The list grows ever longer...

I don't know whether to scream with joy, or weep for the state of my credit card. I pick up one issue of Australian 360, and the list of games I want just explodes.

Top of the list is Mafia II, due out sometime in 2009 from 2K Games and 2K Czech. I am a huge fan of the original Mafia: City of Lost Heaven, easily spending hours in Freeride mode, just driving around and enjoying the immersion: it really feels like 1930s America (not that I know what 1930s America feels like, I'm just sayin'...). Mafia II looks just as immersive, though set in post-War America.

Next on my list is Fable II from Lionhead. I enjoyed Fable: The Lost Chapters on the PC, and as a completely unrepentent Peter Molyneux fanboy (I've never met a Molyneux game I didn't like), I'm slavering for Fable II.

There are plenty of other games on the list: Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation, Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway, Call of Duty: World at War (back to World War II and the Pacific theatre), Diablo III, Far Cry 2, The Force Unleashed, Fracture, Ghostbusters, Half-Life 2: Episode 3 (Everton nil), Jet Thunder, The Sims 3, and Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X..

That's 14 games... at roughly NZ$100 a pop... yikes....

Update: As of 27 March 2010, I have Fable II, Ace Combat 6, Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway, The Force Unleashed for the Xbox (which just died), and The Sims 3 and Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. for the PC (which is also a bit green about the gills these days); Mafia II, Diablo III, Half-life 2: Episode 3 and Jet Thunder have yet to be released; Fracture and Ghostbusters have been disappointments, so I haven't bothered to get them; and Far Cry 2 and Call of Duty: World at War are no longer on my wish list.

Okay, I admit it,....

I caved. I surrendered to the Dark Side. I can no longer sneer at console owners. I am one.

I've bought an Xbox 360.

But there was a reason (not temporary insanity): too many good games either out already, or coming out soon, that are console only: GTA IV (and yes, I know there's a PC version coming in the next few months -- I didn't know that when I ordered the Xbox), Force Unleashed, Fable II, and Fracture, just to name a few.

And I really like being able to go into EB Games, and look at two walls of the shop :-P

Do I think PC gaming is dying? No. The PC is too versatile, and my experience with Perfect Dark Zero leads me to the conclusion that first-person shooters are still better on a PC (mouse and WASD beats analog joysticks). And games like Spore and "proper" flight sims are still PC-only.