Hamburg  - Some years bring clusters of wildly creative new titles to fans of PC gaming. The year 2009 is not shaping up to be one of them, though. Game publishers instead appear to have hunkered down and hammered out continuations of successful titles from the past. That means we can look forward to a new edition of the settle-and-develop series Anno and a third episode in the Sims life simulation series.

The success story of the Anno series began in 1998: Anno 1602 invited players to settle empty islands, followed by an expansion of the population and establishment of a functional commerce system. The principle turned the first Anno title into one of the most successful games of all time. It's no wonder that Anno 1503 and Anno 1701 soon followed it, games that adhered to the original gaming concept while expending upon the details and offering new graphics.

One can reasonably expect that this year's contribution to the series, Anno 1404, will not be any different. The game's publisher, Ubisoft, is promising an island that's even bigger, with the Orient gaining importance as the realm of play.

If any series has been more successful than Anno, it's The Sims, with more than 100 million units sold worldwide. It's no wonder that The Sims 3 is now set to join the first two parts of the reality simulation. Among the new elements are updated graphics. The living space has also been playfully expanded, meaning that the characters room to roam now extends beyond one's own home and into the neighbourhood at large. The characters will also possess significantly more individual characteristics and personal habits, the game's publisher Electronic Arts reports.

This year is also likely to see a sequel to Blizzard Entertainment's strategy classic Starcraft. Startcraft 2 picks up on its predecessors core tasks: establish a base in the available sectors of space, establish battle-ready units, and then drive out the enemy. No major new wrinkles have been announced. According to some reports, Starcraft
2 is designed as a trilogy, with expansions planned for purchase to go with the base game.

Those who consider computer games no more than superficial time wasters have certainly never given the Total War series a try. Behind the martial-sounding name is a highly complex strategy game with two very different modes. One is a round-based system during which the player administers a city without any time pressure. That is followed by a real-time battle mode carried out by countless units. Empire: Total War focuses on the period between 1700 and 1800. The conquerable world has grown from Africa to India, including for the first time the ability to wage war at sea.

Two other titles expected in 2009, The Godfather 2 and Mafia 2, focus on a different kind of violence. While the Godfather adaptation seems likely to draw fans of the legendary Mafia films, the game Mafia draws on myths different from those cinematic models. The original Mafia game, published in 2002, turned heads through its unique 1930s America atmosphere. The gamers experience the history of Thomas "Tommy" Angelo, who rose from a taxi driver to a boss in the mafia. Mafia 2 is set in 1946. (dpa)