GregHowley.com

I've been doing some thinking recently about games I'm really looking forward to in 2007. Not that I'm at any shortage of games to play as is. I've been enjoying Eternal Darkness quite a lot. I'd have to guess I'm about halfway through, and I'll have a great review written up for that one once I finish. Our copy of Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is still wrapped in plastic - I'm not going to start playing it until I finish Eternal Darkness. There's a good chance Linda may start playing it before I do. But currently I've managed to get her addicted to Psychonauts, which is damn cool.

I downloaded and installed a game called Rock 24 last night after hearing about it on The Hotspot. It's a mod for Half-Life 2, and thus free if you own that game. It looks pretty cool, though I have yet to really get into it.

I'm currently stuck on a level in Freedom Force in which you play only El Diablo, and have to fight a mob of about 20 gangsters with guns. I can't see how the heck I'm supposed to get through this level, and my options at this point are to look up a cheat online to get past the level, or to put the game back on the shelf. Not sure which way I'll go.

I've been playing Icewind Dale a lot more recently. I've got to say - these old Infinity Engine games are awesome. They're better than so many similar games that came after them. Better than Neverwinter Nights, much better than the new Pool of Radiance, and even better than Temple of Elemental Evil. I'm also really enjoying Final Fantasy 3 and Elite Beat Agents on the DS, but I don't often make time to play DS games unless I'm away from home.

I'm playing Wii Sports less now - I suppose it's the type of game we'll pull out more when people come over to visit. And I go back to Shadow of the Colossus every so often, although it's been a while. I'll keep updating my progress in that game on the sidebar. As you can see, I'm currently up to colossus #6.

Upcoming Titles

Okay, so here's a short list of games that I'm looking forward to. There are quite a few in February - I'd better hurry up and finish with the games I've got.

• Half-Life 2: Episode 2: A lot of people have been looking forward to this game for a long time. Like episode 1, I will purchase this game the day it comes out, and probably play it in 2 to 3 days. I'm a huge fan of Half-Life, and the only thing I'm looking forward to as much is the fan-generated project Black Mesa:Source.
• God of War 2: Considering how great the first game was, I can't wait to try out this sequel. I love the fact that great new PS2 games are still coming out after the PS3 crashed and burned. Look forward to God of War 2 on February 7th.
• Jade Empire special edition: Slated for release on February 26th. Jade Empire is a game that was released quite a while back on the original XBox. Now they've upgraded it and are releasing for the PC. If more XBox games like this existed, I might have considered buying one.
• Wii Play: Here's a game which to me seems very similar to Wii Sports. That's not a bad thing. It's full of mini games, and supports Miis. It also comes bundled with a wiimote. It'll be nice to have three when we've got company at the house. Wii Play comes out on February 12th.
• Supreme Commander: This is a RTS game, and it looks like a good one. What really gets me though is that this one will have dual monitor support. Imagine playing a game and having a full-size map on your second monitor. I've never played a game on two monitors before, and I'm looking forward to it. February 20th.
• Crysis: This one's coming out in the third quarter of 2007, but given that its real draw is DirectX10 graphics, I may wait to play it until I'm eventually running a Vista machine. And that may be another couple years. But Crysis is the sequel to Far Cry, which was a great FPS. I wonder whether it will be as maddeningly difficult as Far Cry.
• Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass: I think this will be the Nintendo DS's first Zelda title, and I'm willing to give it a shot, assuming that I'm done with Final Fantasy 3 by the time it comes out in the second quarter of 2007.

There are a couple of other titles that intrigue me, such as S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Hellgate: London, but while they might turn out to be good, they might go the way of Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, which had a tremendous demo, but got horrible reviews. Aside from the as yet far-off Fallout 3 and the potential of an upcoming Starcraft 2, as rumors have hinted, there's nothing else out there that's exciting me.