For me it is The Witcher 2 and I don't think there is another game that comes close. There are many games I had high hopes for this year but that I really didn't expect to pan out. The Witcher 2 I still have high hopes for.
TES V and BF3. im hoping bethesda pulls some tricks out of the box to make it truly unique from their other RPG installments. I hope BF3 is more than just eye candy though.
TES V scares me... in the sense of a PC gamer. The elder scrolls has always been a PC franchise but it feels like, at least with all the announcments around the game, that it's going to be focusing on consoles. The TES4 pushed the boundries of PC graphics a bit when it was released. I am hoping TES 5 does the same but since they arne't even using DX11 in it has me slightly worried.
Looking forward to Skyrim as well! For me the elder scroll's are more about the emersive environment and sandbox play than graphics. Sure they are also pretty eye candy but the game itself has just always rocked.
Other game is Star Wars: The Old Republic. Quit WoW, tried Aion, went back to WoW, tried Rift, now just waiting again. Like Skyrim, I loved the story and gameplay behind Kotor and looking forward to an MMO that offers that same feel!
Diablo 3 - Cause Diablo 2 pwned
Battlefield 3 - Cause Battlefield 1942 pwned
Star Wars: The Old Republic - Cause City of Heroes/Matrix Online pwned and Star Wars owns
Battlefield 3 will be the ultimate first person shooter ever made in accordance to detail and gameplay so really can't wait for that, unless its a port like crysis 2
once upon a time most expected release for this year was Dragon Age 2. But that turned out to be disappointing.
Hoping that the Old Republic turns out to be ok.