With the dawn of 2008 comes the excitement of long awaited big name game releases. Or does it? I'm beginning to wonder if 2008 might not just continue on with the big-title-delay calamity we suffered through last year. Grand Theft Auto IV, with a promising release date of Fall '07, is now thrust back to Q2 2008. In my experience, any release date with a "Q" in front of it and no actual release date means that it will actually be released sometime in the "Q" following the promised "Q". Remember Fable 2? At this time last year Fable 2 was scheduled for yet another Fall '07 release. Now the best thing Microsoft can come up with is a "TBA 2008". At least the lackluster "Q" dates are more specific than a release date of "sometime in 2008...maybe...hopefully." And how about Super Smash Bros. Brawl? First given a 2007 release, then pushed back to February 2008 and NOW pushed back yet again to March. I don't even own a Nintendo Wii (though I want one, anyone wanting to contribute to the Poor Wii-less Gamer Donation Center please contact me) and this bakes my noodle.


Such promises upset me, but wouldn't so much if once the final version was released, it was actually a clean, bugless game. But it's not! Games are delayed for months, years, millenia and yet they still end up shipping out a buggy piece of crap. Delays from game companies such as Blizzard and Valve are calmly tolerated, because in the end the games come out as crisp and squeaky clean as as your baby's butt after his first bath. All others need to take notes and study these companies' time management materials.

I suppose as gamers we will never be satisfied. We don't want buggy games but we don't want to wait for 300 years either. We want glorious big titles two months after the game's announcement, or less. So I guess we as gamers need to learn to be patient. Or maybe dev teams need to use their time more wisely. Or maybe both. Either way, I suspect that 2008 will be chalk full of infuriating delays, and I'm bracing myself.