Next year is going to be a game-changer, if you'll pardon the low-hanging pun-fruit, as the video games biz undergoes some major transformations.
Touchscreen devices will continue to compete against dedicated gaming hardware, the personal computer will make inroads as a living room gaming device and the indie games scene will explode even more forcefully.
As well, 2013 is the year we'll get our first look at new game consoles from Sony and Microsoft, the next-generation machines that will take the baton from the aging PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and run with it.
It's going to be one heck of a year.
But it always comes back to one thing: the games. While some of 2013's most significant new releases likely won't be revealed until the annual E3 Expo in June, here are the half-dozen that I'm already desperately eager to play.
Calendar? Check. Big red felt pen to make Xs on it? Check. Now to figure out a way to make time pass more quickly.
The Last of Us
(PS3; May 7)
The creators of the stellar Uncharted series are turning their talents to this grim post-apocalyptic adventure, starring a man and a girl who team up for survival in the ruins of a plague-stricken world already being reclaimed by nature. Looks utterly outstanding.
Grand Theft Auto V
(Xbox 360, PS3; Spring)
It's been almost five years since the last full-fledged Grand Theft Auto title, and the release of any new GTA game is an event. Set in the Los Angeles analog of Los Santos, GTA V will follow three characters' intertwined life-of-crime stories.
Watch Dogs
(Xbox 360, PS3, PC; TBA)
No game shown at the 2012 E3 Expo in L.A. impressed me more than Ubisoft Montreal's Watch Dogs, a visually stunning, technologically innovative take on the open-world genre. In an ultra-connected society, it's hackers who hold all the cards.
SimCity
(PC, Mac; March 5)
I haven't been truly invested in a city-building game since Caesar II in the mid-90s, but 2013 is the year that I will once again revel in micromanaging communities, as the geniuses at Maxis release the first true SimCity game in a decade.
Star Wars 1313
(Xbox 360, PS3, PC; TBA)
With George Lucas handing the Star Wars reins over to Disney, the Force is once again strong with this franchise. Star Wars 1313 looks a bit like Uncharted with blasters, set in the bowels (level 1313, to be precise) of the city-planet Coruscant. Sold, we are.
BioShock Infinite
(Xbox 360, PS3, PC; March 26)
While not a direct sequel to 2007's masterpiece BioShock, just the thought of a new game created by the same studio, this time set in a turn-of-the-20th-century floating city, gets me giddy with excitement. Footage we've seen so far has been jaw-dropping.
