Sometimes there's barely any point putting a year on the "most anticipated" lists. Some of the big ones we were really looking forward to are way too "when they're done" to really hope to get them on any console short of the Playstation 5. The problem is they just look like such damned awesome games that we just get our hopes up anyway. Because it just MIGHT come out, right?

Metal Gear Solid is probably going to be the biggest title for the year. Everyone's looking forward to that, not least Sony themselves. "Back in the day" they had a bunch of exclusive shining like diamonds in their sparkly tiara of releases and now that tiara is looking decidedly drab and empty. Big titles like Assassin's Creed and Devil May Cry started off as PS3 exclusives, until the lure of sales figures above two digits called the relevent publishers and they became "cross platform". And don't even start on Katamari, originally PS3 only, then both platforms, then cancelled for the PS3 entirely. ...

Sometimes there's barely any point putting a year on the "most anticipated" lists. Some of the big ones we were really looking forward to are way too "when they're done" to really hope to get them on any console short of the Playstation 5. The problem is they just look like such damned awesome games that we just get our hopes up anyway. Because it just MIGHT come out, right?

Metal Gear Solid is probably going to be the biggest title for the year. Everyone's looking forward to that, not least Sony themselves. "Back in the day" they had a bunch of exclusive shining like diamonds in their sparkly tiara of releases and now that tiara is looking decidedly drab and empty. Big titles like Assassin's Creed and Devil May Cry started off as PS3 exclusives, until the lure of sales figures above two digits called the relevent publishers and they became "cross platform". And don't even start on Katamari, originally PS3 only, then both platforms, then cancelled for the PS3 entirely. That has to sting. Hmmm... sounds like my previous dating history... changing plans, not turning up at all, or going home with someone else....

Another title to do the same trampish dirty deed was GTAIV. GTA is one of those really weird series that's very hard to define in terms of "series". I mean, realistically it's GTA, GTA2, GTA3. But it's not. Really it's GTA then GTA2, but GTA3 stands on its own as a completely different genre, utterly different feel, new in every way. That kind of makes GTA3 more accurately described as GTA3-1 using the numbering system pioneered by Final Fantasy, who clearly decided that if they could abuse the word "final" so thoroughly they might as well mess with numbering too. Given Vice City as 3-2, GTA:SA as 3-3, GTA: Liberty City Stories as 3-4 and GTA:Vice City Stories is 3-5, that's an awful lot of 3s. And if you read my review of GTA: Vice City Stories (which I know you did) you'll know that the series is starting to look pretty damned old. It's time for some new blood, and GTAIV should hopefully be the bold new direction the series needs. It's unlikely to be the same leap that GTA II to GTA III took. That went from 2d to 3d and there's kind of not enough dimensions to really expand that way much further. Possible inclusion of time traveling four dimensional malarky. But you're starting to get into Blinx the Cat territory and the less said of that the better.

Spore is definitely another one I'm looking forward to. In fact, it's in my top... probably two. Spore looks like the kind of game that could actually really add something. Granted, the thing is just a God-simulator in the vein of games like Populous, made by Peter Moleneux back in the days when he made games that were playable. Another example being Sim City, among the best games ever made, and also made by Will Wright, suggesting that he may know what he's doing. Considering this man has been responsible for Sim City and The Sims it's a project that is well worth watching.

As a quite frankly miraculous segue, Will Wright also happens to appear in the next game to be mentioned, Super Smash Brothers Brawl. Wright is an "Assist Trophy" character, who makes building come out of the ground and hit people. Super Smash Brothers Brawl is highly anticipated for a number of reasons. One is that the originals were so good. SSBM is a great game for the GameCube, fun, cool, lots of other words like that. Another thing that makes it so anticipated is that it's so rare to find good multiplayer games. Not just two players, but four. There's a lot of fun to that, all in brawls and battles. The other reason, of course, is the simple fact that having something to play on the Wii other than Wii Sports has to be a good thing. There's a lot of stuff I don't like about SSBB, and that abbreviation is pretty high on the list. The other is the inclusion of Solid Snake, who I think is just a really weird fit with the other characters. Any universe that can contain both Solid Snake and Pikachu is not one I wish to contemplate too much.

Those are all pretty significant games that the whole world is waiting on, but there's at least one game that's more annoying than the others to miss out on this year's release schedule. That game is, of course, Rockband. Rockband is most frustrating not because it's so anticipated. It is to a lot of people, though I personally prefer games that don't require... you know... friends. For some reason. But the reason it's frustrating is that it's available in the US but not here. Of course, it's only partially available. Half the bits don't work, and the rest allegedly is oddly hard to buy.

The coming year, though, does have some true gems upcoming. It was really never going to be here in 2007, so it didn't get our incisive lampooning, but Little Big Planet is coming EARLY this year, which makes me happier than Jessica Alba's tampon. That's too far, isn't it? I can never tell anymore.

Some other awesome new stuff includes Soul Calibur 4. Soul Calibur is one of the few games I'm actually good at, so that is always appealing. Possibly Final Fantasy XIII (at least in Japan, here in 2138), Resident Evil 5. Mario Kart on Wii will headline as one of nearly four good games coming out for the Wii in the year. A bumper year! For those (ok, us) housebound antisocials there's every chance we'll see another World of Warcraft expansion happening. Just in case you were considering starting a life of some kind. Some people don't have any taste and care about Gran Turismo. Meh. Yug's big winner Starcraft 2 might also see release this year, though that one is likely to plunge headlong into next year instead.

So the real question now is what do you really want? What's the years big one for you? Is it some small innovative title that no one knows? Or is it... say... Metal Gear Solid 4?