I think the number of 9+ games has more to do with the number of high quality games that have come out this year more than it has to do with DX10. Many games have been sitting in development for quite a while that are coming out or have come out this year; Crysis, UT3, Call of Duty 4, Bioshock,HL2: Ep2, and World in Conflictto name a few.

Companies are releasing these games nowin the anticipation that more people would have the hardware necessary to tackle the software (still an optimistic assertion IMO). DX10 is very, VERY slowly becoming a possibility for the average consumer, and even though the technology is only in its infancy its shader quality is truly incredible and boasts a fantastic future.

Besides--for the sake of comparison--how many games came out last year that had the same level of anticipation as games like Crysis? Not nearly as many. This simply seems to be a good year in the PC market (something I am quite thankful for).

I don't know if it counts because its still in beta, but Team Fortress 2 topped every tag team multiplayer FPS I've ever played after a good five minutes. It isn't a very well-rounded package as all of the games included in it are FPS's, but for anyone who's into shooting other people on the PC for the first time I find little reason not to recommend the Orange Box, even if only one of its games is available at the moment. It's only $45 through Steam andone of its five games is already up (TF2's beta is less buggy than most games are after patchwork). If you don't own it already, the as-of-yet entire Half-Life 2 series is on it--this is between16 and 24hours of practically cinematic first-person action;my time estimate is very subjective to your style of play and mine is a very thorough one. There are games with more satisfying thrills and combat, but taken as a whole, Valve has made a very solid set of games so far. Topping this crazy package off is Portal, which is like an acidified version of Super Mario with floating point shaders and motion blur. It will please; I am sure.

Though it stretches into boundaries that are relatively young in terms of its gameplay, Dawn of War's style is undoubtedly the future of pseudotactical RTS. It is already outclassed in many ways by Relic's third masterpiece Company of Heroes--a game whose aesthetics are second to nothing in the genre--but Dawn of War is more approachable and (to avoid being flamed too badly forthat last crack) has more variety. My opinion aside, both DoW and CoH have a place at the top of the RTS scene that is very difficult to refute. Note: if you do decide to pick up Dawn of War - Dark Crusade, please do humanity a favor and don't play as the Necrons. A little variety goes a long way (you'll know what I mean if you play online).

I recommend either Rome or Medieval II: Total War on the condition that you have many hours to burn. The Total War series has a strangehold on the meaning of epic but that means, unfortunately, that it is very time-consuming.The question of whichone you pick is akinto picking a colorfor your car; the two games have strengths and weaknesses and they both provide an identical experience on a basic level. They are both very entertaining if you are into this sort of thing.

I won't speak for the RPG genre as I have been falling behind in that area recently.