Coming Soon - PC Games of 2009
Holiday SeasonGames scheduled for the final quarter of 2009 still heavily in development with studios putting final touches to the builds that will be rolled out in E3 for the world to see. Unfortunately as multiplatform development is the current trend, most of these will be shown on consoles simply because it is infinitely simpler to set up a playable demo stand for an event like E3 using a console. In many cases the quality of the PC version is a question mark all the way to the release - we've seen our fair share of bad ports, but at least recently they have been the exception rather than the rule.
October should bring Rogue Warrior: Black Razor, Bioshock 2, Alpha Protocol and the next Call of Duty game, Modern Warfare 2. While Modern Warfare 2 is most likely just "more of the same" from the Call of Duty factory, fairly little is known about rest of the bunch and more details can be expected at E3 next week. Rogue Warrior: Black Razor from Bethesda Softworks is a story-driven first-person shooter which boasts proprietary engine that allows massive contiguous levels. Set in North Korea, you play as a leader of a SEAL unit trapped behind enemy lines. Bioshock 2 story is still mostly under wraps but it is understood that the sequel will also take place in the underwater city of Rapture and areas around it, this time playing as a "rogue" Big Daddy and battling against a Big Sister. Yes, I'm sure the storyline and gameplay elements will be just as odd as with the first Bioshock. Alpha Protocol is still a relatively unknown title, but it has two interesting things going for it. First, it is developed by Obsidian Entertainment, best known for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II and Neverwinter Nights 2. Second, it is an action-RPG set in present day, with a CIA operative acting as the main character. Could be something remarkable and I'm definitely keeping my eye on it until proven otherwise. Mafia II was originally also scheduled to appear by the end of October 2009, but it was pushed back just yesterday Take 2 was somewhat unspecific with the new date ("first half of next fiscal year", which begins 1st of November 2009), so it is theoretically possible this is just a small slip to November, but it is more likely that Mafia II will miss the holidays for good and we won't see it until spring 2010. Holiday Heavy HittersThen there is the list of already known big names for the holidays; Dragon Age: Origins, Assassin's Creed 2 and Mass Effect 2. Information is still sparse on all three but I'm sure E3 will bring a lot more. Dragon Age: Origins is BioWare's followup of sorts to the Baldur's Gate series, yet without the D&D license. Dragon Age is mostly a real-time game with "pause and issue orders" style combat known from many BioWare titles and should ship with a complete tool set for modders.
Assassin's Creed 2 is most likely going to evolve the gameplay concepts of the first game, and is known to be set during the Renaissance Italy and the story features many notable historical figures like Da Vinci, Machiavelli and the Medici. Mass Effect 2 on the other hand is shrouded in secrecy - rumors of all-new main character and death of Commander Shepard are swirling about and even the release date is still very uncertain. Some sources claim it won't appear until 2010.
Then there are the games that might come out in 2009. The biggest names are probably Alan Wake and Starcraft 2. While E3 probably won't have much of anything on Starcraft 2, Blizzard will hold their own show, BlizzCon, in August and assuming that Starcraft 2 closed beta test is already underway by then, it could be the time that the official release date is unveiled. Personally I'd place my bets on Q1 or Q2 2010. Blizzard doesn't really need the holiday season as they'll sell bucketloads no matter when they publish a game, but Q4 2009 is still theoretically possible. As for Remedy's project - persistent rumors are floating on the net, combining "Alan Wake", "E3" and "Microsoft Press Conference". If we are to see it in 2009, it should make a showing at E3, so I guess we'll know soon enough. At the moment both Remedy and Microsoft are silent, as usual. Yes, we tried. They are not talking...
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