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Release Date: November 4, 2014 [Pre-Order it on Amazon] When Activision mentioned that they started a new three-year development cycle for its juggernaut Call of Duty franchise, we had one major thought: eventually we're going to get a Call of Duty game made by a brand new development studio, and that could be a blessing in disguise. Advanced Warfare is that game, and Sledgehammer Games is that studio, and so far we think things are coming along nicely. We like the futuristic motif of this new Call of Duty game. We like that we'll get to see some really high-tech stuff, some of which actually exists today. Hell, we like that Kevin Spacey was tapped to be the main antagonist. Anyone whose watched House of Cards knows exactly why that was a brilliant move. We'll see more in the coming weeks, but right now Advanced Warfare could be a big step in a new direction for Call of Duty. Release date: 2014 In all seriousness, Broforce is absolutely the type of game that will get your patriotic juices flowing. You’ll take control of one of a selection of 80s and 90s action heroes, using him to blow enemies away with massive guns and insane explosions. You can even get a few of your bros together to tackle Broforce together if you like. Save all the manly things you have to do until after you play Broforce for a while; no other game makes you feel more like a man than this one. Release Date: 2014 Harmonix is making a new music game! Hooray! It’s a rhythm-based multiplayer first-person shooter! Hoora…wait, what? As hard to believe as it sounds, Harmonix is going to try to meld the worlds of rhythm/music games and first-person shooters together in a game that will have as many toes tapping as it will guns rat-a-tat-tatting. If anyone can do it, it’s Harmonix. Everything we will do in Chroma, from combat to arena traversal, will fall in line with the in-game soundtrack. Think of how the new Killer Instinct’s Ultra Combos create a brief song, but stretch that idea throughout the entire game and you get Chroma. The environment isn’t immune either, as major key or tempo changes in the music will change the layout of the terrain in the middle of a match. The game already looks awesome, but if Chroma will let us import our own music, this could be one of the coolest games ever made. Shooting to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony? Yes please! Release Date: 2014 [Pre-Order it on Amazon] Alpha Centauri is one of our all-time favorites. The interstellar turn-based strategy game kept us logged in for hours at a time, building our colonies and defending them against invaders from other factions. We loved every second of our quest for galactic dominance, but the series unfortunately has gone by the wayside…but that’s all about to change. Civilization: Beyond Earth, a “spiritual successor” to the excellent Alpha Centauri, is coming to PC later this year! We’re going to be able to travel back to the stars and colonize planets outside of Planet Earth! The story may be different and the mechanics will be updated, but we’re hoping that Firaxis can capture the same magic with Beyond Earth as Alpha Centauri had so many years ago. We can’t wait for this game. Release Date: November 14 Your console buddies laughed with glee as they popped GTA V into their pathetic last-gen consoles. They taunted you with its living world and crazy characters, but you stayed silent. You let them have their fun, knowing that it was only a matter of time before another edition of the game, the true version of GTA V, would inevitably be making its way onto the PC. Ladies and gentlemen, that day is nigh. With even more gorgeous graphics and increased online play, the biggest name in video game chaos has every reason to become a hit on PC. Then again, there’s always the fact that such a crazy open-world game is a modder’s wet dream-- if we can’t skydive with Macho Man Randy Savage as our parachute by the end of the year, there’s just no reason to live on this planet anymore. Release Date: November 18 As much as we loved Far Cry 3’s gorgeous open world and silky smooth gunplay, a time comes when we’re ready to move on. Yes, we do in fact know the definition of insanity. Of course our tatau is hella sweet brah. And yes, we DID just sick yet another tiger on that gang of smugglers. When are we going to take our lone wolf, master survivalist skills to the next level? Very, very soon, as it would seem. Set in a civil-war torn patch of the Himalayas, Far Cry 4 looks to build on what made its predecessor great by giving us few more toys and a whole new sandbox to play in. If Pagan Min, the new, creepily fashionable baddie, is even nearly as enthralling as our old buddy Vaas, it’ll be more than enough for us to take an excursion to the East. Release Date: 2014 On the surface, Crawl looks like any other ordinary dungeon-crawler. There are monsters to defeat, loot to collect, and quests to complete. However, Crawl hides one major twist: every monster encountered in Crawl is controlled by another human, and if one of them