Almost all of my most anticipated titles of 2012 have been delayed until 2013, and while delays are always a dagger to the heart for gamers, often lengthy development cycles yield fantastic results.
No I'm not talking about Duke Nukem Forever standards here, I'm talking about games that took a lifetime to see the light of day, but the wait was well and truly worth it.
So here's five games that were awesome, despite a lengthy development cycle.
Team Fortress 2
Development Cycle: 1998 - 2007 (9 Years)
Quick history lesson with this one; the original Team Fortress was a mod for id Software's Quake, and Valve quickly hired the creators whom released the HL Engine version dubbed Team Fortress Classic. Then in 1998 they started work on Team Fortress 2; a gritty, realistic military class-based shooter that would introduce the brand new TeamSpeak 2 client as the epitome of in-game chat services.
Well that didn't happen. Instead the game underwent a major redesign which switched out the gritty realism for a Pixar-friendly graphics and the rest is history. Now we can all rest easy at night knowing we can spend our hard-earned cash on hats.
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty
Development Cycle: 2003 - 2010 (7 Years)
Blizzard's reputation was well and truly kickstarted with the release of the original StarCraft which is widely considered one of, if no the best real-time strategy game of all time. Fans were chomping at the bit for a sequel, yet Blizzard kept them waiting seven long years. The internet almost exploded when the release date eventuated, and Korean's across the globe finally had a new game to master.
Resident Evil 4
Development Cycle: 1999 - 2005 (6 Years)
Six years may seem like a long time, but when you're reinventing not only the survival horror genre, but third-person shooters it seems like a small ask. Resident Evil 4 went through four incarnations before settling on the award-winning formula that cemented it as one of the best games last generation, and inspired countless other titles.
L.A Noire
Development Cycle: 2004 - 2011 (7 Years)
The gameplay may not have featured the 1940's GTA mayhem we were hoping for, but Team Bondi's L.A Noire pushed the boundaries as far as motion-capture and storytelling go. To our knowledge it is also one of the only video-games to even be entered into an international film festival.
Diablo 3
Development Cycle: 2001 - 2012 (11 Years)
It seems Blizzard just love lengthy development times. Diablo 3 began development in 2001, yet our first glimpse at the game didn't come until 2008. The game has undergone several design and artistic changes since those early days, but we finally got our hands on the game this year. Despite that pesky Error 37, the wait was well and truly worth it.
Honourable Mentions
Fallout 3: 2002 - 2008 (6 Years)
Prey: 1995 - 2006 (11 Years)
Alan Wake: 2004 - 2010 (6 Years)
Spore: 2000 - 2008 (8 Years)
By Stephen Heller - Bio