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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Empire: Total War
March 2009 (PC)

I still dig the Creative Assembly's Shogun: Total War out for a couple of hours' chin-stroking whenever I'm stranded with my puny laptop. Empire is built on the same perfect marriage of turn-based strategic play and real-time battlefield tactics, but transfers the proceedings to the age of European imperialism. The biggest new feature is naval combat, a completely different ballgame to the clash of army with army: ships can take damage to their mast, hull or sails, suffer boarding actions and be thwarted by foggy weather. On land, infantrymen can now scale obstacles such as walls and fences or take cover behind them. At the macro level, you can set up your own custom campaigns or relive painstakingly recreated historical scenarios. -EET

Indiana Jones
TBC 2009 (Xbox 360, PS3)

Whatever his archaeological expertise, Indiana Jones learned the art of fisticuffs in a run-down liquor store bar. And what better place to put his haymakers, eye-watering elbow jabs and vicelike headlocks to the test than a San Francisco promenade awash with physics-enabled chairs, cafe tables, fire hydrants and pedestrians? Or the rooftop of a moving subway car? Or the back of an elephant? The latest Indy adventure takes the franchise back to 1939, with World War II on the doorstep and Jones in his prime. LucasArts has kept a lid on the game since it first saw daylight at E3 2006 - we don't even know if Harrison Ford is voicing the script. Hopefully the publisher is just taking a perfectionist approach to pre-release footage. -EET

Gran Turismo 5
Q4 2009 (PS3)

As well as learning that Gran Turismo Mobile is still in development during this 2008 catch up with GT creator Kazunori Yamauchi, we were also reminded why Gran Turismo is the most finely crafted, most obsessively detailed and stunningly authentic racing simulator in the world. The resources - and budget - afforded to Polyphony to recreate the unique handling, engine noises and sheer persona of thousands of vehicles, and translate them into a simulation, has probably never been matched. Now, the ante has seriously been upped by Microsoft with its Forza series, which pretty much took Gran Turismo to the cleaners - if not in terms of realism and detail, then in terms of a full feature set and online modes. But Kazunori has never been one to rest on his laurels, and has in fact been working on the true successor to Gran Turismo 4 since before the unveiling of PlayStation 3 itself. Hopes are high for Gran Turismo 5, and although it's currently scheduled for release this year, it wouldn't surprise us in the slightest to see it slip, in much the way GT4 did. -AD

Puzzle Quest: Galactrix
Early 2009 (PC, DS, Xbox 360)

The original Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords emerged from that timeless creative practice of taking one idea - Bejeweled, in this case - and slamming it into another - the fantasy role-playing genre - so hard the components have no choice but to congeal. It was startlingly deep and disturbingly moreish, and the sci-fi sequel shows no indication of faring otherwise. Players move their starships around a galactic map, taking on missions, upgrading their equipment and getting into fights. Battle takes the form of a puzzle game: you rearrange hexagonal tiles as they fall across the screen to make lines of three or more, with different kinds of tile producing different effects. Trust us, it's a lot more compelling than it looks. -EET

Trine
Q2 2009 (PS3, PC)

A last-minute entry to the Kikizo top fifty, Frozenbyte's Trine is a 2.5D action platformer with a baroque aesthetic reminiscent of Ivolgamus' Fading Shadows. You guide three characters - a wizard, a thief and a warrior - through a fantasy world rife with crumbling castles and magical contraptions, switching between characters at will to overcome a range of puzzles and enemies. The wizard can conjure blocks and panels out of thin air to negotiate gaps and other obstacles, while the warrior (as his name implies) is handy with a battleaxe, and the thief is good at jumping, mostly. If Frozenbyte can really eke the possibilities out of that gameplay triangle, this could rank up there with Braid. -EET

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