With 2011 being an awesome year for new releases with titles gaining headlines and brownie points among fans worldwide, there have been games over the last 3 years that haven’t earned that status.
Certain titles have fallen under the radar, despite being wonderful games at the time. These games which fell among the giant titles it was released against have now found a soft spot among small groups of fans.
Raven’s Singularity was one of these rarities. Failing to reach the level of other first person shooters, it found a cult following with its rawness, gritty maps and beautiful graphics.
Singularity was released mid 2010 to little fanfare and it could have been found at the bottom of many dump bins. With Raven now in development alongside Sledgehammer and Infinity Ward making the new Modern Warfare 3, it can be certain that Singularity will be resurrected.
With the disastrous response to EA’s Medal of Honour in October last year, saw stocks fall and fans become idle. The Call of Duty wannabe had huge expectations and failed miserably. Fans that look passed its flaws will see a superb; military based shooter with class and realism.
Alan Wake was a title that had little marketing and fanfare behind it to launch it alongside other thriller based third person shooters. The plight of author Alan Wake finding his missing wife, failed to pull the heart strings. In order to gain more exposure, Microsoft pulled out 3 DLC just months after the game was released. There are rumours Alan Wake 2 is in development.
When Dead Space was first released in 2008, it was deemed as a survival horror title made only for dedicated, horror enthusiasts to play in the dark. EA announced they had stopped making the game and with the release of the sequel this January, many have questioned why. The survival of Isaac Clarke earned a small plethora of fans dedicating fan pages, YouTube videos and even artwork to the engineer.
As gamers, it is painful to see titles we have attached ourselves to fail to make that connection with other players. Games such as Crackdown 2, Dead to Rights and even Heavy Rain never seemed to make that emotional attachment to the masses. Whilst it is difficult to match the fan favourite rivals such as Gears of War, Call of Duty and Halo, we know that the games that never really take off have a special place in our hearts.
