2009 was a bit of a dry spell for gamers. Sure we had a couple great hits with the likes of Modern Warfare 2, Assassin’s Creed 2 and Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune but for the most part we were denied the games that were set to end the decade with a very memorable bang. We can partly blame the GFC for most of this since most consumer reports showed a decline in people’s willingness to part with their disposable income (and who could blame them really) and no one wants to release their game into a bear market. Still we managed to smash the previous record for biggest media release of all time so it wasn’t all bad and for the most part the games were delayed to ensure they’d have that extra layer of polish that would ensure they lived up to everyone’s expectations.

The reason I’m writing about this is that after completing Assassin’s Creed 2 I thought I’d check up on the pre-order status of some of my favourite titles that were scheduled for release last year but got the chop. To my surprise my list ended up looking like this:

That’s not mentioning that I’ve still got Uncharted 2, Bayonetta and Batman: Arkham Asylum to play through! I had promised myself a month off after finishing a recent project (not Geon, that still has a long way to go) and it seems I’ll be spending the majority of it either cemented to the couch or firmly planted in front of my PC. Not that I’m complaining though, but it would seem like I have well over 100 hours worth of gaming being released in the next month. Sometimes I wish I was unemployed 😉

To be honest though two of those titles there aren’t really what you’d consider AAA titles that are going to attract the majority of gamers. Heavy Rain is a highly specialized game for people like me who revel in the fledgling cinematic gaming genre. It’s target audience is squarely aimed at those people who enjoyed Fahrenheit and possibly those who enjoy a good murder mystery. White Knight Chronicles is at the other end of the spectrum as at its heart it’s a Final Fantasy clone. The only reason I carry such an obsession for it is because I saw it as one of the darlings of the PS3 when it was announced all those years ago. After having been taunted by it for almost 5 years I’m chomping at the bit to actually play it, even if it turns out to be completely crap.

Mass Effect 2 is another one of those games that drove me completely wild when I first saw it. I’m a sucker for good Sci-Fi and Bioware has never failed in delivering an epic RPG. In fact I bought into the hype so badly I ended up buying an Xbox 360 just so I could play it, much to the lament of my friends who said if I waited it would eventually come out on PC. I think the $500 investment was worth not having to wait 6 months for the release 🙂 Strangely enough I bought Bioshock with the console to, since it was either get the Xbox or a new video card and I knew I had to get a Xbox eventually. Still I think I’ll be getting Bioshock on the PC this time around since the experience was much better comparatively.

So if you find yourself alone in the coming months you can rest assured that the gamers in your life have probably locked themselves in a room to get through the massive backlog of tremendous titles that are being released. So whilst 2009 might have been the year of the delayed release it would seem that 2010 will make up for it in spades.

What a way to welcome in the new decade 😀

Games

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About the Author

David Klemke

David is an avid gamer and technology enthusiast in Australia. He got his first taste for both of those passions when his father, a radio engineer from the University of Melbourne, gave him an old DOS box to play games on.

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