Why we're excited: The fabulous flying city of Columbia looks as amazing as Rapture so far, and Booker, Elizabeth, Comstock, and Songbird all appear to be memorable characters in the making.
Big question: Our time playing the first couple of hours leads us to wonder if the gameplay will be different enough from BioShock 1 and 2 to make Infinite its own unique experience.
Release date: March 26th
Why we're excited: The original Company of Heroes is one of our favorite real-time strategy games ever, and CoH2 looks like it'll deliver more of that awesome WWII action.
Big question: But is it too similar to the original? What we've played so far leaves us wondering if CoH2 will feel more like an expansion than a full-fledged sequel.
Release date: March 2013
Why we're excited: Developer 4A Games claims it will improve upon its deeply immersive post-apocalyptic shooter in every way, including a graphical upgrade that will supposedly make Last Light a new PC gaming benchmark.
Big question: It looks prettier, but will it be any smarter? Metro 2033's enemy AI often lacks the "I" part.
Release date: March 31st
Why we're excited: With South Park's Trey Parker and Matt Stone providing the funny and Obsidian providing the RPG, the Stick of Truth might finally deliver the great game South Park's been trying for since 1998.
Big question: All the rest of the South Park games to date have been mediocre at best, terrible at worst -- and Obsidian has a bit of a reputation for bugs. Can The Stick of Truth break the curse?
Release date: TBA 2013
Why we're excited: For everyone who wished Fallout 3 had retained its isometric camera and turn-based combat, Wasteland 2 is a wish come true -- we hope.
Big question: Will its shoestring Kickstarter budget be enough to produce a vast and polished post-apocalyptic roleplaying game world?
Release date: TBA 2013
Why we're excited: Finishing what the sensation-sparking mod began, Dean "Rocket" Hall's zombie survival sim is getting a full-game treatment.
Big question: Will it be polished enough to escape the bug and hacker problems that plague The War Z?
Release date: TBA 2013
Why we're excited: Legendary adventure game designer Tim Schafer is going back to his roots with the project that kickstarted the gaming Kickstarter phenomenon.
Big question: After all the hype around the unprecedented Kickstarter campaign, have expectations been set too high for a game with a modest development budget?
Release date: TBA 2013
Why we're excited: A co-op shooter that merges one of the most tense, exhilarating action-sci-fi movies of all-time with the developer that brought us Borderlands and Brothers in Arms? Get some!
Big question: We've been burned by Aliens and Predators and Colonial Marines enough times to make us wary, and this is one of the most-delayed games in recent history.
Release date: February 12th
Why we're excited: 2004's Rome: Total War is regarded as one of the best of the series, and Total War: Rome 2 aims to give it the biggest, grandest treatment we've seen yet.
Big question: Bigger isn't always better. Will Creative Assembly know where to show restraint in its design to keep from bogging us down with too many things to do?
Release date: TBA 2013
Why we're excited: Between the shot in the arm the new multiplayer units should bring to online play and the Zerg campaign (which, if it's as good as the Wings of Liberty campaign, will be amazing), StarCraft 2 should continue to set the standard for RTSes, both in multiplayer and single-player.
Big question: The story in Wings of Liberty wasn't nearly as memorable as the original StarCraft's. Can Blizzard turn things around in the second part?
Release date: March 12th
Why we're excited: Ubisoft wowed us when it revealed Watch Dogs at E3 2012, a cyberpunk-like adventure, only with contemporary technologies that make it feel far more plausible.
Big question: We were impressed by the gadget-assisted hacking and spying, but the action stuff looked like more of the same.
Release date: TBA 2013
Why we're excited: This ARPG labor of love from one of the makers of Titan Quest features seamless, on-the-fly transitions between open outdoor areas and dungeon-like closed-areas.
Big question: Can what's essentially a one-man team really rival both Blizzard's Diablo 3 and Runic's Torchlight 2 (and the free-to-play Path of Exile)?
Release date: TBA 2013
Why we're excited: Our favorite city building and managing simulation is back, bringing amazingly detailed true simulations (as opposed to the old statistical approximations) of full-3D cities and curved roads.
Big question: Why it that for all the big steps forward, SimCity must take one giant leap back with forced always-online play? Say goodbye to save, destroy, reload.
Release date: March 5th
Why we're excited: Maybe "excited" isn't the right word to use here. Why we're terrified: Frictional Games and new partner thechineseroom (Dear Esther) promise Pigs will make us "afraid to turn on our PC."
