It looks like Company of Heroes is shaping up to be the game of the year. With most of the major online publications having rendered their verdict, the Relic RTS is running a high aggregate at Gamerankings and has earned three 10/10 scores, including one from the usually stingy Eurogamer. And I haven’t even tried the demo yet. Too busy.

It’s not just that I’m busy, though. It’s that I have some of the same feelings that Kieron Gillen addresses in the beginning of his review.

It’s got to the point where we feel as if we’ve done it all before. How many times have we crawled up the shingles of Omaha beach? If you added up all my virtual deaths in those bloody shallows, it’s entirely possible that I’ve lost more lives than were lost in the real assault. Turn to the comments thread in any World War 2 game preview, and you’ll see a string of people shrugging. Bored now! Bored now! Seen this before! What’s next?

I’m not a huge World War II buff, but I love a good WW2 game. Combat Mission is one of my Desert Island disks. But I’ve just about reached a saturation point with Axis/Ally RTS games. I’ve played the terrible War Times. The decent Rush to Berlin. The very good Blitzkrieg 2. I was one of those who thought that Desert Rats vs Afrika Korps wasn’t all that bad. But I’m full. I can’t have another bite.

Now Gillen and Dan Stapleton and Allen Rausch are telling me that I must have room for dessert. Look at all the chocolatey goodness!

So I guess I’ll have to try it. I’ll have to drop the fifty bucks on a game that I wouldn’t pick up otherwise because so many people are saying good things. And not simply “good.” These are enthusiastic raves. Even if review scores don’t matter, a well written plea for me to try something out can still touch my cold, black heart.