We’re halfway through 2015 and there are still games beyond our reach. It’s not like there’s a drought or anything but usually some of the best a year has to offer hangs nearer the end. We’ve put together a revised list of what’s on our radar and hope you like what you see.
This is by no means an exhaustive list but we X-Factor’d the heck out of it. While we’ve numbered them they’re not in order of desire, it’s just to keep things tidy - honest!
1) Fallout 4 - Bethesda Softworks
Is there really any surprise? We all knew Bethesda were up to more Fallout and just weren’t talking about it and turns out we were dead right. Game director Todd Howard confessed they starting planning Fallout 4 after Fallout 3 wrapped up.
The full announcement and reveal at E3 2015 was a real treat because we got to see some of it in action and a lot of what we loved is back, including a dog (who happens to be immortal this time), as well as including some salivating new features like settlement construction and full weapons modding. We even get fully voiced player characters.
Release: November 11th, 2015
2) Armikrog - Pencil Test Studios
Clay + animation = badass. This heralds the return of ‘claymation’ for point’n’click adventure fans and is a spiritual successor to The Neverhood, and is being built by the same core team. We play space explorer Tommynaut who crashes on an alien world, and we’re accompanied by a colour-blind talking dog Beak-Beak. Yes, it’s bonkers sounding and that’s perfect.
Release: August 18th, 2015
Check out our preview.
3) Shadowrun: Hong Kong - Harebrained Schemes
The return of more Shadowrun Returns - once more returned! A new Kickstarter launched this year for a Hong Kong instalment to the classic RPG series which has revived thanks to the first from the studio, although it proved nowhere near as popular as the follow-up Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director’s Cut.
Thankfully Hong Kong looks to be everything Dragonfall was and more. Stretch goals have seen The Matrix overhauled, extra crew and personal missions, and they’re focusing solely on a PC version this time forgoing tablets.
Release: August, 2015
4) Mad Max - Avalanche Studios
The ability to play as the legendary road warrior Mad Max in a huge open world full of cars, guns and strife? Avalanche knows a thing or two about massive sandboxes to play in and now they get to create an actual sandy-box to wreak havoc.
It’s full of wasteland drama, upgrading our own vehicle, nurturing it into a deadly weapon, but we’ll also be getting involved in the lives of bandits, warlords and people just looking to get by.
Release: September 1st, 2015
5) Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain - Kojima Productions
A long-time in the making, we see the return of the Metal Gear Solid series in full with The Phantom Pain. For the first time in its history we get an open world to stealth action our way through, or not-so-stealth. Aside from a plot only a PATRIOT AI construct could understand, we also get crazy misfits and even adorable companions to help us out.
We’re the one calling the shots in The Phantom Pain and some payback is on the agenda for the destruction of Motherbase, which was covered in the teasing prologue of Ground Zeroes.
Release: September 15th, 2015
6) Mighty No. 9 - Comcept
Come on it’s Mega Man in all but name and from its creator Keiji Inafune. It blends 2D and 3D but it’s a 2D platformer full of running, jumping, shooting and the ability to get our fallen foes abilities. Playing as Beck, we have to face down the other Mighty Number units as bosses.
Release: September 15th, 2015
7) Act of Aggression - Eugen Systems
Base-building, resource gathering, technology to unlock - Act of Aggression is a sequel to Act of War which last thrilled us with more traditional real-time strategy a la Command & Conquer back in 2006 with the High Treason expansion. Act of Aggression is set in the near future between three unique factions.
It’ll pit the bloated US Army, the criminal Cartel and the high tech Chimera against one another. We get to build some rather impressive looking bases, manage resources and production, and capture prisoners of war. The main campaign follows the Chimera, a UNO funded task-force.
Release: September, 2015
Check out our preview.
8) Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege - Ubisoft
Counter terrorism never looked so good and Rainbow Six Siege will be dusting off the iconic tactical shooter with action and planning. Teamplay and realism are the series calling cards, but there’s been a big shift over to multiplayer with highly destructible environments.
The initial reveal was received well and what’s been shown since at E3 2015 has would-be terrorist-foilers twitching their trigger fingers. We also see the return of co-op multiplayer mode Terrorist Hunt.
