The PC games of 2007
Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 4:59 am
Looking forward to this year's treats on PC.
2006 was a great year for gaming. We had countless great games for each format as you can see in our writers' and my own roundups of the year. But those games have come and gone. Today's classic is next week's dust collector. So what games should you be looking out for in the coming year? Here we took a look at the most exciting games of 2007 on PC.
Spore
Will Wright returns with a game for the boys. The Sims franchise may have resulted in many blokes seeing their wives sink into black-widow tactics and baby-making Sims 2 addiction but Spore has a much broader appeal. The ambition is on the scale of Peter Molyneux, yet unlike many of the tasks set by that particular luminary to his coders, Wright looks like he might just succeed.
Sport is a game that will also cause some religious controversy among the small-minded intelligent design crowd with its take on evolution from the very first biological steps to space empires. Yet the irony is that Wright's epic looks set to give many people a chance to experience the wonders of creation at first hand. We only hope the gameplay matches the inspiration behind the game.
Supreme Commander
Poor Electronic Arts. It has a new Command & Conquer lined up for release this year but the smart money is on a rival game from a protagonist that took on the C&C franchise in the nineties. Chris Taylor looks set to match the success of Total Annihilation with Supreme Commander.
One thing that makes this strategy game unique among many games that call themselves strategy, is the actual depth and scale of gameplay. Players will zoom out to a level that will require them to understand the strategies required for success on the level of massive war fronts in addition to directing the skirmishes on a unit against unit level. Combined with some excellent visuals this looks set to be the year's most exciting RTS.
Crysis
Several years ago German developer CryTek came along and stole the thunder from the new Quake and Half-Life games with Far Cry. The developer's gorgeous FPS took the genre away from grimy corridors into the beautiful sunlit world of a tropical island paradise. Great graphics combined with strong enemy AI meant the game was a real success.
CryTek is hoping to strike lucky again with its latest graphical powerhouse. Crysis looks absolutely stunning and perhaps the game in 2007 that will have the biggest effect on sales of Windows Vista and DX10 video cards. We just hope that the developer learnt its lesson from Far Cry and don't present us with a game that isn't as much fun once the real bad guys show up.
Alan Wake
Remedy Entertainment looks set to create another iconic character with its latest game. Max Payne was a firm favourite of many gamers and it looks like the more subtly named Mr Wake will be equally as popular. Alan Wake is yet another PC game that will have you lusting after the latest PC hardware to see the it at its best.
Wake is not another retread into Payne's world of instant action and extreme violence. Instead we're going to be treated to a psychological thriller set in an engaging open world.
We'll join horror writer Alan Wake on his adventure to Bright Falls, Washington where he tries to escape from the problems of his past to a rural idyll. Looking like a cross between Grand Theft Auto and Silent Hill, Alan Wake looks like being one of the most interesting games this year.
Honourable Mentions
* Alone in the Dark
* Assassin's Creed
* Battle of Britain
* Battlestations Midway
* Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway
* Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
* Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
* Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2
* Half-Life 2: Episode Two
* Silent Hunter IV
* S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
* Unreal Tournament 2007
2006 was a great year for gaming. We had countless great games for each format as you can see in our writers' and my own roundups of the year. But those games have come and gone. Today's classic is next week's dust collector. So what games should you be looking out for in the coming year? Here we took a look at the most exciting games of 2007 on PC.
Spore
Will Wright returns with a game for the boys. The Sims franchise may have resulted in many blokes seeing their wives sink into black-widow tactics and baby-making Sims 2 addiction but Spore has a much broader appeal. The ambition is on the scale of Peter Molyneux, yet unlike many of the tasks set by that particular luminary to his coders, Wright looks like he might just succeed.
Sport is a game that will also cause some religious controversy among the small-minded intelligent design crowd with its take on evolution from the very first biological steps to space empires. Yet the irony is that Wright's epic looks set to give many people a chance to experience the wonders of creation at first hand. We only hope the gameplay matches the inspiration behind the game.
Supreme Commander
Poor Electronic Arts. It has a new Command & Conquer lined up for release this year but the smart money is on a rival game from a protagonist that took on the C&C franchise in the nineties. Chris Taylor looks set to match the success of Total Annihilation with Supreme Commander.
One thing that makes this strategy game unique among many games that call themselves strategy, is the actual depth and scale of gameplay. Players will zoom out to a level that will require them to understand the strategies required for success on the level of massive war fronts in addition to directing the skirmishes on a unit against unit level. Combined with some excellent visuals this looks set to be the year's most exciting RTS.
Crysis
Several years ago German developer CryTek came along and stole the thunder from the new Quake and Half-Life games with Far Cry. The developer's gorgeous FPS took the genre away from grimy corridors into the beautiful sunlit world of a tropical island paradise. Great graphics combined with strong enemy AI meant the game was a real success.
CryTek is hoping to strike lucky again with its latest graphical powerhouse. Crysis looks absolutely stunning and perhaps the game in 2007 that will have the biggest effect on sales of Windows Vista and DX10 video cards. We just hope that the developer learnt its lesson from Far Cry and don't present us with a game that isn't as much fun once the real bad guys show up.
Alan Wake
Remedy Entertainment looks set to create another iconic character with its latest game. Max Payne was a firm favourite of many gamers and it looks like the more subtly named Mr Wake will be equally as popular. Alan Wake is yet another PC game that will have you lusting after the latest PC hardware to see the it at its best.
Wake is not another retread into Payne's world of instant action and extreme violence. Instead we're going to be treated to a psychological thriller set in an engaging open world.
We'll join horror writer Alan Wake on his adventure to Bright Falls, Washington where he tries to escape from the problems of his past to a rural idyll. Looking like a cross between Grand Theft Auto and Silent Hill, Alan Wake looks like being one of the most interesting games this year.
Honourable Mentions
* Alone in the Dark
* Assassin's Creed
* Battle of Britain
* Battlestations Midway
* Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway
* Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
* Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
* Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2
* Half-Life 2: Episode Two
* Silent Hunter IV
* S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
* Unreal Tournament 2007
