It's that time of year. Winter's drawing in, it's dark when you go to work, it's dark on your journey home and it's bloody cold all the time.

All the big events of the year are behind us, the anticipation and revelations of new tech and big announcements long gone. You'd be forgiven for letting a little bit of gloominess creep in.

Not so fast, glum nuts. Although there's little more than a mere two months to go before the year's out we've still got some of the biggest titles of 2010 waiting in the wings.

Here's our list of the best games of 2010 that are still waiting to wow you. If nothing else, they're a great excuse for hiding from the chill in the warm glow of the TV.


Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
Release: November 19

The follow up to Assassin's Creed II sees the continuation of Ezio's story and it's looking like a stonker.

Now that our favourite hoodie has become a master Assassin there's a whole new world of killing to be had. Not only will you get to roam around in Rome - which is three times the size of the largest Assassin's Creed city to date - but you'll have a team of fellow Assassin's at your command.

Recruit them, train them and call them in when you're in a spot of bother for the ultimate "You and whose army?" come-back you always wanted in school.

Or, why not send them off to take out historical Templar sympathisers around the world? Brotherhood will bring depth to the franchise we never even anticipated.

That's before we've even mentioned the multiplayer, which looks like it's going to offer up deathmatches like we've never seen before.

None of this running, gunning and dying malarkey, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood online will be all about taking it slow, hiding in the crowd and striking without anyone even realising. Sweet.


Football Manager 2011
Release: November 5

OK so it's not everyone's bag. To a lot of gamers out there, Football Manager is nothing but a massive collection of numbers and 22 moving dots. To those who have acquired a taste for virtual gaffery, however, it's the greatest collection of numbers since the phonebook.

We've said how these games will give you an excuse to stay in for a month or two but, as far as Football Manager is concerned, it's not exactly up to you. It is a condition people, and we need more awareness.

This year is looking like a real must have in the series as well thanks to a couple of mechanical overhauls that will change the way the game's played in a few key areas.

The new contract negotiation system, for example, where you'll now be bartering with players' agents in real time rather than over email.

Plus there are actually five different agent types so that the players' representatives can be characterised as being particularly tough or open.

You're also going to be able to criticise your players or discuss their concerns privately rather than in the open. Basically, SI has realised that, from a man management perspective, it's probably not always desirable to flag up your key man's lack of form in front of a group of journos (the scum) every time.

It's upping the intuition like this that means we're about to lose a lot of friends all over again come November.


Call of Duty: Black Ops
Release: November 9

Remember all those games we said we were looking forward to? They were pretty good weren't they? Yeah, scrap 'em. Scrap 'em all.

There's no pretence here, we all know that it doesn't matter what games come out between now and New Year, by November there's only going to be one name that matters and it'll dominate right up until it's sitting under Christmas trees up and down the country.

Say what you like about Modern Warfare 2, Treyarch, the Infinity Ward debacle or Activision, Call of Duty will always be the number one game of the masses and it will always do the numbers.

And, so far, Black Ops looks like it will reward the eye-gouging anticipation come release day.

As far as the FPS genre, and the Call of Duty name more specifically, it isn't going to be a gaming revolution but that's only because CoD has set such a high standard already. In terms of a brand, the world's best FPS is kind of competing with itself.

That doesn't mean we don't look forward to a fresh bit of CoD every time one's fried up for us.

This time Treyarch's departure from the WWII setting and its move into the Cold War is an interesting one and we're looking forward to getting our hands on some specialist weapons like that mean looking crossbow.

Multiplayer's looking nicely padded too. You can expect the full CoD online treatment with kill-streaks and perks galore but the addition of Theatre Mode, AI bots and a ton of new customisation options makes the online portion of the game look more ambitious than we ever expected.

As if there wasn't enough kill power in these game already, two new super weapons are going to be thrown onto the mix as well in the form of the Death Machine (a big-ass minigun) and the Grim Reaper (an super-duper scoped grenade launcher). See you on the battlefield in November!


Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit
Release: November 19

If you want incredibly fast super cars and tons of carnage when it all goes wrong (which it absolutely has to) then Burnout studio Criterion is probably a pretty safe bet.

To have Criterion concentrating all its efforts on Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit - the next in one of the ...