Games of 2007
2007 could be the year that many classic games are released. We’ve already had S.T.A.L.K.E.R for the PC wowing gamers, along with several console titles to whet our appetites.
But looking to the following few months shows a good selection that are sure to become bestsellers, earning the classic title in the not-too-distant future:
- Forza 2 (XBOX 360) - Adamskii showed me the delights of Forza 2 via a few videos on GameTrailers.com and I was pretty amazed as already mentioned, but today I found a recently released screenshot from the game, which highlights how great it looks. The 360 appears to have a lot of great racing games already - with this adding to the pile.
- GTAIV (Various) - The 4th instalment (by name) of the Grand Theft Auto series promises to be amazing. Rockstar recently released a trailer that only showed a glimpse of the new game. However, many sites across the interweb have ripped the trailer to pieces - dissecting it in extreme detail to work out where the game will take us. A recently published interview highlights the correct predictions along with new information about GTAIV.
- Unreal Tournament 3 (Various) - We’ve had UT, UT2003, UT2004 and now we’re getting UT3 - or should that be 4? Confusing us with another numbering scheme but hopefully reinvigorating the fast-paced FPS experience.
- Crysis (PC) - This will surely be the best looking game this year as a recent forum thread on bit-tech proved, showing Crysis screenshots alongside real-life photographs. But, as with many new PC games, it’ll demand the most from your rig - requiring an upgrade no doubt.
- Colin McRae: DIRT (Various) - Another racer, this time from the good ol’ retired Rally driver, McRae. OK, so he doesn’t spend 23 hours a day coding his games, but the branding pretty much guarantees a great game.
- Alan Wake (Various) - According to the official site, Alan Wake is A Psychological Action Thriller. Cool. Putting that aside, the screenshots show a fantastic landscape that will give Crysis a run for its money.
- Halo (Various) - We’re being treated to Halo 2 on the PC in the coming months, but soon after we’ll be able to enjoy Halo 3 on the XBOX 360 too. Judging by the success of the original and Halo 2 on the XBOX, 3 should be a blast (literally).
- GRAW 2 (Various) - OK, so it’s available on the XBOX 360 right now, but the PC version is to follow in June (according to Amazon). I have the original for the PC, but found it too ‘arcadey’ for my liking. But I’m still looking forward to the sequel, which I’ll probably opt for the 360 version of. Adamskii’s Demozone review showcased GRAW in all its glory.
- Lord Of The Rings Online (PC) - Another MMORPG, this time set in the Lord Of The Rings universe, as such. Will it be as successful as WoW? Or will it flop like Matrix Online and SWG? Two things I can say is that I like the idea of a lifetime subscription, but I wont be playing it.
- Sims 2 (Various) - As with the original, Sims 2 is everywhere - becoming one of the bestselling games on pretty much every platform. Sure, it has been out for 2 years or so now, but on a recent trip to PC World I realised how big it actually was. There are many expansions appearing on the market at a rate of 1 a day (almost). Whatever next? Sims 2 - toilet cleaner? I’m not knocking it, as I’ve enjoyed a few hours in the game and have observed Anneka playing it for many more hours - I’m just amazed by the size of it all.
Of course, the above is only a small selection of games that we’ll have the pleasure of choosing in the year 2007. Alongside the games there are several other factors that could make this year one of, if not, the best for gaming:
- PS3/XBOX 360/Wii - the big 3 have all released their next-gen consoles now and are battling it out to become the ultimate choice for our living/bedrooms. I thought it was an obvious winner from the outset - with the 360 having a head start. But, the Wii appears to have dominated the casual/family gamer market, leaving the PS3 and 360 to try and entice the hardcore following. The PC will always remain, pushing technology to its limits and evolving it as much as possible. We’re starting to see a rise again from the recent slump that plagued the PC.
- PSP/DS Lite - Sony and Nintendo are still providing us with hand-held solutions to our gaming addictions. I doubt the latter will ever stop producing a product continuing from the success of its Gameboy.
- HD-DVD/Blu-Ray - This one is a close call. The European market appears to have taken a liking to Blu-Ray, whereas across the pond in the US, Wal-Mart are already announcing a success for HD-DVD. Surely the driving force behind both formats is Sony’s PS3 with the built-in Blu-Ray capabilities and Microsoft’s XBOX 360 with the add-on HD-DVD drive. Though I think Microsoft themselves are already admitting defeat, as they’ve not included a built-in HD-DVD drive with their latest XBOX 360 Elite and have halved the price of the external HD-DVD drive.
With these other factors we’re seeing a huge leap in terms of technology, progress and gaming itself. As always, there’s no clear winner yet and perhaps there never will be. But what games or game-related technology is going to come your way this year?
Ninja Edit: It appears that Blu-Ray is in fact outselling HD-DVD by 2:1 according to bit-tech.net
April 25th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
What a whopper of a post.
I was going to post that Forza 2 pic yesterday because its really technically impressive, however I don’t want to overhype a game I haven’t played in case it turns out crap, so I left it in the end.
Im installing a perhaps working Vista ready for Crysis so that will be nice.
UT3 was going to be called UT2007 but it taken so long they changed the name which is funny.
