gaming

Games People (Will Eventually) Play

By Lev Grossman on January 25, 2007

GameSpot and GameSpy are both posting their Most Wanted Games of 2007 lists. Why don't they just go ahead and merge already? Ooh, I am totally registering GameSpite.com!

GameSpy is stingily doling its list out day by day over the course of this week, but GameSpot's full list is up. To wit:

BioShock (2K Games/Irrational Games - Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
Burnout 5 (Electronic Arts/Criterion Games - Xbox 360 / PS3)
Crackdown (Microsoft Game Studios/Realtime Worlds - Xbox 360)
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (Activision/Splash Damage - PC)
Forza Motorsport 2 (Microsoft/Microsoft Game Studios - Xbox 360)
Half-Life 2: Episode Two (Valve Software - PC, Xbox 360, PS3)
God of War II (SCEA/ SCE Studios Santa Monica - PS2)
Halo 3 (Microsoft Game Studios/Bungie Software - Xbox 360)
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (Nintendo - DS)
Mass Effect (Microsoft Game Studios/BioWare - Xbox 360)
Spore (EA Games/Maxis - PC)
Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo - Wii)
Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Nintendo/HAL Labs - Wii)
Tomb Raider Anniversary (Eidos Interactive/Crystal Dynamics - PS2)

GameSpy (though not -Spot) calls out a couple of game I'm especially interested in. One is Alan Wake, by the people who did the Max Payne series, which I fell for pretty hard. The graphics were nothing special, but the writing was full of this really dark, cruel horror-humor I just couldn't get enough of. (I can remember once being alone in my office, playing it late at night, with that creepy voice saying "I think I died! I think I'm dead!" That day, I knew fear.)

The other is the Crusades-era action title Assassin's Creed. I saw a really early demo of this, back when it was a 360 exclusive (before it was a PS3 exclusive, until it wasn't), and Ubisoft didn't even seem to be sure whether or not it was going to be a Prince of Persia title. The medieval street scenes, the wall-climbing animations, the edged weapon combat -- it was the first next gen title I saw that really looked next gen. Seriously, I about fell through the screen and back in time a la Time Bandits.

What's on your list?