Another good year for PC gaming. 3 June 2009

I’m a PC gamer. The reason for that is I play a lot of First Person Shooter (FPS) and Real Time Strategy (RTS) games. These genres benefit greatly from mouse-keyboard input, allowing gamers to execute pin point precision actions, more so than console controllers which only allow for limited set of buttons and the occasional motion sensor which is largely useless in these games. Also, I’m a PC enthusiast so it’s natural for me to build my own gaming system. Contrary to what big game companies have said in the past, PC gaming is still relevant and it’s still growing. Evident to this is this year’s big PC game lineup.


E3 has been resurrected this year as the over indulging, flamboyant gaming expo it once was. On the first day itself there were already some big announcements and trailers to accompany them.

1. First stop is the sequel Valve’s popular zombie shooter Left 4 Dead which will come out on November 17. This time the story is set in New Orleans. The characters will be different, so are the weapons which I suspect. There’ll be melee weapons like chainsaw, baseball bat and even frying pan! Well, it’s logical to be “hands on” when dealing with those mindless hordes.
   
   




2. We can’t forget the game that brought the most powerful gaming systems to their knees, EA’s Crysis. Last we left our hero in the monkey suit, he’s on a VTOL aircraft heading back to the alien infested island, reminiscent of a certain game’s “finishing the fight” motto. Details of Crysis 2 are sketchy, but expect more advanced rendering techniques that’ll test the generation hardwares’ abilities. (There’s a certain movie coming out soon that features similar monkey suits too. It’s called G.I. Joe.)
   
   




3. Fans of Splinter Cell series (including me) will be pleased to know that Conviction will be release this year, finally. Strangely enough, the release date is the same as the zombie killer mentioned earlier. I haven’t played Double Agent yet. Hopefully I’ll get down to it this coming holiday (whole month of July if you’re my friend and wish to hang out).
   
   




4. While Fallout 3 isn’t new to every gamer out there, the upcoming new DLC’s are. They are Point Lookout and Mothership Zeta. Yeap, more quirky yet epic stories. Just the way Fallout series are. I’ve played all of the DLC’s so far, and I ain’t going to miss these.
   
   




5. Halo is considered an Xbox franchise though the first two of the series were ported to the PC. I’m going to mentioned it here because Master Chief (an even cooler name, John-117)  is one of my favourite heroes and all badass heroes are called John. John Rambo, John Connor, John McClane, John Wayne, etc. You might know that Halo: ODST is coming this year. Well, there’s another surprise for this year. Halo: Reach is announced. I think it might involve the units in UNSC though there’s a call sign for a Spartan unit in the trailer. Sure hope there’s a movie to be made about this franchise. It’ll be very very cool.
   
   




6. Another game worth mentioning is Modern Warfare 2. You might have seen the trailer. I’m reiterating here just to emphasize the Best Game of The Year potential. Here’s a gameplay trailer for you to salivate.
   
   




7. You know what Koreans like besides kimchi and Rain? That’s it. It’s Starcraft! If you think local DoTA addicts are too “addicted”, there’s no better word to describe the Koreans. Thus, it’ll be a monumental job to come out with a sequel to the game that’s already been worshipped like a god. Blizzard is doing just that, releasing bits and pieces of a game that’s beautiful to look at and fun to play with. It’s coming this year, if the programmers are satisfied.

I think that’s all for the lineup of the games that I think you should play for this year. Sure there are some others like Star Wars: The Old Republic. However, what I’ve stated here are the ones that will definitely worth playing. Other series like Star Wars are more of hit-and-miss so I’m not making decision of it for now. We’ll leave unexpected hits for the time to come. Until then, start saving money for the games and decide what upgrades you’ll need for your PC!