Coming Soon - PC Games of 2009
Early Autumn - Operation Flashpoint 2 and More Champions Online, delayed to August August is traditionally the holiday month and it seems that the game industry agrees - beyond the early August release of the superhero MMO Champions Online (which may or may not get pushed again), the only PC games currently scheduled for August are coming at the end of the month and it is easy to pile them with the massive wave of games we'll get in September. As the dates get further away, they are anything but certain yet - many titles still only claim "Q3" as the release date, placing them in late August or September time frame. Capcom's Dark Void and THQ's Red Faction: Guerrilla are dated for late August and both are multiplatform shooters with a twist. Dark Void includes jet packs and flying while Red Faction: Guerilla includes destructible structures you can bring down with a sledgehammer. Another multiplatform shooter, Raven Software's UE3-powered Singularity is still scheduled just for "Fall 2009" but should also appear in August-September timeframe. Singularity looks somewhat interesting due the concept of mucking with time.
September should see the release of Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising. The screenshots sure look incredible, but I still remain a bit wary about the concept - large scale military action mixed with multiplatform development and the memory limitations it brings. At least Codemasters claims to have an engine that can do it and we can see it first-hand when FUEL is released in June (it uses the same EGO Engine and boasts similar massive play area as Dragon Rising). In any case either we get something very interesting or a weak cash-in to ride on the Operation Flashpoint name. At least it can't be as buggy as original Operation Flashpoint as those guys went on to make ArmA while the new Operation Flashpoint is made in-house by Codemasters. The biggest MMO release of the autumn is the western version of Aion: Tower of Eternity. Already launched in late 2008 at Korea, the game is being translated and "westernized" in some ways for a late 2009 release. I hope that means we'd finally get a Korean MMO without the obligatory soul-crushing grind. At least the visuals look notably above average and the game is built on a modified version of CryEngine.
For those who were brutally disappointed by Hellgate: London, Gearbox software is giving a shot at somewhat similar game. Borderlands is a FPS/RPG-hybrid set in the future on an alien world. Four classes, up to four player co-operative play and Diablo-style equipment system with thousands and thousands of different items and weapons. Map system should also include partially randomized play area and Gearbox has promised a seamless game world without loading screens. Maybe E3 will show the game in action - it should be shown if the late 2009 release date is gong to happen.  Need for Speed: Shift - EA trying to reboot the brand For racing fans, EA tries to move Need for Speed from the realm of arcade racing into a bit more hardcore experience with Need For Speed: Shift. Claimed to be a "Racing game built by racers for racers" the development team does feature some big names known for GT Legends and GTR2, so I guess it is possible. On the other hand, it is still a multiplatform release, so instead of a true hardcore simulator, I guess one should expect something that would be a competitor for Gran Turismo 5. Still, probably the most interesting PC driving game in 2009. The rest of the current release schedule for September includes Dirt 2 (with or without late Colin McRae's name, depending on which side of the pond you are) and the PC conversion of Resident Evil 5. Oh, and we should also see the first PC-only title published by Square Enix, RTS game titled Order of War.
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