What has been biggest suprise this year?

[priteshmodi]

Michael Jackson :(

In the gaming world...

Batman AA being so highly raved - it's an 80-85 game for me and not even a GOTY contender. It's like the Chronicles of Riddick was for me last gen. Raved by mostly everyone who played it but I just found it to be an above average game.

Splinter Cell: Conviction revamped - I loved the first 3 Splinter Cell games. Chaos Theory is the best spy game I've ever played. But after Double Agent and seeing the footage of Conviction in 2007 I gave up even caring about the series. After they released the new footage though it has shot up to be my second most awaited game.

Forza 3 Announcement and Release within 4 months - We all knew it was coming and would most likely be announced at E3 but I hadn't even bothered to think we'd be able to play it so soon after announcement.

PSP Go being priced at $250 with no UMD or upgrade program

Halo Reach - Well... this isn't the typical kind of surprise. Halo games are going to be releasing every few years for a long time just like Mario or Sonic. What surprised me was that Bungie (who have stated on more than one ocassion) that Halo 3 (No wait... I mean ODST.. no... wait.. Reach) was going to be their last Halo game. If it follows the Fall of Reach book and takes time to flesh out the story then this could be quite an amazing game.

Natal + Wand: It was given that Sony and MS would jump on the motion control wagon but they both did so in different ways. Sony's wand is surprising due to the amazing level of precision while MS's Natal is a different take on the situation that might bring about gameplay innovations or just be another fish in the pond.