While the first half of 2008 brought us No More Heroes, Brawl, GTAIV, and Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, the second half also looks to be promising as well. Here's a list of games coming out later this year that I'm looking forward to...

Ninja Gaiden II (Xbox 360)



Without a doubt, one of my finest moments in gaming was beating Ninja Gaiden Black. Hell, looking back, I might consider that to be my favorite game on the original Xbox (it's either that or KOTOR). Ninja Gaiden II looks like it's going to take everything from the NG/Black/Sigma title before it and make it even better. What makes it better is the fact that it comes out next month! ^_^

Gears of War 2 (Xbox 360)

I loved the first Gears of War game to death and almost put it over as my 2006 GOTY (that honor went to Okami). In fact, the first game was the reason I wanted to get a 360. There isn't much heard about this outside of tech demos and videos from Gamespot, but if you were to ask me, I'd like to see slightly-better co-op and a longer single-player mode. Gears' biggest flaw was being too short of a game to enjoy. Here's to hoping Epic gives us a sequel worth waiting for.

Saints Row 2 (Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3)



I may be in the minority when I say this, but I enjoyed the first Saints Row more than some of the older 3D GTA titles (and by that, I mean III and maybe Vice City). I'm not expecting Saints Row 2 to dethrone GTAIV... hell, I'll still probably be playing GTAIV when this hits shelves in August... but I expect Saints Row 2 to be just as good as the first title, if not better.

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World (Nintendo Wii)



I remember having a pretty bad day at work a few months ago, but later that night, someone left a Nintendo Power by the register and this game was on the cover. Needless to say, I forgot about everything else that happened that night. Tales of Symphonia four years ago was my 2004 GOTY and one of my favorite Gamecube games overall. From what I've seen in screenshots, this has huge potential to be better than its predecessor. Fall can't come any sooner.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PlayStation 3)



One of the two biggest reasons I got a PlayStation 3. I've been a huge MGS fan since playing through the first game in one night at my cousin's house in 1999. I didn't like Sons of Liberty at first, but the more I played it, the more it grew on me. Snake Eater was a pretty solid game as well, but along with Sons of Liberty, I still didn't enjoy it much as the first MGS game. Guns of the Patriots looks to be as promising as ever, and as I type this, we're officially a month away from seeing the game hit shelves.

and finally, for now...

Disgaea 3 (PlayStation 3)



Once I heard this was coming over to the PS3, I knew buying one was inevitable. Disgaea: Hour of Darkness is one of my five favorite games ever made. I remember putting 65+ hours into it four years ago. Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories, though just slightly inferior to Hour of Darkness, was still 50 different kinds of awesome. The biggest reasons I enjoyed both games were the storylines, and the fact that there was so much you could do in both Disgaeas as well. Right now, this game is set for release in August, and hopefully, it'll make me glad I purchased a PlayStation 3.

Other games that I want to play, just not as much as the ones mentioned above

Soul Calibur IV - My girlfriend got me back into playing Soul Calibur III two weeks ago. With SCIV right around the corner, this might not be a bad thing after all. Probably going to buy the PS3 version, since I'm more used to that controller for fighters (and because I <3 Vader more than Yoda >_>).

Alone in the Dark - Hopefully Atari manages to make us forget about the movie that came out three years ago.

Lego Indiana Jones and Lego Batman - Legos are awesome, and so are Indy and Batman. Only way they could make this better is if they put Indy and Batman in the same game together. Chances are, the universe would implode because of too much awesomeness in one disc.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - Looks very promising at the moment. Hopefully it's on the same level of greatness as KOTOR is.

(all photos acquired via Gamespot)