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WITH THE THREE major consoles using 2014 to settle in, the next twelve months looks like it will be an absolute cracker as a number of anticipated titles and original games make their way to each console.
There’s quite a collection shaping up this year and whether it lives up to its potential or not, there are some very exciting titles in the works. Here are some of the more noticeable ones.
Halo 5: Guardians
For: Xbox One
Due: Q3/Q4 2015
Not much is known about the latest addition to the Halo series except (a) it will be for Xbox One and (b) it will run at 60fps. Still, it’s a Halo game and that alone is enough to get people excited. Those who bought the Master Chief collection will be able to play the multiplayer beta.
Inside
For: PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC
Due: Q1/Q2 2015
From the creators of the fantastic sidescroller Limbo, not much is known about Inside except the trailer, but if Playdead’s previous game is any indication, then this is going to be another memorable experience.
Legend of Zelda
For: Wii U
Due: Late 2015
A new Zelda game is always a reason to get excited and the latest one looks absolutely amazing. This time, there’s a completely open world for you to explore – reminiscent of the original NES game – and it could be the shake up the series needs after Skyward Sword.
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
For: PS4
Due: TBA
The Uncharted trilogy from Naughty Dog has been one of the cornerstones of the PS3 -thanks to its slick combination of action and adventure – and its arrival on PS4 is one of many games that will give the console the kick it needs. The title suggests it may be the last quest Nathan Drake takes, and if it is, it looks like it will be quite the sendoff.
Rise of the Tomb Raider
For: Xbox One (likely to arrive on PS4)
Due: TBA
The reboot of Tomb Raider was a breath of fresh air for a series that has become rather stale and while nothing has been revealed about the sequel – except Lara is coming to terms with the events of the original game – you can be optimistic about its chances.
No Man’s Sky
For: PS4, PC
Due: TBA
While there are some heavy hitters coming up in the next twelve months, one of the biggest games of the year could come from a small British studio called Hello Games.
An uncharted universe that’s procedurally generated (read: created through the host computer), space battles and a universe that the play is free to explore makes this a rather tantalising prospect.
Grim Fandango Remastered
For: PS4
Due: 27 January, 2015
The only game in this list that isn’t new, but in the case of Grim Fandango, that’s just the way it should be. One of the best adventure games released is set in the Land of the Dead and is still as fresh today as it was in 1998. Also, Glottis is one of the best sidekicks created, just sayin’.
Star Fox
For: Wii U
Due: TBA
All we really know about the latest addition of Star Fox is it will be out before Zelda, it will use the Gamepad as the view of the cockpit in the Arwing fighter and use it to independently target enemies and there are three vehicles, the Arwing, the Landmaster tank and a helicopter-type vehicle. Essentially it’s nothing like Star Fox Adventures, which is a good thing.
Batman: Arkham Knight
For: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Due: 2 June
While Arkham Origins was a bit of a disappointment – mainly because of how high a standard previous games set – Arkham Knight looks like it could bring the series back on track. A larger open-world, the introduction of the Batmobile for travel and combat and the backing of the PS4 and Xbox One hardware could make this one of the blockbuster games of 2015.
The Order: 1886
For: PS4
Due: 20 February, 2015
If we’re giving points to original concepts, then The Order 1886 would score highly. Taking place in an alternate history London, the mixture of steampunk and magic where a group of knights protect people from humans with bestial qualities should make for an interesting game at least.
Mighty No. 9
For: PS3, PS4, PS Vita, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U, 3DS, PC, Mac, Linux
Due: April 2015
From the creator of Mega Man comes a game that’s very similar to Mega Man, but isn’t actually Mega Man. Still, the heart is there and those who are fans of the Blue Bomber and classic action platforming should look forward to this.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
For: PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC
Due: TBA
Ground Zero may not have been a particularly memorable experience, but the Phantom Pain looks like it will not only make up for that disappointment, but surpass expectations entirely. An open-world, allowing you to strategise and develop tactics on the fly, and the traditional Kojima storytelling and stealth elements makes it an intriguing concept.
Star Wars: Battlefront
For: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Due: Q4 2015
Tying in with the release of the next movie, The Force Awakens, the pressure is on for this first-person shooter to live up to expectations. DICE, the creator of Battlefield, is the developer behind this reboot, giving hope to those who are itching for an epic Star Wars game.
Tom Clancy’s The Division
For: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Due: TBA
Set in New York City after a disease causes the US to collapse in five days, you control a group of sleeper agents whose job is to restore order to chaos.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
For: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Due: 19 May, 2015
The Polish studio behind The Witcher series , CD Projekt RED, delayed the release of Wild Hunt by three months because it wanted to get things right and considering the high quality of the first two games, who would blame them? From the gameplay demo alone, it looks like it’s going to be another epic adventure that surpasses previous games.
