Primarily Games

As you may have noticed, the sidebar has gotten significantly larger. I've added three new sections:
Games I Own
Games Wishlist
Games To Look Forward To
All the links lead to IGN spaces for those particular games.
They're all pretty self-explanatory. But I want to talk about the Games To Look Forward To section.
As the name suggests, this section will be used for games that I'm looking forward to. I'll give their release date and, as they come up, give a little description of what the game could be and why I'm looking forward to them. I think I should do that for the current list.

Age of Empires III
Release Date: To Be Announced
I mean, hey it's Age of Empires. With a massive reworking of the graphics engine, well, when compared Age of Empires II, and a new little physics engine, this is game is not only going to be somewhat gimmicky, but also pretty good. Age of Empires II was a fun game and I'm expecting the same for this one.

F.E.A.R.
Release Date: 3rd Quarter 2005
Monolith has made pretty damn good games in the past. Only 2 of which I have played (and know of for that matter): No One Lives Forever and No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy In H.A.R.M.'s Way. Both are excellent games, but significantly different from this upcoming one. Where NOLF and NOLF2 were both light-hearted and comical, F.E.A.R. is realistic, gory and scary. It's meant to be a horror-game, blending elements of The Ring and other somewhat psychological horror films with intense First-Person action. A couple of things in this game are also going to be interesting to see, especially on how they implement them.
The first thing is bullet-time. As to how it will really play into the game, I don't know, but it just looks damn cool in the video. The second thing is a combat system. A first-person combat system. That's right, you can do karate-type moves in the game in the first-person mode. It seems more of a gimmick, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Half-Life 2: Aftermath
Release Date: Fall 2005
Hey, it's Half-Life 2. Need I say more?

Myst V: End of Ages
Release Date: 3rd Quarter 2005
The game that few people like. It's not like people hate this game. It's just that the genre's gotten very little attention and usually doesn't keep someone's attention for too long. I myself own Myst IV, which is a really great game, and am looking forward to this one. Myst is a true adventure game. It has lots of puzzles and very little violence, which I think frustrates alot of people :p. Anyway, Myst has always had gorgeous graphics and amazing sound to truly immerse you in the game, and this looks to be no different.

Omikron 2
Release Date: To Be Announced
The first Omikron was an amazing, beautiful, truly open game. Just exploring the world itself was amazing. I had never come across a game like it and that stays true to this day. Omikron was all about you travelling to a parallel universe which is very advanced. There's some sort of weird thing going involving massive corporations, your wife and demons. Yes. That's right. Demons. Although I never beat it, so I'm curious as to what the story is for Omikron 2.

Serious Sam II
Release Date: October 2005
Serious Sam and it's sequel, The Second Encounter, are both amazing games to play. They're not only hilarious, but just completely mindless. You don't need to solve any puzzles (at least not any hard ones) and you don't even need to worry about ammo (you'll always be stocked). It's just extremely fun, mindless first-person-shootering.

Those are my little thingies for the games I'm looking forward to. Now, on to other stuff.
I've discovered a mod for Half-Life called Sven Co-op. It essentially lets you and a bunch of other people play together as you beat a bunch of missions. It has maps and stuff from the original Half-Life as well as the models from both Half-Life and Opposing Force. It's really cool.
I've also discovered two very promising Half-Life 2 mods. Some of you may know of Half-Life: Source. It's Valve's original Half-Life ported to the source engine (the game engine powering Half-Life 2). Considering Half-Life 2's awesome visuals, Half-Life 1 would look great in it, but Valve didn't put an ounce of effort into effectively optimizing it for the engine. Because of this, the game pretty much looks like it did 6 years ago, which isn't that good (compared to today's standards). Black Mesa: Source is set to change that. It's a total conversion, taking all the textures, models and maps and recreating them in the Source engine. For a game that's as long as Half-Life, it'll take a little while. Which is why the mod isn't expected to be released until next year. The really great thing about it is that it's going to be absolutely free! Unlike Half-Life: Source, this is being made by a bunch of modders, and modders aren't allowed to charge for their mods unless they get permission to do so from Valve.
The second mod is essentially the same thing except for Opposing Force, the expansion to Half-Life. It's being called Opposing Source and it's also being made by the same team making BM:S.
So, I am eagerly awaiting.