Most Anticipated PC game of the next year.

For me, this was the only game that is just calling out to me, for sure this year. Mind you, that I'm also looking to the future with Jumpgate Evolution, and possibly Black Prophecy (Though I'm wary of their backing company).

Beyond those games, I figure my mods, for this will be a bigger direction for my personal outlooks for games. Because in truth, the only other game that sounds even interesting is Civilization 5. And since this game is a much better Fantasy Civ game, I'll be quite happy.

for me these would be the games in order of excitement

Elemental : War of Magic

Diablo 3

Fallout New vegas

Rage

Guild Wars 2

Why is everyone including Elemental, when it's coming out this year?

Next year:

Star Wars: The Old Republic
Guild Wars 2
Deus Ex 3: Human Revolution
Diablo 3 (if it is next year)

because the question was "what are your most Anticipated games of the next year?" and if taken literally its is coming out with in the next year heh heh...

Victoria 2.  I sincerely hope they take the time to optimize it so it is at least playable upon release though, unlike HOI3.

Civilization 5 looks to me the same as the last 3 except its hexagonal, I was hoping for a little more development on the combat side of things, like elemental as tactical combat, however looks like a legion of my tanks will still be battle that one veteran archer. not that I won't try it, but Civilization has disappointed me how many times can you make the same game with different graphics?

Guild wars 2 looks good, but still want to play Tera more because its action. like the no targeting and stuff Idea, could hate it like I did Aion but what can you do?

Wanted to play heritage of kings, but am not willing to part with 60$ for it because the last 6 games entertained me for all of 3 days, so don't know if its worth it. Its like heroes of might and magic, have all 5 and it always makes me go nuts the first week with the guys steeling your mines every turn.

The thing about Tera is that while it looks fantastic, it's going to be one of those ultra-grindy Korean style MMOs.  I'm not particularly enthused.

I would buy SC2, Diablo 3, and Civ5, but that online registration crap is a dealbreaker for me, no matter how good the game is.

     Apparently in TERA they are western-ifying the game for us, and there are some of the wow developers on it as well.

HOI3 is running pretty smooth with the semper fi expansion...

you might want to revisit it..

anyway- Im looking forwar to diablo3

and Battle of Britain ww2 flight sim- from IC the makers of the best ww2 flight sim so far

IL-2 Sturmovik (1946) covers 1937-1946 hundreds of planes and theatres... etc etc..

(Probably) Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 3? Plus Elemental expansion pack. Maybe some of the mods for Elemental (depending on how they develop)

Off the top of my head:

Fallout: NW

Age of Decadence

ZRPG

Elemental

One of the upcoming UFO clones/new version of existing ones.

Blood Bowl: LE

BB:LE is probably my "most anticipated" pick, but that's because all the jobs, husbands, wives & children my BB playmates and I can't seem to stop accumulating, increasingly gets in the way of playing the board game.

Oh yeah, and SMAC2. I'm really looking forward to that one. And I'm just as confident it'll come out this year as I have been the past several. I mean, it's been so long since SMAX and it is just too damn good not to get a sequel, right?

Yeah, I'm tracking, and I'm sure the next HOI3 expansion will make things even better.  It is just that while I'm used to paradox games being broken AI wise upon release, and that two expansions later will be when it is finally a mostly finished game (usually with a mod), I do have the expectation that my relatively high end computer should be able to at least run them.  HOI3 broke that expectation until its expansion, and I sincerely hope that Paradox learned its lesson in that regard.  Paradox's fans are usually willing to participate in a "release beta" (which is usually what their initial releases are), as long as that "beta" is only about gameplay and AI.

In the meantime, you may want to check out the "planetfall" mod for Civ 4:BtS, over on Civfanatics.  It should help tide you over.

I think I sort of gave up on the series with Civ 3. Is it worth getting Civ 4 for Planetfall alone?

Well, you'd have to get all the expansion packs.  Civ 4 in my opinion was a bit of a bust until Beyond the Sword came out.  That plus a massive amount of moddability (the glory of Python) really made the game great.  If you liked Civ 2, Civ 4 is a truly great game for you.  Planetfall really does have the "feel" of Alpha Centauri (that almost undescribable attribute that was why I loved SMAC).  It isn't quite finished yet (the two alien factions aren't in yet, and polish is needed), but they seem to come out with a minimum of one update a month for it.  Other good mods for Civ 4 are Fall From Heaven (once again, almost a different game in and of itself), and one of the many mods that Revolutions is included in (the Mod, not the console port of Civ 4).  Revolutions makes civil wars, rebellions and colonial wars possible in a way that makes sense (once you get used to the system... it is much harder than vanilla) and greatly add to the game.

