Monday, 1 January 2018

Editorial: Games I’m interested in for 2018

Games I’m interested in for 2018

          Happy New Year!

          It’s finally 2018, and that means a slew of new games on the horizon. I always find it interesting how barren gaming calendars are at the start of the year. Since the nature of game development doesn’t give much room for assumption of when the games will be finished, most of them don’t have final dates or are even announced when the year begins.

          But similar to what I did last year, I’ll be picking out a few specific games and talking about why I’m interested in them for the upcoming year. My one rule is that the games have to be confirmed to be releasing in 2018, so no games without release dates yet. Also, unlike last year I won’t be doing this in a Top 10 format, I’ll just be putting them in alphabetically. So, here we go!

Detroit: Become Human

          This one I’m more cautiously interested about. This is yet another game helmed by David Cage’s team at Quantic Dream, the people responsible for Heavy Rain and Beyond Two Souls among others. Cage loves to boast about how deep and thought-provoking his stories are and how he’s the only one in video games who can tackle current events because everyone else is too scared.

          In reality the general public knows him as the guy who accidentally turned the name Jason into a meme thanks to the opening of Heavy Rain, but it’s nice he has such a high opinion of himself.

          Anyways, Detroit: Become Human has a very cool concept. Being similar to a choose-your-own adventure book, you act as the lead role in several stories starring humanoid robots. Your actions in the story will dictate how it plays out, with several different endings.

          This could definitely be a classic case of the trailers not representing the actual game, but for now this is a really interesting concept I’d like to see succeed.

Fe

          This game looks just plain beautiful. Similar in design to Ori and the Blind Forest, Fe sees you playing as a little lemur looking thing as you explore the world and try to drive forces of evil out of your forest.

          I really hope this isn’t another game that sells itself on looks alone and has nothing to show for it beneath the surface. The art style is simply captivating, and I’ve heard the soundtrack is going to be phenomenal. Here’s hoping!

God of War

          I’ve still never played the original God of War games, but this soft reboot of the franchise looks to be right up my alley. Set in a Norse mythology inspired world, this game looks like it focuses on Kratos from the original games bonding with his kid. And by bonding I mean killing frost giants with your bare hands while your boy cheers you on. Sounds fun to me.

          The combat in this game looks awesome. Kratos’ axe can be used similarly to Thor’s hammer, as he can throw it around, use it to kill enemies, and it’ll fly right back into his hand. Here’s hoping Led Zeppelin plays during a combat sequence at least once.

Kingdom Hearts III

          Kingdom Hearts is such a weird franchise for me. I love exploring all the Disney worlds in the games, but I couldn’t care less about anything else. The main characters, Keyblade stuff, the weird convoluted plot with all the side characters are all fine, but I’m really just in it for all the crazy Disney stuff we’re gonna get to see.

          This time around they’re adding worlds from Pixar movies and potentially other franchises such as Star Wars, making for a much more diverse array of worlds to visit. Considering this has been one of the most anticipated games in recent years (and it’s the first Kingdom Hearts game in a long time to not have a terrible subtitle), I hope longtime fans are finally rewarded for their patience this year.

Red Dead Redemption 2

          This game was supposed to come out last year, and as such it was on the version of this list I did last year. I still haven’t checked out the original Red Dead Redemption, but this sequel looks to be worth my time for the graphics alone.

          Rockstar is known for cramming as much stuff as possible into their games, so the idea of a new game by them on the scale of Witcher 3 or Horizon Zero Dawn is very exciting. A massive wild west with a ton of sidequests, secrets, adventures and landmarks? Yes, please.

Skull and Bones

          We haven’t seen too much of Ubisoft’s upcoming pirate game, but I’m already intrigued if only because of how much I love pirates. Skull and Bones looks like it’s going to be a nautical version of zeppelin battle game Guns of Icarus, as you and your hearty crew take on other ships and sink them to Davy Jones’ Locker.

          Although Ubisoft has had a very good year, they’re still not off the hook as one of the most notorious companies in the industry. I wouldn’t be surprised if this turns out to be yet another mill for loot boxes a la Battlefront II, but I’ll hope for the best.

Spider-Man

          This one is my biggest hope for 2018. I’ve wanted an awesome game starring Spider-Man similar to Batman’s Arkham series for years now, and everything I’ve seen from this game looks like it’s going to fulfill those hopes.

          While the main story featuring an older Peter Parker, lesser-known villain Mr. Negative and even fellow Spider-Man Miles Morales looks pretty cool, I’m more interested in what we can do around the open world of Manhattan. I’m hoping for lots of missions to go on and villains to stop outside of the campaign. Marvel has been struggling in the video game scene for the last little while, and this game could be what they need to get back in the swing of things (pun intended).

Yoshi

          Nintendo’s been surprisingly quiet about what we can expect in year 2 of the Switch. They’re probably waiting until E3 to announce their plans for the second half of the year, but right now we’re not really sure what’s coming next.

          I will say this: their currently untitled Yoshi game looks adorable. I’ve never played a Yoshi game I haven’t liked, and since this game looks like it’s taking inspiration from the awesome Woolly World, I can’t wait to jump back into the cute world of gaming’s best dinosaur.

          Just…no crying Baby Mario. Please.

          Are there any I missed? Leave a comment below and tell me!

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