Funcom is among us Norwegians regarded as a national pride. So you can imagine my bewilderment after the statement concerning its dutch localization. ; )

Funcom has an intriguing portfolio a captivating touch on the story line of their games (as in Dreamfall: The Longest Journey), so fiscal revenues exceeding the expected is good news. The success of Age of Conan would be a significant boost to the developer to deliver more quality games, especially to a more mature audience than those of Wow (considering the average age of the players in the Hyborian world of Conan).

Epic Games have several distinct IPs behind them, ranging from Epig Pinball, One Must Fall, Jazz Jackrabbit, the Unreal series and Gears Of War. They do have a diversified portfolio, perhaps overshadowed by their recent afficion for larger than life space marines. People Can Fly is a young studio, and they have proved that they can deliver with Painkiller and the porting of Gears to the PC.
With backing from EA, Epic's technology and experience and some clever Polish people at People (no pun), this new IP could be something to watch out for. Whether it will be similar to something Epic has done before remains to be seen, but the fact that this IP is being developed at the People studio indicates otherwise.

Resident Evil 5 certainly looks promising.
The Black Hawk Down setting with a cover and duck system ups the ante, but the development team should be able to deliver the goods like with RE4.

Nevertheless, Chris Redfield will return as the suavest hero of the series.
Not to mention the appearance of his arch-enemy, the one and only Albert Wesker.
Nothing comes close to killing zombies.
I can't wait.