The next-gen games are coming thick and fast after the PS4 and Xbox One had a full year last year to get their engines lubricated. 2015 promises to deliver a host of highly anticipated games, with a lot of new games and sequels to keep us busy.
Find out what our Top 5 most anticipated games are for 2015. What title are you most excited about?
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
May 19 – PC / PS4 / Xbox One
The Witcher series follows a great formula. The Witcher 2 was twice as good as 1, will the third installment be twice as good as 2? The second installment depicted one of the most beautiful and brutal places you can explore within the whole of games. With an intriguing political story and a vicious combat system that made shedding blood feel physically and emotionally exhausting, it delivered an exceptional gaming experience.
Enter The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The world is exponentially larger and new characters would seem to bear the fruits of their development in the previous installment. The player will face a visually stunning open world filled with difficult and far reaching decisions, creatures and mysteries to solve. New-gen graphics should make the game look beautiful on consoles, and no doubt strain your gaming rig on PC. Probably my most anticipated game of the year.
Evolve
February 2 – PC / PS4 / Xbox One
Team based first person shooters has come a long way in the past couple of years. They have evoked a sense of camaraderie, coordination and instagated many an argument around “how-to-take-the -f#$&cker” down! Evolve will test all of these skills to the max. The game‘s asymmetrical, monster-versus-squad action is electrifying, and makes playing every class an absolute blast.
This isn‘t the first time this concept has been deployed in a video game, but it certainly looks like one of the best attempts at this type of asymmetric competitive play. Evolve is set on Shear, a distant planet located in the “Far Arm” of space, that humanity has traveled to in the distant future. The colonies are attacked by an alien race of monsters and you, a retired “planet tamer” is tasked to keep the monsters at bay whilst evacuating the remaining colonists. You assemble a team of Hunters“”consisting of war veterans, psychopaths, professionals and expendables to aid you in your grueling hunts.
Star Wars Battlefront
Unknown 2015- PS4 / Xbox One / PC
With the fast approaching release of Star Wars Episode 7 (The Force Awakens) anything SW related will be a hot topic. DICE’s reboot of Star Wars: Battlefront, the multiplayer shooter series, already looks amazing! The gaming community has already been treated to brief glimpses of the ice planet Hoth and forests of Endor at E3 2014. Little is known regarding the exact game-play – will they include a single player campaign? What types of game modes will be available?
Needless to say the game will be packed full of AT-ST walkers and speedbikes and I am sure the game-play dynamics will be a blast. Built in the Frostbite 3 engine, the game is essentially Battlefield set in the Star Wars universe. Which in my book is NEVER a bad thing.
Halo 5: Guardians
September – Xbox One
The Halo series will be forever remembered as the games that put the Xbox and first person console shooters on the map. There is so much expectation heaped on 343 Industries to pull off the first new Halo title developed for Xbox One. Guardians will introduce an all new character in Agent Locke, an aggressive-sounding Spartan tasked with hunting down Master Chief. Locke will be a playable, “primary” character in Halo 5, and it will be very interesting to see how Locke’s story intertwines with the Chief’s plot.
Even though the new title is only expected to hit the shelves around September (US fall), its multiplayer beta which will let you try out the many new and exciting player abilities has already been released. Judging by that fact alone the new Halo: Gaurdians game will be a sure fire hit as it encompasses everything that made the original (and subsequent sequels) so great.
No Man’s Sky
Unknown 2015 – PS4 / PC
Open world games have been all the rage over the past couple of years. No Man’s Sky promises to have limitless potential and from the information and previews we have seen thus far the sheer audacity of it all may change the gaming landscape of the future. The game offers a huge, living galaxy which countless planets, random rule generated lifeforms, and an invitation to simply explore and discover.
What makes the game even more impossible is the fact that a tiny studio in the UK is crafting this universe that harks back to a 1970s sci-fi paperback novel. We have yet to find out if No Man’s Sky will actually be a fun game to play and not just an endless boring journey. The game is massively multiplayer in a sense, and any world you discover will proudly display your tag. The game will either be a revolutionary classic or a forgotten relic of endless potential.
What games are you waiting for in 2015?
Follow Jaco on Twitter: @Jaco_vdWalt
