Games to Look Forward to in 2010

Looking back at the PC gaming landscape of 2009, I can’t help but feel like I didn’t put in as much time as I should have to go through some of the great titles that came out. I have no excuse for it, considering I own most of them for benchmarking purposes, but… that will be a lesson to me. Some say that PC gaming is dying, but I disagree. Although the platform shares a lot of games with consoles, many titles simply play better, and look better on the PC.

As a quick recap, some well-received titles throughout the year included Batman: Arkham Asylum (this is one I am planning to review once time allows), Bionic Commando, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, Fuel, Resident Evil 5, Risen, Street Fighter IV, Wolfenstein (this is a fair bit of fun MP, as I found out this past weekend), and more. But I have to say, after taking a look towards gaming in 2010, I can’t help but feel really excited for some titles that are en route.

The folks at Digital Battle prepared a top 20 list of what to look forward to during 2010, and while only 11 are going to be available on the PC (two exclusive), all 11 have tons of promise. First, there’s Postal 3. Postal is a game series that’s been hailed as a cult classic, due to its incredibly controversial content and hilarious gameplay. Postal 2 wasn’t well-received, so hopefully 3 can deliver like the original. There’s also an interesting new urban MMO called APB (All Points Bulletin), which is lead by the creator of the original GTA and also Crackdown. So, that pretty much gives you an idea of what to expect.

Personally, I’m looking forward to a few games on the list, including S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat (what is it with all these “Call of” titles?!), Deus Ex 3 and also Max Payne 3. The original titles for each game here were quite amazing as far as I’m concerned, with my overall nod going to Max Payne (the first two were simply incredible). There’s also Rage, of course, from id Software. I don’t know too much about the game, but id has never released a title that has really disappointed, so hopefully Rage will continue that tradition.

Id Software’s first original game in decades, Rage is a fusion between a first person shooter and a racing game set in a post-apocalyptic Mad Max styled world. It’s built on the brand new ID Tech 5 engine, and will ship on 3 DVDs for the Xbox 360 and PC versions, while the PS3 edition will ship on one Blu-ray disc. Id Software legend and Rage developer John Carmack revealed that the game takes up a whopping 1 TB in space when not compressed. 3 DVDs don’t seem that much of a big deal now.