Half-Life 2
Vivendi Universal

Half-Life 2 opens the door to a world where the player?s presence affects everything around him, from the physical environments to the behaviors ? even the emotions ? of both friends and enemies. The player again picks up the crowbar of research scientist, Gordon Freeman, who finds himself on an alien-infested Earth being picked to the bone, its resources depleted and its population dwindling. Freeman is thrust into the unenviable role of rescuing the world from the wrong he unleashed back at Black Mesa.

EverQuest II
Sony Online Entertainment

EverQuest II from Sony Online Entertainment brings gamers together in an online fantasy world unlike anything you’ve seen before. Preceding the success of the original EverQuest game, which is to date the most successful MMORPG ever created, EverQuest II retains some concepts and role-playing content from the original EverQuest but that’s about it.

Where is it now?

It?s a beautiful game with fantastic design and writing that?s a little short but delivers boatloads of action in what time you do end up playing. Half-Life 2 is the kind of game you can easily go back and replay over and over again just for the experience. The sound is excellent and the graphics are top notch. It will surely be the standard for a new generation of FPS games. With the release of the modding tools, we can surely expect some awesome new content to be developed by an ever-growing fan-based mod community. Half Life 2 is all that it claimed to be and more.

Where is it now?

Sony Online Entertainment has released twelve initial servers that include localized language support for English, French and German and also a special Role-Playing Preferred server for all the die hard RPG players. To support the growing amount of players, another six servers have already been added since the first day of release. It’s a good idea to check with friends and join the same server as them so you can all play together.

Related articles: Review
Buy at Amazon.com: PC

World of Warcraft
Vivendi Universal

World of Warcraft is a role-playing game that will have a heavy focus on killing things. But it’s not going to be a 3D version of Diablo II set in the Warcraft universe. Among other things, you’ll have to work together in groups of up to five characters to get stuff done (although you can go solo, too, if you really want), and your main focus will be on solving quests (rather than on just randomly killing creatures).

Rome: Total War
Activision

Even with a few minor bugs and one irritating AI action, Rome: Total War is a must for strategy fans and sometimes even those who aren’t. This is a game that easily gives you more than your moneys worth of play. No matter if you’re a fan of strategy, combat, really angry guys with spears or some mixture of all of the above, Rome: Total War will definitely please.

Where will it go?

The franchise Warcraft is almost ubiquitous with the real time strategy genre, besting nearly all challengers to its orcs and humans domain. Battle.Net, the online service for Warcraft, is played online religiously around the world. Warcraft's move into online games certainly was not unexpected. But it faces stiff challenge from incumbents, especially in the fantasy genre from well established online games such as EverQuest, Ultima Online, Dark Ages of Camelot and Asheron's Call.

Where is it now?

Always drawing strategy crowds at various E3 shows, Rome: Total War made a pre-emptive strike at the holiday market by showing up in September. All signs point to the long wait as being worth it. Besides critical acclaim from the entertainment and gaming press, the History Channel dropped its in-house graphics to simulate all battles using Rome's engine. You know you're the de facto standard when that happens.

Related articles: Preview
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Doom 3
Activision

Doom 3 takes place on Mars, in a human colony. You, a marine, are sent there with some big shot corporate suit to observe some of the experiments taking place and make sure that the colony isn’t wasting any money – or something like that. Basically the story is really irrelevant, since action starts quite soon into the game. The game starts like this: you arrive to the colony, meet the crazy mad scientist who runs the place, get assigned to go check out a missing person, but before you have a chance to actually go look for him, everything blows up and a bunch of zombie monsters start coming out of everywhere. In essence, exactly the same thing as the previous Doom games.

Call of Duty: United Offensive
Activision

United Offensive is an extremely worthy successor to the Call of Duty Crown. Sure, the game is still a little short and the AI could use work, but the relatively expanded scope of the battles (thanks to the often overwhelming odds you'll face) gives you a better sense of being a part of a greater event, and the continually swirling action around you makes you really feel like you're in danger for a majority of the time. Add to that some new weapons, multiplayer maps and vehicles, and you've got an impressive expansion to 2003's Game of the Year.

Where is it now?

Without a doubt one of the most awaited titles in 2004, this game was released in August with skyrocketing preorders and long lineups. Praised for its next generation graphics, it pushed hardware on computers to the limit, and sent scary chills down the spines of many fans. The special effects are to this date second to none. It goes to show that legendary developer id Software can do no wrong.

Where is it now?

Sony Online Entertainment has released twelve initial servers that include localized language support for English, French and German and also a special Role-Playing Preferred server for all the die hard RPG players. To support the growing amount of players, another six servers have already been added since the first day of release. It’s a good idea to check with friends and join the same server as them so you can all play together.

Related articles: Review
Buy at Amazon.com: PC