kills you, that human then takes control of the hero and the game continues. NOW we’re talking! Imagine a group of friends loading up a game of Crawl and battling it out for hours over who gets to control the main hero. There could be friendships strained or even lost, secret alliances that form over shady back-alley deals, and who else what other kinds of subterfuge. This isn’t your daddy’s dungeon-crawler; this is Crawl, where everyone is welcome to grab a controller and be a part of the game. Release Date: November 18, 2014 The Dragon Age franchise has a lot of making up to do with its loyal fans. Dragon Age: Origins was incredible, the kind of game we could waste hundreds of hours into without even trying. Dragon Age II, on the other hand…well, to say it didn’t live up to our standards is an understatement and a half. We wanted to love you, Dragon Age II, but we just couldn’t do it. Because of this, the third installment Inquisition has a truckload of pressure resting on it. Not only does it have to wow us, but it has to win back the lost Dragon Age souls who left when the second game became too much to bear. We haven’t heard much about it since the news in the fall, so we’re ready for more information soon. Will this be Dragon Age’s saving grace? We hope so. Release Date: 2014 World of Warcraft can call itself the king of MMOs, but EverQuest laughs right in its face. Sony Online Entertainment’s online epic has been going strong since 1999, building a legion of fans across the world. Multiple games have been made and millions of hours have been devoted to this massive world, leaving any other MMO in the dust. The next game in the series, going by the straightforward moniker EverQuest Next, does not fall anywhere in the current EverQuest storyline. Instead, this game will be a parallel universe where locations may be familiar, but the specific events of the story may divert from the official lore. Who doesn’t love a re-write, especially when it doesn’t impact the main story? WoW better watch not, because EverQuest isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Release Date: 2014 Fortnite has so many things going on, it’s hard to classify it in one single genre. When the sun is out, the game is a virtual sandbox, encouraging us to explore and scavenge in order to build forts for protection at night, when waves of undead enemies rise from the ground and attack, turning the game into a tower defense situation. See? There’s a lot to take in. Sandbox by day, tower defense by night is the name of Fortnite’s game, which will be the first game to use the brand new Unreal Engine 4. All of this stuff to do AND a brand new engine to do it on? Epic is leaving no stone unturned with Fortnite, which can only mean an excellent experience for all of us when it finally releases. Release Date: November 21 Dead Island may center around zombies, but fear is hardly a part of the equation. Our undead-slaying protagonists have always been immune to the virus transforming the populace, so diving headfirst into rotting flesh and hungry mouths was never really all that dangerous (well, we also had some crazy weapons to help us out as well). This is certainly not the case here. Escape Dead Island is more akin to an adventure or survival game, as our hero is just a regular, non-immune schmuck. Careful movements and stealth are the name of the game you try to discover exactly what led to the outbreak. There’s also a chance that our man’s starting to go a little bit crazy… but we probably would be as well if society was falling apart around us. Release Date: 2014 You're not going to like the positions that Gods Will Be Watching will put you in. You're not going to want to make the choices set in front of you. Some of them will be painful, others will be downright maddening, but a choice must be made and make a choice you must. The survival of your entire team of characters depends on it. Gods Will Be Watching gives those who have been looking for an impactful choice-based game exactly what they asked for. We don't know if the game will be radically different with every choice you make, but we do know that the choices being made will have major impacts on the characters...and you. The Gods Will Be Watching...and so should you. Release Date: 2014 Normally when we read the words "indie" and "platformer," we assume that we're going to read about a new 2D platformer a la Braid or Super Meat Boy. Well, you know what they say about assuming: it makes an ASS out of U and ME. A Hat In Time is an indie platformer, but there's no comparison to be made with Braid; this game is playing a whole different game. A Hat In Time gets its inspiration from the 3D platformers of yesteryear, like Super Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie, while getting its cel-shaded looks from Wind Waker. The game seems to be checking all of the right boxes, which makes us plenty excited for its impending release. We just have one request: 120 of whatever we have to collect. The number just works in this scenario, trust us. Release Date: 2014 Hotline Miami took the