20 more games to look out for in 2011: part one

You may well have spotted our gallery of 2011's most anticipated titles last week. We had to leave plenty of hugely promising and much-anticipated titles off the list, so over the next two days, we've got another 20 games for your delectation – all due out over the next 12 months.

I've stuck with mainstream console and PC releases; we'll cover mobile and indie titles in separate posts. For now, get your calendars ready and prepare to book several weeks off work ...

Brink
(Bethesda, PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
The latest shooter from Splash Damage, the independent UK developer behind Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, is set on a huge manmade island – the Ark – constructed after an ecological disaster and now descending into civil war. Players can to choose to join either the resistance or the Ark security, and all their missions are dynamically generated based on decisions within the game. The developers have also added a SMART button, which apparently evaluates where you're trying to get to, "and makes it happen" – so if you're confronted by a huge chasm, instead of having to make a pixel-perfect leap, the SMART system guess what you need to do and works out the details. We're also promised an integrated experience that merges multiplayer and single-player components, allowing gamers to developer their characters across both modes. This would appear to be a growing trend in game design, with Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, Test Drive Unlimited 2 and Square Enix's Mindjack all offering similarly seamless off- and online functionality. Whatever, let's hope the game can survive the inevitable comparisons with Kevin Costner's damp sci-fi flop, Waterworld.
Release: spring

Dead Space 2
(EA, PS3, Xbox 360)
The sequel to EA's sci-fi survival horror shooter is already pulling in ecstatic reviews and looks set to top the modest success of its acclaimed predecessor. Once again you're in the heavy boots of psychologically damaged space engineer Isaac Clarke as he finds himself in The Sprawl, a vast space station where idiotic scientists have unleashed a new Necromorph infestation. Along with the familiar mix of shocks, gore and dark passages, there are new monsters, new weapons and new upgrade systems. If you've ever fantasised about impaling a slavering space monster on its own javelin like limb, this'll be your chance…
Release: January 28

Deux Ex: Human Revolution
(Square Enix, PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
It's been almost eight years since the last instalment in the Deus Ex story, but soon we'll be back in the conspiracy-drenched cyberpunk universe originally created by the team behind cult classic, System Shock. This intriguing prequel takes place many years before the original title; mankind is only just starting to play with body augmentation, using biomechanical upgrades to enhance human abilities. You take control of Adam Jensen, a security guard at a leading biotechnology firm, who's badly injured in an attack on the company HQ and awaked to find himself heavily augmented and at the centre of a vast plot to guide civilisation toward a mechanised future. The developer, Eidos Montreal, reckons it's a comment on transhuman technologies and their implications. We just hope it has the same mix of FPS thrills and RPG depth as the first title.
Release: TBC

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
(Bethesda, PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
Bethesda's series of vast, open-ended RPG adventures returns this autumn, with a fifth instalment, seeking to build on the massive commercial and critical success of Oblivion, to which it is reportedly a direct sequel. Game director Todd Howard says the title has been in development since the team completed the last iteration three years ago and will be using a brand new in-house 3D engine. American magazine Game Informer has an exclusive on the first set of gameplay details – it's out later this month.
Release: November 11

FEAR 3
(Warner Bros, PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
The supernatural shooter leaps out at us again this year, now with added co-operative play. Now, spec-ops spook soldier Point Man must team up with his dead brother Paxton Fettel to prevent their evil mum Alma from birthing a world-ending evil. Now that is a family with issues. John Carpenter and horror writer Steve Niles have been brought aboard to up the horror factor, and the E3 demo showed plenty of the gore, hallucinatory sequences and ectoplasmic monster encounters we've come to know and love.
Release: TBC

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
(UbiSoft, PS3, Xbox 360)
Three years after the excellent Advanced Warfighter titles, we're finally set for a return to Tom Clancy's squad-based tactical shooter series. This time, your outfit of highly trained specialists is up against a group of "ultra-nationalist" Russians looking to invade neighbouring states (yes, it's those Russians again). As usual, your men will be packing plenty of prototype military hardware including exo-skeletons, heavily armed tank robots and optical camouflage that renders you partially invisible. Expect a slightly more brain-teasing challenge than the gung-ho Call of Duty series, though we're not sure this will be a full return to the strategy-heavy squad management of olde.
Release: spring

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
(Capcom, DS)
The latest offbeat adventure puzzler from Shu Takumi, the creator of the Ace Attorney series, sees a murder victim named Sissel return to Earth as a spirit to solve the mystery of his own slaying. As a ghost, Sissel is able to possess objects, operating them in order to affect the fate of other characters; he's also able to rewind time by four-minutes allowing him to prevent the murders of others. It's another intriguing and offbeat selection of logic problems, with lots of narrative twists and lateral leaps, all brought to live via some beautifully idiosyncratic anime visuals. The first DS must-have of the year?
Release: January 14

God Eater Burst
(Namco Bandai, PSP)
Released almost a year ago in Japan, this fantasy action adventure from Namco Bandai drew excellent reviews and became something of a sleeper hit. Now, the development team has created an updated version for the European market, complete with various tweaks and entirely new gameplay features. The action is set on a post-apocalyptic Earth, over-run by mutant beasts who can only be combated with powerful "God Arc" weapons. Players need to battle these monsters either alone or in groups of up to four participants, picking up weapon refinements and customisation items as they go. Yep, it sounds a lot like Monster Hunter, except the single-player campaign is apparently much more robust, with a proper story and lots of NPCs to interact with. Alongside the likes of Valkyria Chronicles 3 and Patapon 3, it's set to be a key PSP release of the year.
Release: TBC

inFAMOUS 2
(Sony, PS3)
Electrified super hero Cole MacGrath is back in another sprawling open-world adventure, this time tackling an evil entity known as The Beast, which has destroyed Empire City and is now working its way down the coast, voraciously munching through urban areas. Developer Sucker Punch is pushing its "complete overhaul" of the super power system, as well as improved melee combat and even more vibrant environments, including the city of New Marais, "featuring over 100 simultaneous characters on screen, new gangs, destructible buildings and collapsible environments". The original looked lovely and was great fun – we're expecting more of the same here.
Release: TBC

Journey
(Sony, PS3)
Here's the latest avant garde adventure from thatgamecompany, the creators of PSN oddities flOw and Flower. It's another spare, seamless experience, based around intuitive controls and the ability to genuinely explore and interactive with the natural environment. This time, however, we're being led to expect a darker experience as the player explores an eerie, unknown world, investigating an ancient civilisation. Intriguingly, there's an online component, with participants able to meet another player en route – but there are no lobbies and no gamer tags, so this one-on-one relationship remains ephemeral and anonymous. Journey also looks beautiful of course, complete with "fully simulated sand dunes" that ripple as you walk.
Release: TBC