Every new year presents a gaggle of games to look forward to - just as we're recovering from our Christmas exertions. We generally start the year with the tasty leftovers: games that couldn't quite make it in time for a Christmas release. Then we progress into severe hype overdrive, as the games usually announced at the now defunct E3 would come to maturation later in the year. Then, before you know it, we've gotten past the next E3, and things start to ramp up in September and suddenly it's Christmas time again.

So, what's the top ten to look out for in 2007? Well, we're seeing so many games across so many formats and so many genres that a top ten across the board would be difficult to compile. Therefore, we're going to focus on the top ten shooters for 2007. Most are first-person, but some are third-person, and all involve copious amounts of their genre namesake: shooting!

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10: Assassins Creed

Admittedly, the time of the crusades, while bloody, is not the most obvious choice of setting for a shooter; alright, so we'll call it an action game. Still, Assassins Creed has proved interesting enough that even ardent fans of semi-automatic rifles should get a kick out of playing it.

All one needs to know about the back story, crafted as it is, is that the game is set at the time of the Third Crusade and you play an assassin. Next question?

What makes Assassins Creed special is its freedom of movement, which in turn, makes the assassinating part of things a lot more of a creative enterprise than one might expect. Your character can grab and climb any surface that is more than two inches in height. The French-originated martial arts style of "Parkour" (basically roof jumping) is used to allow one to climb up, over, under and between just about any fixture you can get a hold on.

In addition to climbing around like an athlete, your character will run and walk like a real person. So, for example, if you run hell for leather away from the scene of a crime, then you run the risk of tripping over something like a root, some garbage or a rock. In other words, you react to the world as a real person would.

Another highly interesting facet of the game, also environmental, is the way in which NPCs react to your character. The settings are in a crowded medieval city, and so empty streets are not to be found in abundance. The developers made every NPC look and act in a unique way, so that you're not just wading through a crowd of clones; they have also programmed in smart reactions to your actions. So, if you start bunny hopping down the street, you will raise a few eyebrows. Punch somebody in the face, and the NPCs will react as real people tend to do: either run away, jump into the fight or stand and stare.

Combine all of these environmental factors, and Assassins Creed begins to look like a highly interesting third person action game. We're expecting it for the PC, alongside currently announced PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 launches later in the year.

9: Grand Theft Auto IV

What is there to say about the Grand Theft Auto series that has not already been written? Well, not about Grand Theft Auto IV specifically, details on which are sketchy, but we can pretty much guess that stealing cars, then roaming around a city stealing more cars, will be the game's primary selling point.

This will be the first of the "next-gen" GTA games, having been announced first for Xbox 360 and then the PlayStation 3 (bit of a kick in the pants for Sony, eh?). We can expect a PC release to follow close behind, given both the track record of the series and the fact that Microsoft is pushing most of its 360 games alongside its Games for Windows Vista label.

This one is already attracting the ire of Jack Thompson, who has lobbied Bill Gates to stop sales of the game in order to protect minors. Even he knows that this will be more of the same (only better we hope), and equally controversial. It's a surefire hit for 2007.

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