gaming world by storm in 2012, introducing a blood-soaked world of neon lights and itchy trigger fingers. Each stage played out the same way: answer a phone, get in a car, kill everyone in a building, rinse and repeat, but the game never once felt stale or boring. We were too busy worrying about a bad guy spotting us to feel bored. Hotline Miami 2 looks to bring that same tension and insanity back later this year. It’s already caused a bit of a stir with the first demo, putting players in a VERY uncomfortable position before lifting the curtain and revealing that the scene wasn’t quite as dire as advertised. If Devolver is willing to toe THAT line, we can only imagine what’s in store for us in the full game. Release Date: 2014 One of the best things an indie studio can do to grab our attention is to create a nostalgic retro look that’ll get our hearts palpitating. The minds behind Hyper Light Drifter seem to understand this idea, as they immediately listed A Link to the Past as an inspiration, and the rest of the community instantly sood up and took notice. Hyper Light Drifter is one of those games, a 2D action RPG that follows a “Drifter” as he scavenges ruins for a cure to a disease he’s contracted. This Drifter has an energy sword at his disposal, but he can upgrade his arsenal via in-game modules. Yup, sounds a little bit like Zelda to us. There’s a lot to like with this Drifter, and hopefully soon we’ll be able to play it to see just how much we’ll like it. Release Date: 2014 It takes a lot of fortitude for a company to sit down and ask the masses "what do you want to see in our game? We'll take anything." It takes even more to actually make a game with every single idea those fans incorporate. That's the idea behind It Draws A Red Box, and what sounds like it should be total chaos absolutely is in the best ways possible. It Draws a Red Box is Smash Brothers and soccer and platforming all rolled into one, with full character customization to boot. It's manic, it's insane, and it's damn fun. Check out Hollander Cooper's full preview from GDC to see what we mean. This could be one of the best indies to hit this year, and it's all because a developer asked the fans what they wanted. Ask and ye shall receive. Release Date: December 9 Can you imagine what it must be like to have an Egyptian god as your best bud (no, your cat doesn’t count)? Wisdom of life and the universe, knowledge of the life beyond life--and Lara Croft just uses them to solve a few simple platforming puzzles. To think that she calls herself a genius. Gaming’s leading lady returns with a few immortal buddies for some co-op action, and you better believe we’re excited. Sure, all eyes may be on the other Tomb Raider coming out sometime next year, but sometimes big things come in small, couch-friendly packages. Release Date: Fall 2014 When a developer describes his game as “philosophical” and “deep,” it’s pretty easy to dismiss their ambition as highbrow tomfoolery. Yes, we know you’re ready to change the way we think about the world. Yes, we DO think you’re just so, so clever. Please, tell us one more time about how your work is a metaphor for our own eventual demise--we promise that we’re listening. Except that this time, maybe we are. What we’ve seen from the Talos Principle reminds us of Portal, and that’s not just because of the tripods with lasers that are everywhere. The puzzles here are the real deal, so long as we’re challenging our brains we may as well strap in for this thought-provking event everyone’s going on and on about. Release Date: 2014 Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime is a game sporting our favorite kind of video game fun: manic, out-of-control, holy-crap-what-should-I-do-next action. There’s waves of enemies attacking our little space fort, and we have to defend it with the right weapons and tools at the right time. We can already predict we’re going to have trouble keeping up, but we’re going to try it anyhow. We’ve been trying to pinpoint a particular genre for Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, but we just can’t think of anything. We’re shooting enemies with guns, so there are shooter elements; we have to choose which weapons to use at specific times, so strategy is involved; we have a tiny maze of ladders and passages to traverse to each weapon, so there’s platforming; and we’re defending a spherical space base from enemies, so that brings in tower defense. Loves in a Dangerous Spacetime is a strategic tower defense action platformer shooter. Yeah, that sounds right. Release Date: 2014 Double Fine made Kickstarter the monster crowd-funding platform it is today with their Broken Age campaign, and we loved the first episode of that adventure. While we wait for more of that, our attention turns to Double Fine's OTHER really successful Kickstarter, Massive Chalice. We're down with any game that has "tactical strategy" in its description, but Double Fine at the helm helps too. Those who've played one of Double Fine's other great games, Iron Brigade, will recognize the name of the man in charge of