Most Anticipated Video Games of 2009.

This year is almost over and that means a few things; newly made resolutions, time standing still for one second, a soon inaugurated president, a year closer to the apocalypse, breaking newly resolutions, and of course video games. Here are a few I'm looking forward to.

Street Fighter IV may be a success or a big failure or maybe just another fighting game. Regardless of what it is, I am extremely excited to see what it will bring. I've always been a fan of the series, especially when they included everything I loved into the Marvel vs Capcom games. It included almost everyone and you could tag in and out. I love tag games although this won't be one. In straight up Street Fighter spirit, it's 2d with 3d characters. Kind of like Super Smash Bros. The trailer looks great, but it's been such a long time since I've played a real SF game that I'm not sure that I'm even good at it. Those VS. games were much different. Will I have to figure out all the little moves and counters to master this game? Probably. Or I probably will just be horrible at it and let the real pwners pwn. It should come out February 17th in North America.

I've always liked the final frontier better than middle earth. That's why I can't wait for StarCraft II. WarCraft (Not WoW) was fun and all but space is where it's at. The Frozen Throne had me playing for years with its ladder matches and custom games like DotA and Snipers (I was a semi-legend on USEast). And considering people still to this day play StarCraft I on Battle.net, StarCraft II should be as epic as those two games combined.

StarCraft II will actually be a trilogy with the main game coming out first with the Terran campaign, then two expansion packs released with the Zerg and Protoss missions. Blizzard has said that the expansions will feel like full games because of all the content in them. The story line of SF1 was great and I cannot wait to see things unravel in the upcoming trilogy. Kerrigan is back! I would have liked to see a new species or something introduced but Blizzard are sticking to the original races this time. The game doesn't officially have a release date but has been in development since 2003 so hopefully it will come out sometime in '09. Although I can't wait for the game, I'm not sure if this will be a purchase of mine. It will come out on the Mac OS, but I'm not sure how I feel about playing it on a Mac. Although it would be the only game I ever needed. Hmm.
I only recently heard about Heavy Rain and I'm really liking what I see. The video for it is a casting call with an actress playing the role of a wife who has found out about a cheating husband. It looks incredible. What all PS3 games should look like. It's got some special engine or something and is developed by a French company. I have no idea what the game is about but it is highly stylized like a film and if Origami Killer means anything, it's about a killer. Who kills with paper cranes! Maybe? Who knows.
I played the developing studio, Quantic Dream's previous game Farenheit aka Indigo Prophecy last year and it had a really interesting concept of gameplay. Hopefully this game will not disappoint. Out sometime in 2009.

I was never really into horror games or even horror films. Why? I don't want to have nightmares, DUH. But sometimes, I just want to blow up some damn zombies. And when is a better time then at the release of Resident Evil 5 on March 13th? No longer will it be another a girl in a miniskirt shooting up dogs in the middle of Times Square, it's now some white dude shooting up African villagers. Which is good right? I've only played one RS game and I couldn't figure out how shoot for about 30 minutes. Hold R2 first?! I think the only reason I disliked the RS series was because Parasite Eve made me brown my pants ever since I was little and that put me away from all games like it. But 2009 is a new year! We'll see how this goes.

I've waited for this game for a while now. Don't know much about it other than Team Bondi is developing and Rock Star is publishing. I think it's a sandbox game, it apparently has a perfectly created LA. Oh yeah, did I mention it takes place in the fucking '40s? Excuse my language, but I just love that era. The drugs, the corruption, the jazz! I've seen the trailer for it probably a hundred times and it still amazes me. Looks great. Check out L.A. Noire out sometime in the 2009 fiscal year.

Tekken 6, has one of the most confusing.. I don't even know what it is. It's been out in the Japan arcades since 2007 and is coming out again under one of those ":" titles in October 2009. I love this series, especially Tekken Tag, ever since I owned a Playstation, but I don't know if I can keep all of the moves for Street Fighter 4 and Tekken 6 in my head so I may only choose one. It's the only 3d fighting game I like. I hated Soul Calibur. The more I write about this game, the less I think I will like it. Too many characters have been introduced for me to keep up and it's slowly slipping off my list. I think I will remove it. But will only keep it on the list to have record of me saying that it is off the list...

Look. I don't need to explain this to you. Just know, if we make it past 2012, The Sims will be the only game we play. Why? Because it can simulate anything! Career - Football Player. BAM, the whole game changes into Madden 2049! It's crazy. Someone needs to do everyone a favor and pirate this and all future expansion packs of this for the Mac immediately. It can simulate everything! But true love...
Is it weird that I don't kill my sims but instead make them all have perfect lives, and having a single sim marry every hot sim in the neighborhood? But then when I kiss one in the same household, everyone gets pissy at each other so that I have to restart the neighborhood and make five different sims each with an alias of Duy Nguyen and have them marry all the hot redheads and brunettes and blondes and aliens? Is that creepy?! Released on February 20th on Windows...

It started with VII. That game single-handedly changed the way I view my life. When viewing it as a nerd bored thinking of RPGs. I actually only played FFVII. I didn't want to be exposed to any other game in the series because of its imperfections. (Well maybe that's a lie. I played 9 and liked it but didn't have the last disc. And also X and X-II which was horrible.) I never even beat VII because I never wanted it to end! FFXIII Versus seems like it has the potential, aesthetically at least, to be the next VII. It doesn't look like another X clone. The regular one looks alright as well. I guess I'll get both. If they ever come out that is. What I really want though, is for Square to re-release VII on the Ps3. C'mon! Haven't you read the petitions?

