Destiny: House of Wolves Expansion
While the initial hype of Destiny has been tempered, interest does not seem to have waned, as many are expecting to spend hours grinding for the various new items in the upcoming House of Wolves expansion.
While the loss of a promised Raid has annoyed many who were looking forward to the expansion for just that reason, the new items that range from cosmetics, armor, weapons, and raid gear should keep most content.
Call of Duty Black Ops III
It wouldn't be a new year without a new Call of Duty and, like an overambitious New Year's resolution left unfinished, everyone's gotta have one.
While it's not the widely speculated WWII-era COD many long time fans were hoping for, it's still one of the best-regarded series from the franchise's history. It will still have a lot to live up to as the COD franchise is still reeling from declining interest and the general unpleasant reminder of Infinity Ward's Ghosts that left a sour taste in most fans mouths. Advanced Warfare, helped show that the franchise could still make a decent story and, with Spacey, they largely succeeded. But, how will this new sequel follow up?
It's got the expected level of dramatic flare and hype surrounding it with mysterious and ominous trailers showing GPS coordinates to possible locales, but veterans of the series know this hype is all show; we're still left waiting for more details.
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege
Rainbow Six Siege's long awaited appearance from a 7-year hiatus in the Rainbow Six series lineup is a refreshing return to tight, close quarters tactical multiplayer gameplay. Similar to Battlefield Hardline in theme, Siege has two sides of cops and bad guys with a unique twist, this time the emphasis is on hostage rescue. With the cops positioned outside a house rappelling down to start the match, the cops' objective is to find out where the hostage is and reach them while dispatching any of the kidnappers that get in the way. Infiltrators get access to various gadgets including C4 charges to blow up entrenched positions, portable walls, and drones to recon the area before the match begins. The bad guys get to border up the windows and doors, and create traps for the cops while trying to hold on to their only bargaining chip for as long as possible.
Tom Clancy's The Division
The easiest way to think about The Division's setting is probably as the American version of the Metro 2033 series, as there is quite a lot of similarities in theme. However, the main difference is of course in the multiplayer component, which Metro never had.
You can play with a team of 4 players, including yourself and 3 other friends. The game is third-person and plays like an RPG with enemies taking a couple extra shots to kill. Since, the game is set in the future, there are many gadgets available as well that make things interesting, with smart grenades that lock on to heat signatures of enemies to more familiar recon drones to survey the area. Even the info panel giving information on ammo and health is different and acts as a holographic HUD that moves with your character. Your character even switches weapons and gadgets from a wrist-worn watch that pops up as a holographic tablet interface.
The Division looks to be one of the most ambitious upcoming multiplayer games next to Battlefront. With destructible environments to amazing graphics, it's hard to not be excited.
Metal Gear: The Phantom Pain.. Online
This will be the last great Metal Gear. And that alone should be enough reason to pick it up.
While Kojima may no longer be at Konami and this will indeed be his last game, it should not deter you as it's mostly finished, and nothing has really changed. The game is one of the most ambitious Metal Gears yet, boasting a world bigger than all of the previous games combined.
But, how's the multiplayer you ask?
Well, it's split into two parts, a side-multiplayer attached to the main game where you can infiltrate an enemy's "Motherbase," which is where you operate with supplies and equipment that will help you with ingame missions. It's easily one of the coolest parts of the game.
Then there's a separate dedicated multiplayer component that you download in addition to the game. It will be more familiar to Tom Clancy type gamers, with small squads on either sides in a straight forward TDM with a tactical emphasis.
PlanetSide 2 (PS4 port)
PlanetSide 2 is looking like a sleeper hit for the PS4, that is... if it remains a PS4 console exclusive under the new Daybreak studios. And whether or not it will find it's success this year remains to be seen as there is much competition. But, given its scale and free to play aspect, it will be a hard game to ignore this year.
That's not to say there aren't some caveats, one of them being it's complexity to the new player and even as an experienced PC player, I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around how to play again and even more confused by the new areas and layout options of the new console-centric interface.
I have a lot of hope that this game will have staying power and will eventually find a way to shine in the mainstream crowd of gamers.
Star Wars: Battlefront
And last, but not least after waiting for months for anything related to this game, we finally got more information and a new trailer. While I personally would have liked there to have been a gameplay trailer instead of a pre-rendered game engine scene. It's just a relief to see anything come out of this decade-long dormant franchise.
The new Battlefront will have the option for both first and third-person perspectives, so there's plenty for both fans to enjoy. But, more notable is the absence of a single player. The confirmation by DICE that it will have no space battles has disappointed some long-time fans of the series who have been hyped up through years of speculation.