Release: October 13th, 2015
9) XCOM 2 - Firaxis Games
Now this little gem snuck up on us, despite all the rich conspiracy theories out there Firaxis were making another. It’s a big departure from the more traditional XCOM as this time our squads are without global government backing. Arguably we’re now also a really ‘underground’ organisation, though it seems we get our own flying aircraft carrier thingy.
There’s a big shake-up to combat too as now we can ‘sneak’ our people into position for deadly ambushes, and we can actually recover our fallen or injured to save them or salvage their gear.
Release: November, 2015
10) Just Cause 3 - Avalanche Studios
The guilty pleasure of many who enjoy emergent craziness round every corner in their open worlds. Rico is back and this time he’s in the Mediterranean trying to overthrow a dictator terrorising his own island home. It’s full of over-the-top action and improbable stunts and one-liners even the 1980’s would blush at.
The island of Medici is roughly the same size as Just Cause 2’s but Avalanche have focused instead on ‘verticality’ by adding in lots of subterranean caverns and tunnels, as well as more realistically scaled buildings. Plus the grappling hook is even more insane, if that were possible.
Release: December 1st, 2015
11) Hitman - IO Interactive
Bald and revived - Agent 47 is young and hip in IO’s new Hitman. It harkens back to what made the series great, which means we’re given a target and get to figure out how we’d like to deal with them. It’s not quite a traditional release though as it’s become almost episodic.
Hitman ‘begins’ this December but won’t have all its parts ready at launch but will instead get free content drops coming throughout 2016. In between these major additions there’ll be special one-off assassinations for the community to partake, but once they’re gone they’re gone.
Release: December 8th, 2015
12) Hearts of Iron IV - Paradox Development Studio
A fascist United States invades a democratic Japan? Only in the grand strategy series Hearts of Iron can we so deliciously rewrite history and the new Hearts of Iron IV promises a lot more on our plate. Aside from a fancier game engine and more gorgeous world, Paradox has been scheming.
Many mechanics are being overhauled, like naval fleets now sharing a similar system to our air-forces by having zones to operate in. We get an expanded internal politics system too, now letting us define national goals. Hopefully our charge into Berlin won’t be delayed too long.
Release: Q3/Q4, 2015
Check out our preview.
13) Grand Ages Medieval - Gaming Minds Studios
From humble Mayor to King of all Europe. Sound ambitious? The Grand Ages series is now taking on the Medieval era and we’ll start out a pipsqueak settlement who can grow to become a powerhouse to lord it over our neighbours. It’s real-time with building, management, research and of course military might.
Not sure if 30 million square kilometres is enough ya know? A Kingdom needs to breathe! It’s not all roses and crop-rotation as disasters lurk in the world like storms, fires, droughts, earthquakes and even a touch of the Black Death. There’s a campaign or you can break those shackles in free play.
Release: TBA, 2015
Check out our preview.
14) Wasteland 2 Director’s Cut - inXile Entertainment
You could argue this isn’t exactly a new game releasing but so profound are the changes coming in the Director’s Cut for Brian Fargo and inXile’s cRPG Wasteland 2 that it may as well be. It upgrades the game to the latest Unity game engine with all the trimmings, and adds Perks & Quirks for characters.
Combat can get a lot more precise too, and voice overs have been expanded by over 8,000 new recorded dialogue lines, with UI overhauls and even controller support as it comes to console. The Director’s Cut is free to PC owners. How could we say no?
Release: Q3, 2015
15) Total War: WARHAMMER - Creative Assembly
Trade-in your legions of Rome for hordes of Orcs as Creative Assembly finally fulfil the wettest of fan boy dreams and marry the Total War series with Warhammer. Real-time battles for the first-time will feature the use of terrible magic and brutal heroic creatures and legends.
We’re teased a further two standalone releases will accompany Total War: WARHAMMER by the end, not to mention the slew of content packs that’ll trickle out. Creative boast that while the rules may have changed, war remains constant.
Release: TBA, 2015
There you have our compiled list of 2015 goodness that still awaits us. Not everything is going to melt our brains with stupendous joy but that’s all part of the adrenaline kick isn’t it? I’m sure there are others we should have mentioned but that’s what Internet comment sections are for…
