Sometime early last year, I cobbled together a list of my most anticipated games of the year. And as we’re often prone to do, as the year wound on, and new and exciting enchantments were revealed, that list changed numerous times. E3 will do that to you.

So, despite the fact that I fully intend to provide you with my picks for the top handful of games that I’ve just got to play in 2010, please don’t hold me to it. Something is bound to give at some point. Either that, or a whole helping heaping of them could simply be jettisoned to 2011 – which is what we saw last Fall when seemingly every publisher used Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 as a reason to turn turtle, as if this were an industry where gamers only pledge allegiance to one title. I’m sure a few FPS boogied out of that release window to avoid sales comparisons with the juggernaut but how does that excuse some of the third person action games? Do I detect the cloaked need for additional development time? Oh well, if the end product ends up justifying the means, then by all means, run and hide. I’ll just have to add you to next year’s list.

All indictments aside, let’s get on with this. I’m going to pick a console exclusive title per system and then give you my pick for the absolute Must Play game of the year. Just bear in mind, all of this is subject to change and likely will.

Xbox 360

This is supposedly the year of Project NATAL, and while I’ll likely be jonesing to get some hands on time with motion controls for the serious gamer, we just don’t know enough about the technology aside from a concept video and a carefully orchestrated appearance on Jimmy Fallon. So, while I’m intrigued, it’s not something that is beaming brightly on my radar.

The game that I am absolutely chomping at the bit to play, however, is Alan Wake, which is due for release in the 2nd quarter. This title was first announced at the launch of the 360, well over four years ago, and since then it has drifted in and out of gaming consciousness more times than the titular protagonist.

Developed by Remedy, the architects behind the Max Payne series, the game places players in the shoes of Alan Wake, a novelist adrift in a sleepy coastal logging town who begins to detect some eerie similarities blurring the line between his fictional narratives and the real world around him. The trailers seem to suggest an open world take on the Silent Hill school of gaming, which should prove to be a creepily immersive experience, and that’s exactly what I’m looking for; a mystery that I can get lost in.