2014 might have been one of the worst years for outstanding PC games, the best in class going to Supergiant Games “Transistor”, Monolith Productions “Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor” and Blizzard’s “Warlords of Draenor” expansion.
This year looks to be much better when it comes to PC games, not all coming from Ubisoft to disappoint us.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
CD Projekt Red has been promoting “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt” for a good year now, showing off the massive world, gorgeous attention to detail and revamped combat system—all part of the next-generation Witcher experience.
On its own, “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt” is already a contender for best in class, but the amount of effort CD Projekt Red has put into free DLC, no DRM and generally making the user’s experience perfect excels the title to a whole new level.
For fans of “ESO: Skyrim”, “Dragon Age: Origins” and of course Witcher, “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt” should be an excellent way to waste hundreds of hours on miscellaneous quests and other events in the world.
Overwatch
All new IP announcements by Blizzard come with a tremendous amount of hype, and after a decade of zero-new IP, “Overwatch” is certainly one of the most exciting PC releases coming in 2015.
“Overwatch” is a first-person shooter with the same sort of gameplay as “Team Fortress 2”, combined with various character abilities and combos. Blizzard will launch Overwatch in 2015, with 12 playable characters.
Blizzard is using the remains of “Project Titan”, reportedly the next MMO scrapped last year. Taking characters and some gameplay aspects and putting it into an FPS.
Tom Clancy’s The Division
Ubisoft might have ruined everything good about PC games in 2014, but “Tom Clancy’s The Division” looks to be a turn in the right direction, creating a shared-world first person shooter in post-apocalyptic America.
Red Storm Entertainment will develop Tom Clancy’s The Division, meaning it will hopefully avoid some of Ubisoft’s uncreative mechanics and open-world design, offering a new way to survive, fight and battle through the experience.
It looks similar to Destiny in terms of “open world”, while there are other people in The Division also sharing the world with you, the need for interaction between people is limited to missions, meaning it can be played alone.
Visually, “Tom Clancy’s The Division” is an outstanding video game, but Ubisoft has been good at optimising games for the press events and releasing them with a tad less oomph on release, so we cannot be too sure.
Evolve
Turtle Rock Studios has been working on “Evolve” for all of 2013, and even offered an alpha preview late this year. It looks to be a new type of MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) focused on 4 v 1.
Four players take the roles of support, assault, healer and catcher, while the other plays as the monster. The monster relishes of late-game fights, after feeding on camps for a set amount of time, while the hunters have more chance of winning early.
“Evolve” is one of the more creative games in the list, Turtle Rock Studios definitely wants to create something different for PC gamers to enjoy. However, it also needs to make sure there is enough variety to keep players interested after 100 games.
No Man’s Sky
Previews of “No Man’s Sky” always seem to blow away all expectations, showing thousands of procedurally generated worlds filled with different animals, enemies and beautiful landscapes.
Hello Games has not worked on a project this big, and there is still no real storyline behind “No Man’s Sky”. The developers showing trade, space-battles and analysing creatures, rocks and other objects as the main guts of the experience.
The big question is will “No Man’s Sky” be a fun exploration game for a few hours, or one of the best games of all time, capable of offering something new at every junction. It all depends on how much Hello Games has put into the game in terms of variety.
Project CARS
Car simulation games are always looking to make the graphics as realistic as possible, and Slightly Mad Studios might have the killer in 2015, with a crowd-sourced efforts of developers and backers to make the perfect car simulation a reality.
Project CARS has been in development for over two years now and will feature various upgrades from the community, to make it a realistic and expansive car simulation title, one car fans have been begging for ages to happen.
Star Wars: Battlefront
EA acquired the Star Wars license for video games, following the sale of LucasArts, and one of the biggest announcements was DICE, creator of Battlefield, would work on the Star Wars: Battlefront successor.
Even though Battlefield has a mixed reputation, mostly for the bugs on launch, it is still considered one of the best first-person shooters, alongside Counterstrike. If DICE can replicate this FPS design on Battlefront, it could yield excellent results.
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege
Tom Clancy fans are getting a lot next year, The Division is one of the most exciting open world shooters coming in 2015, and Rainbow Six Siege looks to be a new style of tactical shooter, focusing on different siege modes.
Shown off at various events, Rainbow Six Siege will feature a mode to capture the hostage, and Ubisoft is planning other modes for the siege-based game. This could be a niche type of shooter, focused more on different ways to win the game, if Ubisoft works hard enough on the different features making a good siege experience.
Pillars of Eternity
Obsidian Entertainment’s Kickstarter is nearing completion, after working on Fallout: New Vegas and South Park: Stick of Truth, Obsidian will head back to its origins of fantasy role-playing and turn-based combat.
Pillars of Eternity received $4 million (£2.64 million) from Kickstarter, and the studio has been working on the title for two years now. It is a big one for all of the fans of previous Obsidian titles, especially now that InXile Entertainment’s Wasteland 2 has set high-standards for these older titles.
The Witness
Jonathan Blow might not be the most loved game developer on the planet, but his first title Braid won a lot of awards for a unique time-change mechanic and a gorgeous aesthetic.
The Witness is his next step in the video games world, an exploration puzzle game on an abandoned island. Blow has been working on The Witness since 2009, but has been incapable of bringing it to desired platforms, due to the large amount of assets and features.
It will be released on a timed exclusive for PS4, and will come to PC later.
