Games to Watch in 2009

Duke Nukem Forever

Platform: Unknown
Publisher: 3D Realms
Expected release: When it’s done!

Ah, Duke. Nice to see you again. Didn’t we see you here last year, and the year before that? In fact, haven’t we seen you here every year for the last decade?

Once again though you still manage to win our award for game which is least likely to be released this year, despite more than twelve years of development and design.

That said, the media machine for 3D Realms’ long-hibernating Quake killer has been slowly waking over the past year or so and more information has been creeping out of the development team on both the rumour and official level. Not enough to make us even speculate at a release admittedly (the recent teaser trailer is nothing on some of the old stuff, for example), but enough to pique our interests at any rate.


Hell, with his deep Bruce Campbell voice and his penchant for killing aliens while surrounded by strippers, The Duke never even lost our interest or our devotion!

Duke Nukem Forever has become something of a joke in the gaming world for it’s continued delays and engine changes, but we also know that the game itself is nothing to laugh at. It really is in development and has been for a long, long time. Whether or not it comes out this year or not and whether or not it’s worth the wait is irrelevant – the fact of the matter is that it’s coming (eventually.. probably) and we’re still excited for it.

Project Offset

Platform: PC, others unconfirmed
Publisher: Unknown
Expected release: Unknown

You only need one reason to get excited about Project Offset and that is the trailer that was accidentally leaked last year, shortly before the company went eerily quiet. The reason for that silence however was that the team behind the graphically stunning fantasy game was bought out by Intel, who reportedly wanted to see exactly how far into the future the jaw-dropping game could go when paired with the Havok physics engine.


Since then it’s unfortunately gone a bit quiet for Project Offset, though development is still apparently on-going as steadily as it has been for the past few years. Details on the game are therefore a little bit sketchy, but we hear that the over all design of the game will be as impressive as the graphics thanks to branching narratives and parallel narratives told in alternating first and third person perspectives.

The plot itself however is still a mystery and other than the fact that is features dragons, giants and men with big knives who can turn invisible, we’re pretty much in the dark on what form Offset will finally take – though that ignorance isn’t slaking out thirst for the finished game.

With an open world that looks as involving and interesting as it is huge and gorgeous, Project Offset is definitely one of the most anticipated games we’ve seen recently – though whether it gets released in 2009 (or ever - read: Alan Wake) is something we’re still unsure of.