We come on the end of a year, and Nate and I will be looking back next week in our usual wide-ranging take on the best games of the year. But that doesn’t mean we can’t look to the future, and here are five games you should be eagerly anticipating.
Grim Fandango, January 27th, PC, PS4, Vita
One of the fundamental problems of being a gamer is that preserving gaming history and revisiting classics can be an unmitigated nightmare. Grim Fandango is a superb example: For years the game was completely unavailable and only playable by finding a CD-ROM copy and hacking your computer to play it.
Considering that it’s one of the most critically acclaimed games ever made, that was sort of like only being able to watch Citizen Kane on Betamax. So the remaster couldn’t come at a better time.
Resident Evil: Revelations 2, Begins In February, All Platforms
Admittedly, the “episodic” experiment is a huge pain. Just give us the damn game, Capcom! But it’ll be worth it to see survival horror done right, something not even the big publishers pulled off this year. Seriously, when Sega saves your genre, you know you have a problem.
Superhot, June, PC and Xbox One
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vi_JBJ5yoE
It’s a first-person shooter with a twist: Time only moves when the player moves, and you have limited ammo, so you’d better make every shot, step, and slash count.
The Human Element, November, Windows, PS4 and Xbox One
Yep, it’s another zombie game. But the interesting part is that mobile players, console players, and other platforms can form alliances and work together to get resources, bump off foes, and generally take over after the zombie apocalypse. It seems to be emphasizing teamwork and playing together as opposed to just cracking skulls, and even if the experiment fails, at least somebody’s trying something new.
Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture, PS4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKyoVQKnD4U
If an indie developer makes an arty PC game, Sony will inevitably swoop in and put their next game on the PlayStation, and so it is with the team behind the experimental Dear Esther. Nonetheless, this looks fascinating, a mix of point-and-click adventure game and dynamic environments that lets you change events without shooting at them. It’s something unique, and that’s rare in console gaming.
So those are five. What else should we be looking forward to?