PC Quarter 1 2011: Who will survive?

After questioning how a crowded first quarter may effect PC games sales (and maybe even the future viability of the platform), I predict which titles will thrive in the mad rush and which will get crushed underfoot.

So. The first three months of 2011 leave consumers spoilt for choice and there's an intense likelihood that no matter what you game on, you won't be picking up everything that dares to score a metacritic 8.5 or less until you can rent it, buy it second hand, or buy it first-hand off a shopkeeper who has had to sell his hands to subsidise the ridiculously low RRP you're happy to hand over. Anyway, here's a handy, completely opinion based guide to who will sink and swim on PC unless something gets shaken up, ordered from top to bottom in chance of survival. Just like the decks of the Titanic.

Quarter 1 2011, or Too Much Of A Good Thing

The holidays are coming, but don't expect any new toys until the new year...

Why, hello again...

It's the run up to Christmas once more, and that can only mean one thing: all those big-name titles you've been waiting for all year suddenly hove into view, a convoy of hope to a nation crippled by X-Factor finals. Your mother phones you for gift ideas and you send her a list of items number five through eight on your prioritised wishlist, because you know that you can bare waiting two months to play them. You sad, impatient person.

Nope, sorry. That's your biscuit-tin Christmas of yesteryear. For the second year running, the convoy of hope has recieved word that the Call of Duty juggernaut is on the same tarmac, and rather than tangle with its incomprehensible callsigns and impressive wheelspan, they've pulled over into the Welcome Break to enjoy some tepid tea and a crossword. Four down, eight letters. "Quaint British English semi-expletive". Bollocks.