With the holiday gaming season long gone, it’s easy to get excited for the new year and draw up lists of all the great possibilities. But we’re grumpy, and don’t buy the idea that all these games are sure-fire gems. For good fun and pure speculation, here’s our list of what will be the biggest disappointments of 2009. Disclaimer: GearCrave reserves the right to be completely incorrect about any of the games you see below.

Number Ten: Starcraft II

Don’t get me wrong, this follow-up to the beloved late 90s strategy game will probably be great fun, but Activision-Blizzard’s decision to split the game up into a main release and two expansion packs — to better focus on each race, they say — stinks. There’s an undeniable air of a franchise being milked here.

Number Nine: Bionic Commando

The grappling hook was a cool idea for video games in the 1980s, when characters with badass special abilities seemed new and exciting. Now that 20 years have passed since Bionic Commando’s release for the Nintendo Entertainment System, we’ve pretty much seen it all. Mechanical arms just don’t do the trick anymore.

Number Eight: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

Know why Grand Theft Auto became so popular after it made the jump to 3D? Because the old top-down perspective was so boring by comparison. There’s bound to be some excitement over anything with the GTA name, but no handheld version can compare to what its console elders have done.

Number Seven: MadWorld

Watch a few seconds of video from this upcoming Wii brawler, and you’ll likely be amazed by what you see. But spend a little more time paying attention to the game itself and you’ll notice that there’s little of interest beyond the shock value of blood and gore. If you’re still googly over the visuals, consider this: Manhunt also offered plenty of ways to kill people, and it sucked.

Number Six: F.E.A.R.2: Project Origin

F.E.A.R. is one of those games that was critically lauded, but lacked originality thanks to the been-there-done-that features, like bullet time, and the cliché “creepy girl” plot element. Two expansion packs and mediocre console ports later, excitement has waned. This’ll be a fine bang for your buck, but don’t expect it to break new ground.

Number Five: Halo 3: O.D.S.T.

Save for the perfectly tweaked multiplayer of Halo 3, it was clear that the series had run out of gas by the last rendition. Bungie may try to bill this expansion as a more stealth-oriented shooter, but ODST will have hard time being anything but more of the same. That said, Bungie isn’t capable of making bad games, so this’ll ultimately be a fun but disappointing add-on.

Number Four: Resident Evil 5

Look around, and you’ll find plenty of sentiment that this series has jumped the shark. A lot of devotees are still bitter over the last game’s shift from claustrophobic thriller to wide-open shoot-em-up, and even the ones that loved the last game are wondering if Capcom can pull it off again. My guess is “no,” and I’ll take a Dead Rising sequel any day.

Number Three: Duke Nukem Forever

No, we don’t have exclusive knowledge about the “if and when” of this game’s release, but it’s our favorite example of vaporware, and no list of gaming letdowns would be complete without it. If Duke’s famed next-gen adventure doesn’t drop this year, we’ll be disappointed, and if the does, there’s simply no way the game can live up to its legend.

Number Two: Ghostbusters: The Video Game

Yeah, I said it. Show me a movie tie-in that doesn’t suck. King Kong? Fine, show me two movie tie-ins that don’t suck. Right, so Aykroyd and Ramis are writing the script, and everyone but Rick Moranis is lending their voices, but until someone can explain why this is better having another Ghostbusters movie, I’m not convinced this won’t be a boring, generic third-person shooter.

Number One: Bioshock 2: Sea of Dreams

Despite its flaws, Bioshock was beautiful because of the artistic ideals that it upheld and the craftsmanship that went into its twisted underwater dystopia. To turn this game into a franchise is to cash in on those ideals, corrupting them instead of letting them stand untarnished in gaming history. Please, Take-Two, stop killing our baby.

Thanks for reading, GearCravers, Stumblers, Redditers and otherwise.  What do you think?  Are there any games you expect to let you down that you would have put on this list?  Are any of our selections nothing short of crazy?  Let us know in the comments.  In the mean time, do us a favor– share this with your friends, and help us out with a vote on your favorite social media site!