Let's see:
- Anthem - Everything I've seen since the E3 2017 reveal has looked great to me and I generally love BioWare game design. I'm really digging the world itself (a violent, natural world left in chaos by the 'gods' abruptly leaving), the javelins look badass, and the visuals are damn beautiful. I'm usually not into 'shared world' RPGs or looter shooters, but I trust BioWare Edmonton to have crafted an in-depth story to go along with everything based off the footage so far. I also think the javelins are going to feel great during combat and flying (I may or may not know this lol). I'll take this Iron Man game.
- Shenmue III - Been waiting 17 years for this. Shenmue's one of my favorite IPs of all time. It felt hopeless for so long but seeing the third installment start coming together it so nice to see. The smaller budget has my expectations in check but I genuinely don't expect insane production values so I'm sure I'll be satisfied. I just want to continue Ryo's story so badly and finally confront Lan Di. I think Yu Suzuki's a brilliant game creator. I'm so ready.
- Gears 5 - Gears of War is a series I fell in love with last gen so I'm glad to see it continue to go strong. I know some feel the narrative and characters aren't all that serious but I've grown pretty attached to Marcus, JD, Kait and seeing what awaits them in this one. This year's reveal footage looked fantastic with more color, more drama and more open spaces. It's also stunningly gorgeous. Looking forward to killing me some more grubs.
- The Outer Worlds - The original creators of Fallout (and the developers of New Vegas) coming together to create a brand new space-based sci-fi RPG with deep systems in customization and dialogue looking like a mix of Mass Effect, Bioshock and Fallout. Nothing else needs to be said. I need it.
- DOOM: Eternal - What can I really say for this one? Doom 2016 blew me away and easily made my top 10 that year. This looks even better. More please.
- Resident Evil 2 - This definitely makes my list, not only because it positively looks beautiful and incredibly well made, but also because I never played the original. After attaining a new found love for horror games after pushing through RE7 and The Evil Within games, I'm very much pumped for this. Every bit of footage has looked *chef's kiss*.
- Metro: Exodus - The Metro series is vastly underrated in my opinion and are some of my favorite first person shooters in the last decade with wonderfully tense atmosphere, interesting creature design, and world that feels uniquely lived in. It's such a fresh setting rarely seen in games and I actually care about Artyom and Anna. Exodus dials everything up even further from the looks of it. I can't wait.
- Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - Put this one on here for two reasons. One: I tried some Dark Souls games and I tried Bloodborne. I loved Bloodborne and Dark Souls, not so much. I prefer the pace and combat of Bloodborne and this looks even more action oriented. Two: The world and setting look cool as hell. Been a while since I last played as a samurai so, yep, pumped for this.
- Days Gone - For some reason this seems to be the black sheep of Sony's first party output this generation among some fans, but I dig what Bend Studios is going for. The freakers are at least different from your typical 'zombie', the world is gorgeous (not surprising), and I want to know more about the story. Seems quite a few don't like Deacon as a character too but really, how many biker protagonists have we seen lol? I feel there's going to be a deeper backstory underneath with the loss of his wife and what happened before it all. I want to play it.
- Devil May Cry 5 - I've enjoyed all the DMCs (hell yeah even 2 and DmC), and the demo was awesome. It's been way too long since the last game. I'm ready for some Dante/Nero action.
Honorable Mentions: There's so many others I'm excited for next year that narrowing down to 10 was difficult enough. Had to give a shout out to more:
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Control: Been a fan of Remedy's since the first Max Payne. Control looks to continue their legacy of building worlds with interesting settings, lore, plot direction and gameplay. I want to learn more about what exactly's going on in that damn building. I'm just happy to see more games from the studio.
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Wolfenstein: Youngblood: Machinegames has been pretty quiet on this front since E3, but my hype's still there. Loved The New Order, The Old Blood and New Colossus. BJ's a m'fin badass, and the chance to play as twin daughters? Oh hell yes. Time to die again Nazis.
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Jedi: Fallen Order: Yeah, we haven't even seen the game at all, but Respawn's proven to me that they're a super talented developer and I'm so excited to see their take on Star Wars, especially with Stig Asmussen at the helm.
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Crackdown 3: How long has it been now? I just want to play the damn thing! I'm happy they're taking their time to get it to as high a quality as possible of course. I wasn't a fan of 2, but the original game was super addictive. I'll hunt for green orbs again, yep.
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New Core Pokemon: I skipped Let's Go this year because from all impressions and footage, it's not really what I want out of the series, and I'm ok with that too. There's more than enough room for all types of players, but I'm excited for the next 'core' game in the series. I haven't played a Pokemon RPG since the first Black & White games, so I'm ready to dive back in.
Of course, much of this would look very different if games like TLOU II, Ghost of Tsushima and Death Stranding were 'officially' announced for next year, but alas, rules are rules and all :)
