Upcoming Games of 2008: Part VI

Iron Man

**
Platform: PC, Xbox360, PS3, PS2, Wii
Release Date: May 2008**
Based on the upcoming movie of the same name, the Iron Man game will plant players firmly in the boots of billionaire industrialist Tony Stark AKA Iron Man as he embarks on a quest to stub out all things evil just like any other self-respecting superhero. The game will take place from a third person perspective and a major chunk of it will focus on aerial combat; something all of us have been looking forward to ever since the crapfest that was Superman Returns graced consoles.

Backbreaker

Platform: Xbox360, PS3
Release Date: TBA 2008
I’m not a big fan of American football but the only reason this game’s managed to catch my eye is because it’s being made using Natural Motion’s Euphoria engine along with AGEIA’s PhysX engine – which means that not only will tackles look highly realistic (and painful) but each tackle will play out differently… or so the developers claim.

__PAGEBREAK__

Postal 3

Platform: Xbox360, PC
Release Date: TBA 2008
Yeah, yeah, I know most of you won’t touch this game with a bargepole but some part of me did enjoy Postal 2 for a while (I said “for a while”, all right?) so I guess I’m looking forward to this game. Unlike Postal 2, the game will take place from a third person perspective and will be set in the brand new city of Catharsis as the Postal dude embarks on a journey of debauchery, murder, mayhem and violence. Oh, and the game will be made using Valve’s Source engine, the very same engine that fueled Half Life 2, HL2: Episode 1 and 2 and Team Fortress 2.

Tom Clancy’s End War

Platform: PC, Xbox360, PS3
Release Date: TBA 2008
After dominating the stealth and tactical shooter genre for years, Tom Clancy and Ubisoft have now set their sights on the RTS genre with their very first strategy offering called End War. The game will take place in the 2011 during World War III and will allow players to play as one of three factions: the Russian Spetsnaz Guard Brigade, the European Federation Enforcers Corps, and the United States’ Joint Strike Force.

The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena

Platform: PS3, Xbox360
Release Date: TBA 2008
Remember the awesome stealth-based first person shooter called The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay that blew everyone away? Well, it’s back on next-gen consoles with an all-new paint job and some new content that’ll probably include a multiplayer mode.

__PAGEBREAK__

Spore

Platform: PC
Release Date: TBA 2008
The mastermind that conceptualized the Sims games – Will Wright – is working on another title that’s sure to end up as the most unique and extensive sandbox/god game out there. Spore sees you start off as a multicellular organism, from where you work your way up the evolutionary tree to form a complete species. Your species will eventually develop social habits, educate itself in the way of the world, and research space travel to interact with life forms on other planets! A whole lifecycle in a nutshell – that’s exactly what Spore is.

Destroy all Humans: Path of the Furon!

Platform: Xbox360, PS3Release Date: March 2008

Path of the Furon is the third chapter in the Destroy All Humans series developed by Pandemic Studios, and puts players in the shoes of an alien named Crypto as he goes around, well destroying humans. The action takes place during the 70s and as Crypto’s entire race faces destruction at the hands of an unknown foe, he’ll have to rely on the blessings of his Kung Fu master as well as a plethora of innovative weapons (anal probe included) to kick some serious ass.

Well that about wraps up our extensive list of upcoming games. As you can see, 2008 looks a pretty awesome year for gaming, so we strongly suggest you start saving up some serious dough to fund those gaming needs. Oh and before we forget, there are some games we mentioned in last year’s list that still haven’t seen the light of day, so instead of repeating ourselves we’ll just clue you in on their new release dates.

More from News & Analysis

What is the US HIRE Bill and why is India’s $250-billion IT sector worried? Is the internet dead? What's this theory that OpenAI's Sam Altman says might be true?

Army of TwoPlatform: Xbox360, PS3Release Date: March 2008

Battlefield: Bad CompanyPlatform: Xbox360, PS3Release Date: End-March 2008

Dark SectorPlatform: Xbox360, PS3, PCRelease Date: March 2008