Bloodborne
For: PS4
Due: 25 March 2015
Like Demon’s Souls, then you may like Bloodborne which brings similar action RPG elements to a Victorian setting. It’s dark, it looks scary and it could be one of the first hits of 2015.
Quantum Break
For: Xbox One
Due: TBA
From Remedy, the makers of Max Payne and Alan Wake, Quantum Break features a time travel experiment gone wrong that gives its three protagonists special abilities.
Manipulating time to avoid capture and improve your combat abilities could work, but the intriguing part is it ties into a TV show, which will combine together to give you the complete story.
Evolve
For: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Due: 10 February, 2015
From the makers of Left 4 Dead comes another co-op experience, this time your team of four take on a giant beast, the twist is that said beast is controlled by another player.
Crackdown
For: Xbox One
Due: TBA
Crackdown was one of the silliest and fun open-world action games on the Xbox 360 and if the trailer is to be believed, the reboot is going to up the ante by a significant margin. Let’s just say there will be destruction, a *lot* of destruction.
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I don’t understand why on every thread about gaming at least on person feels the need to come on and bash gamers rather than just not clicking the article
Looking forward to Zelda, Crackdown and Starwars Battlefront.
Hopefully Read Dead Redemption 2 gets announced next year too.
Not all gamers are anti-social,I know some
Who have made genuine friends from online gaming,now instead of killing each other on call of duty all the time they go out paint ball skirmishing and inflict real pain on each other.
Was hoping they would re-release Manic Miner
Gold miner will be big.its out in the summer
I use to play the xbox 360 with a lot of mates now they all disappeared due to family etc and no time anymore it was good times but life moves on.
Id say ye still find the time to watch a serious amount of shite on the tele
Nothing wrong with it I’m 30s and I’m still a gamer. Really looking forward to batman and no man’s sky
I wish I did have time to watch some shit.
In the 30s too I have a few games every now and then but nothing like before. Rarely play multi player anymore.
Because you don’t want to get your ass handed to you by a 10 year old :) understandable.
I’d not use psn much myself. I’m more a steamer :) tf2 gta 4 and soon to me gta5 melting my gpu.
Don’t have ps4 yet I’ll get one for batman and no man’s sky as I think Sony gave the rights for 12 mths well so do Microsoft but it won’t be on pc for a while
Some of my friends still game alot if call of duty I think is crap. If you want a military game go for ARMA
GTA:V for the PC could go either way. Rockstar don’t exactly have a great history with PC ports but they have taken a lot of time it seems to try and get this one right. I’ve just recently upgraded my PC in nervous anticipation.
@ Charles yep many a 10 yr old whooped my ass in games . Yep Scarlet.
I’ll be playing games until I’m no longer able to hold a controller. For me it beats most of the nonsense that’s on TV, that’s just my opinion though. If people like watching the soaps or reality shows then go for it.
Loved the first Crackdown. Great fun developing skills and collecting those orbs was seriously addictive.
And mortal kombat
Im looking forward to Grand Theft Auto V on PC. Its been a long wait.
And the rest of the hours in the month you’ll spend writing pointless statements on journal.ie.
They all look good in fairness, but the game I’m really waiting for, and looking forward to, will be out in a few weeks. Dying Light. :)
Gamers are a bit mad aren’t they
Bought a ps4 last week, went online and some amount of weirdos on it was crazy
It’s good fun every now and again ,but the vast majority of gamers just spend most their life on it , not very social and certainly not the best way to start a new year, i’ll limit my playing to about an hour per month
Bit of a waste buying a P’S to limit yourself to 1 he a month just saying.
Ok.
You didn’t buy a at allps4 did you?
‘The vast majority of gamers’ you’re talking complete and utter hole pal
Ok i’m lying about buying a ps4
You swear i’m talking about a yacht
I bought GTA, The last of us and downloaded Battlefield, good fun but like i said the people online give of a weird vibe and tbh most gamers i know /know of spend too much time playing games
i’ll play it from time to time but won’t go mad like the majority do
You did a survey snowie? Or just looking for attention here? I would say many gamers are those who grew up with gaming from the Atari/Spectrum/Commodore days, and they find some downtime here and there within family life….. I think the weirdos are the ones that lie…
Not exactly sure what your point is then, apart from a sweeping clichéd generalisation
great, thanks for telling us
@Graham the commodore 64 so frustrating wait an 1hr to load the game then it froze grrrrrr . I still have the commodore in the attic.
You’re using a game like GTA, one which encourages unrestricted madness, as a baseline for judging online gamers?
@ Graham
Lie about what exactly?
He’s talking about your vast majority claims, and he weirdos you claim to have met, what are you on about? Very rarely anyone is having conversations online, mostly groups of friends in private party chat. You’re talking hole
Talking hole???
