Top 5 Most Anticipated of 2016
Welcome to my Five5 series, in which to celebrate the launch of 2015 in Gaming I will be posting 5 articles over 5 days, each with my top 5 games of a particular topic. I'm also giving away a Star Wars PS4 bundle to one random person who buys the AU$3 book - which you can grab by clicking the button below. Enjoy!
This top 5 is a collection of games I’m super keen for that are coming out next year, of which I’m probably going to buy day 1 (assuming reviews don’t say their absolutely terrible or horribly broken.)
No Man’s Sky
I’ll be honest - I didn’t give two shits about this game prior to E3 this year. Space has never really been my thing (apart from Mass Effect, and Stargate, and Star Trek… OK, maybe it kinda has been at times) but for some reason none of the massive space games ever grabbed me. After seeing the gameplay demo during Sony’s E3 conference, No Man’s Sky completely clicked with me - this is a world (universe?) I want to check out and get lost in.
I mean, come on - who isn’t impressed by the sheer size of this game. The very fact that this game is so big that there are parts in it that no one will ever see, including the devs... the fact that the game is made with insanely complicated algorithms that may create any amount of crazy variables that the people creating the game might never have even dreamed of… The idea that I might experience something in this game that is totally unscripted, that no other person in the world will ever see… And, most importantly, that combat isn’t the focus of the game. That, my friends, sounds like a canvas ready to be painted on.
Horizon: Zero Dawn
Sony’s conference at E3 this year was full of amazing things to get gamers excited, but the one showing that got me more pumped than Final Fantasy VII remake, The Last Guardian or Shenmue 3 was Horizon: Zero Dawn. A pre-historic style game, set in a dystopian future, with a badass female protagonist, with an intriguing storyline involving robot dinosaur creatures? Hell yes.
While I’ve never played a Killzone game in my life, by the time Shadowfall come out it seems that you could tell the studio was tired of making the same first person shooter over and over again. The fact that this is a completely different style game in a completely different genre gives me hope that this more than competent dev team has been itching to do something radically new for some time, with them putting all their creative focus and renewed passion for gaming into something amazing. I have high hopes for Horizon: Zero Dawn, and am looking forward to picking it up in holiday 2016 (or 2017, when it is probably inevitably delayed.)
Zelda Wii U
If you’re a Zelda fan, every (main) Zelda is a game to get extremely excited about. For diehard fans that have stuck with Nintendo and purchased the Wii U, Zelda is The Big Game that we’ve all been waiting for.
Let’s be honest - we know (mostly) nothing about Zelda Wii U. And that’s what makes it so exciting. Nintendo have showed less than a minutes worth of combined footage, comprising of a trailer, a few a screenshots and a quick horse ride cinematic. The producer of the game has been quoted as saying that this game challenges typical Zelda archetypes, and is an open world experience. My mind goes bonkers at the possibilities when I stop and think about this game. Needless to say, BRING ON THE NEXT FULL ZELDA GAME!
Fire Emblem Fates
I’ve said it plenty of times before, but Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn is my favourite game of all time. Basically, any Fire Emblem game for me is an instant purchase where I lock myself away for a few days to play it start to finish (OK, maybe not that drastic, but you get the point.)
Awakening on the 3DS was a damn good game, and Fates looks to be both emulating the style Awakening is known for as well as building on the foundations of what made that game so fun to play. The game’s multiple versions add a whole new layer to the storytelling of the world the game is set in, giving it a great level of replayability for more than simply rerolling with the same characters. That, adding in the bonus of the additional amiibo support in the game (yes, I own every single Fire Emblem amiibo because they’re FREAKING AWESOME) to bring those characters into the world… I’m so in.
The Witness
I’ll preface this with stating that I’ve never actually played Braid passed the first level. I like it, the mechanics are cool, I’ve heard it’s really good, but I’ve just never jumped in to it. The guy that is seen as starting the whole indie movement, Jonathan Blow, is releasing a whole new game next year titled The Witness - and god it looks stunning.
The Witness is set to be an open world puzzle game that doesn’t hold your hand. Apparently, the game will take 100+ hours to complete. While these two factors usually veer me away from games like this (not that I like my hand held, but getting frustrated in games is hardly fun for me) but for some reason I’m super keen for this. I can envision this being a game that I just come back to a few nights a week, chipping away at, discovering new things bit by bit over many weeks. It already feels cathartic and relaxing to me.