Inspired by OldSchool's post on '80s gaming goodness. Pretensions has decided to post a list of games that she'd like to acquire and play on her PC in the near future, given unlimited time to game. She's a RPG/Strategy fan, so look elsewhere for your FPSs - no Crysis here! She also has no time for online persistent worlds, sadly.

1) Spore - To launch in September 2008 (we hope, it's been delayed a LOT). For the mad scientists among us, Spore allows us to play god (or Mr Potatohead, depending on how you look at it). Starting from single-celled amoeba, you can design your own creatures from scratch, dictate how they look, walk, interact etc and let them loose to multiply and discover fire. Heck, some races may even make it into space! Spore's creature creator is already out and can be downloaded from the EA site (200MB download). Apparently, thousand s of new creatures were uploaded to the site the day after the free demo was made available. P is planning to download and play this in late July when her schedule clears slightly. Warning: Spore has incredibly cutesy graphics!

2) Mass Effect - Out already. P doesn't like the way the character creation has been dumbed down from Knights of the Old Republic, but Bioware creates top-notch RPGs. They understand that the story is paramount, even in space-operas, which is what this is. Basically, you have to save the galaxy from the threat of the Saren, by lots of shooting, some jedi-like powers and piloting a space-ship or two. There's even some romance and a blacked-out sex scene (which led to this game nearly being banned in S'pore due to the infamous lesbian sex; ie if you chose a female character). Character interaction (no, not that kind) is very important with moral choices leading to Paragon or Renegade ratings, 'tho this isn't as extreme as KOTOR light side/dark side choices.

3) Empire Total War - Summer 2009. This installment brings the Total War franchise into the 1800s and the building of the British, Dutch, French etc empires. Basically, imagine your table top wargame in painstakingly detailed 3D with you as the leader of a nation-state intent on building an empire. Colonies are important, as are dragoons. If you ever wanted to reenact Napoleon's or Nelson's battles, this is one for you. And the graphics are GORGEOUS!

4) Fallout 3 - Autumn 2008. From the company that created Oblivion, this is the decade-late followup to a seminal PC game. In 2077, China rains weapons of mass destruction on the US, the surviving citizens retreat to underground bunkers and emerge hundreds of years later to discover ruined cities inhabited by (yes, you guessed it) homicidal mutants. You start out in Vault 101, as the young son of Liam Neeson (no, just his voice), who goes missing when you turn 19. Your investigations turn up evidence that he's left Vault 101 and attract the attention of the vault's insular leader, the Overseer. Things get hotter for you in Vault 101 than in the radioactive wasteland beyond, and you decide to take your chances with the latter. Lots of ultra-violent fighting, a very dark sense of humour and lots of quirky characters make this game stand out from the rest. 

5) Dragon Age - Before April 2009. Described as a "spiritual successor" to the ground-breaking Baldur's Gate, Dragon Age comes from the infallible Bioware team. Not many details are available yet, but while there are the obligatory elves and dwarves and a magic system, it will be a dark, mature fantasy world, ie plenty of politics and people stabbing each other in the back.

To all fellow PC gamers: May your mouse never fail you and remember, there's always the "load saved game" button.