All of the games I was really looking forward to have pretty much been launched at this point, with a few exceptions I’ll note below. I wanted a new MMO and was looking forward to Warhammer Online. This turned out to be a flop, at least from my perspective. I was looking forward to Warhammer II (again, sort of a flop in my view). Next was Empire Total War (a home run, though I hope they do an expansion soon). Then there was the mini-expansion for Sins (jury is still out…I just can’t seem to get into it though).
And that was pretty much everything I was looking forward to with the exception of Diablo III and Starcraft II, which don’t look like they are going to be released this year (hard to say…I think one of them is listed as 4 quarter of this year, but it seems like Bliz releases only when they are ready and I haven’t heard much about the beta for either).
So…what PC games are you still looking forward to this year? Anything interesting coming out in 2009?
ArmA 2 Assassin’s Creed 2 is also due out this year, if I recall correctly.
I have high hopes about the first one, though I haven’t really been impressed by anything this year yet so… hey. AC ought to be good though.
The people behind Jet Thunder, a Falklands sim, say they want to finish it this year, but like Fighter Ops it’s a flight simulator that is apparently just going to be in development forever, instead.
Dragon Age, Bioshock 2, Diablo III and StarCraft II are all up there on my list. I’m really hopeful that DC Universe Onlinewill be released this year, but I think it will be 2010.
I’m still piddling around with Fallout 3 and the original Crysis…I plan on getting Crysis: Warhead at some point. I really like these FPS games with awesome graphics now that I have a computer that can run them well. I haven’t yet got COD 4 (and now they’re on COD 5, right?) and I’d like to pick that up as well.
Any other games that match my liking that are coming out that I should try?
the Drakensang prequel (although I doubt it’ll be out in 2009).
Mass Effect 2
Ghostbusters
Diablo 3 (but given Blizzards track record with release date, I doubt if it’ll be out before 2011)
Dragon Age
It’s getting increasingly rare for there to be a PC game I care about that isn’t also a console game, which is a little sad, but also saves me a lot of money in upgrades. I haven’t bought a PC-only title since The Witcher, and even that is coming out on the 360 pretty soon (glad I didn’t wait though). I also don’t care about anything that isn’t an RPG, so maybe that has something to do with it.
That said, I really am looking forward to Dragon Age: Origins. I don’t know if I’ll end up getting it on PC or 360, because I keep hearing rumors that the PC version will be somehow better, but I can’t seem to find anything backing them up. Kinthalis, why do you think it will be better on PC? Do you know something I don’t?
Also, Apocalypso, I thought ME2 was due out in 2010. Am I wrong? Seems like there’s been suspiciously little press for a game that’ll be out within 7 months.
Dragon Age: Origins is a Bioware game right? That means it’ll more than likely ship with a construction kit to make your own campaigns/mods. That alone would make the PC version a much better option IMO.
DA will be loads better on PC for the following reasons:
It’s a PC port to the console. Bioware in their great wisdom, developed this game as a PC game first, and a console game second (in fact the PC game is done. They just didn’t want to split the marketing campaign up in two. They delayed the PC version so that they could release both at the same time with only one marketing push). That means that in terms of gameplay and user interface we’re getting a game that was designed with the PC foremost in mind. I dread to think of what the poor console gamers will have to put up with. Wrangling with the complex controls of a wester (party based) RPG on a controller doesn’t sound like my idea of fun. Just take a look at Mass Effect on the PC vs the consoles, and that was a console port to the PC!
The toolset. It guarantees a healthy, vibrant and longstanding community of devs building extra content. I already see a lot of the NWN community thinking about migrating. that could mean hundreds of quality adventures and mods for the game. Again, take a look at Oblivion on PC vs consoles. It’s just whole other ball game.
“The standard reasons”: PC’s will have better graphics (higher resolution textures, higher levels of detail, more polygons, more lighting/shadowing and better quality of both, etc, etc) and better performance as is often the case.
It’s Bioware. These are the BG guys. They’re as happy as pigs in mud when developing on the PC.
This is one of those titles that you really need to get on the PC. I dare say, it would be like playing warcraft II on the xbox. ::shiver::