Vanilla Civ 4 with expansions has limited replayability.  But there are so many great mods out there for the game, I would strongly recommend you take another look at it.

Let see.... my list....

Shogun 2 Total War

Diablo 3

Blade & Soul

Dawn of Fantasy

Elemental: War of Magic totally trumps my must get list!

Civ5 was HUGE for me until steam (and 2k) completely killed it.

Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 interest me, but I'd wait for the complete editions in the coming years.

With Chess and Poker aside, one 4x TBS game + a multitude of mods, generally takes care of my gaming impulses.  For the most part, I am a one title gamer.  EWoM is poised to gain that slot.  I appreciate and respect Stardocks way of doing business.  I very much admire their openess and acessability.  I am driven to support them.  I wish other companies shared some of Stardocks philosophies.  Empower the Independants of the world, for they are free to create content for the beauty of it; whereas creativity under the corporate thumb, has been enslaved by sales restraints.   Long Live Stardock!  In support, and becuase I like the software, I'll finally be buying GalCiv2, as well as Object Desktop.

Next year:

RAGE

LA Noir

Diablo 3

Elemental

Starcraft 2

Shogun 2 TW

Old Republic, if it is free from grind

Portal 2

Civ 5

Crysis 2

Deus Ex 3: HR

Close to this order too.

I won't buy Fallout NW because it just looks like a franchise exploit to me.

You can't have an MMO that doesn't have some form of grind. They can never put enough content in that there's nothing for you to repeat The question isn't if it has grind or not, but how much it has.

Absolutely. I love Fallout and I enjoyed Fallout 3, but I have no interest in New Vegas. Same engine, some different textures and models and a few new gameplay gimmicks and they call it a new game? Good old days when "new games" actually made noticeable engine improvements - more and more companies these days just milk the same engine, a lot cheaper to just make a bunch of content than improve the engine along with it.

Thanks, lwarmonger. But Raaargh! Stardock you damn tease: "Sorry, this product is not available in your region".

Does anyone know if Impulse can filter out US-only stuff? - Trust me, trying to buy stuff you can't is way, waaay more annoying than it sounds.

@ Bilskis & Annatar11: it's a bit funny you guys call it a franchise exploit when FO3 tossed the gameplay of the originals in its entirety, while FO:NW will be mostly true to the gameplay of FO3. Still, I do get your objection.

But the fact some of the games that are pretty universally considered "best" (Baldur's Gate 2 & PlaneScape: Torment, for example), do the exact same thing. If you guys loved FO3 and would consider it a plus if you could replay it with new and less-feeble storytelling, you're probably doing yourselves a disservice.

Well, for me it's not that FO3 turned the previous games upside down, like I said I enjoyed FO3. For me it's that New Vegas looks like a typical Call of Duty-like "sequel" - same gameplay, different skins. There's very little that makes New Vegas stand apart from FO3 and that's why I'm not really excited about it.

Same comparison can't be done with Baldur's gate or Icewind dale, since both BG > BG2, and IWD > IWD2 sequels brought engine improvements (higher resolutions, etc).

I'm sure I'll pick up New Vegas when there's one of those half off sales on it or something, and I'm not saying it's going to be a bad game, but it just doesn't make me excited about it. I took a week off work last year when FO3 came out and played it non-stop and loved it. With NV, I don't even feel like picking it up on release day

I mean the they look identical. It is like an expansion that doesn't add gameplay. It's not the engine I demand it is a new game when I buy a new game. I don't want Fallout 3 but more. Fallout 3 was great, I loved oblivion and Fallout 3 was like a revision of Oblivion with plenty of good parts from the Fallout world. (I think of Fallout 3 more of a successor of Oblivion than of Fallout 2.) Fallout 3 has the same engine and the same underlying visuals as oblivion (except the trees have been nuked). While Fallout NV is Fallout 3, in both feeling, visuals and mechanics. NV is more of a mod and less of an AAA game for full price. I mean, mods change more things than NV does.

I have played Diablo 2, Torchlight, Titan's quest, and most other ARPGs, even though they play the same they look and feel different, they are new games.

Elemental War of Magic

Blood Bowl:LE, BUT only IF they improve the AI a HELL of A LOT. Ahem.

Didn't know there was going to be an SMAC2. Awesome!

And there's always hoping they'll release the next madden on PC...