Hmm. Interesting replies so far. I may well go for Unreal, perhaps. More likely, I'll go with the time-honoured tradition of looking at the back of the boxes and choosing a pretty game without any prior knowledge

Slightly off-topic now, but what the hey... One thing's for sure. I can't abide Doom3 and I don't want to get it when it's released. I'm sorry, but this trend towards "player versus one or two monsters" sucks ass several times over. If I wanted that then... well, I don't want that, so I don't know how to finish that sentence. Mass destruction is what it's about. Comically over-the-top violence (Serious Sam, Total Annihilation) is cool.

I remember reading in that leaked PC Gamer screenshot series that Carmack stated something along the lines of "AI will be okay". Uh, that's no good. When it comes down to it, you're going to have to turn down all of the graphic options to get it running acceptably, and if there's nothing besides the graphics then what's the point? Ugh.

I've not played Deus Ex yet, so I may grab that one (or even Anachronox...).

The one game I *am* looking forward to is Thief 3. The Thief series, IMO, takes games in the direction they should be heading - great AI, excellent use of sound, fear of the bad guys and *freedom*. Discuss.