We’re almost halfway into 2016 and taking a look at the lineups of late May and all of June I also took a look back at what I wrote back at the end of January. In terms of big releases I’m not sure this year is going to be as good as 2015 was but it’s still going to be better than 2014 or 2013. We’re out of the AAA slump as developers have eased into the existing hardware. I’m still in hype mode for almost nothing though.
Again, there’s a difference between “games I intend to play” and “games I’m waiting for the way IGN preview editors write about them with terms like ‘bated breath.'” Actually the main reason I’m writing this today is because No Man’s Sky is only a month out and I can scarcely believe it. I really do think it’s going to be a new step forward, if only for exploration-oriented video games. Even compared to my experience with the Elite games it looks like a new step forward. Even if it has every flaw people have feared it will have: repetitive planet generation, or a lack of actual activities, I’m already sure what we’ve seen will be enough for NMS to be a significant game for me personally.
That’s what it’s all about really. In the midst of all these AAA games trying to be all things to all people, I’m mostly attracted to the games this year that aren’t necessarily for everyone. This goes for another game I’m buying that comes out on the same day as NMS — Zero Time Dilemma. I’m also going to go ahead and say that there might only be one quarter-four 2016 game I care about at all — Dishonored 2. That’s probably my pre-E3-announcements opinion, but that game is pretty much it for late 2016 in terms of what’s already known. I guess I count “late” as being “after August” because Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is probably the other post-June 2016 game I care about. And both of these games are only on the “intend to buy” anticipation level.
I guess the biggest change in my thinking since January is that I’m now much more interested in getting DOOM after its excellent word-of-mouth and the PC 60fps video that surfaced right before launch. It should probably have been what Bethesda used to reveal the game at E3 2015. I’m also slightly more optimistic about Mirror’s Edge. Both however are going to depend on when I can get my hands on a GTX 1070.
The big X-factor might end up being the Apex expansion for ArmA III. I’ll be honest: I’ve had to drag myself away from ArmA III to keep myself focused on other games I want to play. The pure open-world toy chest simulation nature of it makes it a thing I can’t stop playing with from time to time, and Apex is offering a whole new open world along with possibly significantly improved performance.
Overwatch? After the beta and some soul-searching I’ve come around to what probably everybody else already knows: it’s going to depend on your friends (which is what initially got me into Team Fortress 2). I have one friend who’s confirmed to be getting into Overwatch, maybe two. I’ll keep tabs to see how things develop. In regards to multiplayer games in general though I am playing Street Fighter V. Not regularly but enough to try to keep my game up and even improve it.
BULLETS:
- A good story on quoting for writers: http://theundefeated.com/features/we-gonna-be-championship-a-new-approach-to-fixing-quotes/
- This game looks nice: http://store.steampowered.com/app/466500
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