but if it's a 2D effort and not some horrible 3D 'evolution' it's a no-brainer for me."

Yea, I remember reading about this a long time ago.  Has there been any news on it lately?

"Kirby SuperStar DS"

!!  NO WAY!!

And, thats it.  I couldn't think of ANY upcoming games before reading this thread outside of that upcoming Smash Bros. Brawl!  I guess FF Tactics A2, but thats technically already been released, just not translated.  But yea, no DS...

EDIT: OK, Forget my exclamation about KSS.  I just checked out the article on JeuxFrance.  Just a remake?  Thats great except I already have the game... and the 'redone' graphics don't look anywhere as cool (though I GUESS its nice to see a reimagined take on the art style) as the ones I'm used to!

I wonder if they've bothered to fix the massive bugs that plagued the Japanese version.

I'm another looking forward to Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law, Advance Wars Day of Ruin, Burnout Paradise, No More Heroes, Super Smash Bros Brawl, Okami (Wii), Mario Kart Wii, and Samba de Amigo.  Also, Bully Scholarship Edition on 360, Lost Planet on PS3, Star Wars Force Unleashed, and Lego Indiana Jones.  Hm, and maybe God of War on PSP and GTA IV.  All of this and more supposedly due in the first half of the year.  Who knows when Soul Calibur IV or Ghostbusters (360/PS3), Lego Batman is due or what else I'll try.  And who knows what XBLA/VC/PSN (goddammit, SCEA, release Intelligent Qube!) releases there will be.

Oh yeah, Harvey Birdman, forgot that.

They were fixed in the European version at least.

PS2:

Ar-Tonelico 2
Mana-Khemia

Honestly, I only really care for Gust RPGs for the soundtracks, though Atelier Iris 2 and Ar-Tonelico DID have their moments.

PS3:

Final Fantasy XIII

Even though I haven't played FFXII even though I bought it; I'm just not motivated; I don't think I really care anymore.

The trailers have really shown that FFXIII should be pretty action-packed.

The trailers I saw of FFXII were always just a bunch of talking and panning around pretty graphics. I don't care how quickly you swing the camera around the environment, or how quickly the camera changes between which character it focuses on; that's not action.

...

Honestly, I've grown pretty sick of all the stock RPGs that the PS2 has had to offer; I could really go for some Wii games right about now. I'd go for XBox 360, but a lot of the RPGs that system has to offer at this point are pretty stock, too; I'd just be paying more for the same old stuff, maybe with better graphics...

Ugh...
Looks like Atlus is coming out with another winner for the DS. Damn you Atlus! I don't have any time

http://www.atlus.com/rondoofswords/

I just saw the site for that, and I'm really interested also. I've been getting into such adventures ever since Hotel Dusk. Heh...I need to get away from the DS and review other games...