Genre: Action
Publisher: THQ
Developer: GSC Game World
Release Date: TBA

Tony "OUberLord" Mitera: The ghost town areas around Chernobyl are largely as mysterious to most people as any other place on the planet. What exactly happens when entire towns are suddenly and hurriedly evacuated, leaving untold amounts of valuable things behind? What happens to the landscape and creatures in the area as they are constantly exposed to incredibly high amounts of radiation, generation after generation? S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl not only pits the player inside the dead-zone of the Chernobyl area fighting creatures mutated by radiation as well

Genre: Action
Publisher: EA Games
Developer: Digital Illusions
Release Date: Q2 2005

Mark Crump: CounterStrike never did it for me, but Battlefield 1942 finally got me hooked on team-based multiplayer combat. What I saw of Battlefield 2 at E3 last year impressed me; now there will be more emphasis on teamplay, medics will have a great purpose, and man, those graphics are gonna rock!

Tony "OUberLord" Mitera: With the unheard-of popularity that surrounded the Desert Combat modification for Battlefield 1942, it was almost a sure thing that Dice and EA would take the ball and run with it to create

Genre: RPG
Publisher: Konami
Developer: Konami
Release Date: Fall 2005

Tim "Rabbit" Mithee: I don't even own a DS and I'm dying to play this game. Konami may have trouble pulling off a next-generation Castlevania on the consoles, but they've got it down to a science on the portables. Aria of Sorrow was simply perfect, a wonderful homage to Symphony of the Night done for the smaller screen. It's not possible to say just how much I'm looking forward to the continuing adventures of Soma, either -- this will be the first time in ages that a Castlevania cast

Genre: Action
Publisher: THQ
Developer: Pandemic Studios
Release Date: April 2005

Alicia Ashby: I went on about this one at length during the preview, but it says a lot when a pre-alpha press preview build of a game is more fun than many finished games I've been playing lately. Once this game is finished, it's going to be one of the most dementedly entertaining titles on the PS2 and Xbox. The humor is actually funny, the graphics are great, and the music is perfect for nailing the cheesy B-movie atmosphere. Sure, the gameplay isn't too unique at heart, but

Genre: Adventure
Publisher: The Adventure Company
Developer: Microids
Release Date: April 14, 2005

Tim "Rabbit" Mithee: I'm always drawn to adventure games; back when I was a kid, I had a fixation on the classics of both graphical and text adventures. I'm dying to see the genre take off again, and I'm really hoping that Dreamcatcher manages to wow the entire world yet again. Still Life is getting a lot less publicity than Dreamfall, but I'd like to see just what can be done. The idea of a gritty, mature-audiences adventure is welcome, at least to me. The screenshots

Genre: RPG
Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Square Enix
Release Date: September 14, 2005

Geson Hatchett: Squaresoft? Disney Properties? You're bloody kidding me. But no, the facts spoke for themselves; an edgy reinterpretation of timeless classics, great gameplay that fused beat-em-up action with console role-playing, and a story and cast that gripped the player from beginning to end. Kingdom Hearts gave many people the ability to do something they always secretly wanted to do – immerse themselves in the Disney productions of old. The ones they grew up on, the ones they watched on VHS (for you whippersnappers, that's that

Genre: Action
Publisher: Rockstar Games
Developer: Rockstar North
Release Date: June 7, 2005

Tim "Rabbit" Mithee: Some gamer I am. I haven't played San Andreas yet. Should I check in my ID card at the door and go get a job in a library? Before anyone doubts my credentials, let me explain: I've always been far more fond of GTA on the PC. The controls work better for me, the visuals are far better, and frankly, I just like PC games better overall. So I've held out on the power of San Andreas for a bit to get the

Genre: Adventure
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Developer: Headfirst Productions
Release Date: April 18, 2005

Mark Crump: Man, I hope this doesn't disappoint. If Bethesda does it right, and gets the full essence of CoC down, this will be a great game. If they mail it in, and half-ass it, it'll be my coaster-of-the-year. My prediction, this game is either going to be great or awful; there will be no gray area.

