Add to My Tracked Games >>
Platform: Xbox 360
Rlease Date: 2007?
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Developer: Bungie Software

The blockbuster Halo series is getting ready for round three in 2007. We hope.

This seems like an obvious choice. Halo 3 is already one of the most anticipated games of the year, if not arguably the most anticipated game of 2007. It's only the successor to the biggest Xbox franchise around, and it will also be the first Halo game for the Xbox 360. And I'm one of those people who consider Halo to easily be one of the most important and influential first-person shooters ever made, right up there with Half-Life and Doom. Say what you will about the level design, but Halo nailed everything else brilliantly, from the rich storytelling to the simply perfect gameplay.

So here's I'm looking forward to in Halo 3. First, a real ending this time around! Halo 2's "cliffhanger" elicited many groans. If I'm going to wait three years for a game, I don't want to wait another three years for the conclusion. Second, more Jen Taylor as Cortana. I could listen to her all day. Third, better graphics. There's been much ado about some of the early screens that have been released thus far, but I must admit that Halo's unique art direction looks wonderfully clean and crisp in some of them. Four, Halo 3 achievement points! Five, Marty O'Donnell's latest musical masterpiece of a score. Six, sticking someone with a plasma grenade never gets old. I'm also looking forward to some insane multiplayer over Xbox Live. I've been playing multiplayer PC games since the beginning, and it says a lot that Halo 2's multiplayer was easily some of the most fun I've ever had online. If Halo 3 can deliver that and more, we're talking about gaming nirvana.

When you get down to it, I'm also looking forward to seeing an epic chapter in gaming history come to a (hopefully) fitting close. I remember visiting with Jason Jones to see what Bungie was working on back in 1999. This was well before Bungie had been snapped up by Microsoft, so Halo was running on a PC and everyone was floored by what they saw. Everything about the game looked amazing, and it's no small feat that Bungie managed to deliver on that potential. If the studio can do the same with Halo 3, we're all going to be in for a treat.

Add to My Tracked Games >> Platform: Xbox 360, PS3
Rlease Date: Q2 2007
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Criterion Games

The developers of Burnout 5 are said to be working extra hard to make sure that the art of the car crash translates to the current generation of consoles successfully.

Sometimes the most exciting and anticipated sequels are the ones that you know absolutely nothing about. Burnout 5, the upcoming driving game from Criterion, is operating under some kind of information blackout, it seems. The game was quietly announced back in August of 2006, and there hasn't been much to go on since, other than a few key quotes from the developers here and there and the concept that this might be some kind of open-world driving game...with an extreme focus on destruction, of course. Criterion Games is best known for the Burnout series, and all along, that series has delivered the kind of speed that most driving games can't match. Sense of speed is, of course, huge in a driving game, and the way the series has stuck to smooth frame rates and fast-paced action really makes it one of those adrenaline-filled experiences that leaves you shaking a bit once the race is finished.

The rest of the released info looks like it's purposefully very vague. You, as a driver, arrive in Paradise City, you get a driver's license, and set out to win race after race in the most aggressive way possible. Previous entries in the series have put a very deep focus on taking out the opposition by ramming them into walls and getting revenge on the racers that manage to take you down. Now, it sounds like your progression through the game will be checkpointed by face-offs with "legendary" racers that want nothing more than to smash your car to bits.

And, really, that's what this is all about. The proper rendering of ridiculous car crashes. Watching cars move like speeding bullets, only to fly apart into little pieces up against a guardrail is one of the most thrilling moments to be had on the PlayStation 2 or Xbox. With the series moving to the more-powerful Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, one can only imagine what those car crashes are going to look like now. At least, we'll have to imagine--EA and Criterion don't have much else to say about the game at this point. But somehow, the lack of information isn't hampering the excitement one bit.

Add to My Tracked Games >> Platform: PS2
Rlease Date: 2007
Publisher: Eidos Interactive
Developer: Crystal Dynamics

What surprises will be waiting for Lara in the upcoming remake of her first adventure?

I'm a huge fan of Crystal Dynamics' Tomb Raider: Legend, but that's not the main reason why Tomb Raider: Anniversary is one of my most anticipated games for 2007. Of all the games that I've played in the last 25-plus years, the original Tomb Raider is perhaps the one that I remember most fondly. And no, I haven't forgotten about the likes of Paradroid, Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe, or Sensible World of Soccer--it's just that Lara Croft's first adventure occupies a very special place in my heart because, back in 1996, it was one of the first "big" games that I was ever paid to write about.

Specifically, I was tasked with writing a walk-through for the game that included maps and screenshot sequences detailing the location of every single secret location. I'd already written a handful of guides and walk-throughs at that point in my career (including one for another Core Design game, Blam Machinehead) but Tomb Raider was a very different proposition. The huge, labyrinthine level designs made mapping the game an especially daunting prospect, but I got the job done and made something of a name for myself at the company I was working for as a result. The magazine that I wrote for didn't take long to sell out as tomb raiders all over the UK turned to it for guidance, and when the publisher released it as an overpriced stand-alone magazine, that sold out as well. So not only do I feel like I owe a lot to Tomb Raider, but I enjoyed every single minute that I spent playing it as well.

I remember the original Tomb Raider well enough that I'm sure Crystal Dynamics' upcoming remake will feel familiar. But even if the Anniversary edition were nothing more than a graphical update, I'm sure it'd still take me a while to figure out some of those fiendish puzzles all over again. Tomb Raider: Anniversary will do a lot more than just update the graphics, of course, and I can't wait to see how some of the original game's most memorable environments and action sequences will work alongside all-new content. I'd be even happier if an Xbox 360 version were confirmed, but I'll happily dust off my PlayStation 2 for this one.