Ubisoft’s too close for comfort near future smartphone-punk game has
been shifted to 2014, which almost instantly makes it one of the most
interesting upcoming games. As usual with Ubisoft, PC games will have to
wait an extra month for the release, and can look forward to an
unforgettable experience with Uplay. But still, this is one to look
forward to. Chicago never looked so good. There will be tons of things
to do, and if you don’t like the near future setting, you just have to
squint and the game will pass as another entry to the Assassin’s Creed
series.
19 Everquest Next
Everquest is coming back. The father of the MMO (yes, Ultima Online,
we have taken note of your complaints regarding potential fatherhood and
believe me we are investigating) comes back with a vengeance.
Aggressively updated graphics and all the things you would expect from a
huge MMO that dares taking on the mountain size gorilla in the room
that is World of Warcraft. But at the same time they don’t, since
developers Sony Online Entertainment have stressed their intent of
keeping the free to play model as long as possible. 18 Assassin's Creed: Unity
Players once again enter the Animus and step into the body of an
assassin from history in Assassin’s Creed Unity, whose role this time is
Arno Dorian, a French assassin who walks through the streets of Paris
in 1793 during the French Revolution. It’s a crowded world, built unlike
any of the previous Assassin’s Creed titles with cooperative gameplay
implemented from the ground-up. As with previous titles in the series,
players can tackle the main story or go off on side missions thanks to
the game’s open world setting. We look forward to playing the game on
October 28 this year. 17 Wolfenstein The New Order
Fighting nazis never gets old. Fighting cyber robo nazis from the
future? Uh, yeah that’s like the perpetual fountain of youth for awesome
gaming recipes. Created by the people that made it possible for us mere
mortals to actually become Richard D. Riddick for two games, the people
who made up fabled and now fallen S Machine Games, we are very much looking forward to kicking some shiny, metal nazi ass
16 Broken Age
Tim Schafer returns to point-and-click adventures. Initially dubbed
simply “Double Fine Adventure”, this game was one of the earlier
kickstarter experiments with which Double Fine helped to start the
kickstarter kraze we see today. I can’t really say too much about the
game other than that it will be a Tim Schafer point and click adventure,
which really says it all. It will probably be pretty awesome, if you
like this kind of game.
15 Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls
Blizzard, the inventors of the expansion pack, bring back the
expansion pack. Just like Lord of Destruction for Diablo 2 or the
countless Word of Warcraft expansions, Reaper of Souls promises to bring
more Diablo 3 click to kill madness to the people who desire more of
those things. Also there will be a new level cap, a new character class,
new skills, weapons and monsters to kill with those new weapons.
14 Dragon Age: Inquisition
After the debacle of Dragon Age II and the departure of the Doctors,
BioWare took its time with the next big title, the third entry to the
Dragon Age saga. Dragon Age Inquisition goes more into the direction of
being an open world game, without fully becoming a Skyrim clone. The
developers have been heard saying that the game will take some hints
from open world games. Also the complaints about Dragon Age II have been
taken to heart, so we can look forward to a much broader, much better
developed experience.
13 Civilization: Beyond Earth
Alpha Centauri 2 will likely never get made, because EA owns the
rights to it. But that’s okay, because Firaxis has announced
Civilization: Beyond Earth—which seems a spiritual sequel. Its co-lead
designer Dave McDonough is quoted as saying “There is a lot of
inspiration from Alpha Centauri in this game,” and we’re inclined to
believe him. Civilization: Beyond Earth is a new imagining of what civilization in
the future, civilization in space could be and we can’t help but wait
for the game to come out.
12 Planetary Annihilation
While the game is currently accessible on Steam’s early access
program, it is still far from finished, slotted for a true release
sometime next year. Planetary Annihilation takes the real time strategy
game formula of Supreme Commander to yet another level, going up to a,
well, planetary scale. There will be huge multiplayer battles with 40
and more players participating as well as a single player campaign. And a
lot of mayhem. Obviously.