Tim "Rabbit" Mithee: The Cthulu mythos is hard to ignore. Whether it's Lovecraft's stories or the RPG system you're talking about, it's a dark world. Madness at every corner, death

Genre: Action
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Gearbox Software
Release Date: March 8, 2005

Thomas Leaf: This game looks to be the end-all of all shooters for me. In BIA, your primary concern is with maneuver and fire orders. Sure, you get to shoot, but as a squad leader, your goal is to get your fire support element into the right spot to lay down suppressing fires while you maneuver your assault element into position to flank and grenade fascist scum. This game also looks absolutely stunning and accurately models regions of hedgerows behind Normandy and chronicles 30 hours in the

Genre: Action
Publisher: VU Games
Developer: Monolith Productions
Release Date: June 7, 2005

Tim "Rabbit" Mithee: Monolith emerged a few years back as the crown kings of the themed shooter. No One Lives Forever cemented that position, something maintained even through the well-designed but poorly implemented Blood series. Heck, even Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza hasn't shaken my faith in them, and now: they're back again, with the biggest bullet-fest of them all. F.E.A.R. looks to be loud -- a screaming, massive gun party, with enemies from all sides and amazingly destructable environments. It's like Serious Sam, only far more

Genre: Racing
Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: Microsoft
Release Date: May 3, 2005

Kris Graft: We already know that GT4 will be good, but it's Forza that may turn out to be the dark horse, and steal some of GT4's thunder. Although Forza may only be expanding upon ideas that GT has already realized, it does have one thing that GT4 doesn't: online support. This may not be a big deal to some people, but hardcore racers want to know how they stack up against the rest of the world, and split screen modes just don't cut it. Also, the career

Genre: Action
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Vicarious Visions
Release Date: April 3, 2005

Geson Hatchett: I love Doom. Have for years. I still play it to this day. I would love to play Doom 3 on the PC, but it costs too much. Thank you, id Software, first for making a new installment to one of my favorite games of all time, and further for taking time out to compress your technical wonder down to a manageable size so that I can play it without buying an entirely new computer. I'll even take the nod to survival horror that Doom

Genre: RPG
Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Square Enix
Release Date: 2005

Kris Graft: Ok, we're on the twelfth "Final" Fantasy. The series still holds bragging rights to some of the most memorable RPG experiences, but it's getting worn out. FFXII is looking to change that perception. The main reason that this made my most anticipated games list is largely because of one fact: Yasumi Matsuno is directing it. He's the man behind Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story, and Ogre Battle. The game even takes place in Ivalice, of Tactics fame. This one is set to breathe some life into

Genre: Action
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom
Release Date: March 1, 2005

Geson Hatchett: I'm an action gamer at heart; always have been, always will be. Thus, I've accepted Dante's presence in various videogames a lot more openly than most people. I loved his first game, and his appearance (practically twice over) in Viewtiful Joe for the PS2 made me giddy. Sure, he's singlehandedly made the word "badass" cliché and passé in the world of videogame journalism, but you know what? The guy makes almost anything he's in fun to play, and cool to look at to boot. Devil May

Genre: Action
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
Release Date: 2005

Kris Graft: Why wouldn't this game be one of the most anticipated of 2005? Seriously, when the trailer was shown as last year's E3, gamers openly wept. Although Wind Waker was great in its own right, it didn't grasp the imagination of gamers the same way Ocarina of Time did. The new Zelda appears to be the remedy for gamers let down by WW. Not much is known about this game, except that it appears some of the game mechanics will be carried over from previous Zelda games. Zelda looks

Genre: Adventure
Publisher: Funcom
Developer: Funcom
Release Date: August 31, 2005

Tim "Rabbit" Mithee: When The Longest Journey came out a few years ago, it was the shot in the arm that everyone related to the adventure game had wanted for years. TLJ was beautiful to look at, immersive, well-written and orchestrated, something that hadn't been seen since the golden days of LucasArts and Sierra. Many have come since, all with their varying degrees of success, but games like Runaway, Tony Tough, and Syberia owe their opportunities to The Longest Journey. Here we are, some time later, and the

Genre: RPG
Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: BioWare
Release Date: April 14, 2005

Kris Graft: BioWare knows kung fu. They've been doing their homework for Chinese Mythology 101, and Jade Empire will showcase the melding of folklore and good old-fashioned butt-whoopin', Bruce Lee style. It will be more focused on action than BioWare's other RPG offerings, and it's looking better graphically than the somewhat ugly KOTOR series. Like KOTOR you will have choices to follow a certain life path. It is unlikely that JE will disappoint when it is released. Until then, keep your patience, young grasshopper.

Corey Owen: When every game