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We admit that we're a bit late with our "top 10"-type of news (this is usually a end-of-the-year or beginning-of-the-year mania), but we thought it's better later than never.

Most of us know what we've shot, slashed, ripped apart and nuked last year with our two deadly weapons (the keyboard and the mouse), but what do game developers have in store for us this year to quench our thirst for blood'n'gore more clicks?

Here's the list we've compiled on this subject and we feel proud and relieved that PC gaming is far from being dead (unlike our foes on the monitor...):

1. Fallout 3. This is definitely the title that pops out in almost every chart made by prestigious gaming magazines worldwide. Although the last installment in the Fallout franchise came out no less than 10 years ago, it was Bethesda Softworks, the RPG masterminds behind The Elder Scrolls Oblivion, that bought the license from agonizing French publisher Interplay and decided to give it a spin. We're more than happy with Bethesda's decision are we're anxiously waiting for the PC version, which will arrive sometimes this fall along with the PlayStation 3 andXbox 360 versions.

2. Project Origin. I must (and I really MUST!) confess that I have been a F.E.A.R. addict since the demo for Monolith's shooter came out in late August 2005 (yeah, I even remember when the demo came out...). I still consider it one of the best single and multiplayer shooters out there and it was deeply saddening for me to see that although it offered so much more compared to other more famous titles (Counter Strike, DOOM, Quake, etc.) and although itsmultiplayer component is now free, it still hasn't been included in any of the gaming championships organized today (we've been playing CS,Warcraft or StarCraft at World Cyber Games since...what, 8 years now?...). Fortunately, the monolithic team behind No One Lives Forever has not given up on its true-blue fans (my self included, bien-sur...), not even after seeing its franchise being stripped of its name (F.E.A.R. is now Sierra Entertainment's property), and they're now ready for a more visually attractive Alma and more supernatural awesomeness. On PCs and next-gen consoles too.

3. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl has been one of last year's most pleasant surprises. The game showed that the Eastern European gaming talents are capable of marvelous things, and that creativity and nuclear wastelands are not exactly opposite. The jaw-dropping atmosphere in Shadow of Chernobyl, the mutated monsters, the Ukrainian accent of the AI (and hopefully NOT the bugs...) will return this year in Clear Sky, a prequel to Shadow of Chernobyl, set to benefit from the implementation of DirectX 10 features in Windows Vista. No word on the exact release date yet, but GSC World Games are still targeting a Q1 interval (yeah, that means next month...). But who knows, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl has been delayed more than once until now, so...

4. World of Warcraft The Lich King. This is the second expansion pack in two years for Blizzard's massively-popular World of Warcraft game, after the launch of The Burning Crusade in January 2007. With 10 million gamers gold-farming on the company's servers worldwide  and with profits that are way beyond something imaginable for a gaming company, Blizzard will definitely catch even more MMORPG addicts into its claws this year. Hero-Classes, more than 10-man raids and siege weapons for PVP are among the things we should expect in this new expansion.

5. StarCraft 2. Need I say more? This is like the grabbing God by the leg or suddenly becoming Bill Gates' beloved son... The Terrans, the Zergs and the Protos will make a glorious come-back this year, endowed with better graphics, huge levels and the same recipe for success. It's about time!...

6. Borderlands. GearBox Software's ambitious new franchise is a combination of FPS with RPG-elements, painted on a distant, barren planet hiding a Vault... That's basically what we know from the teaser-trailer. The Mad Max-inspired landscapes are not that barren though, with huge creatures lurking beneath Pandora's surface (yeah, it's planet Pandora...). You'll defintiely need vehicles to move from one place to another, and what's interesting is that you can customize and upgrade themaccording to your needs. Oh, and you'll need guns...lots of guns...Approximately 500,000, if we are to belive GearBox... Now that is what I call a hardcore first-person shooter...

7. RAGE. id Software's next project after DOOM 3 and Quake: Enemy Territory is shaping up at the company's headquarters in Garland, Texas. What we know about this game is that the iconic figure crafting its code, John Carmack, has built a new engine for it, dubbed id Tech 5, that does not feature DirectX 10 ... And he knows better... However, just as others have bowed before multi-platformism, so did Carmack: RAGE will be ported onto consoles and even Macs...

8. FAR CRY2. This is like the most expected first person shooter of 2008. Sequel to the 2004 PC hit Far Cry from Crytek, Far Cry 2 will move to Africa, will have a new game-engine built from top to bottom by Ubisoft (Dunia) and will (hopefully...) kick some serious ass... At least PC gamers have the consolation that although it's multi-platform, the game is build with the PC version in mind first (yes, it's coming on PS3 and X60 too...).

9. Dragon Age. Announced briefly on the first cover of Games for Windows magazine, this game is considered to be the worthy inheritant of Baldur's Gate. If that's true, we'll just have to wait and see, but considering that it's coming from the RPG masters BioWare (remember Mass Effect?) there's a good chance we'll at least see some decent gameplay... And by wait I mean no launch date specified yet...

10. Left for Dead. The zombie-crawling title emanating from Half Life developers Valve is the newest franchise aiming to dethrone Counter Strike from it's multiplayer dominance. Ironically, it comes from the very guys that benefit most from actively licensing Counter Strike, but hey, they must be bored with their own success too...

I know, I know, there's also Spore, Dead Space, Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway...