This one is a real labour of love, fuelled by Gearbox's eternal love for James Cameron's film and promising - with plenty of justification - the most authentic Aliens experience ever. With jaw-dropping graphics, meticulously modelled xenomorphs and storylines that fill in many of the film's narrative gaps, Aliens: Colonial Marines the PC version positively drips with malevolent atmosphere. Unless you're a diagnosed psychopath, it will give you nightmares. And you shouldn't be annoyed that it has been delayed until later in the year - that's merely a manifestation of Gearbox's extreme perfectionism.
Nothing gets the juices of competitive, hardcore, team-based first-person shooter enthusiasts more than a new game from Valve, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive should more than make up for the continued non-appearance of Half-Life 2 Episode 3. At last, thanks to Global Offensive, those famous clans will be able to take each other on in something that actually looks like it was made in the 21st century. Hidden Path is sharing the development duties with Valve, and since it's already in beta, we might not have to wait too long before it comes out. The CS legend all started on PC and that's where it's going to be best again. You know where to go if you want to make a name for yourself as a pro gamer.
OK, it hasn't been announced yet. And it might not be called Black Ops 2 (rumours currently in circulation favour Iron Wolf, although that could just be a codename). But if a year elapsed without Activision releasing a Call of Duty game, surely that would signal the start of the Rapture? And this year, it's Treyarch's turn to have a crack at the all-conquering first-person shooter, hence the likelihood that it will carry on where Black Ops, by far Treyarch's best ever game, left off. Right now, that's all we can tell you, although it will surely hog the headlines at E3 in June. And of course you'll be wanting to buy it and buy it on it PC, won't you?
One of the games industry's great mysteries of modern times concerns why Io Interactive was allowed (or forced) to abandon the awesome Hitman franchise in favour of the frankly dire Kane & Lynch games. Thankfully, sanity has finally prevailed, and Agent 47 is set to return for his first outing since 2006, in Hitman: Absolution. And how we've missed the old baldy with a barcode tattooed on the back of his head. As ever, you'll be able to engage in some tasty stealth-em-upping - aided by a new Instinct mechanic, which allows Agent 47 to cash in the cumulative effect of all those and head-shots and do things like see the path patrolling enemies will take. And in something of a departure, less hardcore players will be able to take a more run-and-gun approach, though we probably won't dirty our hands with that. Typically, the story begins with Agent 47 icing his beloved handler Diana Burnwood, possibly his closest and indeed only friend, before descending into an orgy of paranoia. Welcome back, old friend.
Never heard of it? You can be excused for that: Sleeping Dogs was originally going to be the rebooted third iteration of the True Crime series, until original publisher Activision chucked it in the bin. Luckily for us, Square-Enix picked up the publishing rights (although not the naming rights, hence the new moniker). It's still going to be a gritty, Hong Kong-based open-world, third-person crime-drama, combining shooting with the ability to use whatever comes to hand for meleeing. Rather like a Hong Kong version of Yakuza, in other words, except you play a cop rather than a gangster. With Square-Enix at the helm, we can expect some polish and quality, and we're certainly looking forward to it.
If you like your games dark and freaky, Radical Entertainment's Prototype 2 is well worth checking out. Set in a quarantined Manhattan in the grip of a deadly, mutant-inducing outbreak of the Blacklight Virus, you play James Heller, a man endowed with incredible powers - shape-shifting, turning people into BioBombs, consuming their memories, chucking heavy objects around using tendrils that sprout from his arms and the like. Again a non-linear, open-world game, Heller's overriding mission is to cause havoc to the shadowy military organisation Blackwatch and ultimately destroy the Blacklight Virus. Heller's implacable hatred of Alex Mercer, the player-character from the first game, adds an extra bit of spice to proceedings. Prototype 2 has cult hit written all over it and PC will be the best platform to play it.
The third starring vehicle for the world's most deadbeat ex-cop has an interesting provenance: the mighty Rockstar Games has taken over the reins from previous developer Remedy. As ever, Max Payne 3 is a third-person shooter, featuring the legendary Bullet Time. But because of Rockstar's involvement, we can expect all manner of innovations, some of the most hard-boiled storylines and dialogue ever and new levels of atmospherics - the game is set in Sao Paulo, where Max works in security for the wealthy Rodrigo Branco. Combine an expanded set of Max's abilities with Brazilian street gangs and Rockstar's unparalleled story-telling skills, and we'd say that you're onto a winner.
