With 2013, officially over a couple of weeks ago, the leftovers from Christmas all in the bin, and all the arbitrary and highly subjective gaming awards all handed out, It’s time to look at some of the gaming marvels await us in this, the cursed year of our lord 2014.
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number
Hotline Miami is one of the most disturbing games I think I’ve ever played, Its unblinking portrayal of graphic violence, twisted narrative and simple yet unforgiving gameplay made it one of the most challenging and distinctive games of 2012. (Check out our review here)
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong number is set to take everything we loved about the first game and dial it up a notch, if that’s even possible. Following the exploits of four new psychopath’ in a new interwoven storyline and featuring the same addictive gameplay, unique visual style and intense soundtrack, Dennaton Game’s latest is sure to have gamer’s once again questioning their moral compass when Hotline Miami 2 launches later this year.
Super Smash Bros 4
Watching Nintendo’s cheerful cast of characters beat the crap out of each other never gets old. For the first time the stars of Mario, Donkey Kong, Zelda and Kirby will be joined by the creepy little bastard from Animal Crossing, that bint from Wii Fit and as an extra special treat Capcom’s red headed set child – Megaman.
Luckily, we won’t have too long to wait as Nintendo have stated that Kirby’s reign of terror will commence on the WiiU and 3DS this Spring.
Bayonetta 2
The game that sent the internet into a an absolute tizzy looks set to be one of 2014s finest, as gaming sassiest Witch returns to kick more angelic arse in another fine outing from Platinum Games. In our hands on preview from this year’s Eurogamer we praised the game’s silky smooth rate, Balletic skirmishes and concluded that Bayonetta 2 was on track to out do the original in every conceivable way, Check out our full preview here.
Halo 5
Although there has been very little information on the game after it was revealed via a cinematic trailer at last year’s E3 ( barring the occasional Microsoft exec telling us that It’ll be awesome). Master Chief’s first outing on Xbox One is currently pencilled in for a 2014 release. Seeing how Halo 4 completely upended everything Bungie spent years creating, I’m quite looking forward to seeing where 343 Studios take the series next.
The Evil Within
Shinji Mikami has promised that The Evil Within will take survival horror back to its roots. From what he and his team at Tango soft works have shown so far seen so far it looks like it’s going to fulfil that promise and then some.
Marrying the best parts of Resident Evil 4, old school Silent Hill and Alone in the Dark with a tone reminiscent of the likes of Amnesia and Outlast, The Evil Within looks like it’s right on track to give horror fans plenty of sleepless nights in 2014.
Check out what we thought when we saw a hands off demo of the game at this year’s Eurogamer Here.
Tengami
Inspired by Japanese folk lore and traditional Japanese arts and crafts, Tengami transports players into a beautifully crafted pop-up book world full of wonder and mystery which opens up as players, flip, fold, slide and pull parts of the world to solve puzzles and discover its many secrets.
An almost zen like experience and one of the most relaxing games I’ve played since 2009’s Flower and as such is the perfect game for when you fancy a break from the plethora of action game’s coming out this year,
Tengami is coming to WiiU, Windows and OS X in 2014.
Titanfall
The debut game from Respawn Entertainment, the new studio founded by the mastermind’s behind Call of Duty and the original Medal of Honor series, Titanfall pits players against each other in 6v6 battles, fighting either on foot or inside massive mechs known as walkers.
Respawn have promised that Titan Fall will bring “scale, verticality, and story” to the first person genre. From what they’ve shown so far Respawn seem to have managed the first two, those mechs are feckin huge. Whether they’ll actually bring meaningful storytelling to the genre with Titanfall is yet to be seen, but who in their right mind doesn’t love a good mech fight?
Titanfall will is due out this March for PC, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Geralt of Rivea returns in the conclusion of CD Projeckt Red’s epic trilogy based on the novels of polish author, Andrzej Sapkowski.
CD PRojeckt’s decision only bring the game to next gen consoles has enabled the polish developer to create an open world adventure that is as vast as it is beautiful. Featuring; mature, nonlinear storytelling, a vast open world that is 35 times the size of The Witcher 2, jaw dropping visuals and an epic score by polish folk metal outfit Percival. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt not only promises to be an epic conclusion to cult series but a potential candidate for the year’s best RPG and it’s not even out yet.
