A Good Year for Gaming (Part One)

The next 12 months for PC games looks pretty sweet. I've finally had a little bit of spare time at work to catch up on some of the E3 ingame footage for releases over the next 12 months and I reckon we're in for a good year. While the number crunchers will judge a good year for games in the number of units sold or amount of turnover generated by a game, the gamers actually judge the year by the quality of releases. There were some good game releases last year, but just not a lot of them. Some games just hung there on the periphery and just didn't quite make legendary status, such as: Boiling Point, X3 and Gun. Ultimately, game developers tend to promise a lot more than they actually deliver (Driver 3 is a good example). Where game trailers tend not to be a true reflection of actually game play and the game, upon release, is well below the expectation created prior to its completion. As gamers we don't have much else to go on. A spattering of previews and reviews which can be found all over the internet and printed media.

All this aside there are a number of game releases that I am looking forward to in the next year and, for these titles I believe it is going to be a good year for gaming. Here are some of the titles I am looking forward to:

Crysis - If you haven't heard about this game then where have you been. This game really needs to be seen to be believed. If you haven't seen some of the ingame footage from this game then definitely download it. You will be blown away. Crysis is one of the games on the horizon which will utilise the new Aegia Physx processor. The environments and use of light in this game are revolutionary. This game is the game which will blow Half Life 2 out of the water. This game will feature the new engine by Crytek. Crytek, for my money, are a developer who are willing to push a systems limits without creating buggy software. Hopefully they can keep this up with Crysis and also give the big game developers a run for their money.
http://www.crysis-game.com/

Quake Wars - This will be the game to push the Doom 3 engine and add some spice to the boring "jump and gun" multiplayer scene. The second in the Enemy Territory series this game should be another one to look forward to. Offering objective based multiplayer, different character classes for each side (not just different skins) and massive maps this game will be the multiplayer game which sets to rock Battlefield 2 off its FPS Multiplayer mantle.
http://www.enemyterritory.com/

Dark Messiah: Might and Magic - I've just watched a long gameplay video of this and it looks unbelievable. Think of Oblivion on speed with destructable and usable environments. Facing an Ogre who you can't defeat, use the environment to kill it instead. The scope this game appears to have with environment interaction will be amazing. I haven't been a big fan of the Might and Magic franchise (just not my cup of tea), but this one looks like a game not to miss. This game is using the Source engine and it looks like Ubisoft are going to test its limits. It will be a single player RPG set in the fantasy world of Might and Magic.
http://www.mightandmagic.com/us/darkmessiah/teaser/

Alan Wake - I love a good horror game. I'm just playing Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines for the first time and the scene in the first part of the game where you go to the haunted hotel is one of the best pieces of horror gaming I have played for some time. This game looks excellent (although the story of the disturbed writer going to a small country town is a bit worn out). The lighting and environments look first class. As with any horror game it depends on how well they pace the story and how well the atmosphere works in game. I hope they can nail it with this game and produce a horror game worth playing this year.
http://www.alanwake.com/

Sam and Max - Sam and Max are finally back after their on again/off again/on again/off again development cycle for the sequel. To be honest I thought this game was dead in the water and Lucasarts have dropped it. The thing I'm not sure about with this one is the delivery system. The game will be delivered through Gametap. Have to see how this one pans out. Hopefully it will be filled with Sam and Max goodness which carries on the tradition of the first classic adventure in this series. I have only seen teaser trailers for this and they look like they are carrying on in the same vein.
http://www.samandmax.net/

There are quite a few more games on the horizon I am having a look at. I'll put together a look at the games I am looking out for this year over the next week.

to be continued...