In Pictures: 15 Hot Games You'll Be Playing During the Holidays

[Lovingwii]

In Pictures: 15 Hot Games You'll Be Playing During the Holidays
As E3 2007 powers down, we've been able to see some of the top games that will be available by the end of the year.

1. Halo 3 (Xbox 360) Release Date: Sept. 2007




Needless to say, Halo 3 will be huge. At E3, Microsoft even announced a special edition Halo 3-themed Xbox 360! So if you own a 360, you're probably planning to buy the game whether it wins critical nods or not. Matt Peckham, who writes PC World's GameOn blog was pretty disappointed with the multiplayer beta, but--like you--we're all holding out hope that the story and solo gameplay turn out to be as diverting as the original was back in 2001.

2. Crysis (PC) Release Date: Sept. 2007



Crytek's spiritual sequel to Far Cry, Crysis is a tale of anti-grav aliens wreaking climatological havoc off the coast of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. The game is shaping up to have shrewd, tactically aware artificial intelligence and absolutely stunning graphics, possibly the best we've seen on a PC. Since everything in Crysis is fully destructible, battles can dynamically reconfigure an environment (rocks shatter, buildings collapse, trees topple, crates burst apart), but the enemy fully understands its relationship with those changing objects, allowing it to adjust realistically in terms of using cover and reacting tactically as battlefields transform.

3. Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3, Xbox 360) Release Date: Oct. 2007



What can we say that you don't already know? The only real announcement at E3 was that by spring 2008, 360 owners will get two exclusive extra GTAIV episodes providing extended gameplay. It's Liberty City; it's 2007; it may be the most detailed simulation of New York City in history. With the up-tick in realism, it'll also no doubt be one of the most controversial games going.

4. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) Release Date: Nov. 2007



Designed by Mario creator himself, Shigeru Miyamoto, Super Mario Galaxy looks set to be the Nintendo icon's best outing since Super Mario 64. One of the highlights of Nintendo's E3 announcements, the game will have you using the Wii Remote and Nunchuk to guide Mario through a series of colorful planets, each with its own type of gravity and difficulty.

5. BioShock (PC, Xbox 360) Release Date: Aug. 2007



You're an amnesiac who's stumbled on an art deco Ayn Randian underwater dystopia. Your objective? Ostensibly to figure out what happened and why. What started out sounding like a great story concept now looks more or less like a glorified shooter with freaky body-mods and only nominally "eco-interactive" NPCs. But hey, it'll have "the best water FX you've ever seen!"

6. Unreal Tournament III (PC, PS3, Xbox 360) Release Date: Fall 2007



Sony used E3 2007 to announce that the PlayStation 3 will be the only console with Unreal Tournament III this year. That said, PC gamers won't have to wait until early 2008 the way Xbox 360 owners will. This eagerly awaited first-person shooter will be the first shipping game to use Epic's stunning Unreal Engine 3, a technology that every game developer under the sun seems to be licensing for its next generation of games.

7. Assassin's Creed (PC, PS3, Xbox 360) Release Date: Nov. 2007



The last really great stealth gameplay titles were Looking Glass's Thief games (though I'll make an exception for the first Splinter Cell), so Assassin's Creed leaps out at us for two reasons. One, it's Ubisoft Montreal, the folks responsible (most recently) for the phenomenal Rainbow Six: Vegas. Two, it looks like a marriage of stealth and context-relative action with dynamic crowd A.I. capable of reacting to subtle shifts in your behavior. Producer Jade Raymond calls the protagonist "a medieval hitman." Think fully interactive environments (their claim), three historically modeled open-ended cities (Jerusalem, Acre, Damascus), and a mission to kill nine historical figures behind the Crusades.

8. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii) Release Date: Fall 2007



Lots of Guitar Hero III details were released at E3 2007. Slash (guitarist of Guns N' Roses fame) has been confirmed as a boss character, and a raft of new Gibson Les Paul/Kramer guitar controllers have been unveiled. Guitar Hero III will include 70 anthemic rock songs and will feature a "Battle Mode" in which competing shredders can store power-ups like "broken string" (temporarily disable a fret button on your opponent's guitar) and "double notes" (your opponent has to play twice as many notes in the same time span).

9. Rock Band (PS3, Xbox 360) Release Date: Nov. 2007



This potential Guitar Hero killer (depending on how much each instrument costs), lets up to four players join the band to sing or play drums, lead guitar, or bass/rhythm guitar. The guitars are styled after a Fender Stratocaster, and word is that you'll be able to use some Guitar Hero II controllers, too. Announced at E3 was the ability to download entire albums of big-name artists to play within the game. Rock Band is being developed by Harmonix, and will be published by MTV Games and distributed by Electronic Arts.

10. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC, PS3, Xbox 360) Release Date: Oct. 2007



If you're tired of World War II settings, Call of Duty 4 should be intriguing simply because it's the first in the series not to be set between 1939 and 1945. Think modern combat but with well-trained enemies (as opposed to terrorists using asymmetric weapons like IEDs) and a "realism mode" where a single shot to the leg makes you fall and a single shot to the chest means instant death.

11. Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures (PC, PS3, Xbox 360) Release Date: Oct. 2007)



Give us your best Tina Turner, and everyone sing: "We don't need another massively multiplayer online--whoa..." Okay, maybe we could almost stand one based loosely on Robert E. Howard's brawny, bare-chested fantasy-verse; and the "real combat" system that lets you target specific body areas (in real time) plus the option to create battle formations may indeed spruce up one of the dullest aspects of online gaming today--combat.

12. Heavenly Sword (PS3) Release Date: Sept. 2007



This downright beautiful sword-and-sorcery beat-'em-up features a heroine named Nariko as the lead, gorgeous graphics with destructible scenery, and cinematic cut-scenes reminiscent of summer blockbusters. If you're a fan of the God of War games, you'll likely want to give Heavenly Sword a closer look.

13. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii) Release Date: Aug. 2007



Nintendo claimed at E3 that this new Metroid game will be the fall's best first-person shooter, but with Halo 3 and BioShock imminent, it's gonna have some competition. The company demonstrated how easy it was to aim using gestures from the Wii Remote and Nunchuck controllers, but for some reason didn't use the Zapper shell it had announced minutes earlier. With all of the attention its social games are getting, the Wii needs Metroid Prime 3 to appeal to the core Nintendo faithful.

14. Warhawk (PS3) Release Date: Sept. 2007



No typical third-person shooter, Warhawk lets you control planes, tanks, jeeps, and more. The gameplay is fast, the graphics are stunning, and the multiplayer aspects are currently being ironed out in a limited PlayStation beta program. Gameplay modes include Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, and Zones (capture various areas).

15. World in Conflict (PC, Xbox 360) Release Date: Sept. 2007



We couldn't do a game roundup without something for real-time strategy fans, and this is a beauty. World in Conflict amazes with fantastic graphics, a focus on unit control over base building, and a game engine that lets you go from looking high over your units to zooming in all the way at grass level. You'll be able to choose between infantry, air support, or armor roles (each with specialty units), and there will be a single-player campaign. Trivia: A collector's edition of the game will ship with an actual piece of the Berlin Wall. With Command and Conquer 3 and Halo Wars close and even Starcraft II in the works, RTS fans are in for late nights over the course of the next year.

Via MSN