Street Sk8er to THPS. I love skating games. It makes me want to go out and skate. But then skating wants to make me go home and cry. But no other game can do both like the realistic Skate 2. Getting this game will really just be an excuse as to why I never got the first one. I'm just really assuming it will be better because it's the sequel. And based on the introduction movie, it looks so sick. Hopefully not all hype. January 21st.
Well those are the games that I will probably get next year. And the following are some that I regret getting. Worst of 2008.

So I didn't really get this guy. I downloaded it for about a week, read some reviews, then deleted it from my computer. Creature Creator was fun, but there are just so many ways one can make a giant penis. The actually game Spore was probably the most disappointing game of the year. It was supposed to change the way we play games or something. It ended up just staying on the shelfs. I guess I should have given it a chance. But I don't have any time for that. I have meetings to go to...

This was definitely my biggest disappointment. Resistance 2. I only bought it because I loved it's predecessor. It was nearly perfect to me and I only stopped playing it because people moved onto Warhawk and stole all the noobs to own online. I ditched the awesome CoD4 to get this game. Worst decision. It has great reviews, but I don't understand why. I feel like it has worse graphics than the first, and the online is obviously less organized. And for the first month or two it wouldn't even work. I think it tried to be too much. took on a similar perk system from CoD and failed. 60 players online is insane but is kind of unnecessary when you think about it. I like to get to know the noobs I'm killing. This game was a no-no. Anyone want to trade for World at War?

I hate every Madden game except for '95. Plain and simple.

A few honorable mentions for anticipated games; MadWorld, God of War III and GTA: Chinatown Wars.
MadWorld looked interesting before I read it was coming out on the Wii. God of War III looks good and probably should be on this list. But I haven't really played I or II so I can just buy those. The new GTA is on the DS but focuses on the Triads. I'm sick of crappy sandbox games that are based on Asian culture but are just so bad. It's about time we had a Triad or Yakuza game that was good. too bad it's not on the Ps3 or 360. (The Yakuza game doesn't count.)

Best: Video Games of 2008

This has been a pretty big year for video games. Some very anticipated titles and heavy hitters came out in 2008 giving us (nerds) eye strains and our mothers to lose their voices yelling at us to stop playing and reminding us to eat. That was a horrible sentence but here are some of my favorite games of this closing year.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl is and probably will always be the only reason why I would want a Wii. A great pick-up game to take a break from the books and start owning your roommate with Lucas. Or you can call over a few people and let the wires tangle as the loser passes the controller. Who plays with the Wii-Motes anyway... It wouldn't surprise me if my friends and I played for six hours straight at a point. That is when I'm not on my G5 flying from meeting to meeting.

Five games for 60 bucks. That is the best deal ever and should give you no reason to own The Orange Box unless you're blind, an amputee or a girl... The Half-Life series is my favorite FPS. It is perfect in every way except for its finite-ness. I could do nothing but sit and play through the whole thing. Can't wait for Episode 3. Then there's Team Fortress 2, which is a decent online multiplayer shooter, but when you have another game soon to be mentioned, I don't think it matches up. And finally Portal. Portal is Portal. If you don't know you better axe somebody, then play the game. Best game of 2008. Hands down.

If not for PSN Network incapability where I used to live, this game would had the potential to cause me to drop out of school. Best online multiplayer I've played. Mainly because of it's ranking system and organization, Call of Duty 4 did an adequate job taking over for Resistance, taking over my life. Though the amount of time I can spend sitting in front of this game isn't as long as others, it sure can have me playing over and over again. As long as there are noobs for me to own. The only reason I stopped was for my loyalty for Resistance 2 which is  eh... The only reason COD5 isn't on here is because I absolutely hate World War II games and plus I haven't played it. BUT I don't want to...

Shocking I know. A 360 game appears on the list. But what can I say, it was pretty fun killing horde after horde of grub after grub, or whatever they're called, for hours upon hours on insane. It wasn't even online and I had a blast with myself and two other players. I still have no idea what the story line is and why that one dude is searching for his wife, but I guess chainsaws on guns can win anyone over. 

I only play this on the 360 but I'm counting this as a PS3 game because I can. I haven't had this much fun in a sports game since Super Baseball Simulator 1000. I can probably play this just as long as any other game as long as I have a partner. Silently killing with the Washington Wizards and pissing off people while doing it is a good feeling. Sorry Bill. Agent Zero > LBJ "The First Black President". I don't see why that nick name doesn't catch on. Does no one else realize those initials?!

I love this game. I would call it my favorite this year but that would be biased. Hell, it's my favorites list so who cares. Sorry Portal, Metal Gear Solid 4 is taking over. It's a nostalgia thing, I'm not even that old but Hideo Kojima can do that to a person. It's all in the details. Everything in this game has been closely inspected to appease to every Metal Gear fan. Flawless. I've loved everything that has come out of the Metal Gear Series, and this is the perfect end to a perfect saga. And also to a perfect favorites list.

But wait! Honorable mentions!

GTA IV was a great game that didn't make it onto my list because I don't think I played it right and I was tired of making those little banner things in Photoshop. I basically went mission to mission, cutting out all the fun in running people over, jumping out of helicopters and survive by falling into a pool, and exploding car pileups with a single nade and walking away with the camera facing me in slow motion.

Rock Band. I can still have fun playing this over and over. I bought a ton of extra songs on a whim and am kicking myself over it a little. It's not on the list mainly because of my downstairs neighbors who will call the cops on us for every hair that floats down and grazes the floor to cause a miniscule vibration on the wood causing the slightest of sound. But there's nothing like playing the drums on expert and checking the peripherals to see jaws drop. "Ain't a thang but a chicken wang".

Also I'm sure there are more games out there that are better, but honestly these games above on the list are the only games I have. Haven't played much of anything really.