I personally can't wait for Skyrim. It's a testament to how much I'm looking forward to that one that I'm seeing Battlefield 3, released this Friday I think, as merely something to play until Skyrim comes out.
Anyway, to start us off here's a couple of big recommendations.
If you remember Morrowind, or can't wait until Skyrim, get yourself a copy of it (the Game of the Year edition is incredibly cheap everywhere) and install this mod:
http://www.gamepron.com/news/2011/01/03/morrowind-2011-mod-complete-download-here/The instructions are detailed and comprehensive, though make sure you follow EVERY step, step-by-step, and it really does make a Morrowind worthy of 2011. I was playing it for a good couple of months, Morrowind is an utterly awesome game, one of the very coolest worlds ever created for PC.
I also recommend you buy Altitude. It's a simple as hell 2d indie game based around 'plane battles. Fast, furious, fiendish and perfectly balanced I am hopelessly addicted to the 'planeball' mode. Despite having a pretty sweet rig, and despite spending stupid amounts on games, and having all sorts of AAA titles, Deus Ex: HR remains almost untouched while this little beauty just continues to rack up hour after hour after hour of playtime. Just awesome, and awesomely old-skool:
http://altitudegame.com/Does anyone play Minecraft? I still haven't tried it. What's the attraction?
Is anyone else nigh on purple with rage that, after so many years of desperate waiting, we ARE going to get a new Syndicate AND a new X:Com game only to find out they're both fucking FPS games? What the hell? Because we're so overstuffed in gaming with more strategic games based around control of a party of minions, and I just can't remember the last time an FPS came out.
Seriously, does my head in. Awesome ideas like those get left to rot but Modern Warfare has a new release every three weeks with map packs at £300 pounds a pop or whatever satanic price they are now. Oh well.
As a last note, I highly recommend Rock, Paper Shotgun for gaming news, reviews and a quite awesome column on board games. Definitely my favourite gaming read, though I quite like the odd PC Gamer too.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/http://www.pcgamer.com/Handily RPS has a preview of BF3 up.
My steam ID is shroedingers_cat if anyone wants to add me. That's also my name on the epic altitude. On BFBC2 I'm Bromide Sandwich, and will probably use that name again for BF3, though frankly it's far too cool a name for my level of abilty. Strange how often the best players have utterly shit names!
Anyway, tara for now and Happy gaming.