Sorry i even posted in this thread , full of weirdos
Weirdos everywhere you go it seems, maybe you’re the weirdo?
Buh bye…
Weirdo…
I don’t play video games but some of my closest friends have and still do.
Out of the five I can think of, only one would have been a bit of an “oddball”, and only to the extent that he was naturally a bit kooky.
Perhaps you should get to know some actual gamers before you make such sweeping generalisations. You might find that all those tropes about gamers which have been foisted on you by the media, are a heap of crap. Gamers are fun, sweet, kind-hearted and very smart. And that latter observation is based on having known actual hardcore gamers, not something I picked up off a bloody movie or from an article.
If that’s the shlt people are meant to look forward to it’s gonna be a sad year!
Over hyped dumbed down games.
They just want your money folks, if a game needs to advertise itself everywhere it’s probably shlt.
What planet are you on, next year is shaping up to be the best year in gaming since 2007.
We all want the best games, but every year “best games ever!!” Observe the pattern
1: tell people it’s the best game ever
2: make a half arrsed attempt at making game
3: charge people for dlc
4: release sequel
5: repeat…
Am I wrong?
If you’re gaming diet consists mainly of COD and other half baked shooters then yes, but were talking about the quality of games coming next year, and it looks a fantastic year for gaming, the witcher alone spits in the face of all those nasty traits you mentioned
Valid point, gave up on CoD after blops2. Kerbal Space Programme, minecraft, Don’t Starve would be my examples of ‘good’ games at the moment. But fingers crossed all the above titles match the hype.
Lets reconvene December 2015 and discuss :-p
Very little for younger kids !!
I sincerely doubt little kids will be logging onto the Journal for the latest gaming news.
@Jason
I have young kids and I haven’t a notion what’s new on gaming. It would have been nice to have a bit of info
The big releases are, generally speaking, more geared towards older gamers as these are the ones who will spend the €50+ for a new release. It’s quite rare for a game outside of the Nintendo environment to be both a high-profile and child-oriented release.
For young children the best possible referral I could give is to a game like Minecraft or, if they’re a little older, Kerbal Space Programme. They’re relatively low-cost, encourage creativity and aren’t overly-violent.
Looking at all my games I have, all rated 18 and over,
Just look around Duncan,I’m sure ign or some other website have lists of games for kids,just don’t be buying them 18+ games if they are very young and you’ll be ok.
The Journal isn’t known for it’s regular gaming articles and as David Lynch said, there are great sites like IGN and Gamespot that give full reviews and ratings of games, new releases news etc. I never buy a game unless I have consulated at least one of these sites.
Don’t buy them a console Duncan, unless you want them to become pasty outcasts
Encourage them to play football/rugby/boxing, get out more, meet some girls ffs encourage them to actually have a life
“Encourage them to play football/rugby/boxing, get out more, meet some girls ffs encourage them to actually have a life”
Thank you Snowball for introducing those new here to the internet to the concept of a troll.
MGS, The Order and The Division for me.
Clearly this year is all about Yoshi’s woolly world, Xenoblade Chronicles X and Splatoon. That said Bloodborne will be selling me a PS4 come march
This year is all about zelda for me.
I can’t describe how disappointed I am to find out that DICE are the developers behind the new star wars game.
To be fair, DICE absolutely hit the mark with the Battlefield series up until 2142. Battlefield 3 felt like an unstable graphics overhaul of Battlefield 2 and Battlefield 4 was a terrible attempt at re-inventing the wheel.
It’s a sad case of hit-or-miss with DICE heading up the Battlefront re-boot. All we can do is wait, not keep any hopes up and certainly not pre-order.
When’s the new battlefield being released
Battlefield: Don’t Buy.
I used to be a massive fan of the series and made it into the top 100 rankings of one version years ago. The Battlefield of today is nothing like it used to be. After the mess they made of Battlefield 4 I decided it wasn’t worthwhile buying any more of the series and many reviewers are starting to take a similar viewpoint.
I’m in the same boat concerning battlefield. It really has gone down the toilet. Get my large scale battle fix from Planetside2 now. Dice really should have never chased the Call of Duty players.
Bad Company 3 is their only hope for the franchise imo.
Battlefield 3 is my favourite 360 online game, and I still love it. They messed up bf4 on 360 but that was with the new consoles coming out. It can’t slate it after one bad game..
They didn’t mess up Battlefield 4 for the Xbox 360, they messed it up on every platform. The PC version was almost unplayable in the first week and still suffered hitbox and random one-shot issues for months after release.
Er no I won’t
Well thanks for coming in and commenting to let us all know
Can’t wait for the Witcher… Seems though CD Projekt won’t make it for May… Looks more like June now.
I feel that Elite: Dangerous should be on this list. It has technically just been released at the end of 2014 but many more features will be added throughout the year.
Excite!
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