As we approach the end of the summer gaming drought, we enter the best time of the year; September – early December, when some of the most anticipated games of E3 are released.
The below is my own personal list of games I am personally looking forward to (in chronological order).

  • Sonic Mania – August 15th
    A 2D Sonic game that looks exactly like Sonic 2! What is not to love? Sonic has not been good since the middle Mega Drive era, when he transitioned over to 3D, the whole series collapsed and SEGA has churned out poor Sonic games one after another. This one looks very promising and will hopefully spawn a whole new Sonic series that is as refreshing as it is filled with nostalgia.
  • Uncharted: The Lost Legacy – August 22nd
    Unfortunately I only own an Xbox so I will not be playing this anywhere near the release date, however I have managed to borrow a PS4 off of a friend and am currently playing through a few PS4 exclusives, the most recent one being Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, which I am really enjoying.
    Uncharted originally was seen as a Tomb Raider clone, borrowing elements from that series, however once Tomb Raider rebooted itself, it ended up borrowing elements from Uncharted, creating an ouroboros if you will.
    I love the huge action set pieces of this series; climbing up the side of a train hanging on the edge a cliff, or trying to stay alive on board a cargo plane as it falls to the ground. I am looking forward to seeing what this Uncharted game has to offer.
  • Life Is Strange: Before the Storm – August 31st
    The prequel to the original Life Is Strange. I really enjoyed the previous game and would love more… if it is done right. I have a strange feeling that this won’t live up to the hype and end up spoiling this series a little, but I hope I am wrong.
    The first game was clever and, although it did not give you a lot of choice in retrospect, the game did give you a somewhat feeling of being in control with the characters’ destiny.
    Given that there are two dramatically different endings to the original, it is clear to see why they chose to make this as a sequel.
    Remember this is only episode 1 (of 3 this time round, instead of 5 like the original), and this will not feature the same voice actors. Please be good… please be good… please be good.
  • Middle-Earth: Shadow of War – October 10th
    The first Middle-Earth game; Shadow of Mordor, was a fantastic third person action game that really did capture just how unique its main game mechanic was; the Nemesis System. It was great to have a remembered villain return and have stories that were personal just to you.
    The sequel is going bigger. Now instead of bringing down Sauron’s forces, you are amassing your own, forming armies of Orcs, Goblins, and Cave Trolls, to lay sieges to enormous fortresses. Apparently a nemesis from the previous game can be carried over, so I am hoping that the fat camp one that hounded me throughout Shadow of Mordor will return… although I am pretty sure I cut his head off on our final encounter.

  • South Park: The Fractured but Whole – October 17th
    The previous South Park game; The Stick of Truth, was surprisingly amazing. It felt as if you were just watching a really long episode of the show. The jokes were just as good, having been written my the creators, and the gameplay was reasonably solid. I would happily replay it if I had the opportunity.
    This one changes the theme from Fantasy to Superheroes, and it looks like they have fine tuned the combat and gameplay, which did tend to feel a little basic at times. Now it has a hint of XCOM grid style, and we are able to traverse the battle screen to get the most out of our characters, so it looks as if they have gone in a new direction for RPG tactical side of gameplay, which is never a bad thing.
  • Assassin’s Creed: Origins – October 27th
    I am not 100% on this one. Although I have admittedly played every single Assassin’s Creed game and quite enjoyed Syndicate, they have felt stale as of late. Ubisoft took a year off from making these to focus on Origins, which apparently was in production for a while before hand, but I am still a little sceptical. I will probably wait for a while and see what the other reviewers say before I spend my money on this.
    The game itself does look good, but so do all other Assassin’s Creeds. Egypt feels like the perfect environment for this game, climbing pyramids and Sphinxes, and it looks like maybe sailing might have return to the series as you can now ride a ship down the Nile, but whether it will be as in-depth as Rogue or Black Flag remains to be seen.
  • Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus – October 27th
    On the same day as Assassin’s Creed and a week before CoD: WW2, Wolfenstein doesn’t stand a chance, which is a shame as the previous game (The New Order) was a lot of fun. I still have not had a chance to play the standalone DLC; The Old Blood, which took the series back to its horror roots, where as The New Order went more into the realms of science fiction.
    It is a solid FPS with a lot of fun weapons and action sequences, but it will be lost beneath the wave of bigger titles, so it looks like a later in the year jobby for myself.
  • Call of Duty: WWII – November 3rd
    Returning to what they do best, Activision have finally listened to what fans want and sacked off the futuristic style of later games. I think sales for Infinite War had greatly changed their minds, even with the premise that you could play CoD4: Modern Warfare remastered (if you spent another £40).
    I haven’t personally bought a CoD game for a few years now because of the new direction that they had taken with the series, which is a shame as I used to spend hours playing Zombies and was in a clan in an online league played throughout the entirety of the UK.
    However, running across the breaches of Normandy in 4K on Xbox One is something that has brought myself back to the series. I do not have the same kind of time I can devote to multiplayer games like I used to, but I should give it a good go.
  • Star Wars Battlefront II – November 17th
    Putting a little distance between itself and CoD is a good shout. The previous Star Wars Battlefront was a huge success. It catered to the fan boys and gave us an enjoyable multiplayer Star Wars experience, but it never got the exact point I wanted. It felt like it was so close, but not quite there.
    This sequel has promised a single player campaign (which was much needed in the previous one) as well as spanning all three generations of Star Wars, so it would be great to see.
    Again I don’t spend as much time as I used to playing multiplayer games, but I may pick this up if CoD:WW2 hasn’t eaten up all of my time.

    Other Notable Mentions:

  • Destiny 2 – September 6th
  • FIFA 18 – September 29th
  • Crackdown 3 – November 7th


Any I have missed off? What are you looking forward to the most? Let us know.

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