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The Best of 1UP 2011: Previews

Take a trip through 1UP’s best previews for 2011.

By: 1UP Staff December 22, 2011

If you read previews to learn what to play, this list is pretty much worthless, since seven of the 10 games listed below are now for sale and our reviews for those would probably serve you better. But since we love back patting and are comfortable enough opening the vault for you to make fun of things we said earlier in the year — continuing this week’s theme of listing the best 1UP content from 2011 — here are 10 previews we think hold up and remain worth reading now that the year is (basically) over.

Jump to: Best of News | Best of Podcasts | Best of Blogs | Best of Previews
Best of Features | Best of Community | Best of Guides | Best of Video

Best of Reviews | Best of Retrospectives

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  I Played Skyrim Wrong, but It Felt So Right

  A pride of point with
  Skyrim is how sandbox-y it is. You’re dropped into the world of Tamriel, and can decide your own fate from then on. Do you follow the main quest to slay the elder dragon? Or do you work for the Thieve’s Guild? Maybe murder homeowners and stuff their corpses
  with potatoes? In this preview, we tested this openness by going completely off-path and off-script. We had no use for the plot spoiler guidelines, because we were too busy doing other stuff in this preview.

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  Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition is Arcade Perfection

  “Hey,” you might say,
  “that headline sounds more like a review title than a preview title.” But that’s just how confident 1UP’s Jose Otero was after seeing Capcom and Iron Galaxy’s XBLA/PSN port of one of the best 2D fighters of all time.

• 
  
  

  BioShock Infinite Jumps From 1912 to 1983 And Back

  BioShock Infinite
  picked up more or less every major award at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo — for good reason, considering how well its skylines and combat seemed to mix together in a fascinating world-in-the-sky.

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  Six Things We Want to See in Final Fantasy XIII-2

  Halfway through the
  year, Jeremy wrote an article highlighting 6 changes that could elevate Final Fantasy XIII-2 far beyond its predecessor. Well, it’s time to get your pitchforks out, because witchcraft is the only way that we could have predicted these major enhancements which
  have almost all found there way into FFXIII-2. The sequel is shaping up to be the first hit of 2011, and 1UP seemed to know why a long time ago.

• 
  
  

  Setting the Stage for Skyward Sword: A Legend of Zelda Primer

  No series is as obsessed
  with its own history as The Legend of Zelda, and this trend certainly hasn’t changed with Skyward Sword. And, given that the game takes place at the beginning of the much-disputed timeline, it has a sizable amount of history to establish. Check out Jeremy’s
  extensive preview to find out how the latest Zelda echoes its extensive legacy.

• 
  
  

  Marvel vs Capcom 3: Ultimate Character Guide

  Hard-fighting expert
  Neidel Crisan waxes eloquent over Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, offering a preview that remains useful long after the game’s launch thanks to its dual function as a character guide and in-depth how-to for the game’s basics and more subtle mechanics alike.

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  Deus Ex: Human Revolution: Choose Your Own Gameplay

  This 1UP preview goes
  the choose-your-own-adventure route by offering two player perspectives. Will you take the steathly route and follow Jeremy Parish or run in the fray Guns Blazin’ with Theirry “Scooter” Nguyen?

• 
  
  

  20 Things We Learned About Batman: Arkham City

  Seeing a live gameplay
  demonstration of a new game for the first time can be an overwhelming experience. Besides seeing what the heck the game is like for the first time, in the case of sequels, we also have to absorb all the shiny new features and tweaks as well. For this writeup
  of Batman: Arkham City, rather than tease it out over regular prose, we break down 20 new facts we gleaned from our first demonstration.

• 
  
  

  E3 2011: Dark Souls Will Kill You

  Months before Dark
  Souls released to critical acclaim, we had a hunch it was going to be something special. When we saw the game at E3 back in June, series director Hidetaka Miyazaki described the game as “spicy, but edible.” These words offer a brief, but deliciously apt portrayal
  of all that is Dark Souls– a devilishly hot dish that you gladly devour through the pain.

• 
  
  

  The Witness is a “Longform Game” From the Guy Who Made Braid

  Jonathan Blow, the creator of Braid, invited our own Matt Leone to his house to spend some serious time getting to know his newest game, The Witness.