Eurogamer Expo 2011: Most wanted
We highlight the titles that we're excited about come this Christmas
The sound of sleigh bells, artificial snow and jingling tills draws ever closer as we slip towards the darkest part of the year and its associated orgy of consumerism. On the plus side, that means we have plenty of new games to look forward to (and badger our nearest and dearest into buying for us). At this year’s Eurogamer Expo, we’ve had the opportunity to get some quality hands-on time with the most anticipated new titles from all the biggest publishers. Here’s our Most Wanted list.
We’ve already waxed lyrical about how much we’re looking forward to Bethesda’s Skyrim, but we’re very happy to report that our time with the preview code has only made us more excited about its impending release.
Very obviously following in the footsteps of Oblivion, the previous installment in the series, Skyrim has the same open world, deep character customisation and immediate sense of immersion as its predecessor. Combat feels more visceral, though, with gory set-pieces that are triggered, Fallout 3 style, by particularly effective kills.
Even using the modest graphical capabilities of the Xbox360 that we played the demo on, the effect of the improved game engine is immediately apparent, with an even more lush and realistic landscape than ever before. The attention to detail and sense of a world that could happily carry on with or without our protagonist was also strongly in evidence, particularly in details such as notes left by a bandit chief for his minions. Although we’re trying to keep a lid on our expectations, this brief time wandering the icy forests of Skyrim has left us even more excited than we started.
Skyrim hits the shelves on 11th November. We don’t expect to be getting out much until well after Christmas.
