Adventure, agony; excursions or slow-paced puzzles - whatever your preference, a tidal-wave of PC releases are coming to continue the cycle of gaming experiences. Time to sharpen your wits and upgrade your GPU because it is going to be a BIG year.
It’s never too early to start looking ahead. 2018 is fast approaching and with it comes an exciting selection of the best and bold releases for all gaming seasons. With eager anticipation, let’s mark down, in no particular order, what to look forward to with the dawning of a new year. Some of them are literal game-changers.
Far Cry 5 - February 27, 2018
Leaving behind the unforgiving mountains and tropical island battlefronts of its processor’s, the fifth main title in the Far Cry series (technically the 11th installment within the franchise,) swaps the jungle bedlam for suburban insanity. Bringing the first-person survivalist to the fictional Hope County, Montana, players are pinned against a homicidal cult leader who has taken control of the entire area with a compelled, violent following.
As the newest deputy sheriff of Hope County, you will battle fanatics and militia to bring back order using the most beautifully demented pandemonium possible. Aerial dogfights, animal companions, and a retooled “guns for hire” system are to come. Looks like it’s time to reload.
Crackdown 3 – Spring 2018
Making explosions more explosive, and your leaps as vast as those in your dreams, the highly-anticipated seven-years-in-the-making sequel to the feverishly successful Xbox title pits you as a supercop in an easily destructible neon-city sandbox environment. Think Blade Runner on steroids. Features to look forward to including competitive multiplayer where one can lay waste to epic skyscraper destruction. Need I say more?
Vampyr – Spring 2018
The setting: London, 1918. Your protagonist: A recently-vampirized doctor. Spanish Flu is plaguing Europe and you seek a cure for the lethal disease that is crippling the populace while you battle your own bloody desires. Tackling zombies and vampire hunters, you progress through Vampyr by choosing which victims to prey on, moving through a story-thick narrative.
Following their previous title, Life is Strange, of course a game about consuming the flesh of the living is the next project from developers Dotnod.
Metal Gear Survive – February 20th, 2018
ANOTHER Metal Gear Solid game? Fear not! It’s an alternate reality setting. Losing series creator Hideo Kojima, this survival sequel is more reminiscent of Metal Gear Online, battling crystal zombies and leaping through time travel portals, the silliness is expected in what will hopefully be a different, fun game.
A Way Out – Early 2018
The perfect project to follow the creators of adventure puzzle game, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, A Way Out goes the extra mile from Shawshank Redemption or Prison Break and has YOU escape from a heavily-guarded prison. And the twist? It can only be done in co-op.
While this may sound restraining, the constant split-screen creates some fascinating co-operative adventures and experiences. While one player may be running around figuring out how to escape a certain mission, the other player may be trapped in a cinematic scene. Watching scenes from different angles will push co-op to new and unique angles, all to bust out of prison and reclaim your freedom.
We Happy Few – April 13th, 2018
Oozing of Orwellian paranoia and an unsettling Bioshock aesthetic, We Happy Few is the long-awaited tale of a British society controlled by mind-altering drugs and a totalitarian leadership (although it sounds like modern-day Manchester, it isn’t - before you ask.)
Playing three different characters through a full-length campaign, this creepy nightmare will keep you questioning things even after you’ve turned the game off. Early access brought a lot of hype and We Happy Few is looking to be a pinnacle of survival horror.
The Gardens Between – 2018
Your indie-game collection is about to get a chipper new addition. With an imaginative art design and cool time manipulation puzzle objectives, we follow a pair of characters on their coming-of-age journey through a dream world as they solve complex and challenging puzzles while learning the morality of growing up. You know, casual stuff.
Ashes of Creation – December 2018
It’s hard to big-up an MMO game that blew up past its original Kickstarter goal of $750,000 to… *drum roll, please*… $3.2 million. Your double-takes will serve you well – it really was that popular. If you check out their Kickstarter page,
‘Ashes of Creation is an open-world, non-faction based, no P2W, high-fantasy MMORPG. Join us as we change the face of the genre.’
Check it out.
Battletech – TBC 2018
Another notable Kickstarter success, Harebrained Schemes are bringing us a turn-based mech combat that sees’s giant robots battling it out into scrap oblivion. Customize your squad of mechs, challenge your own crew, and battle it out into debris!
The Crew 2 – Early 2018
It’s hard to imagine that Ubisoft’s original The Crew will be nearly four years old. In conjunction, Ubisoft announced the sequel besides Far Cry 5 and Assasin’s Creed: Origins, with a reveal trailer shown at E3. See below!
