8. Dragon Age: Origins

I've never really been one for the RPG genre.  Sure i can see how some people can get into the expansive stories that last nearly 70 hours, the fact that you can literally make your character however you wanted to, and that the world was pretty much your oyster.  Sadly the thought of having to sit through hours of uninteresting cutscenes, sometimes drawn out story lines, and dudes that look like chicks simply didn't appeal to me for whatever reason.  Not since Diablo have been truly excited about a straight up RPG, and Dragon Age: Origins looks to fit that bill.  Mostly its got to do with the fact that the game is extremely violent and gruesome, something most RPG's don't offer, usually they tend to go with the typical high fantasy aspect of hacking and slashing a creature only to have it disappear after the initial battle took place.  While Dragon Age does contain a fantasy-medieval story line, it also contains what most other fantasy games don't have: interesting dialogue and intense action.  The gameplay seems to function somewhat similarly to KOTOR in that you can pause the games real time actions in the midst of battle to issue orders with your party members.  While i didn't use this particular feature all that often in KOTOR, it had its uses at times and never forced you to use it rather it was there for those who wanted to take a more strategic approach, and Dragon Age seems to be doing that perfectly.  Combine that with amazing graphics that rival most RPG's (especially when the blood starts flying), Interesting story lines that are different depending on which class you chose, and fully realized world that makes you feel like your their fighting orcs and dragons, and you've got a game that'll captivate your imagination for a long time.

I remember loving the first game in this series, and how much fun it was to cut dudes down with your awesome sword techniques.  However, the most satisfying aspect of the game was taking out enemy silently and quickly with your well concealed wrist blade, walking away casually into the crowd of locals as your enemy slowly collapses to the floor not knowing what hit him.  Sure the game was repetitive with the side missions which led up to main kill (pick pocket target A, intimidate target B, then satisfyingly assassinate Target C), but the act of actually taking out your main target made it all worth while for the most part.  Now it seems with the sequal  Ubisoft is taking this game to the next level, with more weapons to wield, more gruesome targets to assassinate, more enviroments to explore, a brand new time period(the Italian renaissance), and most importantly varied side missions to keep you in the flow of things.  While all thats well and good, by far the coolest i thing I saw about the game was simple fact that you can now stealthily kill two enemies at once.  I know seems like a small gimmick amongst all the cool features, but something about swiftly gutting two enemies with double wrist blades simply entices.  Hopefully this, and the rest of the game will be worth wait when it releases into our anticipating hands.

Yes its true...I am one of the many insolent souls who has never played Tim Schaffer's under appreciated masterpiece that was Psychonauts.(*bows up and down, "im not worthy, im not worthy"*)  Now that that is out of the way lets talk about why im excited about Tim's newest potential gem and why i'll actually won't make the mistake of missing out on it this time.  First off its actually pretty darn funny, which says a lot since im not the biggest Jack Black fan, but surprisingly that doesn't seem to get in the way of the actual story or gameplay in fact it seems to give the sense of originality as far the humor goes.  On top of that you've a huge world explore, which can easily traversed by a badass car you get early in the game which can be summoned by playing a certain guitar solo, this function also allows you to use certain powers against your enemies which you appear to unlock throughout the course of the game.  However, this only appears to be the tip of the ice berg as Brutal Legend seems to offer a compelling story, with bits of hilarious moments which come in at exactly the right time, which should make this game another standout classic right next to critically praised psychonauts.

I'll be honest...I was never very good at the fist splinter cell game... probably because i got tired of waiting to make my move, and when I did it usually ended in disaster.  So, why then do I have any remote interest in this game.  Well first off it offers a dark and disturbing story about revenge, as Sam Fisher as been killed and its up to him to find out who did it and why and to take out the culprit in any way he sees fit.  Its also probably because the action seems to be a little more fast paced and seamless and less methodical than in previous games.  Unlike those games, stealth isn't necessarily a requirement but rather one of the many approaches you can take to infiltrate and deal with an imposing situation.  For example, lets there's a mansion you have to infiltrate, of course there is always of going through the front door guns blazing but, that leaves you open to gun fire from multiple angles making such a feat fairly difficult in this case.  Or, you could sneak around the side, and silently snap an enemies neck from behind, and enter from a side window that is unguarded, making getting inside that much easier and ultimately much more satisfying.  Maybe i'm wrong about this game but it looks to really bring a whole audience of gamers... those of us who aren't so great at stealth games and really want a chance to take on the role of this hardened secret agent and actually see his story through to the end without being completely frustrated throughout most of the game.  If I'm right, then this game should be an absolute blast to play when it finally comes out sometime this fall.