As most of you know, there are A LOT of games coming out in the next coming months. We can’t talk about them all, but we thought we would give you a sample of what our team is looking forward to the most this holiday season. All sections have been written by our team members (and edited by Kochie) to include our most anticipated upcoming games in 2014.
Nat Crouch – Civilization: Beyond Earth
For me, no game has my interest piqued quite as much as Civilization: Beyond Earth. The latest title from acclaimed strategy developer Firaxis Games, Beyond Earth is as much a sequel to the beloved Alpha Centauri as it is to the Civilization series itself.
By moving the traditional Civilization gameplay into the murky depths of outer space, Firaxis seeks to intelligently play on the expectations of its audience. Whilst there are enough similarities to Civilization V to elicit familiarity from returning players, the significant change of locale and the new twists placed on familiar mechanics partner together to create an exciting and mysterious concoction.
As a massive fan of both the civilization series and the fine work of Firaxis games, I am beyond excited (get it?) to get my hands on Beyond Earth.
Commander Seasoned Beef Kick (Glen Gugliotti) – Lords of the Fallen
Lords of the Fallen is a game that I have only recently come to know about and eagerly anticipate.
It seems to be a delicious mix of say Darksiders, God of War and Dark Souls. Characters using big chunky armor & weapons put in a beautiful, unforgiving world full of difficult enemies. It seems quite obvious to me that the developers are big fans of both the eastern and western styles of ARPG’s and have taken the best bits of both to make this fantastic looking game.
When starting the game the player will be able to select one of three main character archetypes (Warrior / Rogue / Cleric) which will lock in a specific character spell tree, but apart from that the player is free to level up any attribute they so wish. An interesting note with this is that on subsequent NewGame+ playthroughs the player will be able to unlock an additional skill tree to level up. My only worry about the footage I have seen so far is that your stamina (what you use to attack / dodge / block) seems to run out very quick and takes a while to regenerate, but for all we know there will be buffs / spells / attributes that will increase the regeneration rate / base stamina pool.
Inventory management is very similar to how Blizzard does it with the console versions of Diablo 3 which works great in my opinion. Lords of the Fallen is released late October 2014 on PS4 / Xbox One & PC.
Chris “Korthal” Edwards – Destiny and Halo: The Master Chief Collection (because screw conformity!)
In the lead up to the end of 2014 there are multiple titles that have my attention. If you want me to be specific these are, Destiny (9th September 2014) and the Master Chief Collection (11th November 2014).
Destiny is… Well Destiny. Bungie is well… Bungie. It goes without saying that as a rabid Halo fanboi I would be getting this game and have been hyped for it since it’s first tease a long time ago. Having played in the last Beta round I am incredibly excited to jump into the full game and see what the legendary team over at Bungie have managed to come up with in the full release. The fact that I immediately dumped $200 on the Ghost Edition of this bad boy may give some indication as to how hyped I am!
Lastly, the Master Chief Collection. Now this may seem silly to a lot of people as it’s nothing more than a redux of Halo 1, 2, 3 and 4 for the Xbox One. But… That’s just it, it’s an upgraded version of all of those games for the Xbox One! New Multiplayer system (with ALL maps omnomnom) as well as highly polished new cinematics for the older games.
Bring on 2015!
Brendan “Sushi” Roberts – GTA V (Current Gen Release)
Okay so it’s not a new game, but it’s certainly a new release for the year that I’m looking forward to after playing and reviewing the previous gen version last year. One thing I really like about the current gen release is that Rockstar are not simply porting the game, but they’re also taking the time to refresh a number of features including the music selection on the radio stations to keep things current.
But the main reason why I’m looking forward to GTA V on current gen is being able to revisit the experience I had with the game with updated graphics on a new platform. Just being able to replay an excellent story in a vast world complete with interactivity and immersive detail makes me want to impatiently wipe the dust off the aging 360.
While I plan to play the game on Xbox One, I can’t help imagining the endless possibilities that modders will have on PC and what we’ll see from it.
Thomas “Kochie” Koch – Super Smash Bros. 2014
After being a huge Smash Bros Melee fan which utilised speed and combos, it looks like it’s returning to form in 2014. Like most people I was let down by the release of Brawl which felt sluggish and had an everyone wins mentality, shunning the competitive community. While it increased the character roster it just wasn’t the game that fans of the series were looking for.
But here in 2014 there is a new contender approaching and it is looking amazingly smooth. Super Smash Bros. 2014 looks like it’s combining the speed and combo nature of Melee and merging it with the roster and supermoves of brawl, with more characters than you could even think of including. With all these new features coming in, they were still able to update character movesets and stages to give something new to all players. This is something fans of the series have been waiting for and is even coming out on the 3ds with online play and 60fps gameplay (Take that current gen consoles).
The developers have seen the competitive community of Smash take off and they have tailored their new game for newcomers and pros alike. It’s not often we see Nintendo do something like this and it’s amazing to see this bridge between what the players want and what the developers can give. I will probably pick this up on the 3DS AND Wii U so watch out Smashers!
So that’s our picks for the 2014 holiday season. Do you agree with us or want to share your own thoughts? Let us know about what you think!