the project, Brad Muir. He also led the Iron Brigade development team, and he's bringing his expertise to Massive Chalice. We haven't seen much on Massive Chalice outside of concept art and a few gameplay bits, but the more we see, the more we want to drink from this chalice. Release Date: 2014 Video games have dealt with all kinds of cultures in the past. We’ve seen Ancient Rome, Renaissance Italy, Feudal Japan, colonial America, and many many more throughout the years. Indie dev Upper One Games looks to add another subculture to the list of gaming focuses, a culture that we’re not sure the industry has ever represented before: the natives of Alaska are finally getting their place in the gaming sun. Upper One didn’t want to go into this without doing their research, so they brought in Alaskan Native tribe elders and storytellers to help them craft this puzzle-platformer, in which we must control a little girl who quests to save her people from a blizzard without an end. After reading up on this game, we are totally fascinated, and we can’t wait for some Alaskan Native tangential learning. Who said gaming couldn’t teach us about the world? Release Date: 2014 We’ve only seen a 30-second teaser trailer for Neverending Nightmares, and that’s all we needed. We love the unique black-and-white-and-red-all-over art style a la MadWorld, we love the candlelight mechanic that only shows us the area just around the candle, and we’re really intrigued with how far this game is willing to go to spook us; the trailer had some pretty crazy things in it. We love when a new horror game shows up and gets our imaginations running, and that’s exactly what happened after seeing Neverending Nightmares. We’re obviously not alone either, considering the successfully funded Kickstarter and continued support via the donation section of their website. We hope the wait for this game isn’t never-ending, because we really wanted to play it. Release Date: 2014 Luftrausers. Ridiculous Fishing. Vlambeer is no stranger to creating games that hook us in and don’t let us go. Their newest venture, Nuclear Throne, looks to be the same type of madness, only this time we’ll be shooting hordes of enemies Smash TV-style with twin stick controls and a cast of post-apocalyptic mutants who want a taste of the good life. Somehow, Vlambeer continues to figure out exactly what we want, even if we didn’t know we wanted it. While Nuclear Throne does throw in a difficulty spike with the one-life-only mechanic, the amount of character progression they’re also including makes us think our characters can become powerful enough to stay alive. Of course the more we progress our character, the more we’ll fear losing him or her to death, so we suppose it’s a double edged sword…either way, we’re going to play the heck out of Nuclear Throne, and if Vlambeer’s other games are any indication, we’re going to love it. Release Date: 2014 Here’s a description of Forma.8 straight from the developers: “Forma.8 starts with no powers, no weapons, and no hints of what to do and where to go; it’s up to the player to explore the planet, deal with its often hostile inhabitants, and slowly uncover the story.” Stop us if we’re wrong, but we swear Nintendo has a long-standing sci-fi series that used to work the same way. If Forma.8 can be as fun and influential as Metroid was, then we’re going to love every second of it. The main difference here is the ability to fly through the air at will; Samus couldn’t do that. The art style is vibrant and peculiar at the same time, creating a world that has as much mystery in its aesthetics as it does in its layout. We can’t imagine the kind of opposition we’re going to face on this desolate planet, but we think we’re going to enjoy the heck out of it anyway. Forma.8 looks like a winner. Release Date: 2014 So we've all played real-time strategy games before, and we all get the basic idea: build strongholds by collecting resources, amass a large army for conquering other bases, and try to be the last one standing. Most RTS games put their challenge in building a large force for protection and dominance, but what if the focus changed from militaristic goals to financial ones? That's what Offworld Trading Company is going to try and show us. Here we're not going to be worried about building armies and amassing might. This will be about money; how we trade it, what we pay for, and what we get in return will be the keys to success. Maintaining our wallets over our might is an interesting approach for the genre, and we'll definitely be keeping an eye on this game because of it. Release Date: 2014 Remember Bloody Roar, the 3D fighting game where fighters could morph into different types of animals mid-match for boosted abilities? Take that concept, but replace “animals” with “gods and goddesses from every known religion on Earth,” and you get Rise of the Incarnates. That sounds pretty crazy, but it’s an idea we can get behind. After all, Smite does the same thing in the MOBA world; why not have a deity fighting game too? This PC-exclusive fighter will sports 2-on-2 