I am very much into video games. I always have been, since I was a child and my dad would frequently bring me to an arcade where I developed some pretty amazing skills at air hockey and Virtua Fighter, which I’m still rather fantastic at today. Recently, I’ve been playing a whole lot of Fallout 3 and Call of Duty: Black Ops on the PlayStation 3.

Quite a few highly-anticipated video games will be released throughout 2011. Here are a few that gamers have been excited about for some time now.

Little Big Planet 2

Join Sackboy in a completely new platforming adventure spread across 50 levels.

Some time has passed since the events of the original game and its PSP sequel and Craftworld is in trouble. An evil device, force, thingy known as “The Negativitron” is threatening to suck up everyone and everything, including Sackboy, into the void. Only an intervention by a rebel organization known as “The Alliance” saves our hero. And with that Sackboy decides to lend his creative platforming powers to the cause. Along the way he’ll discover new abilities, gadgets, gameplay rules and innovative tools to get the job done.

Little Big Planet 2 is a puzzle-platforming game for PlayStation 3 with a new built-in functionality allowing players to create advanced content, including full-fledged games of all sorts, which can be shared with others within the Little Big Planet online network. The third game in the Little Big Planet franchise, the tool set within Little Big Planet 2 provides players with the ability to easily change the mapping of objects in-game, add abilities and non-player AI characters, create cut scenes, link levels and more. Additional features include backwards compatibility with content created with the original Little Big Planet game, a 50 level deep Story Mode and all new platforming gadgets.

Little Big Planet 2 will be released January 18, 2011
Available for the PlayStation 3 in standard edition ($57.99) and collector’s edition ($79.99)

Dead Space 2

Engineer Isaac Clarke returns for another bloodcurdling adventure in the sequel to the critically acclaimed Dead Space. After waking from a coma on a massive space city known as “The Sprawl,” the lone survivor of a horrific alien infestation finds himself confronting a catastrophic new nightmare. Battling dementia, hunted by the government, and haunted by visions of his dead girlfriend, Isaac will do whatever it takes to save himself and dominate the gruesome onslaught. With an arsenal of tools to dismember Necromorphs and new determination, an engineer will bring the terror to space.

Dead Space 2 is a third-person horror survival game in which players must battle an alien infestation straight out of a nightmare. The follow-up game to 2008’s original Dead Space, in this new release, players explore a whole new terrifying game environment and battle the Necromorph abominations utilizing new weapons and tools such as the powerful javelin gun and a new space suit with built-in booster rockets. Additional game features include improved telekinesis powers and online multiplayer functionality.

Dead Space 2 will be released January 25, 2011
Available for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 ($57.99)

Portal 2

Portal 2 draws from the award-winning formula of innovative gameplay, story, and music that earned the original Portal over 70 industry accolades and created a cult following. The single-player portion of Portal 2 introduces a cast of dynamic new characters, a host of fresh puzzle elements, and a much larger set of devious test chambers. Players will explore never-before-seen areas of the Aperture Science Labs and be reunited with GLaDOS, the occasionally murderous computer companion who guided them through the original game. The game’s two-player cooperative mode features its own entirely separate campaign with a unique story, test chambers, and two new player characters. This new mode forces players to reconsider everything they thought they knew about portals. Success will require them to not just act cooperatively, but to think cooperatively.

Portal will be released April 19, 2011
Available for the PC, Mac, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 ($54.99)

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

A search for the fabled “Atlantis of the Sands” propels fortune hunter Nathan Drake on a trek into the heart of the Arabian Desert. When the terrible secrets of this lost city are unearthed, Drake’s quest descends into a desperate bid for survival that strains the limits of his endurance and forces him to confront his deepest fears.

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception features an interactive cinematic experience that blurs the lines between games and Hollywood films and an epic single player campaign with evolved signature Uncharted gameplay. In addition to a single player campaign, it also features a new breed of Action Adventure Multiplayer that brings the exciting cinematic elements of the single-player campaign into multiplayer. The game also supports stereoscopic 3D gameplay.

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception will be released November 1, 2011
Available for the PlayStation 3 ($59.99)

Gears of War 3

Gears of War 3 is the spectacular conclusion to one of the most memorable and celebrated sagas in videogames. Developed by Epic Games exclusively for Xbox 360, Gears of War 3 plunges players into a harrowing tale of hope, survival and brotherhood. In Gears of War 3, players fight on as Marcus Fenix, the grizzled war hero and leader of Delta Squad. Eighteen months after the fall of the last human city, the war against the Locust rages on. Meanwhile, deep beneath the surface, a fearsome new threat is infecting the planet from within. With survivors scattered and civilizations in ruins, time is running out for Marcus and his comrades as they fight to save the human race. The Gears of War series is one of the most popular franchises in Xbox history, with more than 12 million games sold worldwide, an upcoming film, New York Times best-selling novels and more.

Gears of War 3 will be released during Q4 of 2011.
Available for Xbox 360 ($59.99)