As is normal for this time of year, there’s just an incredible flood of games that I want to play. Right now I’m having a blast playing Dragon Age: Origins, Trine, and multiplayer Borderlands, but I’ve got a lot of other games I’m looking forward to playing when I’m done. When I counted, I got to just about twenty. Oh look! A list! So I went and sorted them in a top 20 sort-of-fashion, and now you get to read about them. Please note that Modern Warfare 2 appears nowhere on my list. Not particularly interested. I’m also not including all the as-of-yet unreleased games I’m looking forward to playing in 2010.

20 – Cold Fear (PC)
Recently, I read about a game called Cold Fear that’s only $10 on Direct2Drive. From the description, I’m not sure if it will run on Vista, but it’s a survival horror game, and I’m intrigued.

19 – Muramasa, The Demon Blade (Wii)
There was a time when I was very excited for Muramasa. I suppose it was around the time when the reviews came out that my enthusiasm faded. Nobody disputed that the graphics were amazing, but the reviews reported repetitive gameplay, boring backtracking, and a shallow story. I might still pick the game up at some point, but it’s currently near the bottom of my list.

18 – Killzone 2 (PS3)
Every so often I crave a console shooter, and The demo for Killzone 2 was pretty good. The fact that it has trophies is an extra bonus, although I suppose I’d like trophies more if Sony shared their data with Raptr like Microsoft and Valve do.

17 – Henry Hatsworth and the Puzzling Adventure (DS)
Henry Hatsworth got a metascore of 82, which is pretty good. The puzzle/platformer mashup seems like it might work as well for this game as the puzzle/RPG mashup did for Puzzle Quest.

16 – A Boy and his Blob (Wii)
I suppose I’d have already downloaded and been playing this game were it not for the flood of other games around. If BrainyGamer.com is to be believed in the article “Easy Does It”, it’s an improvement on the original in every way. The fact that my wife might enjoy the game as well only adds to the value.

15 – Wolfenstein (PC)
I’ll be trying out the PC version of Wolfenstein. In addition to the allure of mouse and keyboard when it comes to shooters, The PC version was rated a few points higher than the console counterpart. I tried the PS3 demo and it was… okay. From the demo, I’d rank it right around the same place as Bioshock. Decent, but not amazing.

14 – Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box (DS)
I really enjoyed the first Professor Layton game, and this one is said to be even better. ‘Nuff said.

13 – House of the Dead: Overkill (Wii)
I have high hopes for House of the Dead: Overkill. I’m hoping that it can be everything that MadWorld was not. (Madworld disappointed me) I’m not totally adverse to on-rails shooters – in fact I loved Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles – but they can be done poorly.

12 – Prince of Persia (PS3)
I’ve got to get something off my chest. I hated Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Later, I tried Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones and hated that too. I’m hoping that this newest iteration will be better than the others. I’ll do the PS3 version for this one, because it’s rated a bit higher than its PC counterpart. And because it’s not a shooter.

11 – Punch-Out (Wii)
I always loved the old NES game “Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out”. So even though Tyson has magically become a white man named “Mr. Dream”, I bought the game on the Wii Virtual Console as soon as I could. It’s probably the Virtual Console game I’ve played most. Nintendo’s new take on the game looks a lot of fun. In a lot of ways, Punch-Out is a mash-up of the fighting and puzzle genres. But there’s just no way I’ll play the game with motion controls, given that I hurt my elbow playing Wii Fit Rhythm boxing about 15 months ago and I can still feel it.

10 – Torchlight (PC)
Now I get into the games I really want to play – the top ten. Although I’m still waiting for Frank’s thoughts on Torchlight, the game seems really cool – everyone’s been talking about it. The game’s only flaw seems to be that it’s single-player only. Granted, I don’t usually like multiplayer games, but this is the kind of game my wife and I would probably like. In any event, I’ll probably buy a copy on Steam when I get time to play it.

9 – Demon’s Souls (PS3)
I’m a bit wary of Demon’s Souls because of all the talk about how ridiculously difficult the game is, but somehow I’m still intrigued. It seems like the difficulty leads to a rewarding experience rather than a frustrating one. I’ll probably buy this one used after the price has dropped significantly.

8 – Dead Space Extraction (Wii)
On-rails shooters get a bad rap, but even one of the lowest-scored reviews makes the game sound pretty good. I really enjoyed Dead Space, so I look forward to giving this spinoff a try.

7 – Brutal Legend (PS3)
Earlier this year, Brutal Legend was one of the games I was most looking forward to. Psychonauts (if you couldn’t guess) is one of my favorite games, and Brutal Legend was made by the same guy. I played the demo, and it was… good. But when I heard about the weird RTS segments, I couldn’t help but feel a bit put off. The reviews of this game have been a bit ho-hum. I’ll still play it, but I’m in no rush to hurry out and get a copy.

6 – Assassins Creed 2 (PS3)
After having tried the original Assassins Creed, which I didn’t even finish, I’ve been less than enthusiastic about this sequel. After having read Wired’s review, I’m excited for the sequel. In their words, “Assassin’s Creed II finally delivers everything the original promised and then some.”.

5 – Batman: Arkham Asylum (PC/PS3)
I was so put off at some word of mouth I’d heard about this game just after its release that I never even tried the PS3 demo. But after hearing discussions on the PC Gamer Podcast, I’ve re-added it to my to-play list. And it’s fairly high up that list. Stealth gameplay? Check. Well implemented hand-to-hand combat? Check. Not sure whether I’ll get the PC or PS3 version, but I think I might like it.

4 – New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii)
First-party Nintendo games tend to be very good. I loved Twilight Princess, Mario Galaxy, and Phantom Hourglass. I still play Mariokart Wii from time to time with my wife. New Super Mario Bros. Wii features 3D graphics and 2D gameplay, a feature that I enjoy very much in Trine. It seems to be more of a multi-player experience than a single-player one like Mario Galaxy was, but maybe that’s a good thing. My wife may like it. It’s always more fun to have somebody to play a game with anyway.

3 – The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena (PC)
I was a huge fan of The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. I played through the game twice. So when I heard that I could get a copy of The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena on Direct2Drive for five dollars, I purchased and downloaded it immediately, despite the fact that I knew I wouldn’t be ready to play it until after I was done with Final Fantasy XII, Borderlands, and Dragon Age: Origins. Nonetheless, the game sounds fantastic.

2 – Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles (Wii)
More than anything else, the main reason I want this game so badly is that it will allow me to revisit one of my favorite games of all time: Resident Evil 2. I’ve been waiting for this game for a while. I wrote about it as early as last March. There are few games that I look back on as lovingly as I do Resident Evil 2, and this game will enable me to relive it from a new perspective. Want!

1 – Uncharted 2 (PS3)
If I were to go out today and buy a game, (which would only happen if I somehow had the extra time to play it) it would be Uncharted 2. The game’s metascore is 96. It’s going to be everybody’s Game of the Year. Brandon bought a PS3 because of this game. I need a copy. Of course, like everything else on this list, I’ll end up waiting until after Christmas to buy any games in case I actually get one of them as a gift.