battles in giant, Dragon Ball Z Tenkaichi-esque battlefields. Players will be able to run, jump, and fly all around the arena during a match, using that mobility to their advantage. This is not something we ever thought we’d see, but hell if we’re not keeping an eye on it. Release Date: 2014 How many games have you heard of that are based on famous poetry? Not many we think, but Road Not Taken is looking to set a new trend. Based on the poem by Robert Frost, Road Not Taken wants to explore the effect of surprises on someone’s life, whether they are good or bad in nature. Considering the game is a procedurally generated roguelike, we think it should succeed in its quest. Road Not Taken takes place entirely in a forest after a major blizzard. As we traverse the woodland we’ll run into animals, other people lost in the woods, barriers with no way through, and a slew of other obstacles that developer Spry Fox isn’t getting into just yet. We’re very much intrigued by this entire concept, and we hope that it takes the fast road to fruition, because we want to play it soon. Release Date: 2014 The isometric RPG sub-genre started by the Diablo series has inspired many other RPG games, most recently games like Path of Exile. Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms is another example, though this game makes things a little more complex with a few of its mechanics. Remember switching between the Light and Dark Worlds in Link to the Past? You’ll be doing it in Shadows as well. We play as a character called The Devourer in the game, an entity who can travel between the human and shadow worlds at will, devouring souls for sustenance along the way. We’ll be able to use this technique to avoid combat, solve puzzles, and traverse obstacles in one world that aren’t in the other world. Shadows is giving us TWO worlds to explore simultaneously, which hopefully means double the fun when we finally play through. Release Date: 2014 “Ambitious” is a word not lightly used around these parts, but we can’t think of a better word to describe Star Citizen. The game is looking to be massive, featuring giant galactic space battles and an even bigger trading and citizenship system. Cloud Imperium Games is essentially building its own digital Roman empire and placing it in the 30th century. That’s insane! The game has a central governing body called the United Empire of Earth, or UEE, and players will actually have to earn their way to membership through a variety of means, like military service. We assume there’s going to be some kind of benefit for induction into the empire, but what exactly that will be we’re not sure yet. All we do know is Star Citizen is easily one of the most ambitious (there’s that word again) games in development right now, and we’re looking forward to seeing how it ends up. Release Date: 2014 We’ve all played stealth-action games before, sticking to the shadows to avoid being seen by the enemy. Games like Metal Gear Solid and Splinter Cell have set the standard for what a stealth video game can be. However, Styx: Master of Shadows is going to tamper with the formula, introducing some new mechanics in the hopes that it will change the way we think of stealth. Set in the Of Orcs and Men universe, Styx follows the story of the first-ever Goblin, Styx, as he ascends Tower of Akenash, patrolled by humans and elves, in search of fortune. Along with the standard stealth abilities, Styx has the ability to create clones of himself on the fly, allowing us players to scout or create a diversion without any danger to our lead character. With this power in our hands, we may finally be able to get through a stealth game without getting caught once…maybe. Release Date: 2014 Do you like over-the-top insanity? Do you enjoy games where there can be so much going on at once the entire scene sounds like one giant explosion? Are you a fan of awesome retro-style graphics? Are you mad when consoles get a cool game before PC, but like when those games come with extra content when they do launch on PC? If you'd say yes to all of these things, then Super T.I.M.E. Force Ultra is absolutely, 100% made for your tastes. Simply put: the game is bonkers. The game plays like a classic Contra game, but with a twist: the ability to rewind or fast-forward time in order to regain fallen comrades, whose "ghosts" follow your player after you kill them and allow you to save them by killing the enemy that killed them. It's really hard to explain in this limited capacity, so go fire up a trailer and see what we're so excited to blow stuff up. Release Date: 2014 We expect Telltale Games to make quality games based on franchises in other forms of media. The Wolf Among Us borrows from Bill Cunningham’s Fables series, The Walking Dead takes its cues from Robert Kirkman’s mega-franchise, and the upcoming Game of Thrones title will have George R.R. Martin’s right hand man consulting the project. However, a series based primarily in video games is brand new ground for the studio, but Tales from the Borderlands will look to expand Telltale’s repertoire later this year. Tales