My wishlist is getting longer

I would be lying if I didn't say there's quite a few games coming out in the next few months I'm uber-excited about. Obviously, I'm not going to spend a week writing the blog post to end all blog posts and talk about every single one of them in detail. What I will do, though, is give you a rough who's who of my current wishlist, in no particular order. Let's break it down.

1) SpyParty. I first heard of SpyParty about a year and a half ago, and I can't wait to get my hands on it. The core mechanic of the game is simple. So simple, i

n fact, I'm willing to bet hundreds of game designers went "why didn't I think of this before?". It's a multiplayer game with just two people, a sniper and a spy. The spy attends a party, his avatar very nearly the same as those of the AI-controlled NPCs. His goal? Spy stuff, be that to steal something or plant a bug. The sniper watches from afar, trying to figure out who the spy is and take him out. He only has one

shot. Sounds awesome, doesn't it? There's no release date confirmed, but we can only hope it's soon.

PS: Please note, as it's still under development, the provided screenshot displays placeholder graphics, not the finished ones.

2) Deus Ex: Human Revolution. The original Deus Ex is widely regarded to be one of the finest games ever to be made, and rightly so. An amazing story of a game, combined with the

first true non-linear gameplay, it set the bar too high for Deus Ex: Invisible War (the

disappointing sequel) to match. But Deus Ex: HR promises to do just that, and then some. While the threequel is, in fact, a prequel, story wise, early reports from people who've had the privilege of playing parts of the game all claim the same thing: this time they got it right. The story feels just as dark and convoluted as it should, the mission objectives fresh and new compared to what we've been seeing in gaming for the past years, the look and feel of the world spot-on, the voice acting pitch-perfect, the rpg-mechanics and dialogue honed to the bone, the gameplay as open-ended and free as we hoped for. Despite all my anti-disappointment pessimism (still haven't forgiven Invisible War), I have high-hopes for this.

3) Himan: Absolution. We know next to nothing about this game as of yet, but what you need to know is summarized here. If you aren't excited yet, there's something wrong with you.

4) Star Wars Kinect. I know, I know. Getting excited about an upcoming Kinect game when the Kinect still hasn't shown any potential of actually delivering in this kind of game is anything but wise. And, truth be told, I'm more excited about the possibility of playing another Star Wars game, this time not with buttons. Then again, videos like this make me wish that flailing like an idiot in a clunkly game environment that (to add insult to injury) seems to be a mish-mash of setpieces and time eras from all the SW lore without an apparent story, is not the default state of the game. I just hope it's a very, very early beta that's being showcased. If it's not, not even the possibility of waving a virtual lightsaber around can get me near this game.

5) Speaking of lightsabers...The Old Republic. Some of you will remember I'm a WoW player. I can see all of its flaws, believe me, but there's still something to it, call it playerbase, attention to detail, constant stream of new content or baiting, but still. No MMO has managed to go toe to toe with it yet in its particular field. Even the various superhero/movie/book based MMOs, despite their pre-existing fanbase, fared ill against the behemoth.

And, you know what? That's good for WoW players and Blizzard. If they didn't have to fight to keep their players interested, the players might have gotten bored years ago. But this one seems that it might, if not kill WoW, at least survive living side-by-side with it. The sheer scale and interactivity it promises is mind-boggling for an MMO, an online game playing like a single player one, from the guys who brought us the best CRPGs in the last fifteen years or so. Check it out and preorder it here.

6) Much like Bioware's Dragon Age brought medieval fantasy up-to-date with the modern man, so did their own Mass Effect do for the sci-fi space opera. Mass Effect 3 promises to conclude that trilogy with a bang. You have enough time to (re) play the previous two games till it comes out next year. Go do it.

7) For my thoughts on Skyrim, I shall have to redirect you here.

8) Project Zomboid, if it turns out to be half as good as it promises to be will probably be my new Plants Vs Zombies, meaning it's going to be a game I'll invest hundreds of hours into. An isometric retro-looking zombie survival game, it doesn't focus on ammo and guns and health etc, it focuses on actually surviving. Do you have supplies? Water? Food? Power? Is everyone healthy? Is your house secure? Is the door locked? Is everyone sane? Uninfected? If you're interested in the slightest, go check it out.

9) Rocksmith. While I'll admit I was late to the party for the Guitar Hero/Rock Band series, I found them to be a tremendous party/group game, if a little boring for the single player. Rocksmith promises to not only change that, but also give something you can walk away with: actual guitar learning. We don't know a lot of things about Rocksmith just yet, and what we do know can be found here. Instead of using overpriced plastic instruments, Rocksmith just needs a real guitar which you plug in your console or PC, and while playing, it also teaches you how to play at the same time. So if you, like me, got a guitar years ago but never properly learned how to play, this might be your chance.

PS: Any guitar will do. So long as it can be plugged on an amp, it can be plugged on your console or PC. For those of you that don't have one but are interested in it, there will apparently be a $199 bundle which will include a real Gibson Les Paul Junior guitar.

10) Heart of the Swarm is, as you may already know, the upcoming part 2 of the Starcraft 2 game. In case you don't know, StarCraft 2 was split into three different games: Wings of Liberty (out last summer), Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void, each one focusing on one faction. Swarm will focus on the Zerg, and previews show a wealth of new units to have fun with and new and novel missions to unleash them into.

11) Tomb Raider. This reboot promises to take Lara and flesh her out. Properly, for once. They key ingredients of the Tomb Raider mix, ie exploration, puzzles and combat are swapped for survival, puzzles and stealth. The story is as dark and gritty as only human stories can be, with no supernatural ancient threats in sight...so far, at least. Check out the E3 trailer here. Holy smokes she looks like a real person this time around instead of boobs with delusions of grandeur.