The 50 Hottest Things in Gaming in 2009

Here's the ultimate list of things to look forward to in your 2009 gaming calendar. This massive preview of the year includes E3 2009, The Reinvention of Atari, the Return of Itagaki, Uncharted 2, Halo 3: ODST, Half-Life Episode Three, Modern Warfare 2, Bioshock 2, Rare and loads more.

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The Next Lionhead Game
March 2009 (GDC unveiling)

Or, as Peter Molyneux decided to re-label it at some point - no doubt with tongue firmly lodged into cheek - Project X. The famed British game creator revealed to us a couple of months ago that this highly secretive project is set to be unveiled at GDC 2009, so expect the sheets to come off in March. It's the game Peter says is so groundbreaking it could hit the covers of leading science journals. The boss of the Guildford-based studio also told us that its owner Microsoft wants to "shock and awe" the games industry when it's shown for the first time, and that the game will be "politically contentious". If you missed it, check out our most recent in-depth interview with Peter Molyneux, as well as this brief catch up, which included plenty of chat on Project X in case you've not been paying attention to who said what to whom first. -AD

Splinter Cell: Conviction
Q2 2009 (Xbox 360, PC)

Sam Fisher doesn't get the respect nowadays he once attracted as an Xbox posterchild. Having gone into hiding after the events of Double Agent, the western Solid Snake will make his fifth appearance as a scruffy lowlife, on the run from the government operatives he once called comrades. Stealth is still a priority, but there are no slick PVC camo-suits or night vision goggles to be found here: your best allies are your wits, an inconspicuous hood-top and the ebb and flow of the crowd which surrounds you. Action fans will not go wanting, though - Sam does a bone-shattering line in Jason-Bourne-esque pugilism. Conviction should be one of next spring's brighter spots, providing Ubisoft doesn't delay it again. -EET

Former SEGA Creators' Epics
What Naka and Miz did next

What do Sonic creator Yuji Naka and Rez mastermind Tetsuya Mizuguchi both have in common? Yes, they were once both high profile creators of SEGA's Japanese development infrastructure, and yes, they have both since set up their own studios. But Prope and Q Entertainment also have something else in common: both are working on proper, full-scale titles, alongside the usual low-risk developments common to so many of the industry's independent developers these days. This means we don't have to settle for JUST music games, or games made by entirely separate developers with these chaps' names slapped on the box, or even more of this cynical tat for the Wii, or something to do with penguins. No, it means we can look forward to something significant and meaty - something we can more readily associate with the reputations of each of these esteemed creators. In an enviable scoop courtesy of Brandon Sheffield (who went on to publish the extended interview a few days ago, Yuji Naka said: "we're actually planning on making a game like Sonic right now", and confirmed that it's a character-based action title he's got in the works. Similarly, one of the highlights at the recent Atari Live event was the surprise appearance of Mizuguchi, and the announcement from Phil Harrison that their new collaboration with Miz will include a full-scale development of a proper game, rather than something you could play in a web browser. A game called QJ for the Wii is going to come out first (the game's Atari producer working with Miz told recently told us "it won't be long" until we learn more), and then later in 2009 we expect to hear more about the big guns. -AD

Fatal Frame IV
31 July 2008 (Japan), 6th February 2009 (EU), TBC (NA) (Wii)

Few westerners will be familiar with the Fatal Frame series, and even fewer Wii owners. Shame that, because Tecmo's third-person chiller has long since surpassed Silent Hill in the creepiness stakes, and the fourth entrant benefits from a motion sensitive control scheme. Rather than battering the restless souls you encounter with blunt objects, gunning them down or magicking them to dust, you must exorcise the evil sods by taking pictures in first-person with a special camera. On a Dualshock this could be a fiddly affair, especially given the game's "beached whale" approach to movement and turning, but with the Wiimote's aid it should be a cinch. "Suda51" of No More Heroes repute is among the credits. -EET

Red Faction: Guerrilla
Q2 2009 (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)

Volition's Red Faction comes near the top of our (admittedly meagre) list of PS2 shooters, with firearms pitched just the right side of sci-fi and well-balanced multiplayer maps. What cut the mustard in 2001 would have fallen rather flat in 2008, of course, and the developer has obligingly taken the series back to the operating table for its third outing. Guerrilla pulls the action back to third-person, dials the environmental destructibility up to Independence Day levels and swaps the original's mineshafts for a sweeping Martian sandbox. Among the more eye-catching features are two-legged bulldozer robots and power-ups that let you bust through walls. -EET

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