of the Borderlands takes place in the aftermath of the Borderlands 2 story line, following two original characters created for the game: Rhys and Fiona. It sounds like the two will be telling their own side of the same story, so we assume that details will conflict between the two stories, and perhaps both will clash with what actually happened. It’s an interesting feat, but one we think Telltale can handle with no problem at all. Release Date: 2014 If you’re unfamiliar with This War of Mine, you’ve probably read the title and thought “oh goody, yet another war game.” You’re preparing yourself for screenshots filled with brown and grey, explosions galore, and bullets whizzing past you. However, This War of Mine is not the war game you’re used to; in fact, this game will give you a whole perspective on war as a whole. This War of Mine puts you in control not of a soldier, but of an innocent civilian caught in the middle of the bloodshed. You’ll duck for cover, scavenge for food, and just try to survive in this wartime hellhole. Oh, and you have a family to protect as well; don’t think you’ll just be going it alone. We love it when games give us a fresh perspective on familiar territory, and This War of Mine looks to be giving the freshest perspective of war we’ve ever seen. Release Date: 2015 Where is there to explore if we’re confined to the limits of a world map? How can we boldly go where no man has gone before, if some developer has already pored over every inch of every blade of grass to try and make the “perfect” game? We want to reach new heights, to believe that anything is possible--not be told there are exactly 50 objects to collect and 10 bosses to conquer. No Man’s Sky might be the game where we really feel freedom. Endlessly generated, open world space exploration, and the ability to show off our newest discoveries to friends? Yes please. The sky’s the limit, and no restrictive, predetermined experience is going to take that from us. Release Date: 2015 The original Dead Island was one of our favorite flawed games of the past few years. For every minute we enjoyed the awesome melee combat and addictive RPG elements, we cursed the skies for some kind of tedious grinding mechanic or gamebreaking glitch. We tried our best to love it, but some issues were just too glaring to ignore when you’re knee deep in a residue of Q and A hell. While Riptide definitely smoothed out some of the rough edges, a full-blown sequel aught to be the Dead Island that should have been. Bug free, creative weapons, varied class abilities, and more zombies than you can shake an electric sledgehammer at. Just one issue--did anyone tell Yager that LA isn’t exactly an island? Release Date: 2015 With each passing day, it seems more and more like Kickstarter’s sole purpose is to fund indie roguelikes. Sure, there’s a couple of Tim Schafer projects in there, and we’ve heard rumors that the site also supports products that aren’t video games, but there’s only so many roguelikes we can throw our cash behind before we’re ready for something else. …or so we thought before Darkest Dungeon caught our eye. Aside from its striking hand-drawn gothic style, the emphasis on character behaviors and afflictions that go beyond a simple stat debuff reminds us not of another sterile dungeon crawler, but of a party of personalities. It might not be a substitute for a real D&D group, but it’s a start. Release Date: 2014 When you put this game's title "Volume" next to its creator Mike Bithell, one may assume that the game is about the volume of an object or something along those lines. After all, this is the guy who named colored squares, set them in an obstacle course, and make us legitimately feel for them. However, there's another meaning to the word that Bithell has developed his game around. Volume is all about sound, and how the main character Locksley uses it to his advantage as the most successful cat burglar in his time. Playing as Locksley, we'll have to stealth our way through the game, using sounds to distract and confuse those hunting us if we are to succeed. It sounds like another winner for Mr. Bithell; we'll see when it launches later this year. Release Date: 2014 Jonathan Blow is one of those “once in a generation” type of developers; a man whose unique talents and vision lead him to develop only one game in every generation. Last time, Braid bent our minds while bending time and conventional story structure, and next he brings us The Witness, which will bend our minds…somehow. We’re not sure yet. We haven’t heard a single thing about the Witness since Blow took the stage at the initial PS4 reveal last year. What’s the deal here? Is it close? Will we be trying to figure out Blow’s latest enigma soon, or will we have to wait? The lack of answers is certainly frustrating, but we’re sure it’ll be a great game no matter when it hits. We only hope he doesn’t decide to say “Oh, the game is coming out tomorrow, enjoy!” We need time to prepare. Release Date: 2014 The fifth expansion of World of Warcraft, Warlords of Draenor, brings with it some pretty