Last year was full of excellent gaming goodness, but 2018 looks to be even better: from some of the biggest games returning with their much-awaited sequels to a host of brand new titles. And these are just the ones we know of. With the latest editions of Tokyo Game Show, E3 and Gamescom, there will be more games that will be announced. So far, here’s what we can look out for in the New Year.
Shadow of the Colossus ( February 6)
Shadow of the Colossus was one of the best games in the PlayStation 2 era. While there was a remastered version that came along sometime back, this classic is now going to be getting a full-fledged remake. It’s now being completely redone for the PlayStation 4. This game has you, a mysterious boy on a mysterious horse in a mysterious land, tasked with taking down several towering stone and earth giants known as the Colossus. It’s a unique platformer that you have to experience, as you have to climb these moving mountains and figure out how to shut them down, while they’re trying to shake you off.
Far Cry 5 ( March 27)
In the latest Far Cry game, you are pitted against the charismatic leader of a doomsday cult and his followers. Set in an open-world rural USA, in a place called Hope County, you create your own character and recruit Guns for Hire from a cast of colourful characters, all of which have their own personal agendas and special abilities. In addition to that, you can recruit animals to fight alongside you in Fangs for Hire. Far Cry 5 lets you drive, shoot and blow up fanatics as you seize control of Hope County from the militant cult. Plus, it’s got all of Far Cry’s signature humour and its open-world dynamics which encourages you to try different play styles, from sniping, to sneaking and all-out offence.
Red Dead Redemption 2 ( TBA)
From the house of the Grand Theft Auto series, Rockstar Games had finally announced the follow-up to the beloved Red Dead Redemption — a spaghetti Western and an open-world game where you ride across the wide open plains of America in the days of cowboys and Indians. While very little has been revealed about the game, the lone trainer indicates that it seems to follow a band of outlaws on the run, leaving a list of murders and heists in their wake, in classic Rockstar fashion. Hopefully, we get to pull off a few train robberies. What the trailers also revealed is the beautiful world from sun-kissed deserts to lush green fields to mountainous areas, fully capturing the glory and detail of that day and age.
Days Gone ( TBA)
Set in a post-apocalyptic world, where hordes of fast-moving zombies known as ‘Freakers’ have infested, you play a bounty hunter named Deacon St John and experience his first-hand encounter with horror on the road in this action survival horror. Days Gone has been teased for the last two years consistently, and hopefully, in 2018, we get a chance to play it finally. While it looks eerily a lot like The Last of Us, another Sony exclusive, Days Gone promises a different, more action-oriented play style. Days Gone is sort of like The Witcher 3, except it’s set in a gritty modern world and the monsters come in large deadly crowds.
The Last of Us Part II ( TBA)
Winning critical acclaim and dozens of awards, The Last of Us made it to several best games lists — telling the poignant story of a man, Joel, and a little girl, Ellie, travelling cross country in a world plagued by zombies, with fungi growing out of their heads. Now, Ellie is all grown up, and along with Joel, is joined by several newcomers. The latest, stomach-turning trailer gave us a glimpse of how dedicated the game designers are to bringing us ever so close to the horror — where the real monsters are not the zombies, but humanity itself gone mad. While the game has been drawing a lot of flak because of the excessive, realistic violence, it’s still one of the most anticipated games on this list.
God of War ( TBA)
This is the most anticipated game on this list. The franchise is one of the most well-known games that has been around since the early days of PlayStation 2. After taking down an unhealthy chunk of the Greek Pantheon of gods, our anti-hero Kratos has been forced out of an early retirement, and has focused his never-ending rage on the Norse Gods. Armed with a wicked axe and accompanied by a savage fighter of a kid, the new God of War looks to be a snow-filled riot — though it does look like it’s about to explore a softer, deeper side to Kratos, with the inclusion of the mysterious boy, who seems to be his son. Either ways, there’s a lot more killing on the horizon if there’s a God of War going to be out this year.
Spider-Man ( TBA)
In one of the best surprise announcements of 2017, the new Spider-Man game looks to be fantastic. It’s got an energetic trailer showing off some new moves, as well as open-world web slinging, besides a Batman: Arkham Asylum-inspired predator mode where Spider-Man can stalk and take down a foe in the cover of stealth. What’s more intriguing is the teaser of Miles Morales, another Spider-Man, as well as a new villain known as Mr Negative, in addition to the return of the usual roster of villains. This is one game we cannot wait for, especially after the success of Spider-Man: Homecoming .
Anthem ( TBA)
From the makers of the Mass Effect series comes a new open-world shooter in the same vein as Destiny. Anthem is set on a new planet, where you pick from one of three classes of soldiers outfitted with an exo-suit called a Javelin. You and your squad can venture out into the vast unknown, taking on the giant fauna as well as unsavoury javelin users in single-player as well as multi-player mode — though after the colossal failure that was Mass Effect: Andromeda, Anthem needs to do a lot to convince us BioWare is on the right path, and has still got what it takes to make a great game.
What should not be in gaming in 2018If there was one thing that annoyed us in 2017, it was those pesky, horrible loot boxes, how damned devious and addictive they were. As innocent rewards given to users after a good match, loot boxes were perfect. However, when you include in-game purchases after the gamer has bought the game in full price, things get murky. Given the random loot each box contains, this system borders on gambling, providing that same endorphin hit as, let’s say, a slot machine. Add to that, the abuse that developers have been putting into this system, like controlling the drops of vanity items like skins or in-game weapons — they can have kids hooked on this like crack. Therefore, this year, gamers rose up against companies like Electronic Arts for their questionable pay to win loot boxes which had you grind for hours on end, just to get bad loot, pushing you towards that purchase button. Hopefully, developers leave out loot boxes this year, at the very least, play fair with them and not get greedy. If they do, know that the gaming community is an ever-vigilant volatile beast that will just move onto another game that does not have them. |
