So 2015 was a heck of a year, right? Another Batman game made me feel like a billionaire brood-monster all over again, for the final and most epic time. The Witcher 3 was awesome, both as a game and as an experience. I played the hell out of a lot of anime-based games and some of them didn’t suck. 2015 was a good year for gaming and, now that we’re just under a month into 2016, I’m desperate for some of the exciting new titles on the horizon. For instance…

Persona 5

Atlus, you are a gigantic tease. For months, we were told that the next main entry in the Persona series would be coming out in the autumn of 2015. Promised, even. Assurances were made. Schedules were cleared. I avoided making plans for Halloween so that I could be free to delve into the newest game in one of my favourite series of all time without having to make excuses for my chronically antisocial behaviour. But then the announcement came. Persona 5, THE game to play in 2015 if you’re a fan of JRPGs, had been delayed until 2016 less than a month before it was due to hit shelves. Heartbreak! Tears! Shattered dreams strewn across the landscape!

Actually, I was alright with it. I mean, I was disappointed but I would very much prefer that we get a game that was finished and polished and lived up to the high expectations that I have for a game from Atlus. So far no release date has been confirmed, either in Japan or in the West, which isn’t unusual for the series. Releases tend to only get confirmed within a month of their street date anyway. So for now I must merely wait impatiently, eager for the day when I can shout “Persona!” at the top of my lungs and scare the hell out of the neighbour’s cat before dancing around my house to a ridiculously

No Man’s Sky – June 2016

It might seem like a few years since I’ve talked about this game, which was the absolute highlight of E4 2014 for me, but that’s because it still isn’t out yet. Not surprising, to be honest, as it, from the various demos that have come out, wants to create a universe roughly the size of… well, the universe, with the ability for people to travel the surface of planets and do a flyby past a space dinosaur in my awesome spaceship.

We’ve heard very little about this one since it made such huge waves at E4 a few years back, save for the fact that they have pushed the release back to this year. Hello Games, the small English team (they consist of four people), have the potential to create the single greatest indie game ever. Every convention that comes up, these guys drop a new trailer or gameplay footage and bring the house down so it will be amazing to see them actually live up to the hype.

Fire Emblem Fates – Febuary 2016

Fire Emblem is an iconic game series in the “tactical roleplaying game” genre that you probably know as “that game with those Smash Brothers characters I have never heard of”. It has been running since 1990 and has spanned more than a dozen titles on console and PC, though it didn’t make its grand entrance to Western shores until 2003. It may not have the most storied past of RPG titles, but that doesn’t really matter because Fire Emblem Awakening, the 2012 release in the series for the 3DS, was arguably one of the best ever and Fates seems likely to follow a very similar formula, there is a lot to be hopeful for. Even beyond keeping what worked well with its predecessor, the developers have also brought on an acclaimed manga writer to help create the story and characters, meaning that the plot should have a bit more depth and substance to it this time around. Add in the fact that Fates is actually TWO games, the same story told over two differing viewpoints, and this is likely to be one of the most ambitious games in the series to date.

Legend of Zelda Wii U

I am not really sure what to type here. I mean, if you’re not excited by a new Legend of Zelda game for the Wii U, then I don’t know what I can say to convince you that you should be. However, my editor has informed me that replacing this entry in this article with pictures of my Master Sword replica would not be a welcome interlude, I suppose I should actually try talking about some of the changes to the series in this installment. Of course, everything in here is purely speculation, as Nintendo are being characteristically tight-lipped about the title and what lies within. We do, however, know that this will feature a more open world approach to the game, allowing the player greater freedom to travel across Hyrule, performing acts of heroism across the troubled land. While we don’t know a huge amount more than this, it is enough to make me absolutely giddy with anticipation. Enough, in fact, that I may have to actually buy a Wii U just to play it. Provided my wife doesn’t take away my bank card around the release.

X-com 2

Aliens, right? What a pain in the ass. Sometimes literally, if they are the probing kind. There are few things that I enjoy more than cruising around with my badass group of soldiers, busting some alien heads and making sure that they never set foot on human soil again. It is something that I greatly enjoyed about the strategy game XCOM: Enemy Within, which featured the tried and true combination of burly marines, creepy aliens, and shadowy government agencies being shadowy and governmenty. Deep down, however, it featured challenging maps with a variety of objectives, a solid if somewhat predictable story-line, and some interesting mechanics around the development of your squad of musclebound super-soldiers. So much so that Paul is putting the Z1G team through their paces in a Let’s Play series of XCOM. The sequel looks to deliver all of this along with the interesting prospect of taking place after the alien invasion, as a resistance group hellbent of overthrowing our new alien overlords and their human puppet government. Considering one of the few things that I love more than blowing up aliens is an underdog story, this quickly gets a slot in my “must play” list for 2016.

Got a game you’re dying to play in 2016 that I’ve cruelly neglected to include, possibly as a direct slight against you? Let us know in the comments section below! 

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