Seven 2011 Game Announcements Waiting to Happen

A damn Final Fantasy VII Remake

By far the least likely to become a reality, a Final Fantasy VII remake would shut down the entire internet in a matter of minutes. Every so often people still insist on asking when this is going to come out, even several years after the infamous tech demo debuted that was meant only to demonstrate the PS3’s capabilities. With Square Enix taking their sweet-ass time to make less-than-impressive games this generation, this seems like nothing more than a pipe dream.

But as any gamer knows, Squeenix always finds time for a remake, rerelease, remake of a rerelease; just look at pretty much every Final Fantasy game before VII for proof. One could argue that those are all 2D games that are easily ported and prettied-up. Then again, overhauling Final Fantasy IV was no small feat, even for the DS. Here, Squeenix saw fit to convert the game to a full-3D look, complete with cutscenes and voice acting that blew away what was on the original SNES version.

The single biggest reason this needs to happen is that this would address the fact that FFVII is one of the go-to examples of 3D games aging as gracefully as Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis. While it’s still as fun as ever, playing FFVII today is a true test of a gamer’s love for gameplay over graphics.

At the very least, we need to quiet the fanboys asking about it every other month. Holy hell, people.

Gran Turismo 6

On the surface, Gran Turismo 5 seems to be a success — early signs show that the game has sold well, and at its core is arguably the finest racing simulator that consoles have ever seen.

Compared to previous Gran Turismo entries, though, GT5 was lacking in several key areas. While the amount of cars within the game was far more than in any previous game, the vast majority of them were simply spit-polished PS2 models that paled in comparison to their premium counterparts. Even on Premium models shadows could be a mess, especially when dirt or tire smoke was in the background.

Simply put, it simply wasn’t up to Gran Turismo’s ridiculous standards, even after 5+ years in development. We already know that development on GT6 is well underway; Kazunori Yamauchi has already said so himself. That means we should expect to see an official trailer teasing the game sometime this year. The game obviously won’t come out in 2011, but it would be a bit disappointing if Sony didn’t announce plans for 2012. With Forza 4 breathing down their neck, it would be foolish for Polyphony Digital to rest on their laurels.

In the meantime I’ll continue to lose myself in GT5’s Photo Mode, weeding out all of the pictures ruined by the light hitting the dust cloud behind the car the wrong way.

Harmonix Goes Away from Rock Band

In the middle of the raging success of Guitar Hero III and Rock Band in 2007, it was hard to imagine that the music genre of games would ever fade. Three short years later, though, and that’s exactly what happened, as neither Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock nor Rock Band 3 did anything remotely resembling good sales.

Harmonix’s recent sale made planning for next year presumably tricky. As you might already know, they recently bought themselves out for about $50, the list price of a copy of RB3. However, this “bargain” comes at the expense of taking on the companie’s liabilities, mainly music rights and unsold games/instruments; along with tax benefits, the deal was worth about $150 million.

Needless to say, that’s a lot of cash. Can Harmonix afford to put out another game as expensive as Rock Band? Apart from the licensing for the huge library in Rock Band 3 (both on-disc and from DLC imports), developing a new keyboard peripheral along with the Pro guitar mode couldn’t have been cheap.

The solution, then, lies in perhaps going back to their roots. Rather than a full blown Rock Band game, it might be time to do a sequel to Frequency and Amplitude, the games they made before rising through the ranks with Guitar Hero. Imagine a Harmonix game in which nothing more is required but the controller that came with your console; hell, they’ve already dipped into this with Dance Central for Kinect and Rock Band games for the PSP and DS.

While I don’t know for sure how well something different would sell, it definitely can’t do worse than Rock Band 3, a game that deserved better than to be ignored.

Readers Comments (7)

  1. Harmonix already made Dance Central…

    Also I am pretty sure it was said that even if a FF7 remake were to be made it would be after the whole XIII saga.

    • Dance Central was in development before HMX was put up for sale. Also, Dance Central = 2010.

  2. I expect some sort of FORMAL announcement for HL2 Episode 3 this year, my guess being after the ending of Portal 2 or just later in the year.

  3. TheFirstAvenger January 14, 2011 @ 04:16

    Warhawk sequel?

  4. Looking forward to play Grand Theft Auto V! It’s definitely going to be the bomb.

  5. Looking forward to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim being delayed to 2012. ๐Ÿ™

    ~d

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