Games out this Year in ANZ...

With a quiet first week at retail, we take a look forwards at the biggest hitters expected to reach our shores in 2012.

As tends to happen later in the consoles' life cycles, there will be many a massive sequel this year, but the nature of new IP is such that it tends to sneak up on us, so there's still plenty of room for manouvreing.

The grand return of Irrational Games with Bioshock Infinite will be one of the defining moments for gamers this year, alongside sequels to other hits which never quite broke out into th emainstream including Prey 2 (which is looking phenomenal), The Darkness II (which is only just around the corner) and Metro: Last Light.

A couple of heavy-hitters which missed Australian / New Zealand shores last year include Star Wars: The Old Republic, which will undoubtedly cause a huge rift in the MMO scene this year and may even give World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria a run for its money, while the quirky puzzler Catherine will finally make its way here in February.

Smart money would bet on a new Call of Duty game hitting this year, although there have been no announcements as yet, but the likelihood of another showdown between it and Battlefield is highly unlikely as chances are better it'll have Grand Theft Auto V to contend with.

On the Rockstar tip, Max Payne 3 is set to lead a year of re-imaginings (if it can so be called), with Tomb Raider bringing us back to Lara Croft's roots, DmC (the Devil May Cry reboot) being handled by the crack team at Ninja Theory, Spec Ops: The Line promising an edgier take on war, and Syndicate (the game recently refused classification in Australia), which ought to come together nicely, being developed by the always-sublime Starbreeze Studios.

New IP aren't completely absent from this year's lineup, however, with The Last of Us from Naughty Dog looking interesting, The Last Guardian still being the fairy tale epic every gamer worth their salt is salivating for (in spite of personnel reshuffles) and Dishonored from Bethesda and Arcade Studios.

Of course, this cavalcade of core games doesn't even begin to touch the sides of the year in gaming ahead, with the 3DS entering its adolescence, the Wii U making its debut and being a complete wild card, and the PS Vita looking to reclaim a spot in consumers' pockets.

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