11 Routine
This one is one of the smaller games on this list, but none the less
one to look out for, as it scratches an itch that’s been abandoned for
too long. Routine takes parts of Amnesia’s hide and evade horror game
formula and transplants it to a mysteriously abandoned space station.
The game runs on Unreal Engine 3, looks absolutely incredible for game
made by two people, and will feature heavily on some cool features like
procedural level and mission generation.
10 Darkwood
Another indie title that got a successful kickstarter. Darkwood takes
the perspective from indie shooter Teleglitch, adding a procedurally
generated world and story elements to the mix, and goes wild with
monsters of all kind in the dark and a procedurally generated,
permadeath horror adventure. One of the most exciting indiegames to look
out for next year.
9 The Long Dark
And another kickstarted indiegame. This one takes survival seriously,
pitting the player mostly against the elements and hungry wildlife.
Finally you can starve and freeze to death, while you can also fend of
wolves by keeping a fire burning through the night. Unlike other games,
The Long Dark will not feature zombies or extensive gunplay, but focus
exclusively on survival mechanisms. It sounds like an interesting
concept and it will be exciting to see where this game ends up in a year
time.
8 The Elder Scrolls Online
Bethesda’s answer to World of Warcraft has been a long time in the
making, and thankfully, a lot has changed since those early proof of
concept screenshots. The game now actually looks more like fans of the
series would want an Elder Scrolls MMO to look. The game is already in
closed beta, and will also be available on new generation consoles,
though there will not be cross platform play.
7 Titanfall
Verticality is the name of the game in Titanfall, which varies from
its predecessors in the Call of Duty franchise. Developed by the
creators of Call of Duty, Titanfall is a multiplayer-only experience
that promises to change the way we look at, and play first-person
shooters as players are encouraged to scale walls, leap from building to
building, and pilot gigantic mechs that tower over the battlefield.
6 The Sims 4
The Sims 4 arguably offers more of the same experience as its
predecessors in the series, but EA promises to deliver an evolutionary
experience with The Sims 4 with a new artificial intelligence and
emotion system that changes the way the game is played. More than just a
facelift, then, for the long-running series.
5 Lords of the Fallen
At first glance, Lords of the Fallen might look a lot like a
Darksiders game, but at closer inspection it’s more along the lines of a
German-made take on the Dark Souls franchise. There’s big swords, even
bigger knights, and a whole lot of hardcore death in store for gamers.
Much like Dark Souls, Lords of the Fallen features methodical combat and
requires players to be quick on their fingertips.
4 Tropico 5
The banana republic simulator (not related to the clothing brand) goes
into the fifth iteration, going more and more into the direction of a
full on Sim City city building simulation. For the first time in the
series, Tropico 5 will also feature competitive and cooperative online
multiplayer features where the players can compete or cooperate with
other, potentially rival dictators.
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number
It’d be funnier if the game were called Hotline Miami 3: Wrong Number,
because then it’d actually be a wrong number and… well, you get the
joke. The fact of the matter is that Hotline Miami 2 is the follow-up to
Hotline Miami, one of the industry’s most visceral experiences despite
being a top-down pixelart-driven experience. Expect more blood, more
gore, and a whole lot of Drive-inspired masked mayhem and killing.
South Park: The Stick of Truth
An RPG developed by Obsidian Entertainment, the game’s narrative
follows the New Kid, who’s new to the cozy town of South Park. The
player partakes in a live-action role-playing game (LARP) session, which
goes out of hand and turns into a fantasy war involving humans, elves,
and wizards, all of whom are fighting for the all powerful Stick of
Truth. It’s up to the player to return the town to normalcy and recover
the artifact.
Wasteland 2
Wasteland 2 is the essential post-apocalyptic RPG sequel to the first
Wasteland, and spiritual successor to the original Fallout games.
Wasteland 2 was successfully crowdfunded through Kickstarter as part of a
trend of high-profile developers launching projects on the site.
Featuring party-based and turn-based combat, Wasteland 2’s places strong
emphasis on player-driven narrative, much like its spiritual
predecessor, Fallout.