big changes. A level cap raise to 100 was totally expected, but the ability to advance a character to level 90 right from the get-go is a feature we didn't expect to see. Allowing players to bypass all of those man-hours won't sit well with seasoned players, but it does open the door for a whole new generation of players. WoW is approaching the ten-year mark, after all, so they have to do whatever they can to appeal to players new and old. More interesting is the story arc, taking players back to the land of Draenor for the first time since the original Warcraft and creating a parallel timeline type of story. Longtime Warcraft fans should love going back to the game's roots, while newer players will get a glimpse of how things used to be for the series...without the old strategy format, of course. Simply put, it's a new WoW expansion, and it's worth your time if you're a WoW fan. Release Date: 2014 Wargaming knows how to stage a battle. First World of Tanks took the world by storm with its addictive free-to-play tank combat, and then World of Warplanes took the same concept to the skies and entered us into intense dogfights high above the ground. Now Wargaming is going for the triple play with World of Warships, adding the sea to the land and air battles already in the catalog. Just like the previous games, World of Warships will give players their choice of warships from a catalog that spans decades of human history. We’ll be able to customize our ships, outfit them with some massive firepower, and then send them into a battle for supremacy against other players’ vessels. With World of Tanks still making a killing and World of Warplanes coming into its own, we have no reason to believe that World of Warplanes won’t become the third big Wargaming success story. Release Date: 2015 ”Is it really over?” Metal Gear fans asked one another after the release of Guns of the Patriots. Sure, everything seemed pretty conclusive: conspiracies were lifted, questions were answered, and our favorite clone was ready to ride off into the sunset. Time for Kojima to move on with his creative life…right? What fools we were. There’s plenty of unexplored events before Solid Snake even hit the scene, so it’s no surprise that MGS V The Phantom Pain returns to Big Boss’ past for another adventure. This will be the first Metal Gear to have an open world, and the new engine has the world looking better than ever. As if we needed another reason to dive back in. Release Date: 2015 [Pre-Order it on Amazon] Evolve has walked a long and tumultuous road, dealing with the fall of THQ and the transfer to 2K Studios, but now the game’s path is clear: this multiplayer shooter from the minds behind Left 4 Dead could change the way we approach multiplayer, with a new 4-on-1 format that pits four soldiers against one very angry monster. Each of the four soldiers falls into a certain class, like Assault and Medic, but the real treat is experiencing the monster first-hand. The monster must feed on local wildlife to power through its three distinct stages, all while trying to eliminate the opposing team or destroy a certain landmark on the map. There are so many factors to consider in one match it’s almost overwhelming, but it’s nothing we can’t handle. Evolve is shaping up to be a monster of a game. Release Date: February 24, 2015 [Pre-Order it on Amazon] The saga of Geralt of Rivia ends with a Wild Hunt in the Witcher 3, due out before the end of the year. This final chapter looks to be the biggest one for Geralt, as CD Projekt Red is boasting a huge, multi-region open world, a non-linear story with plenty of choices to make, and a new take on combat that we’re sure will become familiar fast, as Geralt can’t go anywhere without having to draw his sword. We’ve always admired The Witcher’s mature take on storytelling, and we’re looking forward to being told another magnificent story in Wild Hunt. We’re not sure how this tale will end, but we know two things to be sure: we’ll enjoy every bit of it and we won’t want it to ever end. Release Date: February 2015 [Pre-Order it on Amazon] Techland has always had a way with zombies. The two Dead Island games, even with their glitches and bugs, put the undead right up in our faces, grasping and clawing and snarling like the disgusting monsters they are. We hadn’t seen anything like that before, and after Riptide, we didn’t think we’d see it again. Now, Techland has partnered with Warner Bros for a new type of zombie survival game, Dying Light. This time around, nightfall is NOT your friend, as these zombies turn from shambling monsters into undead killing machines. Of course, the supplies you need are far enough away that night will come while you’re out getting them, but that’s the beauty of Dying Light. Do we risk our lives for that supply drop, or do we live to fight another day? Release Date: March 31, 2015 Have you ever watched a heist movie and thought “this would be waaaaay better if the robbers were packing machine guns and military-grade explosives?” No? Well, it seems that someone at DICE sure did, and made their