2011's List of Anticipation

So, now we're in 2011, I'm looking ahead to some of the awesome stuff that is coming our way this year. You thought 2010 was good? 2011 will blow you away!

1. Doctor Who Series 6

I proclaim myself to be the biggest Doctor Who fan in Sunderland, and so it's without a doubt that the next series of Doctor Who is at number 1. With the Christmas special now out of the way, we can fully get hyped for series 6a/6b, as I shall call them. Remember that this series has been split into two, with one half due to be shown in the Spring, and the other due to be shown in the Autumn.

Judging by the trailer, we've got some great surprises in store, including the return of the Ood, River apparently naked, the discovery that Stetsons are cool, and some mysterious symbols on Amy's face...

Finally, we may get some answers to last year's finale and discover the true meaning of the TARDIS exploding and those haunting words... Silence will fall.

2. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2 and Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya

When Manga Entertainment announced they picked up the licenses for Haruhi, I jumped for joy.

I've been waiting for series 2 since it was originally aired in Japan in Summer 2009. Yes, I watched every single episode of Endless Eight, coming back every week hoping that it would end; and also trying to figure out how it would end. May people were disappointed with series 2, but I thought it was good enough. Not as brilliant as the first series, but still highly entertaining.

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya is the real jewel. Originally, I wasn't going to watch it via a stream, but last summer I gave in and watched a cinema recording. Yes, the quality of the recording was rubbish, but the quality of the film was pure gold. This is my recommend must watch anime release of 2011.


3. Nintendo 3DS

Ah, the 3DS. We'll soon get to hold in our hands Nintendo's re-entry into 3D gaming, which should hopefully be a roaring success. I've been looking forward to this since it's E3 2010 announcement, and especialy some of the hit titles it promises to deliver. I'll definitely be pre-ordering it soon enough, hopefully with enough cash to spare for a game to go with it.

4. Shogun 2: Total War

As you should all know by now, I love Total War. So when a new Total War release comes about, what do I do? I stand up and shout about it of course! Shogun 2 is the sequel to the critically acclaimed Shogun: Total War,which focusses on the Sengoku period of Japanese history. I have been waiting for an update for the game that started off the series for a while now, so I simply can't wait. I am planning on buying the Collector's Edition, which comes in a replica bamboo box, with art book, figurine and the limited edition version of the game.

The only thing is, I haven't yet finished Napoleon and I now have Empire after it was on Steam for half price, so these Total War games are just stacking up for me to finish.

5. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

And so at number five, we come to Skyward Sword, the next epic addition to the ever expanding legend that is The Legend of Zelda. This was the biggest game at E3 last year for me, even if there was too much interference for the on-stage demo. Still, I'm loving the beautiful visual style, and I am looking forward to seeing this in my hands by this Christmas. If they stop delaying it further, that is.

6: A Memory of Light - Book Fourteen of The Wheel of Time

I know the release date for this has been pushed back from it's original November 2011, but I'm still putting it in here, for it deserves a mention as one of the great things to come in late 2011/early 2012. Some of you may know that I'm a big fan of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series of epic fantasy novels, and so would understand my anticipation for the final novel in the series.

As I write this I'm around half way through Towers of Midnight, and enjoying every second of it.The Trolloc hordes are smashing into the Borderlands, while Matt has to prepare to face the Aelfinn and Eelfinn in the Tower of Ghenjei; with Perrin facing the horrors of his past, and Rand opening himself up at last, and seemingly beginning to right some of the wrongs he has made.

And that's all I should spoil really, I won't go into anything more, but for sure when I've finished reading it, I will await A memory of Light with great anticipation.

7. Pokémon Black and White

I still continue to play Heart Gold, but after not giving it as much attention as I should have, Black and White should be what I need to make me play Pokémon a lot of the time for the next year.

After not buying both games for the fourth gen, I'll be back to doing it for the fifth gen; due to the greater reliance on version differences these upcoming games.

I still stand on my opinion that they should not have changed Isshu to Unova. They haven't needed to localise the region name before, so I don't think it particularly needed to be done. however, it is supposed to be a New York style region, so I guess they do have at least some legitimate reason to pull it off. the localised Pokémon names I'm pretty happy about overall, they seem to be keeping them in line with previous generations at least.

With the new region, Pokémon, and online random battles, Black and White should be blast.

8. Portal 2

"I'm still alive." yeah, you better be GLaDos, or else we wouldn't be seeing Portal 2. I never actually played Portal until last Summer, but I really enjoyed playing around with the Portal mechanic. Hopefully valve can give us a game that just doesn't feel like a reiteration of the first game, and it's looking like it won't be with quite a few new puzzle elements that they've added in. It's a game I'm really lookign forward to, although I'm not sure if this will be a release day purchase or not.

9: Torchwood: Miracle Day

It'll be good to see Torchwood  back when it hopefully returns for a fourth series sometime this year. Previously known as New World, Miracle Day will see Torchwood's biggest story yet, spanning from the US to Wales and to Shanghai. I won't give anything away here, but if you want the plot, head over to Doctor Who Online.

10: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D

Finally, we come to the 3DS reworking of Ocarina of Time. The game supposedly has a few fixes of certain frustrating elements of the original, for example the menu screens, and judging by the screenshots, it's looking quite a bit better than it's N64 original, with much better textures, which you can evidently see when you look at the dungeon walls.

I loved playing the original, even though it was the Wind Waker bonus disc version. I didn't 100% complete it however, as I was missing about three heart containers or something when I went off to defeat Ganondorf. But still, it's an awesome game and one I'm looking forward to replaying, this time in 3D.