The Most Anticipated Games of (the remainder of) 2008

It’s that time of the year again, folks. We’ve officially made it to fall, and that means you can go ahead and start salivating over the holiday season and the absolute deluge of games that await us before year’s end. You trudged your way through summer, killing time going to mindless blockbusters or venturing “outdoors” (if such a place actually exists), but now the gaming goodness has started to roll in. Join me, as I take a look at some of my personally most anticipated games that will hit before the big ‘09. There are way, way too many amazing releases for me to hit them all, so consider this the tip of the iceberg. I encourage you to post your own must-haves if they didn’t make it onto my list!

• Guitar Hero World Tour. The second entry into the entire-band-music-game genre will soon be upon us and I couldn’t be more pumped. GHWT sports an awesome set list, some cool instrument redesigns, and most importantly of all, an incredibly robust music studio feature where bands can create, mix, and distribute their own compositions! That’s a huge bonus feature, particularly for any of you real-life musicians out there.
  Releases October 26th for PS2, PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360.



• Fallout 3. Any Oblivion fans out there? Well, imagine taking that open-world RPG and bringing into a post-apocalyptic America: welcome to Fallout 3. I can’t even begin to espouse the absolute must-haveness of this game here. The graphics are incredible, the combat system is innovative and suitably violent, and the setting is killer, particularly if you’re running a little low on love for magical forests teeming with elves and dragons and whatnot. This game is going to be eating up a lot of time very, very soon.
  Releases October 28th for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.



• Gears of War 2. Epic Games’ original Gears was a masterpiece of action gaming. At times it felt more like a big-budget movie than a game, creating tense scenes and fierce firefights with a gripping score, dark visuals, and the always-intense over-the-shoulder look. Epic’s sequel promises more of the same as Marcus Fenix and his COG squad are still locked in battle with the Locust Horde who threaten the survival of humanity. And killing someone with a chainsaw that’s attached to your gun never, ever gets old.
  Releases November 7th for Xbox 360.



• Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. For those of you who missed the original Banjo-Kazooie or its sequel back on the Nintendo 64, you missed some of the best platforming of the day. The bird-and-bear duo are set to be revived later this year in Nuts & Bolts which adds an interesting twist to your usual platformer. This time around, the action revolves heavily around vehicles, and not stock ones; players create their own modes of transit by unlocking blueprints and parts as you play the game. The possibilities are seemingly endless, and you can even take your creations online to battle other players (and their creations) in various gameplay modes.
  Releases November 11th for Xbox 360.



• Call of Duty: World at War. Once more into the breech, dear friends. While I was initially a little peeved when I found out that the next CoD would be back in WWII rather than the age of CoD 4: Modern Warfare, you just can’t fight the allure of this franchise. The intense, cinematic shootouts, the true-to-life tactics and weaponry, these games are constantly raising the bar for what a good FPS should be. And World at War introduces a long sought-after feature: co-op. Finally, you can experience the hell of war with a buddy. Like it was meant to be.
  Releases November 11th for PC, PS2, PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360.



• World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. I am a WoW junkie. I’ll freely admit that. I’ve been running around Azeroth for almost four years now. And nothing is more exciting to an MMORPG junkie than more MMORPG! Enter the expansion pack. WotLK is only the 2nd expansion for Blizzard’s behemoth and it adds some great features, some of which you can already start experiencing with the release of patch 3.02. Arguably the most exciting new addition is WoW’s first hero class, the Death Knight. Who in their right mind wouldn’t want to play something called a Death Knight?!
  Releases November 13th for PC.



• Chrono Trigger DS. Now I’ll admit, my DS has been collecting dust as of late, more because of my own disinterest in handhelds than for lack of quality. However, developers can always get me with a little nostalgia, and Chrono Trigger for the SNES is one of my favorite games of all time. If you’ve never experienced this epic, time-traveling RPG, you can hardly call yourself a gamer. Make sure you pick this one up and fall in love with Crono, Marle, Lucca, Ayla, Robo, Frog, and yes, even Magus, for the first time or all over again.
  Releases November 24th for the DS.