Evolve
How this one slipped me by yesterday, I don't know, especially since I had been following all the news. The newest title from the team behind Left 4 Dead, Evolve looks pretty interesting. It's a 4 v 1 multiplayer game with a team of hunters versus some giant, hulking monster, with the added bonus that the planet's flora and fauna also seem to be trying to kill you. This looks genuinely exciting, but I feel it will have the caveat that most of these games have - the ceiling for fun will be strictly reserved for when you can fire this up with 4 friends, and I don't think that that will be quite often enough. It might also get repetitive, but Left 4 Dead generally managed to overcome that.
Rise of the Tomb Raider (2015)
Scant few details on this yet, but I'm pretty stoked. I found Tomb Raider (2013) to be unexpectedly brilliant, and it held up magnificently when I replayed it a few weeks ago. Plenty of room for screw ups, I guess, but I have high hopes, bolstered by the fact that, as I infer from Twitter, at any rate, Rhianna Pratchett will be returning to write it.
Alien: Isolation
I haven't been following this one too closely, but we're about due for another decent Alien game. Seriously, it's such a great IP, it's difficult to imagine how any competent studio couldn't produce at least a passable game from it if given half a chance (*cough* cheap shot *cough*). It looks innovative enough it it's approach it will at least be interesting to watch as it develops.
Batman Arkham Knight
No colons here. This is an easy win for me. I've loved every instalment in the series so far, including Arkham Origins, produced by a different studio. At worst, if they just clone the gameplay from any of the previous ones, I'll still be happy, so don't necessarily trust my opinion here. The gameplay teaser trailer was interesting, though the (admittedly extremely narrow) snapshot of the writing and voice acting sounded a little off to me. Still, can't go too far wrong. Let's just hope it doesn't live up to my recent pedigree regarding delayed games.
Mass Effect 4
Again, the details are basically non-existent, but I have almost total faith in Bioware, assuming EA don't get their grubby paws too far into the honey-filled genie bottle.
Grand Theft Auto V
...on PC. Most of the news outlets have been focussing on the 'on PS4' angle, but I'm a PC purist when it comes to GTA. One of my greatest regrets about Rockstar is that they may never publish the unparalleled Red Dead Redemption on PC.
Grim Fandango Remastered
I never got to play the original, but any case where old LucasArts games are being remade is an automatic win, as far as I'm concerned.
Tomb Raider:
ReplyDeleteAgreed, looks great. More of the first game please.
Alien Isolation:
I got a definite Dead Space vibe from that video, and it looks like it may have Amnesia-esque gameplay (notice that there appears to be only one Alien, so it might be stalking you รก la RE3: Nemesis. There hasn't been a good Aliens game since AVP2 though, so I don't have too high hopes.
Batman:
Awwww yisss...
ME4:
Cautiously optimistic, but it would be interesting to know which ME3 ending Bioware are treating as canon. Not an automatic buy for me, as I wasn't overly fond of the 'brotastic' direction ME3 was heading, and I'm still bitter with disappointment over DA2.
GTAV:
Already played it on PS3, so won't be rebuying, looks really pretty on PC though.
Grim Fandango: Remastered.
First I've heard about this! Played the first one a few years back, but never finished it though. Will give it a shot.
I had forgotten about the whole Dragon Age thing. I never played very much of the first one, but it left me just craving to play Baldur's Gate (but then again, many things do). Bioware are far from infallible, but they've produced generally fantastic work over the years, so I have faith.
ReplyDeleteI loved ME3, though it was a departure from 1 and 2 in some ways, but I always found the different style of each game a strength of the franchise - different mechanics and style to suit the tone/mood of the game.
I do wonder how they'll sidestep the ending, though. The most obvious 'fix' in my mind would be to prequel it, something set in the earlier in the universe. That means there's always the possibility of cameo characters without regard for peoples own games. They might have support to track different choices, but I think that's making a lot of unnecessary work for themselves.
Also, a prequel would pretty much limit the scope of any story they come up with, seeming as it won't mentioned in the original trilogy. They could do the First Contact War or something.
DeleteI think it depends on what tone they want to set. If it's not going to be quite so 'epic' in that sense, I think it would work. Otherwise, will require some stretching.
DeleteAlso, I totally missed one of the most exciting things - EVOLVE. Cautiously excited, at least.