Early 2008 PC Sleepers

Written by Jason Cisarano  on December 17, 2007

Special: You may not have heard of them yet, but you should have!

Tweet

Comments

This has been something of a banner year for blockbuster games on the PC. After what felt like an extended drought and an interminable wait, PC gamers were buried under a flurry of fourth-quarter releases. Valve's Orange Box, Call of Duty 4, and Hellgate: London all hit the shelves within a month of one another, alongside other must-haves like Unreal Tournament 3, Crysis, and the Gears of War port. It is truly a goodЧif overwhelmingЧtime to be a PC gamer. With all of these major releases hitting stores this year, lots of "little" games get lost in the cracks all too easily, so here are a few titles to keep an eye on in the new year.

First off, there's The Wonderful End of the World, from Dejobaan Games. It couldn't have a simpler, more logical premise: the world will soon be eaten by a giant, fish-headed demon, and it's your job to collect and save as much stuff as you can before that happens. You do this via a magic puppet that can absorb anything it touches: collect as much stuff as you can in an area, and as you do, you grow and gain the ability to absorb larger stuff. Maybe that sounds a bit familiar to console veterans of the Katamari series, but Wonderful End of the World will finally give casual PC gamers the chance to join in the fun of a primary-color world with catchy music. Fittingly, this one is set to release on December 31st. It's not exactly the end of the world, but maybe Dejobaan is trying to tell us something?



If you're not the collecting type, maybe the gunplay and destruction of Fireteam Reloaded will be more your speed. The characters have a cartoonish feel akin to Team Fortress 2, and the game features a multiplayer setup, but this one has a third-person perspective that looks very RTS. Another nice feature is that Fireteam Reloaded offers up a quick gaming fix perfect for the last few minutes of a lunch hour or any short break. Each online round is designed to last no more than 10 minutes to give players a chance to get their deathmatch on without the need to invest many hours in the experience. Emphasis on team play, persistent stat tracking and three distinct character classes round out the experience. This one is being built by the newly-formed Pixel Mine Studio, a crop of developers with games like Ultima, Wing Commander, Deus Ex and Medal of Honor on their collective resume. That list alone makes Fireteam Reloaded a game to watch. It's scheduled for a "Fall 2007" release, but the clock is obviously ticking on that. Hopefully, we'll see Fireteam Reloaded posted for download on the Pixel Mine site early in 2008.

In the WTF file there's A Stroke of Fate, a game that seems to take its inspiration from a 1950s radio drama that set each episode in a different alternate reality. The game puts players into the shoes of a trusted, high-level member of the Nazi party. The player gets the chance to rub shoulders with folks like Goebbels and Himmler as he makes a play to change history and assassinate Hitler. Stroke of Fate makes this list not just for this bizarre bit of role playing so much as for what looks like a cross between an adventure game and a historical novel, since the developers claim to be going for historical realism in both character and setting. Plus, Russian developer Akella has released a stack of screenshots that might be evidence of the best-looking pixel hunt since Myst. Originally slated for Q4 2007, A Stroke of Fate looks like it was pushed back to Q1 2008.

Back in 2005 Psychonauts, the first game from Double Fine Studios, could have easily made this list. It was well-reviewed and didn't earn the fanbase it deserved until well after its release. Well, the forthcoming Crackpot Entertainment release Insecticide has a few things in common with Psychonauts, including a pedigree that includes former LucasArts developers that worked on games like Grim Fandango and Curse of Monkey Island. Insecticide is a hard-boiled, comic crime mystery set in a future in which bugs rule the earthЧroaches, beetles, and a 189-pound chigger investigate murder and a web of corruption that starts at a sugary soft drink factory. Oh, the possibilities for puns and platforming abound! Looks like we'll have to wait for February 2008 to get our hands on this one, though. Like so many on this list, the Q4 release date just didn't stick.

It's hard to talk about PC games without talking about at least one shooter, and Field Ops from Digital Reality will fill that bill nicely. First off, it's not just any old shooterЧit also includes an RTS element that gives players control over a number of soldiers at one time via a heads-up minimap or a full-on RTS mode. In a way, it recalls Ghost Recon in that the player is on the battlefield in first person with the troops he controls. Field Ops will give the player the chance to jump back and forth between RTS and FPS modes as the situation dictates. That, plus a multiplayer setup that includes VIP Rescue, Bomb Run and Conquest modes and you've got yourself a recipe for success. This one will likely be the last release of the bunch, with a date that now looks like March 2008.

Final Thoughts
Although the blockbuster games promise the usual triple-A experience with plenty of bombs, blood, and all the latest graphical bells and whistles, the smaller, independent games often have more freedom to experiment. Less cash on the line, less pressure from the suits, etc, etc, all allow independent developers to take risks that the big companies might not approve of. Every one of these games might not be able to hit it out of the park, but they all have some great ideas that deserve players' respect. And the best news of all: unlike most of the big fall titles, none of them will require a PC upgrade just to get playable framerates.