Artifact – TBC 2018
Valve have another game coming out. Buy it. Play it. Love it. The end.
Okay, maybe I should elaborate a bit. Set in the Dota 2 universe, Artifact is a digital card game featuring three different boards with a colourful variety of five characters that you play down lanes with spawning creeps. You’ll also discover heroes, spells cards that have been reimagined for the game, with speculation of a more MOBA aspect to the gameplay.
Metro Exodus – 2018
Giant zombie bears? Murderous mutants? Scavenging lifelessly for supplies? Must be a new Metro game.
Although running out of source material to base their content off, the third in the post-apocalyptic series takes you to outside Russia as a grizzled survivor pilgrimaging across the wasteland in the midst of a nuclear winter. Never before has gigantic rats and irradiated landscapes been so compelling and looked so beautiful(?).
The Last Night – TBC 2018
A beautiful cyberpunk indie platformer with “the heart of a sci-fi thriller,” from a creator called Odd Tales? I’m sold. Merging 2D gameplay with 3D environments, the game is expected on Steam, with a story that depicts a world where people find meaning through consumerism, and our hero that enigmatically cannot.
This game has turned a lot of heads amongst gamers and is one of the top games on this list that I am most excited about to see the final product.
Death Stranding – TBC 2018
All we know if obscurity from this game. Which is just what we all expected from the new project by Hideo Kojima, following his departure from his Metal Gear Solid series. But this is looking to be another high-quality action adventure and the current advertisement has spawned nothing but speculation and questions about the upcoming title.
Bizarre military personnel, a distraught, naked Norman Reedus (somehow looking even more rugged than his Walking Dead character,) and Guillermo Del Toro staggering terrified with a reactive foetus in a jar, are all we have been shown in trailer announcements. Oh, and Mads Mikkelsen looming in a sewer with intimidating henchmen. Any thoughts or insight would be hugely appreciated because I have no clue what this game will hold. And that’s just how Kojima knows we like it.
Although a PS4 exclusive, a PC release will be coming in the future. So, get excited because this fever-dream-for-purchase is hopefully just around the corner with all its demented imagery and mind-frying gameplay to come.
Red Dead Redemption 2 – Spring 2018
While the pressure is on for GTA creators Rockstar Games to make their newest sequel to their highly successful western-shooter, the game seems to have slipped through our fingers with every apparent next release. But… that’s okay!
Yeah, I said it. Let us wait! This massive open-world Wild West ride is going to be IMMENSE in both size and content. These things take time. Rockstar has a track record that rarely disappoints. While details are still scarce, there have been details about a multiplayer mode that will reflect the single-player narrative.
Screenshots and a trailer have also relaxed audiences and proven that this will be a game worth waiting for. Still… train-robberies, daytime shoot-outs, and lush, detailed scenery to freely roam are going to keep us all busy for a while. Savour your free-time, while you can.
Cyberpunk 2077 – Possibly before June 2019 but… Spring 2077?
Following the small indie release that not many people played, you might have heard of it – Witcher 3 – how do Polish RPG developers’ CD Projekt Red top their immense success? Obviously, to make their next game an open-world cyberpunk title set in a brutal, spanning future metropolis. Get ready, folks. Cyberpunk 2077 will feature social issues, political commentary/satire, drug addiction and noir violence. LOTS of it.
Sounds like a typical Christmas with me, then.
Although announced in the far away history of 2011, there have been few whispers through the grapevine about what the game will promise. But after the detailed grandeur that was The Witcher 3, I know it’s going to be a fascinating, expansive play. Supposedly it's out before 2019 but, if we are lucky, CD Projekt Red will relieve us and announce something with the coming of the new year.
Age of Empires IV – TBC 2018
Gamescon 2017 was set alight with talk after its most exciting announcement. The sequel to the classic real-time strategy series is being developed by the team behind Dawn of War, so read up on your favorite historical conquests and heroes because they are headed our way.
Psychonauts 2 – TBC 2018
The beloved cult classic is getting a sequel! After their debut first adventure at Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp, the collection of fun characters are back for another quirky, imaginative episode for the 3D platform adventure. Picking up where the previous game left off, Psychonauts 2 looks to bend our psyche with abstract mindscapes for us all to explore.
Looks like 2018 can’t come quick enough. Until then, if you need to update your computer in preparation for all the intensive work you are going to put on it, check out Novatech’s quality range of graphics cards here:
Novatech graphics cards: https://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/amdradeongraphicscards/