The New Year just hit and a lot of great games that were supposed to be released in 2014 were moved to 2015. These five games are the games that I’m looking forward to in the new year, at least right now. I’m sure E3 and other such events will change my mind and add to the list, not to mention the many indie titles that will come out of nowhere and dominate my gaming time. Enough gibber gabber, let’s get on with it.
Total War: Atilla
I have been a fan of the series since Rome: Total War came out in 2004. That’s fourteen years of my life playing those games. I lost interest a couple years ago with some of the new iterations but with the release of Rome: Total War 2 last year it reinvigorated the series for me. It’s probably up there with my most-played games of last year.
If Total War: Atilla builds upon the great improvements of Rome then it’s going to take up many hours of my time in 2015. It looks very good but they do make some nice trailers. Hopefully it’ll be well-balanced and still very challenging like its predecessors. I’ll be keeping an eye on this game as it gets closer to release on February 17th.
Mortal Kombat X
I’ve never been much of a Mortal Kombat fan but I have played every version they’ve come out with. They’re fun games with gruesome content and awesome moves, I just happen to suck at fighting games. The trailer they showed at E3 was really well done. If the game plays anything like the trailer showed, then I’m stoked. I’ll purchase it and play it until I realize I suck and only play it against my six-year-old nephew and any friends I know I can beat. We’ll find out how many times I can get murdered as Sub-Zero April 14th.
Evolve
If you haven’t heard of this game in the last year, you’ve probably been under a rock and should look it up. The basic concept is intriguing to me. Four vs One. As long as they keep adding in more varied monsters and new classes for the humans, this game will quickly become a highly competitive game. The only thing that might keep me from getting it day one is that I don’t relish playing co-op heavy games with random strangers. But, if more of my friends get PS4s(my platform of choice) then I’ll probably pick it up right away. Plus, I suppose I could just work on being a killer monster. My friends better hurry up because this game hits shelves and digital release on February 10th.
Batman: Arkham Knight
The Arkham games are probably the best of the genre in years. The combat, the story, the stealth, the gadgets, and the look and feel of the game made it a quick critic and commercial success. Arkham Knight is the final iteration made by Rocksteady. Two major things have me really interested in this particular game. First is the addition of the Batmobile. This means that not only is the map large enough to need a vehicle but it adds a completely new way to combat the criminals of the Arkhamverse. The second and probably one of the main reasons is the story. With **Spoiler Alert**(and if you don’t know you should probably immediately buy the games and beat them and then finish this portion of this article) Joker dead Harley might step up and become a true villainess as opposed to just a side-kick. Take her revenge story and add in a brand new villain created by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee, not to mention the return of Scarecrow. It’s looking to be a brutal game and an excellent finale to Rocksteady’s trilogy. Look forward to playing it on June 2nd.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
I’m going to confess something right now, I’ve never completed the other Witcher games. I own both, but haven’t been able to beat the first because of the odd combat system, as much as I enjoyed the story the combat ruined it for me. The second one improved on the combat and I got much farther, I just had too much other stuff going on to complete it. I plan to before Wild Hunt comes out.
With the content CD Projekt Red is aiming for it looks like it might finally compete with Skyrim(my favorite game of all time). With a fully open world, minimum load scenes, unique features, an intuitive and fluid combat system, and story events that actually effect the landscape and people, it is looking to quickly reach the Game of the Year slot on my list. I guess we’ll find out May 19th, assuming that it doesn’t get pushed back again(but don’t rush it CD Projekt Red, release it when you’re comfortable, we don’t need another incomplete game fiasco like other companies had in 2014).
