Ones To Watch 2015: Cross Platform Part Three

Welcome back to Ones To Watch where today we shall continue looking at games that have generic 2015 dates, making it harder for you to budget that game fund I know you all have. This time round we have quite the selection of genres from shooting, golf, and very dangerous driving. There’s even the return of a couple of older franchises as well as some new IPs to look over, and to judge whether they’ll warrant a purchase. That’s all on whether none of them get delayed into 2016, meaning we’ll be writing about them again in Ones To Watch next year.

1TW-Battleborn

The first game on the list is Gearbox’s Battleborn which has been described the company as a first person MOBA. It’s a big change from other MOBAs in that it does away with overhead camera as seen in Dota 2 and League Of Legends, but Gearbox aims to retain the same gameplay style of those. Battleborn will feature a five player co-op campaign as well as competitive multiplayer, like Incursion mode which sees a 5vs5 match include NPC minions who also hunt the opposing team.

The gameplay trailer above does give off hints of inspiration from Borderlands, though I don’t know if the games share the same universe. The story itself has groups of various alien races fighting for control of the last star, though seems a bit pointless doesn’t it? That star will eventually die and life will go extinct. How morbid. You’ll be able to choose characters like an elven huntress, a samurai or a space marine. Of course there are others like the robot wearing a bowler hat, who has become my favourite just because of that.

Battleborn is confirmed for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

1TW-EAPGATour

EA dropped Tiger Woods’ name from its major golf franchise last year. A reason wasn’t given but it was around the same time that Tiger was involved in some personal scandals so that might have been it. Anyway we first heard of the new PGA Tour last year with a single screenshot presented in a spot the difference way, putting the new gen version up against the last gen version. We didn’t get out first actual gameplay glimpse until E3, and suddenly golf became extreme.

The trailer started off as you expect with a golfer swinging the club to hit the ball, then suddenly fighter jets scream across the sky while a burning battleship crashes into an island. All of this happens while the ball, oblivious to its surroundings, flys towards the green. Even the golfer seems unperturbed by the warzone that has appeared around him. Maybe there’s a story involved where the PGA is running out of money, so to attract fans it holds golf tournaments in dangerous places.

EA Sports PGA Tour is scheduled to release in the spring.

1TW-THPS2015

This is literally all we know about the new Tony Hawk game. The tweet hints towards a new Pro Skater game, but this is anything any party involved with the franchise has said. We don’t know which Activision-owned studio is working on the series especially considering Neversoft, the studio that was behind Tony Hawk games, has forever shut down and the staff been put into the Call of Duty teams. We’ll have to wait for the inevitable trailer and screenshots for those details I guess.

1TW-HomefrontTheRevolution

If there’s one thing that we can’t go without in this industry its games facing uncertain futures. It has happened a few times but one of the most recent is Homefront: The Revolution. Originally it was thought THQ would be doing a second Homefront but that company bit the dust. During an IP sale Homefront found itself at Crytek. The studio was keen to continue the franchise. Then earlier this year Crytek officially confirmed The Revolution, and everything looked good. Well, at least for a couple of months.

Soon rumours started flying that Crytek was in trouble, and that Homefront: The Revolution’s, , Hasit Zala, had left the company amid reports staff weren’t getting paid and people not turning up as a result. Soon Koch Media stepped in and bought the Homefront IP from Crytek, creating new studio Deep Silver Dambuster in the process to finish The Revolution, with Hasit Zala taking director duties once again. Since then things have been relatively quiet on the Homefront news front. The game itself is set to have players take on the role of resistance fighters as they try to push back the Korean forces that occupy the US. It looks very Red Dawn, the remake at least and not the one with Patrick Swayze.

Homefront: The Revolution is expected on PS4, Xbox One and PC.

1TW-MadMax2015

Avalanche Studios knows how to create worlds that are stupidly fun to play in, and that proof comes from the Just Cause games. So I’m very interested in seeing how the studio takes on the insanity that is Mad Max, which has a huge focus on vehicular combat across a barren wasteland. The game was originally due out this year but has been pushed back to 2015, maybe to tie it in with Mad Max: Fury Road movie. That film looks bonkers too. Anyway while the game has been delayed we do have an early preview of it.

In that preview, Tef confirmed that vehicle customisation was a central mechanic, with thousands of combos available when kitting out your car. He also did suggest that the melee combat looked a bit weak, so hopefully Avalanche are improving that too ahead of Mad Max’s release. We’ll have to wait and see though, and with Avalanche also focusing on Just Cause 3 resources may be split between the two. Maybe JC3 will have car combat too!

1TW-LifeIsStrange

DONTNOD introduced itself to the world with Remember Me, a rather stylish game set in a future Paris. Then the studio went quiet for a while before bringing to the world a new IP in the form of Life Is Strange.  This game is rather different from the studio’s first offering in that it is about two girls, Max Caufield and Chloe, who are looking into the disappearance of another girl called Rachel Amber. She disappeared while Max was away for five years from the town of Arcadia Bay in Oregon.

That’s not the only mystery as Max discovers she can manipulate time which allows her, and the players to go through moments again and again.  This means story wise you won’t be stuck with a decision you’ve made, allowing you to go back and do something else instead that may have a better outcome than what you first did. Of course as decisions weigh up something you thought was a good thing to do may come and bite you later on.

Life Is Strange will also be taking the episodic route with five episodes planned, the first arriving on January 30th as was revealed in the last few days, and with each episodes set to last between 90 minutes and two hours. Personally, I’m very interested to see how this plays out.

1TW-Syberia3

Syberia III was announced in 2009 by Microids, and it was originally intended to release on PC and PS3 in 2010. However that date passed and the Microids was taken over by Anuman Interactive. In 2011 Benoit Sokal, the main writer behind the game series stated that no work had started due to a lack of funding. Then it wasn’t until late 2012 that a deal between Benoit Sokal and Anuman Interactive was agreed to proceed with Syberia III, with the game expected in either 2014 or 2015. Considering Syberia III is in the Ones To Watch list it did not release in 2014.

Then in 2013 full production was underway with screenshots being released in August of this year by the development team. At the same time the platforms for Syberia III were confirmed as PC, Mac, PS4, Xbox One, iOS and Android. Of course this is the plan but with such a shaky history who knows if more spanners appear in the works. This game is releasing a decade after the Syberia II so it’ll be interesting to see how it will resonate with a more current audience.

2 Comments

  1. Seeing as Robomodo brought us THPS HD, is it not likely to be them working on a new TH game?

  2. Im really liking the look of life is strange

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