Year in review: MMOs rule. PC gaming lives.
DateTime:7/8/2009 5:21:12 PM

This could be the year of MMOs (massive multiplayer online) since neither Microsoft nor Sony managed to claim the "Year of" title. Two new titles were released for our player-versus-player (PvP) pleasure: Age of Conan and Warhammer Online. They competed and tried to claim players from the MMO king, World of Warcraft (WoW). Solid MMOs in their own right, their left-right hooks couldn't take down the champ. In October, WoW released the Echoes of Doom patch, which brought attention back with new features.However, the entire PC gaming platform has transformed. In 2008, we saw more titles from consoles ported to the PC. Sure, it took several long, aching months for Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed and Grand Theft Auto IV to arrive for my PC, but they were worth the wait. These games were reworked for the PC, making them more beautiful and, perhaps, better than their console counterparts.

Throughout the year, games journalists, forums and bloggers threatened or toyed with the idea that PC gaming is dead. Thankfully, it isn't.  Not all titles were strictly console first, then PC after a long wait. All platform formats of Fallout 3 (reviewed on Nov. 4) and Far Cry 2 (not reviewed but recommended) were released together while the PC versions of Dead Space (reviewed on Oct. 28) and Prince of Persia (reviewed last Tuesday) came out a week or two behind. Ported or not, publishers and game developers are thankfully not forgetting their PC gaming community. And never will. A month later, the heavyweight released its highly anticipated expansion, the Wrath of the Lich King, allowing WoW players to become a Death Knight, a character class deep and rich in Warcraft lore. I'll eventually revisit Warhammer Online when I'm done with the Death Knight quests, hoping that, by then, all the bugs in Warhammer Online are fixed, filled with players and the quests are fleshed out. The hard part is convincing my friends to leave WoW to try out another MMO.