That's why I have a wait-and-see attitude about Warcraft III, for example -- I've been there and I've done that. Same with Duke Nukem Forever, though the Daikatana parallels are becoming interesting... Black and White? Sure, but I still have no idea what it's going to play like, and I fear Peter Molyneux is similarly perplexed.

So, here's my list of games I'd like to get my mitts on right now. Maybe not the most exciting titles but, I think, the most promising:

Oni: Bungie/Gathering of Developers
Bungie is one of those rare developers that innovate obsessively and never put out less than a quality product. For them, the game is the thing, and it shows. That's why I've been waiting for Oni for so long. A marriage of a dark anime story with Tomb Raider-style adventure and fighting-game combat pique my interest. Best of all, the heroine looks like neither a pituitary case nor an inflatable love doll. Konoko looks real (aside from the purple hairdo and cartoonish features). Thankfully I got the Gold version of the game late last week, and, aside from the lack of a much needed (sing it with me!) in-mission save, Bungie has delivered once again.

Freedom Force: Irrational/Crave
POW! ZAP! What's this? Superheroes in computer games? Duh! Let's see; we have an industry dominated by unwashed, socially challenged, geeky, computer-loving males ages 15-35, and there aren't any superhero games? Are they nuts? Thankfully Irrational's very name implies that it is indeed a few pages short of a Giant-sized special issue. You can create your own heroes and use them to conquer megalomaniac super villainy in a throwback to the 1960s envisioned by Stan Lee and the immortal Jack Kirby. Excelsior!

Star Trek: Bridge Commander: Totally Games/Activision

Looks comfy

Larry Holland gave us some of the most fun WWII flight sims ever committed to code. He gave us our beloved TIE Fighter. He gave us X-Wing: Alliance. He modeled a huge range of Star Wars spacecraft, plus a few new ones, with grace and playability -- and, best of all, they felt like you were in that cockpit with Wedge, Solo, Vader and Porkins themselves. Larry Holland is a space sim god. So I'm looking forward to seeing him take the promising concept of a Trek space combat sim away from the bumblers at Interplay and do it right. For one thing, mouse control. Yes, piloting a massive Galaxy class starship wouldn't require a joystick (that idiot scene with Riker in Star Trek: Insurrection notwithstanding). It would require giving orders to a competent crew. Sounds like fun. Mr. Holland, make it so!

Pool of Radiance 2: SSI
The Gold box series marked my return to videogames (I went on a brief pen-and-paper RPG kick in late high school), and the first one was Pool of Radiance, or, as I affectionately remember its DOS command line: Poolrad. That turn-based Forgotten Realms quest against monsters I knew, using spells I knew, races I knew and a world I knew, hooked me back into the PC fold. Let's just say the next two, and the million or so SSI churned out through the '90s that followed (also using the same engine), kept me hooked. So it's a distinct thrill to think of that seminal game getting a remake.

Serious Sam: Croteam/Gathering of Developers
"Frantic action feeling" -- that's how Croteam's Roman Ribaric described Serious Sam in his charmingly broken English in that Old Man Murray interview some months back. It's the perfect description too. Really, I've said enough about this game, haven't I? (Longtime readers are nodding their heads.)

Medal of Honor: Allied Assault: 2015/EA

The only good Nazi...

You can have Return to Wolfenstein, thank you. I'll play it, but my hopes aren't high. For one thing, it's not coming from id Software but from the studio formerly known as Xatrix (Redneck Rampage, Kingpin: Life of Crime); for another, it's just looking a little too sci-fi for my tastes. I know the original Wolf 3D had its Operation Eisenfaust zombie chapter (not to mention its robotic Hitler), but I'm not looking forward to it, despite its use of the Quake III engine. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault I am looking forward to. Sin stunk, but 2015's Wages of Sin add-on was a distinct improvement, and I've heard nothing but good things about the PlayStation series. Plus, this one has the Quake III engine.

Madden 2002: EA Sports
There's a trend that EA seems to follow: Every odd year (in the title) its franchise sports sims get a major graphics overhaul, and every even year the gameplay is raised a notch and features are added. Look at Madden 2000 for example; the running game was vastly improved and the passing game tweaked, but the graphics were lousy compared to Microsoft's NFL Fever 2000. Last year's Madden featured a major graphics overhaul (though nothing like the PS2 version), so this year I'm hoping for even better gameplay. Actually, secretly, I'm just hoping EA Sports doesn't cancel this, the last of the PC gridiron giants.

Sid Meier's Civilization III: Firaxis/Microprose
I've had enough of the pretenders to the throne. We need a coup, we need a putsch and we need a new king. The vaunted Rebellion came to naught, the heralded Birth of the Federation was stillborn and both Calls to Power were best left unheeded. Yea, only glorious Alpha Centauri did shine bright during these dark, dark ages. But the gloried protector Reynolds abandoned us for his Big Huge dreams, left into exile. The king has returned. Meier is toiling with the very stuff of human history even as we speak, and the Empire shall be restored. Yea verily, the true lineage and dynasty. The third civilization. Soon, my friends, we shall celebrate "We Love the President Day" once again. Soon.

- Andrew S Bub