Big question: Being more frightening than Amnesia: The Dark Descent won't be easy -- can Frictional scare the pants off us twice?
Release date: TBA 2013
Why we're excited: Valve's amazingly free MOBA is already a huge sensation while it's in beta (seriously, look at the Steam numbers!), so we can only imagine how big it's going to get when the floodgates open for real.
Big question: Can anything make the MOBA community more friendly to new players? Even Valve's not a miracle worker.
Release date: TBA 2013
Why we're excited: We haven't seen much of 1313 yet, but it appears to be a Star Wars action-adventure for grown-ups -- which is a lot more than we can say for the prequel trilogy.
Big question: Will 1313 end up being an Uncharted clone with a Star Wars skin? We'll have to wait to see more to find out.
Release date: TBA 2013
Why we're excited: Call us hopelessly optimistic, but BioWare has said it's learned from the mistakes of Dragon Age 2 and plans to bring back a bigger world, deeper character/party customization, and player-owned castles, and slap all of that into DICE's impressive Frostbite 2 engine.
Big question: With the departure of its founders and many other senior people last year, is BioWare even BioWare anymore? There's still a lot of talent there, we're sure, but they're unproven -- this will be their chance!
Release date: TBA 2013
Why we're excited: What we've played of this multiplayer 2D shooter homage to 1980s action movies has been delightfully over the top.
Big question: Will it be ready for launch? Publisher Paradox's record for buggy releases in 2012 was pretty bad, with major debacles in Sword of the Stars 2 and Gettysburg: Armored Warfare.
Release date: March 30th
Why we're excited: We're nerds, and this is a virtual collectible card game and pencil-and-paper fantasy RPG mash-up from Magic: The Gathering creator Richard Garfield and Irrational Games co-founder Jon Chey.
Big question: How will developer Blu Manchu incorporate paid elements into this free-to-play game? Real-world CCGs can get pricy fast.
Release date: TBA 2013
Why we're excited: Originally announced as Command & Conquer: Generals 2, the new C&C is now a free-to-play RTS powered by Frostbite 2 -- and it looks glorious.
Big question: EA's Play4Free track record isn't great in terms of dodging pay-to-win problems. Can this reboot restore C&C to glory without breaking what makes RTS games tick?
Release date: TBA 2013
Why we're excited: The original creator of Shadowrun, Jordan Weisman, is at the helm of this project and is making promises of a deep, turn-based, classic RPG adventure.
Big question: Developer Harebrained Schemes' specialty is in iOS games -- do they have the chops to make a great Shadowrun PC game?
Release date: TBA 2013
Why we're excited: We're big fans of Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander, so when we learned Uber Entertainment wanted to take that style of RTS to a ridiculous interplanetary scale we couldn't throw money at the Kickstarter fast enough.
Big question: With entire solar systems as our RTS battleground, will we have a control system that actually keeps us, you know, in control?
Release date: TBA 2013
Why we're excited: There's a certain appeal to being stalked through an open world by "tweedpunk" British robots and their mechanical canine companions.
Big question: It looks hilarious, but stealth survival is tough to pull off. Will it be as fun as it is funny?
Release date: TBA 2013
Why we're excited: Shooters are a dime a dozen, but those that simulate the bajeesas out of every part of a massive battlefield with painstakingly accurate versions of modern military hardware rendered in gorgeous graphical detail are few and far between.
Big question:Will it be any easier to control than Arma 2? That UI is a monstrosity. Also, there's the very serious matter of Greece holding two of Arma 3's developers on espionage charges... we hope that works out.
Release date: TBA 2013
Why we're excited: Dishonored rekindled our love of creative stealth in 2012, and we're hoping Thief 4 makes it a full-on genre revival in 2013.
Big question: Can we see it? Announced in 2009, there's been plenty of smoke around Thief 4, with reports of a number of high-level designers leaving the project during its lengthy development.
Release date: TBA 2013
Editor's note: our original list included Obsidian's Project Eternity, but unfortunately, we'll have to wait until 2014 for that old-school RPG adventure.
Wait! Wait! I'm not done playing all of 2012's games yet! Can't we push a few of these back to 2020 or so to give me time to catch up? No? Oh well, I guess I'll just brace for an onslaught of awesomeness. What's your pick of the 2013 litter?
