Not to be rude, but I have no need to read any of the forum posts (or even the majority of the article) because my comment is in direct response to the original point the writer made:
Spring 2005 stole the show for the year. It was almost as good as Holiday 2004 except... Okay, so the biggest game of the decade didn't come out, but you had things like Splinter Cell 3: Chaos Theory, SWAT 4, Battlefield 2, Guild Wars, etc., etc.
Holiday 2005 had a whole lot of good games, but not one great game. It was more or less empty compared to Holiday 2004. And why shouldn't it be? Everything amazing had been delayed until the next year (or had never been planned for release then) or had come out the year before. With a two year minimum development cycle for truly complete & great games, it makes sense that it should fluctuate like this.
Now 2006 was almost lined up to overtake even 2004. Mind you, we've already seen many of the primary titles either set back (Crysis - or something else major I'm confusing it with something else & it was never set for a late 2006 release date) or diminished (STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl - ruined by Dean Sharp) but let's take a look at what the sneaky Spring gaming season of 2006 has already delivered us?
Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey
Half-Life 2: Aftermath
And more recently there's been Okami & Company of Heroes at the start of the Holiday Season.
Now these are all very strong titles but there's also been even more in each genre that are good (if not quite great) as well as plenty of other high quality expansions in addition to Half-Life 2's. I want you to take notice of something very important about these releases. Whereas 2004 was basically year of the shooter (& surpassed the "golden age" of the FPS genre by far all in the confines of one year) so far this year - and on PC primarily - we've seen strong titles in all the long gone, "dead" genres.
So please don't make a mockery of 2006. It has quite a lot of kick left in it, including the second most important game of the decade which is still yet to be released. It has also already "revived" many of the best classic genres. It's certainly the most diverse year for high quality gaming I've seen so far in the 21st century. Oh, & don't make a big deal out of 2005 either. First half of 2005 maybe...
EDIT: And I can't believe I forgot, but scoffing at the release of the PS3 & the Revolution/Wii doesn't make sense either. I'll concede that Sony doesn't really have anything lined up, but Nintendo has quite a few good looking games set for release within 2006. And Twilight Princess really potentially makes the entire year worthwhile anyway. The sequel to the most acclaimed game of all time 8 years later? Virtual reality (partially anyway - at least as much as arcades ever got close to back in the day) finally entering the home en masse? Consoles have this year covered before you ever get to PC, which is just going crazy with cool games.
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