It’s a new year which means new games! Everyone’s excited about Red Dead Redemption 2 and Far Cry 5 but what about all the other games coming out this year? There’s a ton of gaming to be excited about but here are a few things that have us counting the days.
THQ Nordic made big waves last year when they announced their upcoming title Biomutant. How can you not want an action RPG where you’re a genetically modified creature with an upgradable body, skills, and tons of gear? The game takes place in a rich and vibrant open world and you’re given the choice of which path you’d like to walk, directly influencing the story. Want to be a do-gooding furry hero gal or guy? Sure! Maybe you’re more of the chaotic evil type. You can do that too! The combat is also super fun and dynamic, allowing for different styles and tweaks as you progress through the game.
Coming from ex-Media Molecule devs, Knights and Bikes is a hand painted adventure that looks like the cool teenage cousin to Tearaway. The story centers on two girls tearing it up on a fictional British isle in the 1980s. You’ll fight using frisbees and water balloons, you’ll save islanders in need as you unravel mysteries, and you’ll ride bikes. The whole game is also designed to be played either single player or co-op, allowing for some epic couch shenanigans. A niche still sorely missing on the current generation of consoles.
Vampires are cool. Or at least they used to be. But 2018 is doing its best to bring that trend back. DONTNOD is bringing Vampyr, a creepy action RPG that looks much less like their work on Life is Strange and more The Witcher with fangs. Code Vein is coming to scratch both your stylish anime RPG and Dark Souls itches at the same time, and Bloodstained is hoping to be the successful return to classic Castlevania from series producer Koji Igarashi.
Switch ports are officially the new best thing ever! Especially because it allows us to play games that were previously trapped on PC on a console. Even better, play them on handheld. Two games in particular that seem perfect for the handheld experience are Hollow Knight, a bug-filled Metroidvania that is gorgeously hand animated, and Dead Cells, another much-lauded Metroidvania that also throws in cool buzz words like roguelike and souls lite. There are also ports coming of the two Bayonetta games and several indie hits like Night in the Woods. New games are cool and all, but we can finally stop hating on ports and embrace the joy they’re about to bring us.
Ok, so you’ve heard of Dreams. A lot of people have. It’s coming from a Sony first party studio and it made a stupidly gorgeous appearance at The Game Awards last year. It’s also going to hopefully change video games as we know them.
Dreams is a full game creation studio, even down to having an onboard music editing suite. With Dreams, game design becomes democratized. We’ll be able to make games without knowing complicated bits of code or anything about design. We’ll be able to build our own weird rhythm games, platformers and fever dreams, but we’ll also be able to play through tons of other creations made my people all over the world. Don’t get us wrong, we’re excited for the story mode too because Media Molecule can do no wrong, but it’s the limitless possibilities and how people will use them that we can’t wait to see.
