Right now 2010 seems to be shaping up to be one major money drain for gamers. The variety of games seem to have something for everyone. For me, Heavy Rain had some flaws but largely lived up to my expectations. Splinter Cell Conviction is looking like Sam Fisher meets Max Payne which, if so, will be awesome. Speaking of Max Payne, Remedy looks prepared to surpass that series with Alan Wake. Valve has announced Portal 2 for release this year. Halo Reach looks to be at least a solid and potentially outstanding entry in the Halo franchise. Crysis 2 should be a solid follow on to that series. There is even some talk of Gears of War 3 and I'm still hoping for Half-Life 2:Episode 3 news at E3.

Then there are some lesser publicized titles on the horizon - Alpha Protocol, The Secret World, and Singularity. All are games I want to play and some could be major time investments.

But maybe, just maybe, the biggest launch for me this year could be Deus Ex: Human Revolution (aka Deus Ex 3). Deus Ex still stands as my favorite game of all time. An action (or stealth) RPG (shooter) where your choices were reflected in the way NPCs treated you and whether or not some of them were around later in the game. Deus Ex: Invisible War (aka Deus Ex 2) was a good game that I enjoyed but there were flaws. It was simplified from Deus Ex and it attempted to incorporate all the endings from the original game. So I'm nervous about Deus Ex: Human Revolution and the following is just a teaser. But I'm starting to get excited (the Icarus imagery doesn't hurt) and this game is the one I most want to learn more about when E3 comes around.

"If you want to make enemies, try to change something."

Portal has updated on Steam. According to the press release they "Added Valuable Asset Retrieval." What does this mean? Well, the ending has changed. For those who might be playing Portal/The Orange Box on the 360 and not Steam here's the video.

Can you say Portal 2? I'm sure you can (hopefully packaged with a certain other anticipated Valve title).

UPDATE: After thinking about this, Valuable Asset Retrieval sounds like something from the G-Man (doubt I'm the first that thought of this) though it may be Aperture Science. Opinions?

Still my most anticipated game for 2010 (at least until Half-Life 2:Episode 3 is officially announced).

In two previous posts (first and second) I have detailed out eight of my top ten most memorable PC Games of 2000-2009. There are some wonderful games and experiences but the two games listed here are the best from the last ten years.

But before I get to those, let's address the elephant in the room, or not in the room as the case may be - Left 4 Dead 2. The original Left 4 Dead is number five on my list and I have stated that Left 4 Dead 2 is as good as if not better than the original. Has my opinion changed? How could Left 4 Dead 2 not make this list? The answer, really, is simple. It has not (primarily) been a PC game for me. To this point I've spent much more time on the X-Box 360 version of Left 4 Dead 2. I've been trying to rectify that a bit this week but with the hours I've put into L4D2 on the 360 it will take some time. So as time has progressed I've grown to like L4D2 more than L4D. But it doesn't belong on this list (at least not yet).

(I'm not always fond of IGN's reviews but I think they got L4D2 right.)

My top two are after the jump.

The following video is of Jonathan Coulton (the Still Alive writer) doing his song Your Brains which is on the jukeboxes scattered around L4D2 levels. It's sweet.