With this year's gaming harvest already played and beaten and filed away into memory like so many saves, it is time now to look on.

Past the bulbous shores of 2007, far off in the distant recesses of release schedules, lies the gone-golden bounty of untapped potential. And while many may slip their surly bonds and give flight to the year 2009, more still will cement their crusted plastic into delighted hands. Here we mark the prophecy of the PC legacy, a concrete, yet tumultuous hour of reckoning for this still-great platform.

Fallout 3
Bethesda Softworks
PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Fall

Will it be the Phantom Menace that taints the franchise, or the Empire Strikes Back that only enhances it? Either way, Fallout fans will be on the edge of their seats for Bethesda's effort to create a new post-apocalyptic experience using a first person perspective.
(Preview, Screenshots)

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Logged in users can also use the HD stream.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction
Ubisoft Montreal
PC, Xbox 360
Spring

Sam Fisher takes to the streets in the fifth Splinter Cell installment, using crowds for cover rather than the traditional shadows. Realistic physics and environmental interaction being all the rage these days, Conviction should be no slouch when it comes to technical effects.
(Announcement)

Empire: Total War
Creative Assembly
PC
TBA

The Rome: Total War developers at Creative Assembly's UK branch are handling this Napoleonic entry, set to cover the period between the early 18th and 19th centuries. Europe, North Africa, America, India and South East Asia will serve as the stage for the game's 50+ factions. Real-time ship combat will be implemented for the first time in the series. Hold fast.
(Announcement, Screenshots)

Alan Wake
Remedy Entertainment
Windows Vista, Xbox 360
TBA

From the guys that brought us Max Payne comes this similarly-titled action thriller set in an open-world town. Alan Wake, bestselling horror novelist, will surely be uncovering some mystery with the help of a gun. Remedy is promising a graphical feast, but requiring Windows Vista on the PC.
(Announcement)

StarCraft 2
Blizzard Entertainment
PC
TBA

Sure, it's possible that StarCraft 2 might not show in 2008, but here's to wishful guesstimation. Blizzard looks to further improve on its genre-defining series with 3D graphics and an expanded singleplayer campaign, including in-engine, dialogue tree-driven cutscenes. I'm all over it.
(Interview, Preview, Screenshots)

Devil May Cry 4
Capcom
PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Winter

This beat-em-up series may have a new poster boy, but it's still as over-the-top as ever. Capcom's combination of giant bosses and hard-hitting combat is set to land on multiple platforms.
(Preview, Screenshots)

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Logged in users can use the HD stream.

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
Pandemic Studios
PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Spring

Fully destructible environments and realistic flame simulations should make for deliciously vicious additions to Pandemic's game of wanton razing. Jump into new vehicles such as planes, helicopters, and boats while invading the open-world country of Venezuela.
(Preview, Screenshots)

Turn the page for more.