Most Wanted Games of 2006

2: Unreal Tournament 2007

Who makes it: Epic Games

When is it out: Mid-year

Why is it good: Online shooters have been suffering a little in recent years, with the last version of Unreal Tournament under-performing and nothing quite coming close to Counter-Strike. Nothing has come along, disposed of the long time ruler and replaced it with superior graphics, faster gameplay and a more balanced affair. Doom 3, Painkiller, Quake 4 and even the Source games have all failed to live up to the hype that came before them and as Editor Wil Harris concluded in his article in early December, we’re all looking forward to what is coming next.

That game may finally arrive in Unreal Tournament 2007. After watching a few videos of it and gauging people’s anticipation of this release, it doesn't take a genius to tip it for big things. Hugely messy, tongue in cheek, arcade style killing fests (the likes of which has not been seen since the Spanish Inquisition) always bode well for a game. With the developers intent on introducing reams of new content, modes of play, weapons, vehicles and the Unreal 3.0 engine supposedly being better than anything the gaming world has seen, it is hard to imagine that Epic Games, will mess this up. It is going to be spectacular!

What could go wrong? It is possible that the distribution to both the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 may inhibit the progress that could be made with the PC. A diluted game due to divided resources could potentially spoil what could be one of the best games of all time.

1: Spore

Who makes it: Maxis

When is it out: Christmas 2006

Why is it good: Think Civilization meets The Sims. Ambition, ingenuity, originality: this is the game that will change frontiers in 2006. Will Wright, creator of The Sims has created this project for which the idea is simple - you begin life as a microscopic cell and evolve yourself into whatever you want to be. As you evolve the world evolves around you – and that is it. On paper it actually sounds too unbelievably audacious to be believed, but as the screenshots are not forged the evidence sits before you. This game is a shoe-in for success in 2006, should it live up to even half of its promises.

What could go wrong?With so ambitious a project my main concern is that it simply is not possible to create a game like this that is easy to play but hard to master, enjoyable and not lacking in longevity. With such an expansive idea there are so many areas where the game could go wrong (or right for that matter) but as it is with all un-charted territory in the gaming world, if it hasn’t been done before then you never know what you’re going to get.

Conclusions

So there we have it, our Top 10 games to look forward to next year. There are many more that battled and struggled to try and gain a place in such an exclusive list but due to the fact that many developers are hesitant to say exactly when games will be released they simply couldn’t get in. Other noticeable absentees were games S.T.A.L.K.E.R, Final Fantasy XII, Okami, The Legend of Zelda and Elder Scrolls IV (nevermind Alan Wake -Ed). And that's before we even considering the new stuff being developed for PSP and Nintendo DS.

As we said from the start, developing lists like this is a very difficult thing to do. We could have written a Top 100 and still not covered a game that is important to some readers. As a result, we want YOU to submit your nominations. It could be one game, or it could be a list of ten from your favourite genre.

Dive into our Forums and explain why your chosen game(s) should be on our Watch List.