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2
The conclusion to Mercury Steam’s Castlevania reimaging, Lords of Shadow 2 picks up where the 2009 original left off, as Gabriel Belmont, AKA Dracula is awakened from his slumber in the modern day to once again battle the forces of Satan.
Featuring the same blend of whip cracking combat, platforming and exploration that made the original so much fun combined with an improved camera a much larger open world to explore and an all star cast including Patrick Stewart as Zubeck and Robert Carlyse as Count Begby. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 looks set to be an epic finale to one of gaming’s most divisive reboots.
Phoenix Wright Vs. Professor Layton
Potentially the finest crossover since Marvel decided to pick a fight with Capcom. Phoenix Wright vs Professor Layton will finally be available in the West this March when gaming’s greatest detective and flukiest Lawyer team up to help prove the innocence of a girl accused of Witchcraft and unravel the mystery of Labyrinth city.
Taking the main gameplay elements from both series and slamming them together into a oddly coherent whole, Layton Vs. Wright looks set to please fans of both series and hopefully thanks to the popularity of Layton net Phoenix a few more fans in the west as well.
Mario Kart 8
Some game’s don’t require an explanation, Mario Kart 8 is one of those games. Nintendo’s WiiU version of their perennial racing game is bound to be another fine addition to any WiiU owners library, featuring beautiful graphics a silky smooth frame rate and allowing players to drive on the walls and ceiling for the first time. Mario Kart 8 could be the most innovative entry in the series Double Dash on the Gamecube.
What’s more, we may be playing it sooner rather than later as it has been confirmed by Nintendo that the game will be released this Spring.
Infamous: Second Son
Sony’s first entry in the Infamous franchise on PS4 looks like it could also be its best yet, With Cole’s wrapped up at the end of Infamous 2, Second Son features an all new protagonist and an all new city to explore.
Set in an open world version of Seattle players will now take on the role of 24 year old street artist Row, who has the ability to control smoke and is on the run from a government agency which has been set up to control the activities of super powered humans.
Check out the game in action below.
The Order:1888
Arthurian Knights fighting werewolves on the streets of a steam punk inspired version of Victorian London. I think that one sentence pretty much sums up why this new PS4 exclusive by Ready at Dawn has the potential to be one of this year’s best games, or at the very least pique your curiosity.
If that doesn’t convince you, check out the trailer below, Lovely bit of CGI isn’t it, only according to the developers it’s constructed using in-engine, meaning the actual moment to moment gameplay potentially could look that good.
Dying Light
Techland’s latest open-world survival horror game Dying Light has nothing to do their previous game Dead Island, In the same way that Dark Souls has nothing to do with Demon Souls. It’s a sequel in everything but name for legal reasons.
Taking the basic four player co op template of Dead Island and improving it in numerous ways to create a much more slick experience. Most notably by making the environment a lot easier to traverse using new Pakor Style Climbing moves. Players now also have the ability to use the environment to their advantage and set all manner of devious traps to lure and kill the gormless brain munchers that inhabit the games urban setting.
However, the game’s biggest addition is its new day and night cycle. As day turns to night the mostly docile and easily toyed with infected become more active and vicious. With their senses heightened and their thirst for blood greatly increasing, the infected no longer passively shuffle about and instead give chase – running, jumping and climbing so there is no longer any safe place for our players to hide.
Dead Island was an incredibly fun game mired in technical issues that nevertheless had a lot of potential, Despite the protestation of the game’s Devs, Dying Light is in many ways the realization of the initial conceit presented by ea Island, as such its certainly a game worth keeping an eye on this year.
Persona 5
Aside from the trailer below we currently know absolutely nothing else about Persona 5. The fact that the game is being mae at all is reason enough for fans of the series, incluing myself, to get incredibly excited.
I just hope to god that Atlus don’t decide to regionlock Persona 5 like they did, fighting game spin off Persona 4: Arena or fans of the series in Europe like myself will probably not get to play the game until 2015 at the earliest.