hyperbolic vision a virtual reality. Much like the Battlefield expansions of old, Hardline builds on the fourth installment’s framework with a new setting and scenario. Outlaws armed well-enough to make you question the first amendment mowed down in droves by equally outfitted police squads for a couple million bucks--just another day, right? Release Date: To be Announced What’s the only thing more fun than playing a dungeon crawler cooperatively with friends? Fighting against them, taunting them, betraying them, murdering them, and all of the other activities that would be considered griefing in a normal game. Call us sick, but there’s nothing quite like the knowledge that you’ve transformed a previously well-adjusted party into a pack of raging, distrustful animals. Shadowrealms lets us partake in this age old pastime, but makes it all a part of the gameplay so we don’t feel guilty afterward. While four RPG adventurers enter the dungeon as per usual, one player, the appropriately named Shadowlord, gets to trigger traps, unleash minions, infiltrate the party, and generally spread mayhem amongst the unsuspecting party. Let’s just hope that our former buddies aren’t the resentful type. Release Date: 2015 [Pre-Order it on Amazon] Rocksteady is taking back the helm of the Batman Arkham franchise, looking to wrap things up with Batman: Arkham Knight, and we couldn’t be happier. We’ve only heard a few things about the next Batman game, but already we’re hungry for more. E3 can’t come soon enough. First, the “Arkham Knight” in the title represents a brand new, completely original villain making his debut, which leads us to wonder just who that person may be. Second, the Batmobile makes its triumphant debut to the series, able to track Batman wherever he is and position itself so he can jump in and go. Finally, the Scarecrow gets his turn as the main villain, hopefully bringing back some of those excellent hallucination scenes from Arkham Asylum. We can’t wait for more Batman, and we hope we don’t have to wait very long. Release Date: January 27, 2015 We can think of few gaming experiences more over the top than Saints Row. The last entry featured alien invaders, super powers, digital simulations, explosions (of course), and our very own Boss being elected president. We’re not sure anything can surpass that much craziness, but it seems like a quick trip down to Hell could very well match it. With the Boss kidnapped by Satan himself, it’s up to Johnny Gat and Kinzie Kensington to, ahem, raise some Hell and get him back. What we’ve seen involved a new city, angel wings for rapid transportation, and a slew of insane weaponry inspired by the Seven Deadly Sins--more than enough for us to take a bite of this discount expansion. Release Date: 2015 [Pre-Order it on Amazon] Some of you may say that the post-apocalyptic setting has been way overused, with games like Fallout setting the bar too high for any other game to achieve. Well, while we see your point, Mad Max was roaming the wastelands far before you had to decide whether to blow up Megaton or not. We thought Mad Max would make a terrific video game; now we’ll get to see it in action. This post-apocalypse party will feature third-person action and vehicular combat, as Max can collect parts to upgrade his car and use it against bandits in the wastes. Part third-person action, part Twisted Metal? We don’t see a damn thing wrong with that, so get ready to fight in more ways than one in Mad Max…whenever it comes out. Release Date: June 25, 2014 What would it be like to play an RPG where every character only has one hit point, and the focus of battle is who can strike first? Well, it'd be a lot like Titan Souls, which will be hitting the PC in early 2015 thanks to the folks at Devolver Digital. They're putting us in that exact situation and saying "have fun! Enjoy dying a lot!" We will, we certainly will. What makes the game even more complicated is only having one arrow with which to kill the 1 HP monsters of the world. If our aim is untrue and we should miss, we have to summon the arrow back to you, otherwise we are defenseless to the boss's attacks. We love the concept of Titan Souls, and we're excited to see it put into action. Release Date: 2015 Ubisoft ended their E3 2013 press conference with a crazy-looking multiplayer shooter, one that boasts exploration and player progression on an MMO level. That game is The Division, and it got us talking from the minute Aisha Tyler and her “girl wood” left the stage and the show had ended. We wanted to see what The Division was all about, and soon. A major pandemic sweeps through the country, and as basic services fall, a team of elite troops called, you guessed it, The Division is activated. These soldiers live normal lives but have full authority to maintain the peace of basic society by any means necessary. This means epic firefights in the streets of a desolate New York City where every bullet fired comes from a human being, and we want to hit that battlefield ASAP. |
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Made in 2014 By Jugal |