Published October 17, 2007

We must have collectively been extra good little boys and girls this year because the gods of gaming are clearly smiling on us this fall. There's simply never been a better time to be a gamer. We've got BioShock and Halo® 3 under our belts, which alone would be enough to make for a great holiday season, but Rock Band™, Mass Effect™, The Orange Box, and Call of Duty® 4: Modern Warfare™ are also on the way. I've literally canceled Season Passes on my TiVos to free up time for it all.

But rather than wallow in all that, let's get greedy. What's next? By January or February, we'll have caught up and extracted the last lick of fun from this fall's bounty. Is Xbox 360™ ready to feed what will be our even more ravenous appetite?

Could a new version of Grand Theft Auto satisfy your gaming hunger?

From winter through spring looks unexpectedly promising. The obvious star is Grand Theft Auto IV, and again, that alone might be enough to make us all fat and happy. But I'm just as excited about the next games in the Brothers in Arms, Condemned, and Splinter Cell series, which should all hit by March or thereabouts.

That oak tree will never be the same in Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway™.

Beyond that, 2008 looks a bit murky. Not surprising—game companies certainly have their plans, but they're hardly going to share them while they're focused on getting you to buy the latest new hawtness this fall. Even at E3, typically an insightful peek at the future, Microsoft stayed resolutely focused on 2007 and 2007 alone.

So let's use that answerless void to project a few of our hopes and expectations. Starting off small with Xbox LIVE® Arcade, is a little creativity too much to ask for? I officially never want to play a retro port again. It's not that I hate them—far from it. It's that I think XBLA can and should be so much more. Over a year ago, OXM's Dan Amrich wrote an excellent feature on what the future of XBLA should hold, ranging from fantasy sports leagues to a You Don't Know Jack–style quiz show. And there has to be 1,000 more genius ideas just waiting to be made into amazing XBLA games that will help Microsoft win the console wars. So why do we have yet another version of Tetris?

But my biggest wish is that at least a few publishers are brave enough to set their most talented developers free from the shackles of their franchises. What could, say, Bungie do with two to three years and a blank slate? I'd love to find out. I'm unapologetically guilty of looking forward to my fair share of sequels, and as much as I dug me some Halo 3, I know I've played that game at least two times before. I'd probably love it again a fourth time, but what would really get my heart atwitter is the prospect of the talent pool at a developer like Bungie getting to make the game of their dreams. The financial rewards for the publishers should be there in spades, too—look at how much BioShock cash 2K Games is desperately trying to cram into its overflowing piggy bank.

Resident Evil 5 will be coming to Xbox 360.

What are you wishing for when 2008 comes around? Send your lists and your manifestos defending them to letters@officialxboxmagazine.com, and we'll publish the most intriguing ones in our mag and on our Web site. In the meantime, I'll resign myself to a greedy sense of delight for twinkling gems of the future like Fable® 2, Resident Evil 5, and maybe, just maybe, something really new.

Article by Paul Curthoys, Executive Editor, Official Xbox Magazine