Are you sitting in front of your computer, looking at this site, and wondering what on earth you’ll do to keep yourself occupied until the official release of Meridian Core Online? Me too!

Since the release of our game (for beta testing) is still at least a year away I thought it would be cool to compile a list of the top games that I’ll be playing or at least anticipating to get me through this phase of the process. Don’t get me wrong, I’m busting serious tail here, but we all need a little downtime and here are the titles I’ll be getting my fix on until our first project is complete.

They appear on the list in no particular order, but I of course had to start with……dun dun dunnnnn………

1) Grand Theft Auto 5: Ok so you don’t need me to tell you anything about this game because you don’t live under a rock, but just in case you haven’t had a chance to pic it up yet I recommend it on scale alone. This game is HUUUUUGE and the amount of attention paid to detail is astonishing. I would say it’s easily the most ambitious game project to date and it certainly shows. And here’s a fun little tip for you. If you happen to find the Ten Cent Theater don’t just pass it by. You can actually go in there and watch a rather impressive animation called The Loneliest Robot.

2) Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm: Ok I know what you’re thinking, games based off of anime are terrible. The Dragon Ball games totally sucked (except for that one) and you’ve all but given up hope on a good anime based game. The Pokemon games were great but they don’t count. Why? Because fuck you that’s why.

This Naruto game is top notch. The animation is fantastic. It actually looks like a traditionally animated game. The fighting engine is very simple yet still engaging, and the heavy story is enough to keep you emotionally addicted to it to the very end. Also, getting to play as a hundred trillion different characters doesn’t hurt either. It stops the game from ever getting redundant. Play this game. Fo real.

3) The Last of Us: Sure the Zombie genre is so played out it probably won’t ever make another retro return again for the rest of the history of the universe, but this game is actually amazing. While slightly reminiscent of Eco this game maintains true to the roots it gets it’s inspirations from (zombies) and can be pretty damn intense.

4) League of Legends: I’m honestly not sure I need to even say anything about this. You’ve already been playing it for months anyways. So instead of putting the game trailer on this post I thought I’ve spice it up a little and post some of their completely awesome artist spotlight trailers. I honestly think Riot Games is cool as hell for doing this. Will I ever be this good in Photoshop? Sigh……

There are many more artist spotlights from this series if you’re interested. THey’re all over youtube.

5) Since it would be hypocritical of me to not post at least ONE indie game I had to post this next title.

Castle Crashers: This game deserves it. I’m not gonna lie, the guys over at Behemoth are my heroes. They wanted to make games……and they made games. THey might not have started with more than a few pennies to their names and had a team that could be counted on less than all of the fingers of one hand, but they made it happen dammit! But that’s not why this title deserves it’s shoutout. It deserves it because it’s actually a really great game. It’s funny, has kickass animation, and the gameplay is really fun. The ending is also quite superb.

6) Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls: “But this demonic game isn’t out yet so how can you” “Shhhhhh……..you don’t need to say anything more. You had me at ‘demonic’”. Maybe that’s a shallow reason to be highly anticipating this title but what can I say? I like demons. Also there’s this amazing trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cb7QJwQ58T0

7) Powerstone 2: One of the best party games of all time. I still love my Dreamcast. Guess I’m nostalgic.

8) Bastion: This game is so gorgeous it makes it on the list for art quality alone.

9) Titanfall: Ok so this isn’t out yet either, but I could watch the trailers and gameplay videos of this all day. It’s amazing.

10) Astro Boy: The Omega Factor: I don’t care what anyone says, this Gameboy Advance game is making the list. This is easily my favorite platformer of all time. Brought to you by the team that did the amazing Guardian Heroes game for Sega Saturn (which they later butchered by changing everything about the game for the sequels. That’s a different story altogether though.) this game packs some serious punch. With RPG elements mixed in with traditional platformer pacing and colorful graphics. The fighting engine is awesome. Oh and did I mention you can constantly power up your brutality loving robot child boy hero and by the time the game’s over for the second time, yes they make you play it through twice but you’re not angry because you love it, he’s an ass-kicking rabid lover of destruction god like deathbot? Yeah….it’s fucking great.

And just to add to the nostalgia factor here’s the Toonami review of the game from back when it should have been the number one selling game on the shelves.

11) Tomb Raider: For all intents and purposes I had considered this a dead franchise for quite some time. Which is actually sad considering it started out as a completely ground breaking title with one of the coolest heroes we’d seen in a long time. This version finally shows Lara back at her best, and I love every second of it. THe attention to detail is stunning, the landscapes are perilous, the action is white knuckle, and the tombs are very tomby. Glad to see ya back Ms. Croft.