Colin Mcrae Dirt looks top but it seems your co-driver is some American chump not welsh boy nicky grist so thats a bit of a turn off because he sounds lame, kinda like arcade machine vocals. Still it does look fantastic even tho all these weirdo kids complain its not 60fps.
I’ve seen casino royale on blu ray and while it was nice and sharp I wasnt wow’d. I guess it was because I was expecting that kind of image quality.
April 26th, 2007 at 9:43 am
These games all look top banana, shame i am too tight to buy a console or upgrade my computay.
April 26th, 2007 at 9:45 am
do it do it
April 26th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
O
April 26th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
Oh dear, whats going on with ATi? Is it drivers or crap card? either way they are in trouble. A shame as i was really excited about this release. Only way they can claw it back now is by being cheap.
http://www.dailytech.com/ATI+Radeon+HD+2900+XT+Performance+Benchmarks/article7043.htm
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=7052
April 26th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
Looking at those benchmarks the new ATI offering is going to get slaughtered by nvidia! They almost look as slow as 7-series GeForce cards.
Another piece of interesting news - they’re making a KOTOR MMO:
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=162675
Wa-wa-weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-wah!
April 26th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
Hmm doesnt seem right? on the XTX article the XT card is getting 100fps on oblivion on the other article it gets 47 same resolution. ok the system differs but not so much as to get over 50fps more?! wtf that about. or did i miss something, i did only skim the article.
BS i say lets wait for some more benchmarks.
Good thing is the mid range card is a beast.
howcum u upset si? were u gonna buy a ati card? do it do it.
April 26th, 2007 at 9:51 pm
We should start a charity - “Buy Si a nice new PC” (it doesn’t quite rhyme).
April 27th, 2007 at 7:45 am
Maybe, not sure; i was just waiting too see if there will be a price war like with the CPUs (i like cheap!). If you read on it says that they may not even be bringing out the XTX version, cause they realised its crap. One more good point is that the resolutions they are using are soo low and the CPU will be bottle necking the results.
The problem is that Nvidia will be bringing out their revision of the 8xxx series this year, so looks like ATi are too far beind to catch up until the next generation of cards. I suppose we will just have to wait untill more tests, better drivers and DX10 games come out.
April 27th, 2007 at 9:36 am
Surely if the CPU was the limiting factor, then both cards would be identical at lower resolutions? As they’re being limited.
Either way, it appears that AMD/ATI have something up their sleeves, as they’re losing ground to both Intel and Nvidia. Which is a shame, as I was looking forward to AMD’s next offerings.
April 27th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
I NEED A BEER!
April 27th, 2007 at 5:59 pm
mmm beer, me too.
im gonna get one.
Si, did your dad activate his vista? Ive got 29 days left thats all, wondered how/if he did it.
April 27th, 2007 at 6:02 pm
just played stalker and with the patch, seems to run fine. not sure if its a nvidia driver prob u had b4 laz?
April 27th, 2007 at 6:06 pm
http://www.xboxyde.com/stream_3735_en.html
mmmm those reflections are quite something, but ii wanna see some damage!
April 28th, 2007 at 8:52 am
Oooh, I forgot about STALKER. I’ll have a go later this weekend to see if it is any better. I’ve been pre-occupied with building up me 5th Computer, just got the cable routing left to do.
That Forza video looks nice, though I hope the reflections don’t look quite as OTT as they do there - or at least that they become duller as the race goes on. I’m yet to see a car looking that shiny in the real world!
April 29th, 2007 at 11:42 am
I think its just that car by the looks of it, none of the others look like that. I like it, it is a nice! Notice tho how the big wheel thingi pops in on the bonnet reflection at one point, no that that matters it was just very noticable
April 29th, 2007 at 1:58 pm
LOLz http://www.gametrailers.com/umwatcher.php?id=61363
April 30th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
“In the Gold Mining Studio, some of us play for up to 12 hours a day”
n00bs - Ben played for 16-20 hours easily. Though he did get me to purchase £50 worth of Gold at one point, in order to purchase a new mount, or something.
That’s a pretty good news item though.
May 2nd, 2007 at 8:47 am
right, i got me a 32bit and a 64bit of vista with no activation this time. Should i go for 32 or 64 bit? 64 worked fine as i got that installed now, only activation is about to run out.
I heard that 64 bit got way more driver probs tho with stuffs so was thinking maybe 32bit better idea. anyway either version i dont mind. just want it for crysis.
May 2nd, 2007 at 8:56 am
64-bit, for two reasons - firstly you’ve got new kit, so you shouldn’t encounter any driver problems (many people who do are using dated hardware), second - you’ll be able to address all 4 gigs of RAM if you decide to upgrade in the near future.
I’ve not encountered any problems at all using 64-bit Vista - and all my hardware is a year or so old now.
May 2nd, 2007 at 9:10 am
Right oh, I was hoping you’d say that :D
May 2nd, 2007 at 9:34 am
Mr Byron, whats the password for Mr Humphreys on Second life?
I want to have a laugh
May 2nd, 2007 at 10:44 am
Haha send me more postcards, they were funny as folk!