Five Big Games, Five Analysis – How Successful Can They Be?

Last year was the year of consoles, but this year is the year of games. There are an incredible amount of titles, big and small, for gamers to always have something to look forward to. The biggest question about all of them however is how successful can they be? Will they be a hugely anticipated game and fail to get close to the heights people thought, or will they perhaps go further than what people could have imagined. It is hard to tell, but below are five huge games that can push past expectations provided some details are ironed out.

Titanfall

Ever since Respawn Entertainment announced Titanfall at E3 last year it has been hyped by many, but also cautiously anticipated. A lot of people have branded it Call of Duty with robots, but it’s so much more than that. In my eyes, it is the online shooter to take over the reign and lead the pack ahead of Call of Duty and Battlefield. It is chaotic, fast-paced and a tonne of fun. A couple of our editors, including myself, played the beta stress test and I can definitely tell I will spend a lot of time in it.

It definitely has enough there to finally break Call of Duty’s iron fist over online shooters, but there might be one aspect which could hinder it. The lack of single player might be a turn off for some players, especially gamers who buy these types of shooters for the campaign. They are never ground-breaking stories, but they tend to be a lot of fun and offer a different alternative for players who don’t fancy playing online. While I am not fussed by the lack of single player, perhaps more glad actually since more resources can be poured into the online aspect, others will definitely keep their wallet closed. If you want a more detailed impressions article on Titanfall you can check it out here, or if you want to see our gameplay footage you can watch it below.

Watch_Dogs

Long has this game been anticipated and for some it might be too long. While it isn’t a surprise to see games being delayed for further production value, like Grand Theft Auto V. There is the chance it can be hyped and climax too early and sink into the back of people’s minds. This is a huge year for games and there is no question Watch_Dogs is part of that epic bunch, but it will need to roll out some big PR work in the months leading up to it. I’m sure Ubisoft know what they are doing considering how awesome some of the footage for Watch_Dogs has been, so hopefully they will ramp it up big time.

I know I have spoken to some people who say they don’t really care about Watch_Dogs anymore considering all the setbacks so I hope that isn’t the general consensus among people. I certainly haven’t forgotten about it, but my mindset has definitely changed. I am excited to play it, but not nearly as much as I was in the months leading up the original release date. There will no doubt be major improvements for the game after all these months so the game can only get better, it lies now in the courts of advertising and PR.

The Elder Scrolls Online

Now this MMORPG has been one of the most argued games so far this year, simply because of its subscription model. Will it cause it to fail or will it still garner enough subscribers? Judging from the 20+ hours I played in Tamriel, I can confidently say it is a very good MMORPG. My biggest issue however is filling the cities with players. From my infinite experience in World of Warcraft, the cities are where you end up spending a lot of time when you’re not doing a raid or PvP’ing at end game.

So I hope when it releases we can get a more realistic look at how populated the major cities can be, because it is a huge part of the game. I will almost definitely play a few months of TESO to try out the end game and see if it can deliver quality because again, the end game is where a lot of your time is spent. If they can deliver in that department, I see no fuss to throw 15 bucks a month at them.

I am not really a fan of F2P, which might be a mentality which developed from playing World of Warcraft. When I was paying, I felt an incentive to soak every hour into the game that time permitted. Compared to Guild Wars 2, I felt like something was missing. I picked it up for a few weeks, and never returned. So content wise, this game can definitely sell from what I have seen but we will never really know until a few months after release. You can check out our PVE impressions here, and our PVP impressions here.

The Evil Within

Will this be the game to push the horror genre into a new level? For a little while, the horror genre seemed to be struggling. Every now and then a good game would appear to appease the appetites of horror fans, but there was never enough good content. These days it is a completely different story. Now there seems to be countless quality games that have been released or are coming out soon.

One of the most recent titles was Outlast which was a terrifying experience, with a new DLC coming soon for it. But The Evil Within seems to be the game everyone is keeping their eye on, which isn’t surprising considering the king of survival horror is leading the development team. From the footage that has been released, as well as all the screenshots, it definitely looks like it can be the poster boy for horror games. It looks dark, bloody and outlandishly scary.

My biggest concern however is the types of weapons the game has. For a game to be truly scary, you have to be genuinely scared. If you are handed a huge machine gun with endless amounts of ammo, it isn’t that scary simply because you know you are most likely going to blast your way out, like Dead Space 3. If you look at a game like Outlast however, you can’t fight, you can only run and hide. So I hope The Evil Within can get a good balance between both of those aspects because it will be a memorable horror if it is done right.

Destiny

There seems to be something unique about this game that I can’t grasp, but makes me want the game so bad. I don’t know if it’s the environment, the variety of weapons or the online aspect, but there is something awesome about this game. When the name was announced along with the team behind the project, it seemed to catch everyone’s attention. Then when we were showed some footage at E3 it left a very good impression.

While the combat system didn’t seem anything completely new, the style of the game, the impressive loot system combined with online co-op play really made the game stand out. I cannot wait for the beta to arrive to test this game out considering we haven’t seen much footage. Bungie have definitely played the PR work well by slowly revealing pieces of the game right from the start to tease gamers. It definitely looks like there is enough content to become a huge selling game, and considering the team behind it I really believe it will.

From what details, footage and screenshots have been released, all of these games plus a bundle more guarantee a good year in gaming. We just have to hope that some titles don’t fall over their own weight of expectation.