Black Ops 2, Halo 4, and Assassin’s Creed 3 rank as Nielson’s ‘most anticipated’ console games for Holiday 2012

The holidays are quickly approaching. With November right around the corner comes all of the early Black Friday details and upcoming sales. So which games are consumers most anxious for? Nielson has compiled a list for the Holiday 2012's (Q4 2012) most anticipated console games.

Unsurprisingly, Halo 4 ranks as the most highly-anticipated title for Xbox 360, followed closely by Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. Rounding out the top three on Xbox 360 is Assassin's Creed 3 which is set to release at the end of this month (October 30).

For PS3, the rankings are fairly similar except for the top spot since Halo 4 is an Xbox exclusive. On PS3, Black Ops 2 ranks first, followed by Assassin's Creed 3, and surprisingly Resident Evil 6 which has already been released. It's surprising to see Resident Evil 6 so high on the list considering it got a 67 on Metacritic and an abysmal 4.5 from the users.

Also appearing on the list for both consoles is NBA 2K13, WWE '13, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, and Hitman: Absolution.

The Nintendo Wii differs drastically in terms of what gamers are looking for. Just Dance 4 is the top ranked game followed by Zumba Fitness Core, LEGO The Lord of the Rings,Just Dance: Disney Party, and Epic Mickey: The Power of Two (which I'm actually surprised didn't crack the top 10 for Xbox 360 or PS3).

The Wii U, which is releasing on November 18, was not included in the survey.

The data was collected from September 9 to October 6, 2012, via online surveys of more than 4,800 male and female active gamers between ages 7 and 54. According to the methodology, the overall anticipation level was derived from "leveraging several key consumer metrics into one overall score. That score was then compared to scores from all previous games released on the same platform at the same point in their release cycles, to determine the percentile ranking of the upcoming console." You can see the full details at the Nielson blog.

Any games you're looking forward to that didn't make the list?