One word: Blizzard. This year, you'll feel the massive storm Blizzard is about to unleash. Three franchises, three major treats for gamers and fans alike. First up, Diablo III: the sequel to Lord of Destruction. Next up, Starcraft II: with three whole campaigns spawning over 3 whole discs and at least a hundred missions to complete, I don't see why people wouldn't be jumping up and down like little kids. Finally, World of Warcraft. Yes, Wrath of the Lich King was released last month but what's the wrath all about if you can't bloody kick his ass? Blizzard has yet to release the Icecrown Citadel instance where players will finally be able to meet up with Arthas himself and send his ass flying back to kingdom come. Just like the Burning Crusade before, the Black Temple patch which was where Illidan was brought in, came only weeks after the release.
Moving on, from the World of Warcraft to the Dawn of War. THQ's much anticipated Warhammer 40,000 series makes a come back in Dawn of War II. Just the thought of playing as the Tyranids gets me excited. With a new user interface and some tweaks to the system here and there, Dawn of War II might just bring the RTS genre up to a whole new level.
Still with the space theme, I'm sure many have heard of Bioware and Lucasarts' new MMO titled Star Wars: The Old Republic. Although this might not even hit retail until maybe early 2010, I'm expecting the beta to take place around the end of this year. And where Galaxies failed, I hope The Old Republic succeeds.
"Third time out for the best-selling PC game of all time. With less monotony and more sexcapades." was what PC Gamer wrote about the Sims 3. Rejoice Sims fans (for I ain't one of them) as one of the what should be called the world's best god-game will be hitting shelves some time soon. Moving out of the household crap, your sims actually venture into the open (virtual) world. Going to school, going to work, form relationships, die in a god-forsaken alley. Heck, there's even some RPG-ish character development as in character skills and a whole load of other crap you can think about.
Valve has also stuff to say. We already know that a class pack will be shoved into our faces real soon for Team Fortress 2. Since it's release back in October 2007 bundled together in the Orange Box, we've already seen, multiple new maps, arena and payload game-modes, 3 class packs and a whole lot more from the mod community. What's started back in 2007 will continue in 2009 when each class finally receives unlockables of their own. The same goes for Left 4 Dead. Death Toll and Dead Air will be added as versus maps. Most probably new campaigns will be added to further add the zombie apocalyptic mayhem.
Sequels anyone? Let's just say, FEAR 2: Project Origins, Bioshock 2, Portal 2, and maybe Half-Life 2: Episode Three. The recent announcement trailer for Bioshock 2 shows and older Little Sister standing on a beach somewhere on the Atlantic Coast with a stuffed Big Daddy in her hand looking into the ocean. As the camera pans away from her, the same behind her rises to form a mini sandcastle version of Rapture. The screen then fades to black and the Bioshock logo shows with corals growing on it. As for FEAR, I never was a fan of the game. Played it, enjoyed it and never wanted to play it again. Moving on to Valve's sequels, Episode Three will pick up where Episode Two left off. The plot involves the Borealis, a research vessel owned by Aperture Science Industries. And that brings us to Portal 2. Let's just say this is a prequel instead of a sequel.
Next up we have Ghostbusters. You've seen the screenshots, checked the site. Now just know that the game hasn't been cancelled. They just switched publishers. Atari's publishing the game now. And then, comes an MMO from my side of the world. Utilizing the CryEngine (the one used for Far Cry), NCsoft's Aion: The Tower of Eternity will be out sometime in the middle of this year. Although the US and EU website gives you nuts for gameinfo, hanging around the official Korean site and look through their media section says alot. Air battles? Yes and looking forward. Korea's into open beta so if you're feeling up to it, go take a look.
Console port-overs are the "in thing" now. In the past year we've had Fable, Gears of War and gos knows what else. Just recently, we've had the infamous (and awfully sexy) Grand Theft Auto IV being released for the PC. In the next couple of months, we'll be seeing Mirror's Edge, Burnout Paradise and maybe The Last Remnant at a later date. What I'm hoping for is that Fable II and Gears of War 2 gets ported over to the PC as well.
Of course, there's still Battlefield Heroes: EA's free-web-browser-cartoon shooter. The devs say "late 2008" but now's "early 2009" and we wait still? Sadly, yes. Last but not least, we'll put Tom Clancy into the list. Expect the release of Tom Clancy's EndWar (finally) and of course Tom Clancy's HAWX which stands for High Altitude Warfare eXperimental squadron.
Of course, there's a whole lot more to talk about. However, I'm feeling slightly lazy and it's already 1 in the morning. Maybe in the days to come alright? (This ain't a promise, jerks! *laffs*)
