With the overwhelming amount of great games coming out 2010, it seems this year might be the best year in gaming since 1998. (Personal opinion obviously, but Ocarina of Time, Half Life, Star Craft, Metal Gear Solid and the PC release of Final Fantasy VII pretty much speaks for itself.) I have therefore compiled a list of my most anticipated games of 2010 in no particular order.

I’m very into mythology, especially Greek, so there’s no surprise this game made the list. It appears this new installment in the franchise adheres to the old “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” mentality, which in God of War’s case isn’t a bad thing at all.  Keeping true to the ancient Greek tradition the game will be bloody violent (I like puns), providing the same satisfying gameplay as its prequels.

Just the early concept artwork released for this game made me excited. It seems the producers are taking mickey back to his mischievous root and abandoning the excessively happy image he has today. It’s also nice to see a worthwhile Disney game not produced by Square Enix.

The main Mario installment finally gets a sequel since the SNES days. This time around Nintendo’s bring back Yoshi, whom actually seems to be useful (I’m looking at you Sunshine).

8bit pixels… in 3D? Yes please! Apparently this game is very similar to Zelda, so similar in fact that many refer to it as a ripoff. Well, considering I’m a big fan of Zelda, this seems like it’s right up my alley. Taking inspiration from the 8bit era, or rather parodying it, 3D Dot Game has caves to explore, huge swords, and plenty of chickens. I’ve honestly never seen a game like it, which is ironic considering the accusations towards it.

The previous Metal Gear on the PSP didn’t fully live up to its potential, and was hard to get into. This game seems to be on the right track, and is in the words of Hideo Kojima the “true sequel” in the metal gear franchise (most likely referencing Metal Gear: Rising).

This game has got to be one of the best looking games on the PSP, from the looks of it, there’s practically no graphical difference between it and its PS2 brethren. My anticipation for this game was one of the reasons I decided to buy a PSP. I mean the first trailer alone is enough for anyone to get excited.

The Ico series has been a breath of fresh air for gamers. Convoluted menu interfaces and difficult  control schemes have been abandoned in favor of simplistic gameplay with a non-existent learning-curve. The essence of the series is the atmosphere it brings and the emotions it invokes, even with the lack of story. Needless to say, the next PlayStation 3 iteration can’t arrive faster.

Once again, it’s the atmosphere that defines the Metroid series. I hope the new developers will still keep the feeling of solitude intact and still include the exploration the series is known for. The game does seem to take a radical departure from the earlier games by including cutscenes, and thus a deeper story, we’ll just have to wait and see if this is for better or for worse.

Ah, Final Fantasy, already at its thirteenth game. I never thought this game would come out, and now it’s only a few weeks away. Out of the 40 GB, 32.6 GB are just for the video cutscenes, which are rendered natively at 1080p. If only I had a TV which could actually support all the awesome.

Well all I have to go by is a piece of artwork, but since it is Zelda I know I need it. Blah blah, blind fanboyism and all that, but hell I’d buy anything with a Zelda logo on it. There are rumors going around that this link is in fact the original hero of time, which I’d personally love, but alas they are but only rumors. Too bad the game’ll be delayed  year after year, until Nintendo decides to port it to their new system.