It's time to launch into another exciting year of games. 2004 marks the fourth year of PS2 love, the third of GameCube and Xbox, and the, uh, bazillionth of PC. This year there are plenty of exciting games on the horizon, so we're giving it to you straight -- a list of mixed-platform games that spells out exactly what you should be looking forward to no matter what gaming hardware you own.

But what of last year? We recently let loose our Game of The Year 2003, and it's interesting to compare how few of our most wanted games of 2003 were known around this time last year. Part of the problem is that console publishers typically jealously guard their games until the spring, with massive titles like Prince of Persia and Call of Duty not being unveiled until May's E3 and April, respectively. This year, expect more excellent announcements to start ramping up around then. Still, many of the games we were excited about for 2003 slipped into 2004 -- notables like DOOM 3, Halo 2 and Ninja Gaiden, for example. Other games didn't turn out quite as we'd hoped -- Devil May Cry 2 and Mario Golf are prominent examples.

Well, brushing last year aside -- it's clear that 2004 will be one of the best years we've yet seen for gaming. Where do your upcoming favorites rank? What about those sleeper hits you don't know about yet? Well, don't fret. Our list will have you scrambling to lay down pre-order money for the rest of the year.

Table of Contents

• Monday: Games 40-33
• Tuesday: Games 32-25
• Wednesday: Games 24-17
• Thursday: Games 16-9
• Friday: Games 8-1